Monday, February 11, 2008
I Went to the Public Library
A lil backstory.
I've been in kind of a personal rut lately, overcome with boredom, unhappy with my appearance and overall having a time that to sum up could be a lot more fun. Long story short I decided to start sewing my own clothes, initiated by the revelation that this spring I will not be wearing any pants, only skirts. Problem is, I'm usually broke, and its hard to find a good skirt these days that I don't have to pay at least forty dollars for. However, its not hard to turn my jeans into skirts or find five dollar patterns and 40% off fabrics at a chain store (see how that plays into the whole money issue? I'm so awesome).
So Saturday in all of my DIY glory after successfully turning two pairs of pants into two skirts that look exactly the same (two different colors, of course, and one of them sewn much better than the other) I decided that perhaps our trusty Hamilton Township Library might have some good DIY sewing books. Its not every day that I think about utilizing the library, but the day before Mike and I had planned on studying there (which we never did) and I have really fond (for lack of a better word) memories of that place from when I was little. My dad used to take me there all the time to get books, and I still honestly believed that the public library is that magical place where amazing things happen that they told me in elementary school.
For some reason before I went I got a coffee. When I got in my car I realized that I probably couldn't bring food or drinks in with me. When I got to the library I walked up to the door with it and saw the NO FOOD NO DRINKS sign like I thought I would and put the coffee back in the car.
Also on the way up to the door (which for those of you who are unfamiliar is a long walk up a hill) I saw two young girls with library books in their hands leaving with their mother. This brought back some nifty little feeling and further induced the notion that this visit to the library after five or so years was going to somehow change my life and who I was. I was completely convinced that I was going to find this treasure trove of information, and I would never have to go anywhere to get any kind of information on anything again.
Its all in my library. I KNOW it is. I FEEL it. Like the young girl feels the cosmos in Katamari.
I go inside, it all looks the same, theres the front desk where you check out, the children's section to the left (I almost walked into it just to remember what it was like to be there), the adult and etc section to the right, and right at the front door the steps to the downstairs area where they have little township get togethers. I took my cousin to one when we were like 11, I thought it would be cool, but he totally thought the dude was lame, it kinda made me feel bad.
So I go to check out the little electronic card catalog and see that every computer except one is being used. I go over to that computer and its just got its windows screen, and I'm pretty much like, fuck this, I'll just browse the shelves, because if memory serves me correctly the crafts are over here near the gardening and VOILA! After about a 10 minute browse by looking like I know what I'm looking for I find the sewing section.
There were about 35 books there, most of them about sewing techniques and making your own patterns. I grab the ones that are about making clothes from old clothes, using your old clothes, making patterns from old clothes, everything that looked like it remotely might help me out without being a technical guide because lets face it, I don't really care how to do special stitching. I took my books, I found a secluded desk, I dropped all my shit, pulled out my notebook and my ipod, turned on some Deerhoof (thanks Greg!) and got excited to have my mind filled with knowledge and ideas.
The first book I opened pretty much set the pace for the next half hour of "research". I was looking at this book, I have the name written down at home i'll update this later, looking at these horrifyingly outdated outfits that I didn't know to laugh at or cry that these things may have actually gotten made in someone's living room. I'll let my favorite piece in the publication speak for itself:
Awesome. Look at that style. Look at that sleeve. Fuckin planets people.
I kind of chuckled and put the book down after I did a thorough front to back scrutiny of what other amazingly horrifying things I could find. There was some great stuff in there; full body jumpsuits, overalls, pure gold.
I kind of got the idea at that point that the rest of these books were going to be as outdated as that one, if not more. My curiosity and my hope pushed me to continue - even though at this very point I realized I was probably doomed.
Something inside of me propelled me to open the Vogue magazine style guide.
I was treated to about 500 pages of this:
sigh.
I spent about 15 minutes leafing through the rest of the books I had - none of them were anything close to what I was looking for - regardless of how outdated the styles looked on everything they were also really tasteless, I mean 70/80s style is one thing, but these were the kind of clothes that Aunt Maureen from Ohio sends you on Christmas that your mom makes you wear when she comes to visit - you know what I'm talking about - you've seen that movie too.
Finally I get up to put the books back, I've admitted defeat at this point and I've decided that while the library might be the place to come for a slew of other ideas for craft projects, gardening, civil war history etc, its just not the right place for fashion tips. The library will have to induce inspiration in me for another project, on another day.
For some reason while I'm putting these books back though I have the urge to look to see if there are any gems that I missed out on, pretty amused by the books I was looking at previously. I find a book called "Make it in Denim". I get excited, half because there has to be some kind of rad 70's outfit in there that I hadn't seen yet, half because I actually expected something good to be in there. What I found was more than I could even hope for.
I laughed out loud at this one. I put it back after I snapped that picture and went back to the car and finished my coffee.
Between the time I sat down to look at the books and the time I got to my car I made it through 12 1/2 of the 13 songs on the Deerhoof album.
Maybe next time, library. Maybe next time.
I've been in kind of a personal rut lately, overcome with boredom, unhappy with my appearance and overall having a time that to sum up could be a lot more fun. Long story short I decided to start sewing my own clothes, initiated by the revelation that this spring I will not be wearing any pants, only skirts. Problem is, I'm usually broke, and its hard to find a good skirt these days that I don't have to pay at least forty dollars for. However, its not hard to turn my jeans into skirts or find five dollar patterns and 40% off fabrics at a chain store (see how that plays into the whole money issue? I'm so awesome).
So Saturday in all of my DIY glory after successfully turning two pairs of pants into two skirts that look exactly the same (two different colors, of course, and one of them sewn much better than the other) I decided that perhaps our trusty Hamilton Township Library might have some good DIY sewing books. Its not every day that I think about utilizing the library, but the day before Mike and I had planned on studying there (which we never did) and I have really fond (for lack of a better word) memories of that place from when I was little. My dad used to take me there all the time to get books, and I still honestly believed that the public library is that magical place where amazing things happen that they told me in elementary school.
For some reason before I went I got a coffee. When I got in my car I realized that I probably couldn't bring food or drinks in with me. When I got to the library I walked up to the door with it and saw the NO FOOD NO DRINKS sign like I thought I would and put the coffee back in the car.
Also on the way up to the door (which for those of you who are unfamiliar is a long walk up a hill) I saw two young girls with library books in their hands leaving with their mother. This brought back some nifty little feeling and further induced the notion that this visit to the library after five or so years was going to somehow change my life and who I was. I was completely convinced that I was going to find this treasure trove of information, and I would never have to go anywhere to get any kind of information on anything again.
Its all in my library. I KNOW it is. I FEEL it. Like the young girl feels the cosmos in Katamari.
I go inside, it all looks the same, theres the front desk where you check out, the children's section to the left (I almost walked into it just to remember what it was like to be there), the adult and etc section to the right, and right at the front door the steps to the downstairs area where they have little township get togethers. I took my cousin to one when we were like 11, I thought it would be cool, but he totally thought the dude was lame, it kinda made me feel bad.
So I go to check out the little electronic card catalog and see that every computer except one is being used. I go over to that computer and its just got its windows screen, and I'm pretty much like, fuck this, I'll just browse the shelves, because if memory serves me correctly the crafts are over here near the gardening and VOILA! After about a 10 minute browse by looking like I know what I'm looking for I find the sewing section.
There were about 35 books there, most of them about sewing techniques and making your own patterns. I grab the ones that are about making clothes from old clothes, using your old clothes, making patterns from old clothes, everything that looked like it remotely might help me out without being a technical guide because lets face it, I don't really care how to do special stitching. I took my books, I found a secluded desk, I dropped all my shit, pulled out my notebook and my ipod, turned on some Deerhoof (thanks Greg!) and got excited to have my mind filled with knowledge and ideas.
The first book I opened pretty much set the pace for the next half hour of "research". I was looking at this book, I have the name written down at home i'll update this later, looking at these horrifyingly outdated outfits that I didn't know to laugh at or cry that these things may have actually gotten made in someone's living room. I'll let my favorite piece in the publication speak for itself:
Awesome. Look at that style. Look at that sleeve. Fuckin planets people.
I kind of chuckled and put the book down after I did a thorough front to back scrutiny of what other amazingly horrifying things I could find. There was some great stuff in there; full body jumpsuits, overalls, pure gold.
I kind of got the idea at that point that the rest of these books were going to be as outdated as that one, if not more. My curiosity and my hope pushed me to continue - even though at this very point I realized I was probably doomed.
Something inside of me propelled me to open the Vogue magazine style guide.
I was treated to about 500 pages of this:
sigh.
I spent about 15 minutes leafing through the rest of the books I had - none of them were anything close to what I was looking for - regardless of how outdated the styles looked on everything they were also really tasteless, I mean 70/80s style is one thing, but these were the kind of clothes that Aunt Maureen from Ohio sends you on Christmas that your mom makes you wear when she comes to visit - you know what I'm talking about - you've seen that movie too.
Finally I get up to put the books back, I've admitted defeat at this point and I've decided that while the library might be the place to come for a slew of other ideas for craft projects, gardening, civil war history etc, its just not the right place for fashion tips. The library will have to induce inspiration in me for another project, on another day.
For some reason while I'm putting these books back though I have the urge to look to see if there are any gems that I missed out on, pretty amused by the books I was looking at previously. I find a book called "Make it in Denim". I get excited, half because there has to be some kind of rad 70's outfit in there that I hadn't seen yet, half because I actually expected something good to be in there. What I found was more than I could even hope for.
I laughed out loud at this one. I put it back after I snapped that picture and went back to the car and finished my coffee.
Between the time I sat down to look at the books and the time I got to my car I made it through 12 1/2 of the 13 songs on the Deerhoof album.
Maybe next time, library. Maybe next time.
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