In the fall of 1994 at Oberlin College, I started the first chapter of Students for a Free Tibet. I had previously interned at the Internation Campaign for Tibet, and I went on to intern at Milerapa (the foundation Yauch... | Continue »

Finn sent me to Big Ghost's "Best of" blog post for 20111. It's a fun read, and features exciting music. One comment stuck out: The Roots is basically the Rolling Stones of hip hop b. Sometime in 2003 I predicted... | Continue »

After watching all the Star Wars last month (no blog posts! I enjoy my IRL friendships), I gravitate towards Harrison Ford pics much more than before. Plus, Tracie rolled her eyes and nearly fainted with offense every time I mentioned... | Continue »

WARNING: SO, SO NERDY. In between doing laundry, failing to buy the dirt we were planning to buy, and watching Downton Abbey, Steve and I have been entertaining ourselves with selected episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. I didn't watch it much the first time around, but I was moved to revisit it after I fell down the delightful rabbit hole of Fashion It So. It is pretty enjoyable! This is particularly true if you have a high tolerance for Deanna Troi's cleavage and also have someone on hand to make sure you don't accidentally watch any of the... | Continue »

Much of my thinking about the future of Perl 5 stems from the following principles: New versions of Perl 5 should not break your existing software Backward compatibility must not stop Perl 5 from evolving via www.nntp.perl.org The message linked here discusses lots of insights on perl 5.16 and beyond, based on the talk Jesse Vincent has been busy giving at various conferences this year. It's a great read if you're interested in the future of perl the language. When Perl and Ruby get compared, it is often mentioned that Perl takes a lot of care and efforts to be as backward compatible as possible while Ruby (the language and its ecosystem such as rubygems, rails etc.) do not care... | Continue »

via www.thehotglove.com | Continue »

The Facts Fabric: Border print denim, $2 Pattern: Colette Patterns Sorbetto Tank Top, free; skirt: none; Year: c. 2011 Notions: Vintage buttons, $.50 Time to complete: 4 hours First worn: July 2011 Wear again? Yes and Yes! Total Cost: ~$2.50 This week's outfit is pretty much a carbon copy of last week's creation. When I had thrifted the fabric back in April, I knew it was destined for a Western challenge. I always assumed it would have ended up as a dress. But, the siren song of separates called to me once more and I made yet another Sorbetto with... | Continue »

Some places around here look a little bit more aggressively Southern California than others. Meanwhile Jane, so fearless and cheerful in other ways, is not at all interested in the prospect of swimming in the ocean that you could see just off to the right if I had only lifted the camera a few inches off the ground. Indeed she does not want to go swimming anywhere. (Not in a hat, not with a bat, not on the dole, not with IT'S MOLE.) We took her to the nice quiet warm pool at our friends' condo and oh how she... | Continue »

The Facts Fabric: Zebra print linen from Jo-Ann's, $10; Cream linen from Jo-Ann's, $12 Pattern: McCall 6881, $10 from Etsy Year: c. 1945 Notions: Vintage zipper, $.05 Time to complete: 7 hours First worn: July 2011 Wear again? The top, definitely yes! The bottom will be refashioned into a shorter skirt, most likely Hollywood Patterns 864. Total Cost: ~$32 The statement, "I want to make an outfit based on that leopard print belly shirt that Ingrid Bergman wears in Notorious" is kind of ridiculous when you actually stop to listen to what is being said. Leopard print? Ok. Belly shirt?... | Continue »

The Facts Fabric: Red broadcloth from Jo-Ann's, $10; red & white stripe fabric for facings, thrifted, $.50 Pattern: McCall's 6362, $.99 Notions: Invisible Zipper, $3.00 Time to complete: 6 hours First worn: July 2011 Wear again? Yeah Total Cost: ~$15 My inspiration for this week's was a moving target, albeit a consistent, red moving target. Although I knew I wanted to use the White Stripes as my artist, I couldn't decide on which album to choose. Ultimately, I decided on Elephant and purchased red broadcloth to make capri pants and red cotton for a western-style shirt ala Jack White. The... | Continue »

Did you get a visit from the Google Feature Fairy yesterday? I did, and some lovely new colors appeared in the top navigation bar. I saw some changes on the Grand Ol’ Search Engine page, too. Then, a curious little... | Continue »

As some of you know, I've been working very hard on an art project for Burning Man this year called the Solarium. The Solarium represents an increasingly digital world by depicting a very simple natural event, sunrise and sunset, in almost 600 color LEDs, once every nine minutes. The Solarium provides an enclosed viewing area and displays the show along the inside of its domed ceiling, similar to a planetarium. Power for the Solarium will come from the sun itself. An array of 300 watt solar panels will charge deep cycle marine batteries during the day and the batteries will... | Continue »

The Facts Fabric: Vintage floral print from estate sale, $4 Pattern: Colette Patterns Ceylon Notions: 16 buttons, $.50, thrifted Time to complete: 7 hours First worn: June 2011 Wear again? Yeah. Total Cost: $4.50 This week I took it easy and revisited a UFO that needed a ridiculously small amount of work to make it into the wearing rotation. I sewed this Ceylon all the way back in February, right after I sewed my first Ceylon. Everything but the hem and the buttonholes/buttons was finished in that first sewing session. And then I put it on hold because I didn't... | Continue »

MLKSHK is a community that’s about sharing images and video for fun. It’s not Yet Another Photo Sharing Service, though of course you’re welcome to do that here, too. This post is about us, where we’re at, and how we need your help. MLKSHK actually got its start about a... | Continue »

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The Facts Fabric: $19 from JoAnn's Fabric Pattern: DuBarry 2478B, free from the Sew Weekly Swap/Meet Year: 1940 Notions: none Time to complete: 6 hours First worn: June 2011 Wear again: Yes! Total Cost: $19 Back in February when I held The First Ever Sew Weekly Swap/Meet (perhaps it's time to put on another one?), I just HAD TO HAVE this DuBarry pattern brought to the swap by Shannon. I love patterns from the late 1930s/early 1940s because the styles are not only really feminine, but are also totally wearable by today's standards. I put my claws out at the... | Continue »

Over at xoJane, I talk about running and, um, bladder control. Here at The Sew Weekly, I'd like to talk about something far more controllable: what I wear when I run. Now, as someone who loves vintage styles and sewing my own clothes, I'm faced with a total dilemma with regard to athletic clothes. Despite my love for the styles of the past, I'm practical when it comes to certain types of contemporary clothing. Sports bras, running shoes and sweat-friendly athletic clothes were invented for a reason. As cute as a 1930s or 1940s gymsuit is, I'm not going to... | Continue »

The Facts Fabric: Vintage lawn(?) from eBay, $10 Pattern: Colette Patterns Oolong Year: Contemporary Notions: None Time to complete: 2 hours First worn: May 2011 Wear again: Yes Total Cost: $10 I know that the suspense of yesterday's post was killing you all. Yes, I indeed finished Oolong before I left for NY (so that's 7 dresses in 6 days!). As you can tell from the photo, it was getting late and rainy so I didn't feel like doing a really stylish shoot. After I finished the dress, I packed, headed to the airport and ended up finally leaving at... | Continue »

In my other life, I've had the chance to be part of xoJane, the just-launched online presence of Jane Pratt & friends. Like many women my age, Jane Pratt & Sassy magazine played a huge role in my formative teenage years -- the magazine was all about personal voice long before blogging was even a glimmer in some nerd's eye. As a nerdy outcast myself, having a magazine like Sassy was quite the motivator to continue being who I wanted to be and not what YM wanted me to be. When the company I founded, Six Apart, (and then SAY)... | Continue »