Well, it’s official. It’s the year of the knit top. Last year, it was denim that took possession over my soul, and now this. I love this pattern. It is so simple, and I was surprised to discover that it has an easier, drapier fit than I expected. This is not your fitted tee. It’s easy fitting, yet feminine, and the crystal ball predicts other variations of this top in my future.

Being my first attempt at this pattern, I used the skirt portion of a self-drafted maxi dress I made from clearance fabric from Hobby Lobby. The dress hung in my closet and never ended up being worn. In theory, I should have loved it, but for some reason it never resonated with me. About a year ago, I cut most of the skirt off, resulting in the following peplum tee:

I have loved this top, and it’s definitely been in the rotation. In truth, nothing is allowed to stay in my life if it’s not in rotation. However, I still had a nice chunk of this fabric leftover from the dress. I figured it would end up as a skirt. Nope, wasn’t feeling it. Enter the Lark Tee. It may seem redundant and a bit much to have two tops out of the same fabric, but I’m a bit much and I love the print. So there. This seemed like a perfect way to test this pattern. I already have a top in this print, and I spent less than $10 for the fabric to begin with, so if I didn’t like it, no big deal. The result is this cute wearable muslin:

I love it! It’s a different look than the other top, and will be an easy, versatile piece in my eclectic wardrobe. The Lark Tee pattern is very easy to work with, and true to size, although you could re-work it a bit for a more fitted look. I’d like to do a cropped version next. The wheels are turning…

Grainline Studio Patterns

Things I Sew

“Across the panel of indigenous leaders there was the common understanding that well-being, meaning, peace and harmony could not come without connection to the land.” Chapter 14

This is a beautifully written, and entirely unique memoir. Doniga Markegard tells of her journey from rebellious teenager, attempting to find herself and a sense of grounding in the world, to becoming the woman she is today – mother, sustainable rancher, activist, and author. It is refreshing to read a nature memoir from the perspective of a woman. Doniga is a very experienced wildlife tracker, who describes in detail the way she was able to become completely silent, to the point of entering a meditation mindset, and entering into the experience of the animal she is tracking. She experiences what is around her as the animal itself.

I was impressed with the way she used her own story to gently bring the reader into an understanding of the importance of stewardship, connecting to our instincts, and regenerating the land on which we stride. It was tracking that brought her into the life of her future husband, a rancher who on the surface represented a very different lifestyle and priorities than herself, but at the heart of the matter introduced her to a whole new understanding of the importance of grazing herbivores and the cycle of predator/prey, in the overall health of the land and grasses beneath their hooves. Growing up on the ranch, his father had discovered Holistic Land Management entirely from instinct and experience. Donega and Erik have created a lifestyle together in service to the land, their community, and ever-growing family. She has traveled around the world teaching her skills and expertise in wilderness awareness, while at the same time learning from small farmers and communities around the globe on how to truly live sustainably in harmony with the earth, while being made aware of the difficult challenges they face to their way of life.

I have read so many books about environmental stewardship, responsible farming, and food politics over the years. But this book made me see a whole new angle on farming, the power of community and collaboration, and why all of these issues are so timely:

“No one has the power to predict the future, especially with all the uncertainty facing our planet. With industrial farming feeding 30% of the people in the world while using 70 percent of the world’s arable land, there may eventually come a time of collapse of that system, and the peasant farmers across the globe who produce the remaining 70% of the world’s food…while relying on far fewer inputs and less land, are the very safety net of humanity.” Chapter 14

She makes the point that it would be unproductive to run off into the wilderness and hide out from the destruction we are witnessing. Avoiding the problem doesn’t fix it or make it go away. Most fascinating to me was her discussion of the importance of the mycelium network of fungal threads within soil as the “neurological network of nature.” It puts modern farming even more into perspective to think that simply replacing nutrients in the soil will make up for soil degradation. Her discussion of the concept of keystone species illustrates how important the predator/prey relationships are to the cycle of life, and why it is important to consider the consequences of killing off predatory species, such as the mountain lion and coyote.

I am inspired afresh to start growing my own food and thinking more deeply about how I, too, can be a regenetarian, not merely taking from the land in the least damaging way possible, but learning how to give back, even as someone who lives in an apartment in an urban setting. I’m excited to learn everything I can about permaculture. It can feel at times as though the system is set up against us, and in many ways it is. Corporations work very hard to dictate to us a lifestyle that will profit them, but step-by-step I can make changes, to see the world through the eyes of our most basic instincts as human animals who depend on the species around us for survival, whether we realize it or not.

“It’s up to humans to remember, right now, what it means to be humans…how to live in reciprocity with our kin, to respect and honor this beautiful world and all its inhabitants, before everything we depend on and everything that depends on us is lost.” Chapter 15

dawn.again
markegardfamilygrassfed

Things I Read

This sewing year is all about using my stash and purging my scraps. The rationale is if I loved it enough to accumulate it, I should love it enough to use it. If not, it’s time to give up the ghost and LET IT GO. In fact, just this weekend I took a box of items for donation to  Austin Creative Reuse, a small shop here in town entirely devoted to second-hand crafting supplies and more. What a find! I will never again pay more than 50 cents for knitting needles. Not to mention that I found three spools of much-needed thread for 81 cents total. I donated beautiful fabrics that have sat there unused for over a decade, seven skirt patterns that are never getting used or re-used, office supplies, wine corks, and some small toys. It felt great to let these things go.

In addition, I recently decided that I need a shower cap. Rather than add some new plastic item into my life, I looked into the scrap bag and found several of these:

Five years ago, we bought a vintage 50s dining room set, and the table was oval in shape. I bought some coated cotton to create a custom tablecloth:

I laid the fabric upside down over the table and traced the table edge all the way around with an artist’s pencil, then measured all the way round from the line to get an even amount of overhang all the way around. I cut along the line with pinking shears and voila!

The scraps that remained consisted of some nice-sized triangular corner pieces. But none of them were large enough to make a full circle for a shower cap. The solution? Geometry. The bane of my existence in high school, yet my teacher was right – it would be important in my life someday.

In a perfect world, I would cut a big enough circle, plus enough seam allowance around the edge for an elastic casing. This should be a quick and easy project. However, in order to work within the limitations of my scraps, I would need to cut two pieces, the circular crown and the rectangular side(s). After some online sleuthing of ready-made caps, I determined that a circle of about 14 inches would be good for the crown (13 plus 1/2 inch seam allowances), but the sides would have to be cut as a rectangle long enough to go around the entire outside edge of the circle, plus added seam allowances. I decided the depth of the rectangle should be 4 inches (3 plus 1/2 inch seam allowances). Now, the length:

Circumference = π times diameter

This came out to about 44 inches. I added seam allowances. I overlocked this seam, pinned the crown to the side piece around the circumference and overlocked this seam; overlocked the bottom edge, added the casing, and installed the elastic. Result? One very nice quality shower cap:

Things I Sew

This year, my focus is on sewing my way through my stash. I posted my #MakeNine on Instagram, which really ended up being a #MakeSixteen, and then some. These will not be my only makes, but I wanted to challenge myself to use what I have in all my creative endeavors. As expected, my first make, a black velvet sweater made from leftover yardage from a pair of pants, already took on a life of its own. I was originally going to use an older Burda pattern, and then I saw this pattern from McCall’s:

I made a shortened variation of View D. Basically I cut out the front and back for the shorter view A, the sleeve, and the ruffle for view D:

Since I was using a non-stretch fabric, I went up one size and avoided the neck, sleeve, and bottom bands. I shortened the view A front and back pieces by 2 inches. Then, I widened the neck opening by one inch. Using the narrow hem setting on my overlock machine, I finished the edges of the ruffles, and once the front and back were attached, finished the neck hole opening. I folded the hem by two inches and the sleeve openings by one inch, and did a coverstitch finish. This was a quick and easy make and I know this piece is going to get a LOT of wear. Cost of pattern? $1.99. Cost of fabric? $0.00. It was scraps, after all, that had been sitting in my sewing room for quite some time. One down, fifteen plus makes to go!

Things I Sew

Deep in the heart of Texas… In 2009, I moved to Austin. I was starting nearly from scratch, bringing with me all the stereotypes one could possibly have about Texas. Do they have organic things? Would there be recycling? Did everyone smoke? Would my country line dancing skills be up to par? Would I fall in love with a handsome cowboy, only to discover that he stood for all the things I opposed? What was going to become of me?

Austin has come a long way in the ten years I’ve been here, and I have more choices here than I could have imagined. No – in the area I lived in during my first year, there was not recycling. And there were a lot of smokers, something I wasn’t used to coming from the west coast, where being health conscious was more mainstream. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Austin was basically like Portland, but with MUCH better barbecue. But the produce choices, even at Whole Foods Market, were less abundant than they had been in the Pacific Northwest, and the seafood was clearly not what I was used to, but I adapted to the local cuisine. I use limes instead of lemons, and became a taco addict like every self-respecting Austinite.

Over the past ten years, I have worked briefly in a conventional medical setting, as well as an integrative setting, but the majority of my time has been spent faux-steading here in my little apartment, engaging in creative pursuits, and taking care of my health (my actual full-time job). My fella and I keep our lifestyle simple and relatively frugal. We live small, and even though we’re in the city, we chose an apartment that faces out toward a little slice of nature. Our diets are very different, but it works because we each do our own thing, focusing on the fellowship over the food. I fill my life with sewing, writing, knitting, brewing, stewing, and browsing through the many vintage and thrift stores scattered through Austin. I am no longer allowed to purchase used drinkware or tote bags. It’s an ongoing problem.

Years of chronic illness and moving in and out of the work force as a result has put my skills to the test. My time in treatment in Seattle taught me some lessons. First, when on Food Stamps you cannot buy things like toothpaste, deodorant, soap, etc. If you can’t eat it, you can’t buy it. However… these things can be made from things that are edible, and my years of making my own products and time spent in the Bastyr herb lab came in handy. I expanded my repertoire, and discovered a whole new level of natural living. I also learned that many of these products are unnecessary, when you break it down to ingredients and function. It’s a lot of marketing and waste, designed to sell us products we can live without. I learned that one plastic spray bottle left from an empty product can be reused for my own homemade product – and still be going strong ten years out. True story.

Second, very little square footage is actually required to live comfortably. And when you have less square footage, you naturally have less stuff. This makes you really think about every little thing you bring into your world, all the way down to what ends up in your trash can. The things you have in your life become so much more meaningful, because you’re only surrounding yourself with the things that are necessary or truly make your heart sing. I also learned you can live minimally on your own terms, and not everything has to be white, bare and monastic in order to be simple, calming, and sustainable. I must have color in my life. And no – my wardrobe will never be 33 pieces or less. I’m an artist and I must create.

Finally, I learned that chronic illness is a gift as much as a curse. It teaches you what matters most, and reduces you to asking what really matters. It gives you the gift of saying “No” without guilt, and letting go of things that you didn’t even realize you were holding on to. When all the things that define me are stripped away – career, education, finances, ability to cultivate personal style, relationships, ability to participate in certain hobbies and interests, core beliefs and world views – who am I? This is the daily journey. Welcome to my blog. Thank you for stopping in.

Hello and Welcome
Hello and Welcome, part two

About Me

So apparently I’m writing a memoir, but that’s okay. It’s my blog; I can write what I want to. After college, I moved back to Oregon, to the Portland area, due to my ex’s career. I was two hours from my dream school, yet oh, so far away. It was during my two years here that I went into the woods one day for a 16 mile run, and woke up two days later so sick I had to quit working shortly thereafter. I was never the same again.

Fast forward one year. My ex came home from work one day and announced that his workplace was shutting down, effective the end of that week. There was a sister facility in Kirkland, WA, and he had already scheduled an interview. Two weeks later, we were moving into an apartment in Woodinville, WA, a five minute walk across the highway from Bothell, WA. Bastyr University had a Bothell mailing address. Through the work of fate, I was now living 15 minutes away from the front driveway of my dream school. I met a chiropractor who said, “Nutrition program? If you were on track to be a physician, then you should do the naturopathic medicine program.” I looked into it and it was everything I could have wanted. It took some time, but I finally applied, interviewed, and was accepted for early enrollment based on my academic record.

My ex was strongly unsupportive. He was on a second Master’s degree, and my career had been on hold for a very long time while he pursued his ever-changing dreams and I navigated my health issues, of which he was also strongly unsupportive. I needed to move forward. When I began classes the following year, I was single. New life, new career, all of Seattle and the Pacific Northwest at my doorstep. Funny – I couldn’t have envisioned my dream career all those years ago, because I never knew it existed. Life carried me toward it and dropped me on its doorstep, like baby Moses in the little basket, floating into the arms of Pharaoh’s daughter. (And they said I wasn’t paying attention in Sunday School!)

I loved school my first year, and was having the time of my life. But my health was steadily crashing due to the academic stress, demanding schedule, stress of divorce, and chemical exposure from hours every week in the cadaver lab. It took three years of pursuing answers, but six years after my initial illness, someone finally ran some specialty lab work and figured it out – Lyme disease. I completed four years in my program and one year of masters level clinical nutrition education, but after starting integrative treatment midway through my final year, I knew I was in it for the long haul and needed to stop everything completely. So I did.

With the help of friends and benevolent strangers, I made it through three years of treatment in Seattle, and quit treatment when resources dried up. It was 2009, and by this time, I was living in a tiny house log home, eating a raw food diet, living completely as a minimalist, and studying everything I could get my hands on concerning green living. I researched every chemical ingredient, every company, the politics behind our food and industries. I wanted to heal myself, and this became a deeper journey of connection, the planet, the critters, the flora, the health and wellbeing of everyone. My folks had retired to Austin, TX several years before, and I knew it was time to pack up and head south. My dream career was over, and I was back to scratch again. I was going deep into the heart of Texas… To be continued…

Hello and Welcome
Hello and Welcome, part three

About Me