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This Week's Topic:
What is your current sewing avoidance?




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My answer to this question has two parts. A general avoidance/fear, and a specific avoidance/fear.

My general avoidance/fear right now is a tailored oxford shirt. There are lots of things about this garment that make me nervous: altering a shoulder cap and armscye, fitting the waist without throwing off the grain (and, thus, the hang of the garment), making a collar that doesn't flip up on one side (another grain issue)...the list is long and intimidating. Like most articles of clothing that contain more than three separate pieces, a quality men's dress shirt walks a line between art and science. In the case of the tailored shirt, though, I think the weight leans a little more toward the science side. There's also the fact that I do not have anything that even remotely resembles a man's body, and so I'm unfamiliar with the ways an ill-fitting shirt might feel on a man's body. The problems I encounter with women's oxford shirts (buttons gaping over the breasts, cuffs too large around my wrists), aren't an issue with most men (at least not with those dressing as and identifying as men).

But there's also a specific aspect of the tailored shirt that worries me more than any of the others: The Front Placket. Anyone who sews clothing will tell you that sewing a straight seam is not an easy thing. Honestly, I am not very good at it. I'm not saying my seams are crooked, but they have the occasional crooked stitch in them. And a crooked sewing line is not an option on a front placket. All eyes are on that very visible stripe down the front of a shirt, and there's no room for even a hint of wobble. Talk about pressure.

It's interesting that this question came up so early in the game of auroraceleste's Creative Chat series. Because mckitterick asked for a tailored shirt for xmas. I bought David Page Coffin's shirtmaking book, but have only made time to skim through it. The whole idea is very intimidating to me.

I'd like a well-marbled steak, please

I forgot to take my Provigil this morning and I'm about to fall asleep at my desk. Man, that stuff really helps. I've been taking only the morning dose recently, so as to make my limited supply of it last through the end of the year. I hope that the Linking Decoction tea pills that my mom's TCM practitioner recommended in Provigil's stead work for me. I do not want to go back to being this tired all the time. This sucks.

As a state employee, I can get $480/year off my insurance premium by accumulating twenty points in their HealthQuest program. One part of that is getting a health screening thing where they check your height, weight, waist measurement, and a basic blood test. I had mine done today (which is why I forgot to take the Provigil--I had to fast, and I usually take the Provigil with my breakfast).

My numbers
Total Cholesterol: 185 mg/dL (<200 Desirable)
HDL Cholesterol: 72 mg/dL (>60 Optimal)
LDL Cholesterol: 102 mg/dL (100-129 Near Optimal)
TC/HDL Ratio: 2.6 (3.8 or below = Low Risk for women)
Triglycerides: 54 mg/dL (<150 Desirable)
Fasting Glucose: 95 mg/dL (<100 Normal)
Blood Pressure: 99/60 (<120/80 Normal)

The guy nearest me was getting his numbers read while I was getting my waist measurement. I guess they were good because he said "Wow, I'm going to go have a steak now!" And it made me want to scream because yeah, that's probably a really good idea, buddy, but our health care advice is so enmeshed in erroneous thinking and information that we're still shoving low-fat bullshit down people's throats and wondering why America is getting fatter and more disease-ridden by the second.

I estimate that 30-50% of my daily calories come from fat, and a lot of that is saturated fat. Coconut oil, eggs, fatty meats like steak or dark meat chicken...etc. But my numbers? All amazing. I'm a fucking poster child for health-by-the-numbers and I haven't eaten a whole grain since April of 2010.

I know that there's not one way of eating that works for every single person, but of the people I know who've ditched the grain-and-sugar combo, every single one reports improved health, as well as good mental and emotional states. And yet we are still bombarded with Low Fat High Fiber recommendations from every angle--not to mention what's readily available and affordable at the grocery store.

Speaking of things found at the grocery store, I saw this when I was picking up some spinach at Checker's last night.



Nice, right?