Pitchinwoo

Weight, Fashion and why I made a zippered pouch

I started sewing 10 years ago. Back then everything in my life revolved around going to rockabilly shows. At these shows I always felt like Aunt Bee while everyone else was Betty Page. Although I really just wanted to be Ann Margaret. My problem was I weighed something around 200 lbs.

There is this inherent belief in the fashion industry (I've seen some slight changes, although always fetishized) that fat women do not feel the need to be attractive, sexy or desirable. We want to bake cookies and pet our cats (literally, this is not a pun). I love fashion, but this is where we part ways. I'm sure every person out there knows a fat woman (no I'm not afraid that word, fat fat fat) who is sexy, attractive and desirable. So do the leaders of the fashion world only know thin people? Are all the fat people in the fashion industry in abusive fat-hating/self loathing relationships ala Anna Wintour and Andre Leon Talley?

This oversight (or more accurately, shunning) of fat people (men and women both folks!) pushed me away from the fashion industry and into sewing. Luckily at the time I was living in Portland, Oregon which has amazing fabric stores and my friend Julie who is a patient albeit completely ocd sewing teacher. 

I started with Butterick's Vintage patterns and they are still some of my favorites. After my first dress I was hooked.

Julie and I at Green Bay Weekender...look at all those shoes and ignore the weird pucker in my dress.

Wow did I have hair. 

So anyhow, this is where I am going with this. Nearly two years ago I moved for work to Colombia, South America. I did not bring my sewing machine. So I for my stay here I have not been sewing. A few weeks ago I went ahead and bought one as I can't live anymore without one. I tried knitting (more portable) but it's just not for me. Anyhow this week I tried Grosgrain's Frock by Friday. I was unsuccessful. I was patient (except with figuring out the buttonhole on my new machine) and when I went to fit...catastrophe. Without a body form I could not begin to fit. Why after all this time had I lost my ability to fit even a little....I had lost 75lbs. My body is no longer what it was, in more ways than I could imagine. If you're interested this is my weight loss story on my ex-pat blog. 

So now my next task is to get the bf to help me make a duct tape body form. We have a long weekend here coming up. I think I'll be needing all those days.

But I had to make something...other than the geeked chicken even though I'm not much into being crafty craft I decided to make Noodlehead's Gathered Clutch but I consider mine more of a pouch because I didn't put the credit card holders and divider. It's cute; I think I'll put makeup in it or maybe pencils for class.

I don't think I'll live in crafty world, but I definitely will become a regular visitor.

 

 

Shabby Apple Swimsuit Giveaway at Grosgrain

Shabby Apple Swimsuit Giveaway is happening over at Grosgrain. These are some of the most adorable and flattering swimsuits I've seen for some time. They have this cute vintage feel, but slightly updated. Check it out.

Remembrances of Patterns Past: Part Deux Paris Edition

I know...I know....I can't believe I let go of these either. Hopefully they went to a good home. A home without cats.....*shudder*

I'll be stateside in less than a month and Paris soon after. I think the pattern hunt is just around the corner.

 

Remembrances of Patterns Past

In about a month from now I'll be returning to Paris. It's been a couple of years and I've been longing to return since I set foot on the airplane to return to Texas the last time. On my last visit there I stayed for 3 months. This was funded by selling my vintage clothes collection and many of my vintage patterns. I kept pictures of both. I'm a masochist.

These patterns were some of my favorites that I sold. The were from the time that people still had to ration fabric during WWII. 

It was worth it, but still I grieve.

 

 

A few of my favorite things, Manizales edition

While living in Colombia I do have to keep reminding myself that there are small things everyday that make me happy. I'm not really one of those Positive Pollys that see sunshine everywhere. In fact I was called "Debby Downer" quite recently.

I'm ok with that. I teach high school....I've been called worse.

So with that here are a few of my favorite things...cue John Coltrane.

Firstly, three things in one opportunistic photo. My bf, my dog and my ukulele.

 

Cones from La Suiza. Less than one dollar. This one is pistachio my favorite. These cones have a taste somewhere between ice cream and frosting. I believe this middle ground is what people better than I refer to as heaven.

 

Juices. Specifically juices with milk. Here is mine, strawberry and milk and A.'s maracuya and milk which I believe in the states is passion fruit.

 

Zippers and Buttons in Colombia....oh my!

Fabric stores in Colombia are pretty dismal. Synthetic fabrics with ridiculously poorly developed designs. Seriously I cannot even describe how bad they are and they won't let me take pictures, but I was allowed to take pictures in the notions store. After three visits they now consider me a "regular". This is one of my many perks of being a gringa in Colombia. We're rare, like a nearly extinct bird or a disease on House.

Here stores are divided between fabrics and notions. Some of the notion stores are tiny and others are pretty large. But none have things like rotary cutters cutting mats or transfer pens.

But check out what they do have.

Yes these are zippers.

   

There are about 4 times as many spools of zippers than in this picture. Not counting those linking nearly every wall.

Notice how little is left on the turquoise and black zipper...that's because I bought 30 meters. I pretty much got them for a song. I'm not even sure I should tell you how cheap it was. 

Also every buckle imaginable.  I'm sure as you see here by the glowing skull eye buckle; there are some that should not have been imagined.

This here is about one fourth  of this one display.
 

Ribbon and lace.
 

Yet even more zippers and all the bias tapes, piping, elastic etc. is sold from the spool.
 

Buttons!
 

Yep all those displays are filled with buttons and snaps.
 

More zippers and ribbon.
 

I love this store. They're super friendly. The told me they had everything I needed, which is almost true. Then one lady proceeded to try to put herself in my shopping bag because apparently she believed I needed her as well, which really was just fucking weird.

Within a few blocks of this store there are 5 similar shops, but this one is my favorite. The centro is divided up by product. Fabrics on one block, notions on another and then pawn shops followed by motorcycle parts. Go Centro!

 

Grosgrain's Frock by Friday

The blog Grosgrain has a great sew-along starting today called "Frock by Friday". It's perfect for beginners and those who want some virtual company while sewing.

This project is a shirt dress. I haven't sewn a dress with buttons in ages so I'm pretty stoked about this one.

Now fabric shopping here in Colombia is pretty arduous. Lots of stares on the bus and charades performed by me to get what I want and as always the sad face when I again get my hopes up for actual cotton. Nope only blends here. Aside from that I was in luck because I found the perfect little fabric for my summer shirt dress. Today is cut out day so this is the fabric a few moment from massacre!

 

I even dig the button in green because they too have that little retro feel to them. Now let's just hope my sewing skills don't turn this into  a house dress!

Geeked Chicken also known as The Things You'll Do For Love

I'm just finished teaching the novel Geek Love by Katherine Dunn. This is one of my all time favorite books and feel extremely lucky to work in a school that not only allows me to teach trangressive literature but also buy a class set of it. This year I taught "Howl" and "Geek Love"... I feel like a corrupter and it feels good.

As their final project my students are performing an adaptation of "Geek Love"  that one of my students wrote.
In one of the first scenes one of my students has to "geek" a chicken.

If you're not familiar with the term geek outside of the computer and D&D sense let me help you out.

geek: A carnival performer whose show consists of bizarre acts, such as biting the head off a live chicken.

While most of my students pushed for live chickens, I thought that wasn't a good idea the job market being for teachers as it is. 

So here's what I came up with. Seriously this is how much I love this book. I sacrificed to the craftycraft Gods.

Normal Chicken

 

"Geeked" Chicken

 

I'm so not a crafty crafter. So this is as close as I get to that. It's not going to turn into a habit. It's a good thing I'm starting a frock by Friday today to wash the dirty chicken feeling away.

If anyone wants a tutorial, you're insane, but let me know and if there's enough interest there could be a way.

Also hopefully after the play this Thursday I'll get some pictures of the chicken in action.

High Altitude Lemon Bars

I figured for my first post I should post my most successful and popular dessert that I adapted for high altitude.

The miracle here is double-fold as lemons are only available once a year here and the altitude adjustment only took two tries. 

I'm bringing this over from my other blog that is dedicated to my expat experience. 

High Altitude Lemon Bars 7,000 ft

Huzzah for lemons. Here in Manizales we get them imported from the states once a year. I never thought much about lemons until they weren't available. Now I feel like Martha Stewart fresh out of prison. I have my supply of lemons. I haven't figured out how to keep them as long as I'd like so I'm baking up a storm of lemon based goods. First up..lemon bars.

Living in the Andes at 7,000 ft has its own issues. Plus the fact that most people here don't bake means that most apartments don't have ovens. This applies to mine, so I cook in this.

This recipe has been modified to use at high altitude. The original recipes comes from the King Arthur Flour site.

Crust

• 1 stick butter
• 1 1/4 cup All-Purpose Flour
• 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar

Topping

• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup -1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• juice of 3 lemons
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest
• 3 tablespoons All-Purpose Flour
• a pinch of salt

Making the crust. Preheat oven to 350.

Combine all the ingredients in a medium bowl. Cut butter and dry ingredients together. You can use a pastry cutter or two knives.

I use two knives for cutting. One because it's how I was taught by my mother. Two because I don't own a pastry cutter. Three because the extra effort takes an edge off the guilt of baking dessert.

Cut until well combined. You should see little remnants of butter flecked throughout.

Press the dough into a pan. Foods stick more at high altitude so I sprayed a little cooking spray to prepare it. I press from the corners towards the center so that the corners get don't get too thin and bake too fast.

 Put this in the over for about 20 minutes. Cook until light golden.

While this is baking prepare the topping. It's super easy.

Take your ingredients.

Put them in a medium bowl and stir them together. That's it. 

Pour it on top of the crust while the crust is still hot.

Bake the bars at 350 for 5 minutes. At a high altitude this helps set the structure. Then continue to bake at 300 for 15 minutes.

Let cool on rack. Once cool dust with powdered sugar. Yum!

Introduction

Nearly two years ago I took a job in Colombia and left my sewing machine and sea level living behind. I also left an adequate kitchen with oven and basic baking supplies.

Living in Colombia is all about improvisation. This site is dedicated to chronicling my attempts at sewing and baking in the rare free time I might acquire.