26 September 2009

Sewing for Aspies?

As usual, I'm not posting enough.

On the heels of my last post, with bits of chain mail scattered throughout the house, I've gone back to an older hobby — garment sewing. Finally, Ocelot has decided it's time to learn to sew, so we're making a coat for her, using a sewing pattern. [Vogue 1069] We're making it unlined, out of the best bolt of black fleece I could find in the stupid-chain-but-only-fabric-store-for-miles. In addition to teaching Ocelot, I'm teaching myself to alter a commercial vest pattern for myself.

Ocelot is doing well, a little sloppy but she is 13 and this is her first major project. Her autism spectrum thing (used to be labeled NLD, until she did well on a visual memory evaluation, now it's PDD-NOS) is getting in the way a little, but she and I have learned over the years to work together. Me? I'm my usual, mildly Aspie perfectionistic (only on sewing projects, go figure) self.

As usual, I've been combing the cyber-world for useful info on sewing. As with the stupid-chain, there's precious little out there except for quilting and home desecration. But I finally found a blog that is so interesting I've gone back to the archives and I'm reading every post.

Fashion Incubator is the work of Kathleen Fasanella, a clothing industry master patternmaker. Her blog is not geared to home sewers, and she has some unkind things to say about home sewing "experts". Much of the information she posts is geared to small clothing manufacturers. But she has some incredible tutorials on industrial sewing methods that can be used by anyone, and some fascinating rants of sizing and the fashion industry.

Kathleen has Asperger's Syndrome too, and this colors her writing. I was also surprised to learn that few of the technical people in the fashion industry are fashionable people themselves, and a large number of them, possibly including some famous designers, had/have spectrum tendencies! I always thought fashion and Aspie didn't mix.

Each year, I seem to find a new area of research to study, and it looks like this year's will be the clothing industry.