Sewing Update

I had Andrew try on the trousers last night, but it appears men’s patterns, too, are afflicted by Sewing Ease. See, I’m used to the vintage patterns, where if the envelope says a dress is for a 32” bust, the finished garment has a 32” bust (maybe a 32 ½”, so you gan get it on). The seam allowances are a good 5/8”, so if you need to make adjustments, that’s your wiggle room. If you’re between two sizes, you use the smaller one and let the seams out. Makes sense, right?

So, modern (post-1980s) sewing patterns only have a ¼” seam allowance, and 3-4” of “design ease” built in the pattern as a whole, i.e., the garment is a couple of sizes bigger than what it claims to be, and that’s where you’re supposed to make your adjustments. Except they don’t tell you this on the back of the envelope. I’d heard a lot of rants about this in sewing forums, and I should have risked making an L instead of an XL for Andrew. Now I have to figure out how to take 4” off the waistband.

Actual Writing News

So, yesterday I finished reworking and polishing Nine, and sent it to Innsmouth Free Press with a caveat that it’s Weird, but not Lovecraftian per se (their guidelines page says they take both).

I think they pay one cent a word, which adjusted for inflation is much less than what Weird Tales paid its writers during the Depression. Oh well.

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I'm grateful to Susie Bubble for always digging up such interesting clothes to blog about. Here are some dresses made from photos of different textured objects, blown up and printed on fabric, which is then sewn into simple T-shirt-like shapes.