So yeah. We're going in for a photo shoot with the Buff News. I guess the guy decided that me and (e:Zobar) were a good illustration of the article.
I had suggested I could wear my roller derby uniform, as it's quite form-fitting but athletic. I linked to that photo of me in it, that was taken for last season, and they called today and said it was too much skin for the Buffalo News to print! How funny. I said I'd wear some leggings underneath.
I'm bringing that, and showing up in a normal outfit-- a tastefully boobalicious shirt from Bravissimo because it's the only fitted shirt I own that fits me, plus some jeans that have a little stretch. The idea being to show my body shape without being gross about it-- nobody needs to see anybody's naked thighs in the newspaper, regardless of the fatness or not of said thighs, in my not terribly humble opinion. (e:Zobar) will be wearing one of his more form-fitting t-shirts. We'd joked about having him pose nude, but I bet the News wouldn't print that one either.
I'm worried about the story, of course. I am not exactly eager to be the poster child for the unrepentantly fat Buffalonian. Fat people will say I'm too thin; many people will just call me a fatass. And I fully expect that no one will believe that I eat the same as Z and exercise 10-20x more than him. People don't understand metabolism, and even my doctor just assumed I was lying when I told her how much I exercised.
This could go wrong in many many ways. I look a lot better in my normal clothes than in my uniform, but I just want the roller derby in there just so people understand, I'm not lying when I say I'm active and athletic. You can't even participate in a bout without having skated a certain number of hours that season and especially in the month leading up to it, it's part of our bylaws. Most people don't really know that, but there it is-- the fact that I am entitled to wear that uniform means that I absolutely cannot be lying about the amount of exercise I get.
I don't really have any way of proving that I eat what I say I do, but they want to photograph me holding a bunch of vegetables, so I can at least hope the article will make my case there.
I say from experience that nobody's going to believe me, just because I'm used to it. (Seriously. My doctor. Who I went to with an overexercise-induced injury. Did not believe me because the number on the scale was too high. Nobody who works out that much can weigh that much.)
Because the point I'm trying to make is that in order for me to meet the requirements for a "healthy" BMI, I would have to go on a starvation diet. I would have to get fewer calories than my body requires to maintain itself. And that is what I am protesting against. That is what, to me, "size-positive" means. That is what I mean by Fat Acceptance. I am the size I am, and do not need to diet, because I am already doing what my body needs to thrive, and this is the size it settles at when I treat it properly.
But you know, I'm glad the story is being done. I don't know who else he'll talk to for it, and what they'll say, but I'm glad my point of view is in there.
So anyway. Wish me luck, I guess.
Dragonlady7's Journal
My Podcast Link
07/25/2008 13:40 #45139
photo shoot06/28/2008 14:44 #44810
more photosOh I forgot now, duh, to post photos of my baby nephew. So here is a link to some cute photos of my baby nephew, who is six months old now.
In photostream-- just keep scrolling to see more.
I have just discovered Subversive Cross Stitch and want very badly to make him a bib that says "I (heart) Boobs" on it.
Suddenly I am filled with a desire to be crafty and *make stuff*. Weird. Runs in the family, though. The most recent photos I uploaded were of a relative's needlework sampler from 1808.
Anyway. Hillary from my team (Rachel) hasn't posted here in forever buy says she's bummed to have missed all the recent parties and we must let her know when the next one is.
When is the next one, anyway?
I have not been up to much of late. Trying to learn to sew. I give up on finding bras that fit me. I am trying to make a self-supportive dress bodice using cable ties and hemp cord and about eight layers of cotton, but so far it's just been a slog. We'll have to see how it goes. None of you are accomplished tailors, are you?
Phooey. This is hard. My stupid boobs, I'm so tired of them.
Well. This has been a boring entry. Sorry about that. Maybe soon I'll have photos of myself in a corset to post. Ha ha. Don't hold your breath.
However, I will leave you with another vintage porn shot, since I had so much fun posting those before.
I admit, I have a much better grasp on how historic undergarments really worked than I ever did before. Who says this stuff isn't educational?
In photostream-- just keep scrolling to see more.
I have just discovered Subversive Cross Stitch and want very badly to make him a bib that says "I (heart) Boobs" on it.
Suddenly I am filled with a desire to be crafty and *make stuff*. Weird. Runs in the family, though. The most recent photos I uploaded were of a relative's needlework sampler from 1808.
Anyway. Hillary from my team (Rachel) hasn't posted here in forever buy says she's bummed to have missed all the recent parties and we must let her know when the next one is.
When is the next one, anyway?
I have not been up to much of late. Trying to learn to sew. I give up on finding bras that fit me. I am trying to make a self-supportive dress bodice using cable ties and hemp cord and about eight layers of cotton, but so far it's just been a slog. We'll have to see how it goes. None of you are accomplished tailors, are you?
Phooey. This is hard. My stupid boobs, I'm so tired of them.
Well. This has been a boring entry. Sorry about that. Maybe soon I'll have photos of myself in a corset to post. Ha ha. Don't hold your breath.
However, I will leave you with another vintage porn shot, since I had so much fun posting those before.
I admit, I have a much better grasp on how historic undergarments really worked than I ever did before. Who says this stuff isn't educational?
carolinian - 06/29/08 21:33
I think the picture qualifies more as tasteful nude art than porn. But back in that period I guess there were different standards of what was considered pornographic.
I think the picture qualifies more as tasteful nude art than porn. But back in that period I guess there were different standards of what was considered pornographic.
heidi - 06/29/08 21:14
I have trouble finding bras that fit too... These sites have been good to me:
Link:http://lingerie-direct.com/
link:http://www.figleaves.com/us/home.asp
My wench costume - I didn't make it - I'm so respecting your attempt to make one!
Link:http://a300.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/98/l_1ddfcbf3155d4170e4c98f6a731e15c3.jpg
I have trouble finding bras that fit too... These sites have been good to me:
Link:http://lingerie-direct.com/
link:http://www.figleaves.com/us/home.asp
My wench costume - I didn't make it - I'm so respecting your attempt to make one!
Link:http://a300.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/98/l_1ddfcbf3155d4170e4c98f6a731e15c3.jpg
metalpeter - 06/29/08 17:05
Well when I read vintage porn I was hoping for more then just one picture but that one is nice. Oh yeah Corsets are pretty hot, even just in that Pirates Of the Caribean movie or maybe it is just Kiera Knightly that makes them so much but at least now they don't kill people anymore? Corsets that is.
Well when I read vintage porn I was hoping for more then just one picture but that one is nice. Oh yeah Corsets are pretty hot, even just in that Pirates Of the Caribean movie or maybe it is just Kiera Knightly that makes them so much but at least now they don't kill people anymore? Corsets that is.
07/24/2008 19:56 #45131
media!As (e:zobar) already mentioned, we got interviewed by a features writer from the Buff News about "weight acceptance", or size-positivity. Z already explained how he got involved.
The guy just really could not believe that Z and I eat the same diet, but we do. We totally do. I snack more often than him, but he eats more at a sitting than I do. I suppose for the sake of Science we could do a comprehensive chart of every calorie we each take in, but I can tell you, having lived with him for six years, I know pretty well that we basically eat the same diet. I eat marginally more sweets, he eats marginally more salty snacks. I am more likely to eat when I am bored; he is more likely to snack late at night. Really, on average, day to day, we eat the same diet. And I stress about it more.
I also get a whole lot more exercise than he does.
He gets more sleep than I do.
And I am five feet seven and 205-210 pounds, while he is six feet three and 135-140 pounds.
[Edited to add: this is all covered much more articulately here:]
What's more, both our weights have been almost perfectly stable for six years. We were 22/almost 23 when we moved in together, and are 28/almost 29 now. In that time I have gone down as low as 185 pounds-- I had a physically demanding job and got a throat infection so I couldn't eat-- and he has gone as high as 145 pounds-- when I first moved in I fed him a lot. But these were gradual changes, mostly, and it's made very little difference what we did.
I went through a phase where I was writing a novel (in 2003) and spent 100+ hours a week sitting in bed writing. I rarely exercised, almost never left the house, and... pretty much stuck to my normal diet.
I gained maybe 5 pounds. Lost a little muscle, went up half a dress size.
Then I joined roller derby. That's the only thing that has made a lasting difference in my weight:
I gained about ten to fifteen pounds.
Yep. Muscle.
Z used to have to walk about two miles a day to get to work. He has gone through various changing situations of eating well or not so well (in Jersey, with only a minifridge, he ate a lot of Chinese takeout), and exercising a lot or a little. His weight very, very rarely changes.
It seems to be pretty compelling evidence, to me, that one's natural metabolism has a whole hell of a lot to do with the shape one is.
I'm not saying one should never pay the slightest attention to what one eats, or that one should not make any effort to lead an active lifestyle. Quite the contrary: I believe, and this is more radical than it sounds, that you should only eat when you're hungry, and should only eat things you truly want to eat. (Seriously, seriously look, at a Lil Debbie snack cake. Do you seriously want that? Really? I mean really? Well, OK, I mean, if you really want it, fine. But look at a fresh red bell pepper and a block of cheese and an egg and tell me you don't ever want that instead. Because damn, yo. Red pepper omelets are friggin' awesome.)
But the corollary to that is that you should always eat when you are hungry. And you should eat until you are not hungry. And then you should keep doing that. Don't eat when you're not hungry. Do eat when you are. Try to have tasty food that has actual nutritional value available so that when you are hungry, you can eat it.
Really, seriously, that's all I'm saying.
And as far as exercise-- you shouldn't do it because you hate it. It really feels good. You should find something you like to do, and make time to do it. The making time part is the hard part of it.
Really.
Anyway. That's all I'm saying. And the way he found me was that (e:strip) has such good Google rankings in general that it picked me up for a phrase that's not even in the journal. He found me for "weight acceptance Buffalo" (minus quotes), and that's not even what I call it, so good for (e:strip). Well done (e:Paul)!
I'm going to see if I can convince him to mention this journal in the article. :)
Because I have a separate blog I started just for Fat Acceptance stuff, mostly so I could leave comments on other sites, and I want him to mention that one but it's got a URL that the Buffalo News won't print:
Tee hee. Hey, I thought it was funny when I registered it.
The guy just really could not believe that Z and I eat the same diet, but we do. We totally do. I snack more often than him, but he eats more at a sitting than I do. I suppose for the sake of Science we could do a comprehensive chart of every calorie we each take in, but I can tell you, having lived with him for six years, I know pretty well that we basically eat the same diet. I eat marginally more sweets, he eats marginally more salty snacks. I am more likely to eat when I am bored; he is more likely to snack late at night. Really, on average, day to day, we eat the same diet. And I stress about it more.
I also get a whole lot more exercise than he does.
He gets more sleep than I do.
And I am five feet seven and 205-210 pounds, while he is six feet three and 135-140 pounds.
[Edited to add: this is all covered much more articulately here:
]What's more, both our weights have been almost perfectly stable for six years. We were 22/almost 23 when we moved in together, and are 28/almost 29 now. In that time I have gone down as low as 185 pounds-- I had a physically demanding job and got a throat infection so I couldn't eat-- and he has gone as high as 145 pounds-- when I first moved in I fed him a lot. But these were gradual changes, mostly, and it's made very little difference what we did.
I went through a phase where I was writing a novel (in 2003) and spent 100+ hours a week sitting in bed writing. I rarely exercised, almost never left the house, and... pretty much stuck to my normal diet.
I gained maybe 5 pounds. Lost a little muscle, went up half a dress size.
Then I joined roller derby. That's the only thing that has made a lasting difference in my weight:
I gained about ten to fifteen pounds.
Yep. Muscle.
Z used to have to walk about two miles a day to get to work. He has gone through various changing situations of eating well or not so well (in Jersey, with only a minifridge, he ate a lot of Chinese takeout), and exercising a lot or a little. His weight very, very rarely changes.
It seems to be pretty compelling evidence, to me, that one's natural metabolism has a whole hell of a lot to do with the shape one is.
I'm not saying one should never pay the slightest attention to what one eats, or that one should not make any effort to lead an active lifestyle. Quite the contrary: I believe, and this is more radical than it sounds, that you should only eat when you're hungry, and should only eat things you truly want to eat. (Seriously, seriously look, at a Lil Debbie snack cake. Do you seriously want that? Really? I mean really? Well, OK, I mean, if you really want it, fine. But look at a fresh red bell pepper and a block of cheese and an egg and tell me you don't ever want that instead. Because damn, yo. Red pepper omelets are friggin' awesome.)
But the corollary to that is that you should always eat when you are hungry. And you should eat until you are not hungry. And then you should keep doing that. Don't eat when you're not hungry. Do eat when you are. Try to have tasty food that has actual nutritional value available so that when you are hungry, you can eat it.
Really, seriously, that's all I'm saying.
And as far as exercise-- you shouldn't do it because you hate it. It really feels good. You should find something you like to do, and make time to do it. The making time part is the hard part of it.
Really.
Anyway. That's all I'm saying. And the way he found me was that (e:strip) has such good Google rankings in general that it picked me up for a phrase that's not even in the journal. He found me for "weight acceptance Buffalo" (minus quotes), and that's not even what I call it, so good for (e:strip). Well done (e:Paul)!
I'm going to see if I can convince him to mention this journal in the article. :)
Because I have a separate blog I started just for Fat Acceptance stuff, mostly so I could leave comments on other sites, and I want him to mention that one but it's got a URL that the Buffalo News won't print:
Tee hee. Hey, I thought it was funny when I registered it.
dragonlady7 - 07/25/08 07:43
I am actually fascinated by discussions like this. Is that really the focus of your area of research? I would love to know more!
I had no idea about any of it until I went on a really restrictive and harsh diet to "lose the weight once and for all!", having been just on the verge of fat my whole life (that being a moving target, of course, because I could never figure out just what constituted being actually "fat") and had absolutely nothing happen besides me getting exhausted, emotionally unstable, ineffective, and weak. My body kept every pound I had. What the heck!!
And then someone, coincidentally, linked me to an article on :::link::: Shapely Prose, and I read the whole site archives and thought.... Hey. Fascinating.
So I got interested in size-positivity through that.
I think the main point that I am trying to make is that 1) You can't, absolutely can't tell how healthy someone is by looking at them-- if I were the 127 pounds the doctor told me I should be, I would be dead, but American society would think I looked "so much better"; meanwhile people think Z is suffering from malnutrition but I swear to God he eats as much as he wants every single day and is doing just fine and would be just as dead at the 200 pounds the charts want him to be, and
2) Health is not morality. Even if someone *is* unhealthy, that doesn't make them a bad person. If someone is unhealthy and fat, not only may the two not even be related, it's *still* not their fault. If a skinny woman gets cancer she's unlucky. If her fat sister also gets the same cancer, she's unlucky but deserves it. This logic has become so internalized that there was a recent comment thread on ShapelyProse wherein a woman was agonizing over her inability to lose weight and how it was increasing her risk for cancer, and it was a genuine revelation to her that she was no more to blame for that than her mother was to blame for dieting herself to a skeleton and still getting cancer.
And then there's a third point nobody really likes to make, which is that diets don't work. :::link:::
Yes, if you have an eating disorder, getting that properly treated will change your weight. Yes, if you have poor eating and exercise habits, changing those poor habits will improve your health and how you feel day-to-day. But you may or may not lose any weight. And if you already have reasonably good eating habits, dieting to lose weight will destroy your metabolism and make you fatter in the long run. This is what has happened to 99.97 percent of people who have gone on diets.
So I'm really glad I had never wasted my energy on a really restrictive diet before, and I'm really glad I stopped after only a couple of months.
I'm not saying I just eat whatever, whenever. I am old enough that I know better. But I try to practice Health at Every Size, where any eating or exercise choices I make are in service to the ideal of my overall health, not in service of my fitting into a smaller dress size or looking more like Kate Moss.
Because I have totally different bone structure than Kate Moss, and anyway I like my tits the way they are thanks.
:)
I am actually fascinated by discussions like this. Is that really the focus of your area of research? I would love to know more!
I had no idea about any of it until I went on a really restrictive and harsh diet to "lose the weight once and for all!", having been just on the verge of fat my whole life (that being a moving target, of course, because I could never figure out just what constituted being actually "fat") and had absolutely nothing happen besides me getting exhausted, emotionally unstable, ineffective, and weak. My body kept every pound I had. What the heck!!
And then someone, coincidentally, linked me to an article on :::link::: Shapely Prose, and I read the whole site archives and thought.... Hey. Fascinating.
So I got interested in size-positivity through that.
I think the main point that I am trying to make is that 1) You can't, absolutely can't tell how healthy someone is by looking at them-- if I were the 127 pounds the doctor told me I should be, I would be dead, but American society would think I looked "so much better"; meanwhile people think Z is suffering from malnutrition but I swear to God he eats as much as he wants every single day and is doing just fine and would be just as dead at the 200 pounds the charts want him to be, and
2) Health is not morality. Even if someone *is* unhealthy, that doesn't make them a bad person. If someone is unhealthy and fat, not only may the two not even be related, it's *still* not their fault. If a skinny woman gets cancer she's unlucky. If her fat sister also gets the same cancer, she's unlucky but deserves it. This logic has become so internalized that there was a recent comment thread on ShapelyProse wherein a woman was agonizing over her inability to lose weight and how it was increasing her risk for cancer, and it was a genuine revelation to her that she was no more to blame for that than her mother was to blame for dieting herself to a skeleton and still getting cancer.
And then there's a third point nobody really likes to make, which is that diets don't work. :::link:::
Yes, if you have an eating disorder, getting that properly treated will change your weight. Yes, if you have poor eating and exercise habits, changing those poor habits will improve your health and how you feel day-to-day. But you may or may not lose any weight. And if you already have reasonably good eating habits, dieting to lose weight will destroy your metabolism and make you fatter in the long run. This is what has happened to 99.97 percent of people who have gone on diets.
So I'm really glad I had never wasted my energy on a really restrictive diet before, and I'm really glad I stopped after only a couple of months.
I'm not saying I just eat whatever, whenever. I am old enough that I know better. But I try to practice Health at Every Size, where any eating or exercise choices I make are in service to the ideal of my overall health, not in service of my fitting into a smaller dress size or looking more like Kate Moss.
Because I have totally different bone structure than Kate Moss, and anyway I like my tits the way they are thanks.
:)
tinypliny - 07/24/08 23:24
I did miss the point and it is an extremely important point. :) Thanks for pointing that out! I am not sure we are on the same page about being obese though. I don't subscribe to the BMI-scale school of thought.
The figures you posted puts you at a BMI of 32.9 (maximum). If you went by textbook standards, this would be classified as obese. But just as you can classify people as African-American, Caucasian etc, on the basis of how dark their skin colour is or how their facial features look, and not have a clue about their actual ancestry, the whole BMI function is misleading with respect to whether it can predict whether the body mass is the wrong kind of adipose tissue or not.
In essence, you are completely right about one major point. We don't know the etiology of obesity at all. After several years of research we are somewhat close to uncovering what causes obesity. Endocrine (or hormone-related) causes are top contestants in the obesity etiology race.
However, what we are sure about is the "kind of obesity" that leads to problems. I think there are a handful of perceptions of what the term obesity actually means. To many, it means just looking "fat". To the statistically inclined, its the BMI calculation, however, to the medical profession, it means an increased propensity to acquire chronic diseases and related disorders.
The more I get into the literature of obesity, the more I think that the BMI scale is completely off the mark, and cannot be used for more than a very very rough approximation of obesity. "Fat", or adipose tisue is not really the same everywhere. It has a different character depending on the site at which it is deposited. If it is abdominal, around the omentum (a thin layer of tissue that shrouds your abdominal organs) or visceral (around the organs), it is the most likely to give you health-related problems. If, on the other hand, its subcutaneous - eg. in the breasts, thighs, buttocks etc, its not a problem.
This distinction is seldom made in most analyses. Most studies are obsessed with BMI - perhaps because we have no real measure to measure what kind of fat is really involved. I am not really sure how to deal with the measurement issues, because I don't think we have an answer.
Anyway, getting back to the central thought, I think what I should have said is the four rules affect your energy balance. If your energy-intake is more than your expenditure, it will mess with the regular functioning of your body.
Long comment, but I had to write all this down because its extremely relevant to my research. Thanks for posting! :)
I did miss the point and it is an extremely important point. :) Thanks for pointing that out! I am not sure we are on the same page about being obese though. I don't subscribe to the BMI-scale school of thought.
The figures you posted puts you at a BMI of 32.9 (maximum). If you went by textbook standards, this would be classified as obese. But just as you can classify people as African-American, Caucasian etc, on the basis of how dark their skin colour is or how their facial features look, and not have a clue about their actual ancestry, the whole BMI function is misleading with respect to whether it can predict whether the body mass is the wrong kind of adipose tissue or not.
In essence, you are completely right about one major point. We don't know the etiology of obesity at all. After several years of research we are somewhat close to uncovering what causes obesity. Endocrine (or hormone-related) causes are top contestants in the obesity etiology race.
However, what we are sure about is the "kind of obesity" that leads to problems. I think there are a handful of perceptions of what the term obesity actually means. To many, it means just looking "fat". To the statistically inclined, its the BMI calculation, however, to the medical profession, it means an increased propensity to acquire chronic diseases and related disorders.
The more I get into the literature of obesity, the more I think that the BMI scale is completely off the mark, and cannot be used for more than a very very rough approximation of obesity. "Fat", or adipose tisue is not really the same everywhere. It has a different character depending on the site at which it is deposited. If it is abdominal, around the omentum (a thin layer of tissue that shrouds your abdominal organs) or visceral (around the organs), it is the most likely to give you health-related problems. If, on the other hand, its subcutaneous - eg. in the breasts, thighs, buttocks etc, its not a problem.
This distinction is seldom made in most analyses. Most studies are obsessed with BMI - perhaps because we have no real measure to measure what kind of fat is really involved. I am not really sure how to deal with the measurement issues, because I don't think we have an answer.
Anyway, getting back to the central thought, I think what I should have said is the four rules affect your energy balance. If your energy-intake is more than your expenditure, it will mess with the regular functioning of your body.
Long comment, but I had to write all this down because its extremely relevant to my research. Thanks for posting! :)
dragonlady7 - 07/24/08 22:32
Tinypliny, what's funny is that the actual main focus of my point was that... I follow these rules, and am obese. Z follows these rules, and is underweight.
This is not a recipe for weight loss.
It's a recipe for stopping the ridiculous obsession with food that makes so many people miserable.
Tinypliny, what's funny is that the actual main focus of my point was that... I follow these rules, and am obese. Z follows these rules, and is underweight.
This is not a recipe for weight loss.
It's a recipe for stopping the ridiculous obsession with food that makes so many people miserable.
tinypliny - 07/24/08 21:50
Nice post and that's excellent advice.
--Eat only when you are hungry.
--Try to eat well when you are hungry.
--STOP when you are almost full. There's no use eating as if the world is ending then and there.
--DO NOT eat when you are not hungry.
Four rules and 95% of the people don't seem to get it. :( We are facing an obesity epidemic.
Nice post and that's excellent advice.
--Eat only when you are hungry.
--Try to eat well when you are hungry.
--STOP when you are almost full. There's no use eating as if the world is ending then and there.
--DO NOT eat when you are not hungry.
Four rules and 95% of the people don't seem to get it. :( We are facing an obesity epidemic.
06/13/2008 10:53 #44639
photos of londonI finally uploaded photos of London, because now I have photos of my baby nephew to upload and figured, I can't do them out of order, so London first.
Sorry this took so long-- was finishing up with derby, then out of town traveling. Now I'm back in Buffalo and plan to just take June and set my life into order. Hopefully that means things will be sane and normal and organized around here for a little while. Let's see how that works out.
The photos are uploaded at Flickr, because there it's easy to caption and you can display them bigger.
Here's the link to the whole photostream. Enter at the linked-to picture, and then scroll to the right in the photostream (click on the thumbnail of the next picture and it will display it and roll you along-- in case anyone's not familiar with Flickr, sorry I just had to explain it to my folks, so I'm in Explanation Mode.)
Coming very soon: photos of my baby nephew David.
(I officially have Too Many Daves in my life.)
Sorry this took so long-- was finishing up with derby, then out of town traveling. Now I'm back in Buffalo and plan to just take June and set my life into order. Hopefully that means things will be sane and normal and organized around here for a little while. Let's see how that works out.
The photos are uploaded at Flickr, because there it's easy to caption and you can display them bigger.
Here's the link to the whole photostream. Enter at the linked-to picture, and then scroll to the right in the photostream (click on the thumbnail of the next picture and it will display it and roll you along-- in case anyone's not familiar with Flickr, sorry I just had to explain it to my folks, so I'm in Explanation Mode.)
Coming very soon: photos of my baby nephew David.
(I officially have Too Many Daves in my life.)
07/05/2008 23:04 #44875
learning to sew the EXTREME WAYSo have I explained on here that I'm going to Pennsic?
Yeah, it's 2 weeks of pseudo-medieval camping and i need garb.
So I've had a crash course in sewing.
And I've been aiming for this approximate look:
or perhaps this:
(The latter has good construction notes so I can copy it better. Her English is better too.)
Anyway. I'm midway through a very complicated kirtle with a waist seam and front lacing, and the bodice is all boned and supportive, and I still have to put the skirt onto it and maybe make some sleeves.
I took a break today to do something simpler. An apron, maybe. I had a biggish square of white cotton fabric I was going to hem on both sides and then sew, I wasn't quite sure into what.
What happened?
I am just going to copy-paste an email I wrote to my mom to explain it. My mother, incidentally, is a veteran re-enactor and costumer, and was married in 18th-century garb to my father-- they met doing Revolutionary War re-enactments at the bicentennial. So she knows about this stuff. I don't think she's as retarded as me though. Ever.
Subject: EXTREME COSTUMING
I managed to put the needle of my sewing machine straight through my left index finger today, so my progress on getting my garb sewn has slowed.
I had a tetanus shot sometime in college, didn't I? Then I should be fine. I remember getting one as an adult but what sort of adult I don't recall. I've now been an adult long enough that this matters, damn it.
I broke the needle, too. Bah. I needed to change it anyway. Fortunately I had the presence of mind to yank it out of my finger before the shock wore off, so it didn't hurt. It hardly hurts now, but I think it's going to take a long time for this hole in my fingernail to close up. It must have missed the bone, or it wouldn't have gone all the way through. Or if it had, I wouldn't have been able to yank it out with my teeth! (I couldn't get a grip with my fingers-- my right hand isn't as strong anyway.)
I was doing really well at the whole "sewing" lark, too. But I think I'll be hand-sewing things for a little while until I get my nerve back (and, er, get a new needle). It BIT me! And I wasn't even doing anything fiddly-- I was hemming a straight double-folded hem in a piece of cotton that I'd ironed the hem into beforehand (seriously, it was a giant square that I was hemming preparatory to making an apron out of it, while on a break from a very complicated kirtle with a boned bodice)-- this is the first time I'd actually bothered pressing something the way you're supposed to when you're trying to sew something folded over!
Bah, that'll teach me to do things the right way.
I think I've learned my lesson about putting needles in my skin, too.
Your repentantly body-pierced daughter,
-- B.
I didn't tell her that I was so fucking hung-over from the 4th of July pool party I went to last night that I couldn't sit up straight, which probably contributed to the incident.
I wonder how many people go to the ER for hangover-related injuries, compared to those that just hurt themselves while drunk?
I think I'll skip the ER. I wish I had health insurance, though. Just in case.
Oh well.
Yeah, it's 2 weeks of pseudo-medieval camping and i need garb.
So I've had a crash course in sewing.
And I've been aiming for this approximate look:
or perhaps this:
(The latter has good construction notes so I can copy it better. Her English is better too.)
Anyway. I'm midway through a very complicated kirtle with a waist seam and front lacing, and the bodice is all boned and supportive, and I still have to put the skirt onto it and maybe make some sleeves.
I took a break today to do something simpler. An apron, maybe. I had a biggish square of white cotton fabric I was going to hem on both sides and then sew, I wasn't quite sure into what.
What happened?
I am just going to copy-paste an email I wrote to my mom to explain it. My mother, incidentally, is a veteran re-enactor and costumer, and was married in 18th-century garb to my father-- they met doing Revolutionary War re-enactments at the bicentennial. So she knows about this stuff. I don't think she's as retarded as me though. Ever.
Subject: EXTREME COSTUMING
I managed to put the needle of my sewing machine straight through my left index finger today, so my progress on getting my garb sewn has slowed.
I had a tetanus shot sometime in college, didn't I? Then I should be fine. I remember getting one as an adult but what sort of adult I don't recall. I've now been an adult long enough that this matters, damn it.
I broke the needle, too. Bah. I needed to change it anyway. Fortunately I had the presence of mind to yank it out of my finger before the shock wore off, so it didn't hurt. It hardly hurts now, but I think it's going to take a long time for this hole in my fingernail to close up. It must have missed the bone, or it wouldn't have gone all the way through. Or if it had, I wouldn't have been able to yank it out with my teeth! (I couldn't get a grip with my fingers-- my right hand isn't as strong anyway.)
I was doing really well at the whole "sewing" lark, too. But I think I'll be hand-sewing things for a little while until I get my nerve back (and, er, get a new needle). It BIT me! And I wasn't even doing anything fiddly-- I was hemming a straight double-folded hem in a piece of cotton that I'd ironed the hem into beforehand (seriously, it was a giant square that I was hemming preparatory to making an apron out of it, while on a break from a very complicated kirtle with a boned bodice)-- this is the first time I'd actually bothered pressing something the way you're supposed to when you're trying to sew something folded over!
Bah, that'll teach me to do things the right way.
I think I've learned my lesson about putting needles in my skin, too.
Your repentantly body-pierced daughter,
-- B.
I didn't tell her that I was so fucking hung-over from the 4th of July pool party I went to last night that I couldn't sit up straight, which probably contributed to the incident.
I wonder how many people go to the ER for hangover-related injuries, compared to those that just hurt themselves while drunk?
I think I'll skip the ER. I wish I had health insurance, though. Just in case.
Oh well.
jenks - 07/06/08 13:08
yeah, I would skip the ER. They won't do much besides maybe a tetanus shot, maybe some pain meds, probably no antibiotics, and maybe an xray to make sure there's no piece of needle stuck in there.
Or, you can take some motrin and keep an eye on it and go in if it doesn't get better.
And yes- the ER always gets a lot of post-holiday hits too. Not always as much due to hangover, but b/c people didn't want to miss the holiday so they wait for the next morning.
yeah, I would skip the ER. They won't do much besides maybe a tetanus shot, maybe some pain meds, probably no antibiotics, and maybe an xray to make sure there's no piece of needle stuck in there.
Or, you can take some motrin and keep an eye on it and go in if it doesn't get better.
And yes- the ER always gets a lot of post-holiday hits too. Not always as much due to hangover, but b/c people didn't want to miss the holiday so they wait for the next morning.
ladycroft - 07/06/08 10:17
cool! i used to do re-enactments too. i also love making my own costumes, especially that of the medieval era. good luck and have FUN!
cool! i used to do re-enactments too. i also love making my own costumes, especially that of the medieval era. good luck and have FUN!
tinypliny - 07/06/08 09:33
That is pretty extreme. I remember my mom subscribes to the extreme point of view as well and regularly gets serious jabs and through-and-throughs from a variety of needles. In her case, they take around a week to fill up and settle to a relatively painless state. I hope you end up with a gorgeous dress for all this trouble.
That is pretty extreme. I remember my mom subscribes to the extreme point of view as well and regularly gets serious jabs and through-and-throughs from a variety of needles. In her case, they take around a week to fill up and settle to a relatively painless state. I hope you end up with a gorgeous dress for all this trouble.
I don't know if I'll get copies of all the pics, but they took some fun ones. It turns out I know the girl who was art-directing-- my older sister went to school with her, 300 miles away and 15 years ago. How funny that was.
I will be out of town so I'll have to have Z post whatever comes out. :)
Ya and post the pics.
Good luck! Make sure you link us to the story when it comes out.