Weekend Reading: Custom jeans, vintage sewing films, and weekend listening

We’ve quickly slipped from a lovely mid-Autumn into the depths of winter this week. I’m looking forward to curling up under a blanket all weekend before our trip next week to somewhere even colder – Denver!

I’m adding a new section to my weekend reading posts for things I’ve listened to and recommend. Given that sewing is something many of us do with headphones on, I thought perhaps some of you podcastophiles out there might enjoy some of these selections.

Weekend Reading:

• Fashion is “the tool all people use […] but refuse to admit they use.” How women use fashion to assert their power.

• Last week on Snippets we covered a handy little knitter’s notion you can use to match stripes and this week we had tips for staystitching. If you’re not receiving Snippets, you can subscribe here.

• I made a Pendleton laptop sleeve for the new Pendleton sewing book, Hand Stitched Home by Susan Beal. It was featured on Design*Sponge (with full instructions).

• Love this old low-budget film about simplicity patterns someone sent me (Thanks Danielle!).

• There’s still lots of time to get on the Seamwork preview list. I’ve been sending out the behind-the-scenes story every friday, and plan to start sending some previews of the content and design in the next couple weeks.

• The Dahlia Sewalong is going strong! For those that don’t have patterns yet, we should be getting them in stock next week (fingers crossed).

• By analyzing body scans of 5000 women Qcut is making jeans in 400 sizes. They’re pretty close to their goal as I write this!

• Goodbye dELiA*s. “The question is does the market need another fast-fashion teenybopper retailer or is that space already occupied?”

• Calvin Klein uses a size 10 model and people flip out. Not about her size, but about labeling her as “plus size.” Which, it turns out, CK never even did (though some media outlets did). Baffling.

• “Because being fat and happy and in love in public is still a radical act.”

• How to write.

• Heidi Swanson on maintaining a long term blog. She’s pretty amazing.

Weekend Listening:

• This interview with actor Ellen Burstyn on the Death, Sex & Money podcast was the best thing I’ve heard in ages. She’s pretty incredible, and her stories are a reminder of how much has changed for women.

• The Kitchen Sisters’ podcast Fugitive Waves has this fascinating story of atomic wine, with host Frances McDormand.

• Criminal is one of my new favorite shows. It covers stories involving crime from an unusually human perspective. Episode 8: Can’t Rock This Boat was heartbreaking.

For more links every week, you can follow me on Twitter, where I’m always posting interesting tidbits I find.

image above via colettepatterns on instagram