random thoughts – Day 2,226 (Tuesday) – sweatshop plans

Four seams available
for adjustments.

The sweatshop operated on the production operations management rule in grad school – do the quick jobs first to get them out of the queue. Psychologically, it means something got done and the daunting to-do list might not be so long and I needed the mental boost, so the afternoon was absorbed with a couple projects that are quicker than the laborious 25-yard skirt. 

Today’s successes were letting out the seams on an Indian choli top and working on the coin bra. Ideally, there would be a local warehouse selling thousands of belly dance costumes and I wouldn't need to do all this labor, but that is not the case, so I sit and I sew and I sew and I rip out stitches. (Or, if you prefer the tongue twister Mummu used to love, "She sits as she sews and she sews as she sits.")

The choli was bought with a companion saree over the weekend. The brilliant design of the tops is that there are multiple seams stitched in. If the top is too small, stitching from the seams can be removed. This particular top had been taken in smaller, so in addition to four machine stitched seam lines, there was an additional hand stitched seam. That was the easiest one to pick out. Two machine stitched seams were removed after that. It needs to be tried on again and reevaluated. It’s also a little too short, so I’ll need to add a band of fabric at the bottom, which I’ll cut from the saree. At least I have the comfort of a plan.

Coin bra in process.

The second project that got moving along is the coin bra. Digging through my swimwear, I found the black swim top I hoped I had not donated away before moving. Whew! To add stability, a bra that didn’t fit quite right was disassembled for parts. Some parts were set aside for potential future use and the cups were hand stitched into the swim top. This will provide a sturdy foundation for two triangular panels of coins to be stitched on. For now, those have been tentatively pinned in place. They need a little work, as some coins are missing and the panels could be a smidge smaller, but at least I have an idea of the look.

Then it was off to dance group. We ran through many of the dances in the June show, except the two large numbers which were impossible to run due to absences. It’s hard to rehearse dances with nine or ten people three or four are absent. Hopefully next week we can run them.