I am back... With Sewing!

Been a while. Got a Degree. Got a new Job, and oh yea... started sewing. :)

So earlier this year I discovered the amazing fabric and pattern designer, author and seamstress, Gertie, aka Gretchen Hirsch. I fell in love with her vintage, punky style. I bought all of her books and got myself some of her fabric too.

Recently I made a skirt out of her beautiful border print fabric, and followed a tutorial on her blog for a Dirndl style skirt. Links Below. Here is my creation. I paired it with a blazer and blouse from Target. It was light, feminine, fun and very spring :) This is her Rose Garden Border cotton Sateen fabric. I am a beginner. This is the 3rd finished project I have made so there was some room for improvements. 

(please forgive the garbage pail in the photo)

 It was really easy if you follow her tutorial, however I am bigger than she is, and I wanted some  extra lushy fullness, so for my waist measurement of 41 inches, I got 2.5 yards of fabric. 

Her tutorial is below, she broke it into two parts and I really don't think it needed to be that in depth.

Basically is two large rectangles for the skirt, sew up the side seams, but leave a spot for the zipper,  you just need to know how you want your fabric to lay, and I like big hems, so after I chose my desired length, I added 4 inches for a big hem. Same with waistband.  Two long rectangles of desired thickness, plus seam allowance, and width plus seam allowance, and I opted for some fusible interfacing. 

Best thing about this skirt, its a rectangle, so its the easiest hem job ever. I hate hemming skirts. 

Here is Gerties tutorial:

http://www.blogforbettersewing.com/2009/08/sew-full-gathered-skirt-part-one-make.html

http://www.blogforbettersewing.com/2009/08/make-this-skirt-part-two-of-gathered.html

Hope you enjoyed. 

Comment below, 

Jessi Harm

Fitness for Starters. Weights, Reps, and Sets.

So I've been doing lots of research to make sure I presented general but accurate information to you about basic fitness terminology, as well as picking a weight, and understanding sets. These are things I didn't know or understand as a beginner, which would have helped me a great deal.

 Especially for those of us who can’t afford a gym, and have to do and figure this out on our own.

Let us start by talking about picking your weight. There are so many benefits of using weights for men and women. A huge misconception is that they are only for men, or only for building muscle. This is not completely accurate. Doing weight training increases metabolism, which means burning more calories, which means shredding more fat. It’s all about knowing how to use them. The ranges are:

Building bigger muscles: 4-10 repetitions. Toning, losing fat: 8-15 repetitions.

Obviously, these are huge gaps, so this depends on you, your weight and your sets. A lot of premade online workouts will tell you how many to do.
The rules of thumb with weight is ‘Pick the heaviest weight that allows you to complete all the required repetitions.” So if you are doing 15 dumbbell presses, pick a weight that allows you to complete all sets of 15 repetitions, without sacrificing form. It should be challenging, but not impossible.

     So choosing how many sets you should do, depends on your repetitions. You should do enough sets to complete a total of 25-30 repetitions per muscle group. So if you are doing 15 repetitions of dumbbell presses, you would complete 2 sets. (Or more, if you are at that level.) A set is just a reference to the muscle group and how many times that muscle group was worked. So if you did 15 squats three separate times, you did three sets of squats.
Alternating sets are when you do a set than rest and do a set that works the opposite muscle group. Choosing rest between sets depends on your repetitions.  For 4-8 repetitions, rest 2-3 minutes, for 8-12 repetitions, rest 1-2 minutes, and for 12+ repetitions, rest 30 seconds to 1 minute.

A circuit is when you do three or more exercises in succession without resting between sets. Usually alternating between upper and lower body. As an example, you could do push-ups, squats, barbell press, and hip raises, so the upper body rest while the lower is being worked. Sometimes transitioning from one move to the next with little to not rest in-between, then taking a break at the end of the circuit before you did it again. Usually a circuit is done at least two times threw. Go back to when I talked about picking your number of sets. You do as many sets as it takes to get at least 25 repetitions per muscle group. So if you are doing 12-15 repetitions, you need to do at least two sets, so you would perform the whole circuit at least two times through. Circuit training is a popular way to train for those who want a high intensity interval workout.

                So the biggest suggestion when using weights is lowering the weight slowly and controlled, and then quickly raising it up. So for rows, presses, curls etc. You can apply this method to all your movements, such as push-ups, squats, lunges, hips raises (aka hip bridges), and so on. Slowly lowering helps you build strength faster, and the sudden quick raising movement activates more muscle fibers. The only exception to this rule is explosive movements like squat jumps, or alternative lunge jumps etc. where the whole movement is quick and explosive. On a side note, there are many different ways to hold your equipment, especially dumbbells. Do what feels natural, but I suggest you look it up, and see how variations in holding can effect and change how the muscle is being worked.

     It’s important to maintain balance in your body. So when you train, make sure you work the opposite muscle group. If you do chest, make sure you do upper back, pair bicep and triceps, quads with glutes and hamstrings, etc. If you don’t maintain balance, you will have a strong chest, but weak upper back, effecting things like your posture. So if you are writing your own circuits, or finding circuits on websites like Pinterest, make sure they have a balance, or adjust accordingly. A book I would suggest that shows muscle groups, moves, and variations, as well as equipment alternatives that I reference on a daily basis is “The Women’s Health Big Book of Exercises” (they also have a mens health version.)

Last but not least, as a beginner, there are so many moves available per muscle group, and almost all of them have a body weight alternative available. You don’t need to go out and buy a whole gym, if you can’t afford equipment, there are still no excuses because of all the body weight versions out there. However, if at any point you are able to get equipment the two I would add in order of importance, (in my opinion) would be dumbbells, and then a barbell and weight plates. With those two items, there are easily hundreds of moves and variations available to you. I would also at some point add a Swiss ball, but not a high priority. There are standing, sitting and lying variations on so many moves that if you have a chair, floor, or your own two feet you will be okay.

Make sure you drink lots of water and listen to your body.

Yours truly,

Jessi

Women Superhero Movies are Not as Successful

     I am going to geek out on you all for a minute and I am sorry. This is something that has been on my mind for a while, and with a Wonder Woman movie in the works, as well as a possible Black Widow movie from the Avengers, I need to say this.

     I read an article a while back where filmmakers and Stan Lee explain as to why they put a female superhero movie on hold. The reasons included getting more of the essential characters of the universe out there, creating a better back story, and that female starring action movies just don't do as good. In fact, movies for women are still considered a niche market. The latter reason made my head spin. So I started wondering, why would they think that? Two examples, Electra and Catwoman. TERRIBLE representations of awesome female characters.

You can read the original article here.
 
     I first want to share with you a lovely quote from Meagan Marie who is a phenomenal cosplayer and Crystal Dynamics employee who I feel worded it perfectly.

     "One of the problems I think female superheroes face is that because there are so few of them, they have an unfair onus put on them to represent "women" across the board, rather than a unique person. Essentially, they are painted as easy-to-digest stereotypes - a vixen, a damsel in distress, a motherly character, and so on. They tend to be less interesting as a result. With a slew of male characters to feature in any given movie, each has the opportunity to be nuanced." Meagan Marie

     That explained the reason why the characters are not as diverse, but there are amazing characters out there regardless of stereotypes, and I don't understand why anyone would think they would be less successful in film. So I sat down and watched some of the best, and my favorite strong female staring movies.

     For starters, I notice an over-saturation of  female stereotypes. In almost all female hero movies I have seen, frankly, the women characters are written differently than men. More specifically, I am targeting the dialog, interactions between characters, especially with the male ones. There is too much hip swaying, cheesy attempting-to-be-witty-and-seductive dialog, and over-sexualization of the female form. Sure, we all want to see an attractive actress portraying our favorite character, kicking some ass, and taking names, but what we don't want to see is our favorite characters painted up as bimbos in costume trying to be more sexy, versus standing up for the greater good.

     The other thing I noticed was the dialog. Women in some of these movies are more Coy, flirty, and sassy. When the women are giving the crappy dialog you lose both men and women. Your character and story lose substance. Even though it's not real, we want it to feel real, and let us be honest, most people don't talk like "that". What I am trying to say, is if you think about conversations between male and females in movies, the flirtatiousness, and the one-liners most of the time are cheesy, but also not necessary.

     The Next thing is the sexualizing the characters. Yes, men are the ones who primarily see the comic book and action based movies. Sure guys want to see sexy, but again there is a line that you don't have to cross, that is often crossed. With that being said the gap is closing and more women are seeing the same movies, so to us when you represent women as very sexy, or seductive, the women don't respect or take the character seriously because they are represented more like bimbos.

     The idea that female leading action movies don't do as good is false because we saw great success with the Selene character in Underworld, Princess Leia in Star Wars, as well as the Alice character in the Resident Evil movies. Why do they stand out so much from other female leads? Because they weren't written differently. Their conversations were solid, their actions were solid. They were not based or influenced by their gender or emotions, they were based on the story and relevant situations happening in the movie. Sure Selene was sexy in the corset and catsuit, but she also had brains, she was strong, and could handle herself.

     So in short, you want to see a successful female action based movie, then write them like you would write the men. The male dialog isn't dripping with excess testosterone, so the females don't need extra estrogen. Write Wonder Women like you wrote Man of Steel or Batman. Write Black Widow like you would any of the male Avengers. You can have witty, but Think Tony Stark Witty or Princess Leia witty, not Hallie Berry Catwoman cheesy.

     I truly feel it isn't the female aspect, or even the character aspect as to why female leading movies do poorly, I truly feel its how they are written, how they are represented, and how they talk. In short, we can clearly see a beautiful actress playing our favorite characters, we don't need the extras.