Serenity in the Storm

Summer Raspberry Smoothie

Last weekend, Eric and my friend Amy and I went raspberry picking. We ate raspberries while picking until our stomachs hurt and then took home a whole bunch of raspberries. I froze half and we ate half fresh. All week we’ve been eating raspberries and one way we’ve been enjoying them is in this super simple smoothie. This reminds me of these raspberry milkshakes our friends’ dad used to make for us in the summer when his raspberry bush was producing a bounty of berries. Delish! And so refreshing and satisfying in the hot weather.

The Recipe

Makes 1 16-oz smoothie

3/4 CUP water (or 3/4 cup nondairy milk of your choosing instead of the water and hempseeds)

1 TBLS hempseeds

1 TSP vanilla extract

2/3 CUP raspberries (fresh or frozen)

1 CUP frozen banana chunks

In a blender, combine water, hempseeds and vanilla and blend. Add raspberries and blend till smooth. Add banana and blend till smooth. Ready in less than 5 minutes. Enjoy in front of the fan!

Summer Teaching: Doing Multispecies Ethnography

I’ve been absorbed these last few weeks in teaching a new course at the University of Washington. A variation on my Animals, Ethics and Food class, this course is called Animals, Ethics and Food: Doing Multispecies Ethnography. It is a condensed course, meaning that instead of a 10-week quarter, the term lasts only 4 1/2 weeks. We meet three times a week: two days a week for over two hours in the classroom on campus and one day a week at Pigs Peace Sanctuary. During our time in the classroom, we discuss documentaries, the readings we’re doing, and our time at the sanctuary. We read The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating last week (read my blog post about that book here), this week we’re reading Eating Animals, and next week we’re reading Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs and Wear Cows.

During their time at the sanctuary, the students are doing an ethnography of pigs and the sanctuary. ‘Ethnography’ literally means the study of culture (or more literally, ‘culture writing’). Thus, the students are doing a study of social life at the sanctuary. I have paired each of them with a pig to work with during the quarter and they spend their time at the sanctuary observing the pig and the others around him/her. And they wander around the sanctuary, trying to understand what the sanctuary is as a place. What guidelines and values define the sanctuary as a bordered place in the world? How do the pigs flourish there? What ethical and political questions emerge at the sanctuary? How is the space designed with the pigs (and not humans) in mind? Who are these pigs? How have they healed from trauma at the sanctuary and how do some still carry trauma with them from their time before the sanctuary? These are the kinds of questions we are exploring with these ethnographic projects.

So far, it’s been going really well, I think. The students love the time at the sanctuary. There are only seven people in the class, so our group is intimate and we get to hear everyone’s opinions and ideas about the material we’re exploring. In many ways, it’s a dream-come-true class for me. Working together with the students to explore ideas related to how to come to understand animals, and how we might think differently about other animals in world is an amazing way to spend the summer.

It’s hard to explain, but spending time at the sanctuary is like nothing else. We can talk about animals in the classroom and we can theorize about what ethical responsibility we have to them. But when you’re face-to-face with a pig, it’s entirely different. Being with animals changes us and it teaches us in ways we can’t anticipate.

You can check out the syllabus here: AnimalsEthics&Food_DoingMultispeciesEthnography

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Blueberry Streusel Coffee Cake Muffins (with GF option)

As promised in my last post, I have for you today a delicious coffee cake/muffin recipe. As I was panicking the day before my defense about whether to make coffee cake or muffins, I realized I didn’t have to choose: I could make coffee cake in muffin shapes! I adapted this recipe from The Savvy Vegetarian and made some alterations to the recipe as I went. Here’s what I came up with. These are moist, flavorful, citrusy and satisfy both a muffin and a coffee cake craving! They would be lovely for a special summer breakfast or brunch.

The Recipe

Makes about 18 muffins

FOR MUFFINS:

3 CUPS all-purpose flour (or 3 1/3 CUPS GF baking mix + 2 TBLS cornstarch for gluten free option)

1 1/2 TSP baking powder

1 TSP baking soda

1 TSP salt

2/3 CUP sugar

zest of 1 lemon

1/4 cup orange juice (I used the juice of one large orange)

2 CUPS nondairy milk (I used unsweetened coconut milk from the carton)

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 TBLS ground flax seed

2 CUPS blueberries mixed with 1/4 CUP flour (or for gluten free, use GF baking mix)

FOR STREUSEL TOPPING:

3/4 CUP flour (for gluten free, use GF baking mix)

1/4 CUP white sugar

1/4 CUP brown sugar

1/3 CUP coconut oil

1/2 TSP cinnamon

DIRECTIONS: Preheat the oven to 375 F. Make the streusel topping first. Combine dry streusel ingredients and then work the coconut oil in with your fingers until it is well combined. If the mixture does not clump together slightly, you might want to add a tiny bit of water (half a TSP at a time) until the mixture just clumps together slightly. Set aside while you make the muffin batter. In a bowl, mix the muffin wet ingredients with the flax seed and lemon zest and stir to combine. In a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients. In a third bowl, toss the blueberries with the flour. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients just until large lumps are combined and gently fold in the blueberries. Line a muffin pan with cupcake papers and spoon the batter into the papers, filling the cups 3/4 of the way full. Sprinkle the streusel topping on top, distributing all the streusel evenly among the muffins. Bake for 25-30 minutes, just until a toothpick comes out clean and the tops are lightly browned. NOTE: If you are making the gluten free muffins, cooking time might be longer (up to 5 or 10 minutes more). Let sit for 5 minutes and serve warm, or serve at room temperature.

Dissertation Defense & Beyond

On Wednesday, I defended my dissertation, which is the final evaluation for the PhD. Good news: I passed! And I’m now done with the PhD. All that remains is filing my dissertation with the graduate school. It’s kind of a weird feeling to be done. I’ve been working on this thing for so long now, it just felt like a way of life. Now onto something else, I suppose! But I wanted to share a little about what the defense was like before I move on completely.

Defenses in our department typically last for two hours. The first half hour is open to the public and the candidate gives a 20 minute presentation about the research, followed by 10 minutes of open Q&A. The atmosphere at this portion is really jovial; everyone is there to celebrate and it felt like such a wonderfully supportive community coming together for this event.

I was hugely anxious about this part of the defense. I’m not sure why — if I can’t talk freely about my dissertation for 20 minutes, I really have no business getting a degree, but in the days leading up to the defense, I was pretty much a total wreck worrying about what I would say and whether I would pace myself well enough to fit everything in. My anxiety manifested in a wacky ways, too. The day before, I went into my advisor’s office and blurted out, “Should I make blueberry muffins or blueberry coffee cake in muffin shapes for the defense?!” and then outlined the pros and cons of each for five minutes. He was so nice; he just smiled and told me that either one would be great. I went with the blueberry coffee cake recipe in muffin shapes (I will have that recipe for you soon, because it was a great recipe!). Anyway, I woke up at 5am on the day of the defense, got Eric up and started cooking. I made food for the dogs and then got to work making a bazillion muffins. I woke up and my face was super swollen! I had had some bizarre allergic reaction in the night and my eyes were so puffy, my vision was slightly obstructed. I took one look in the mirror and burst out laughing. Of COURSE I would wake up on the day of my defense with hives! I took some Benadryl, which helped, but my face remained puffy throughout the day. Oh well!

But back to the defense. After the public portion, everyone except the committee left the room (including me) and the committee talked about secret things. Then my advisor (Michael Brown) came to get me and we began the exam portion. This portion lasted for a little over an hour and involved each committee member (Lucy Jarosz, Victoria Lawson and Maria Elena Garcia) asking me questions about the work and making comments about what they thought while reading it. They had great questions and suggestions for ways of developing it in the future for the book and for articles on the subject. This portion felt amazingly productive and got me excited about next steps. I just kept feeling so lucky through the whole thing to have these brilliant scholars in a room together to discuss my work and help me think through ways of making it better. What a treat!

After everyone had asked their questions and made their comments, I was sent out of the room so they could discuss the verdict. Within a few minutes, Michael was coming out to greet me with a big hug and ‘congratulations!’ I went back into the room and we talked for another 15 minutes specifically about turning the dissertation into a book and they agreed that I should send it out to publishers pretty much right away. After the defense was over, I went out for vegan pizza and beers with friends from the department and then I went out for a wonderful dinner that night with Eric and his mom and her husband. A really special (and really tiring!) day!

And so, I guess that brings me to the question of what’s next? I’ve got a bunch of writing projects going on right now that I need to finish. And I’m excited to get a book proposal written up and sent out to publishers to move toward publishing the dissertation as a book. I’m teaching this summer, which I’ll do another post about at a later date. And I’m lined up for teaching at UW next year. I’ll go on the job market in the fall and look for an academic job. And I’m looking forward to making more room for blogging this summer and putting out another e-cookbook, as well as launching online classes through Serenity in the Storm. So, lots of exciting projects on the horizon! As always, thanks so much to all of your for reading, putting up with my inconsistent blogging lately, and being part of this little online community here. I’m so grateful for all of you!

If anyone would like to read the dissertation, feel free to email me at serenityinthestorm@gmail.com and I’ll send you a copy to read. Also, the article I wrote and blogged about a while back on sexualized violence and gendered commodification of the cow, is available to read online for free right now until July as part of a feminist geography reader released by Gender, Place and Culture, so feel free to check it out if you missed it last time, along with the other feminist geography articles in the reader!

Stay tuned for an awesome muffin/coffee cake recipe, coming soon! [And thanks, Jason MacLeod for the picture above!]

Tabbouleh

Things over here have been pretty basic these days — just trying to hold things together as I finished my dissertation, travelled out of town to conferences, and then got slammed with a grisly upper respiratory bug (is it possible that the month of May could be summed up so easily? Sadly, yes.) — and cooking anything at all has been a feat. Except for cutting up watermelon into cubes and making smoothies, this tabbouleh is probably actually the only thing I’ve ‘cooked’ in the last month. Pretty sad, I know. But I’m hoping to ease back into the cooking and living well and blogging again because I am defending my dissertation on Wednesday and, for now, I’m allowing myself to believe that I will have this huge expanse of mental and emotional space and energy open up after that event. Fingers crossed! Anyway, I have a recipe to share with you all and it is so ridiculously easy and delicious, I’m surprised I haven’t posted it on the blog before now.

Tabbouleh is always one of those things I forget about and then, when I remember it exists, I’m like “Oh MAN! How did I forget about this awesome food?!” And then I make it everyday for a while until I forget about it again, and then the cycle starts over again. I’m in one of those tabbouleh loving phases where I’m making it everyday and eating huge plates of the stuff. I like to eat it with a few dollops of hummus on top and I mix in the hummus in little bites as I go. If you’re feeling ambitious, you can make this as part of a larger meal — with hummus, pita, dolmas (stuffed grape leaves), falafel, etc. However, it really is divine just on its own, or as a side salad for other stuff you’re already making. Tabbouleh really tastes like summer to me: the bright, fresh flavors of the parsley, tomatoes and lemon and the moist crunch of cucumbers. A note: you can improvise as much as you like with this by adding other things, like mint or bell peppers, more cumin, other spices (some coriander might be nice?), more lemon juice, etc. Adjust it to your personal tastes. The recipe here is just a guideline.

The Recipe

Makes about 8 cups prepared salad

1 cup dry quinoa, cooked according to directions (I used red quinoa)

1 large bunch flat or curly leaf parsley, minced

2 medium tomatoes, diced or 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved

1 cucumber, diced

1 bunch green onion, diced

1/2 TSP ground cumin seed

juice of 1 lemon

salt and pepper (if desired)

Cook quinoa, fluff, and set aside to let cool completely. [Note: I use the method of bringing 1 cup of quinoa to boil in 2 cups of water, then cover, turn off the heat and it cooks itself quite nicely.] Chop all ingredients. In a large mixing bowl toss quinoa with vegetables and parsley. Stir in cumin and lemon juice. Serve on its own or with a little hummus as an add-in.

South Sound Vegan Chili Cook-off 2014

Calling all chili lovers, chili makers, and pig lovers! Here is an awesome event put on by the South Sound Vegans where you can show up for a chili contest, eat delicious chili, win prizes and raise money for Pigs Peace Sanctuary. As you’re probably aware, if you’ve been reading my blog for a while, I am a huge fan of Pigs Peace — a sanctuary for pigs in Stanwood, WA. What you might not know is that I am also a huge fan of chili. My all-time favorite chili is my mom’s secret green chili stew recipe — that stuff is amazing! But onto the important details…

The Vegan Chili Cook-off this year is being held in Lakewood, WA at the McGavick Conference Center at Clover Park Technical College on May 31 from 1:00-2:30pm. Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for kids, and $5 to enter your own chili in the contest. You can purchase tickets here. There are 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes for chili, and there are also prizes for people who donate $25 or more to Pigs Peace at the event.

Any questions? Contact the lovely Mae Tipple at chilicontest@outlook.com.

I hope you all can make it. This should be a fantastic event! I’d recommend getting tickets soon before they sell out!

Reader Poll: Online Classes through Serenity in the Storm?

Good morning! It’s been a busy couple of weeks and I wanted to give you all a bit of an update. I was in Tampa the week before last for the annual Association of American Geographers meeting. It was the most exhausting week I’ve had in a long time on so many levels, but there were some real highlights, too. Lots of intellectual stimulation during some great conference sessions. Even though academic conferences can be exhausting, they often really get my brain percolating and I love hearing what kinds of work people are doing. Also, some surprisingly good vegan eats — mainly Bamboozle Café (a Vietnamese place with some great vegan options…I had vegan pho, avocado roll, and a whole fresh coconut. Such a great meal coming off a long plane ride!) and Pizza Fusion (a place with delicious vegan pizza options… honestly some of the best pizza I’ve had and they delivered to the hotel!). After Tampa, my friend and co-editor, Rosemary, came back from Tampa with me for a writing retreat. We’re co-editing a book called Critical Animal Geographies and our manuscript deadline is coming up in July, so we spent last week in Seattle getting organized about our final steps for getting the book out the door to the publisher. At the end of the week, my sister arrived from upstate New York and we went down to Portland over the weekend for our grandma’s memorial. I tried to post on the blog last week, but I was having some issues with the back end of things and couldn’t get a post up. Now, things are fixed and I’m glad to be back at the blogging.

Thank you all so much for your feedback on themes for my next e-book. I got lots of personal emails from readers as well letting me know your preferences. Overwhelmingly, the seasonal cookbooks were the most popular idea, so I will tackle that project next. You can expect the launch of the first one soon (more details to come). I also got a lot of emails asking for a ‘Best of Serenity in the Storm’ and I love reader Helen McFarland’s idea of doing a cookbook that is a weekly meal plan with shopping lists and easy, go-to recipes for work nights. So you can likely expect to see those coming in the future. Thanks so much for your support and enthusiasm; it really means so much to me!

In many ways, I feel like Serenity in the Storm is experiencing a bit of a metamorphosis. Or maybe I am. These last few months have been a bit of a hibernation for the blog while I finish my dissertation and prepare to transition from one big life moment (grad school) into the next thing (the big unknown!). As I’ve been trying to envision what this next phase of life is going to look like, I want the blog to be a more central and consistent project, and I have been trying to think of ways to earn a little income from the blog so that I can dedicate a lot more time and energy to it.

As I envision this next phase, I’ve been doing some deep reflection on what it is about the academic path that I value most. The two things I love most are the intellectual community (being in a place that pushes my thinking in new and challenging ways) and teaching about human, animal and environmental issues of justice. I began to wonder what it might look like to expand the blog to include more of these two things…

So here’s my most recent idea that I’d like to test out with all of you readers. Over the last couple of years, as I’ve posted about my Animals, Ethics & Food class and my Animals in Fashion class, I have received quite a few emails from readers all over the world saying that they wish they could be in Seattle to take these classes, or from people in Seattle who wish they had access to the University of Washington classes. Then in March, I started teaching a course online for UW (it’s a World Regions intro level Geography class) and that got me thinking. Why not tweak the courses I have already designed for an online audience and offer these classes through my blog? Why not offer a space where anyone with access to a computer and the internet could engage in learning and thinking critically about animal, human and environmental issues of justice?

What I’m envisioning is this: the courses would last 6-8 weeks and I would charge a registration fee (likely around $150 for the full course). The course would have its own web site/web community which you would gain access to once you register. We would have a schedule of readings and films that would act as the basis of our work together. All films would be available to view for free online and you would likely have to buy some books or borrow them from your local library, in addition to an online reader of additional PDFs that I would send you once you register. I would ask you to write weekly responses to the material that would be posted online for everyone else in the class to read and comment on through a discussion board. To accommodate different time zones/work schedules, these discussions would be ongoing throughout each week. In addition to the films, readings, and discussions, I would also provide recorded lectures about, for instance, my work on the dairy industry and other supplemental topics as an additional source of discussion and information. There would be no prerequisites for the courses (e.g., you do not have to have any background in reading or studying animal-related issues, you certainly do not have to be vegan or vegetarian to take the course, etc.). I would hope we would get a great mix of backgrounds, politics, eating habits, etc. to foster a dynamic discussion about these issues. I would just ask that everyone take the material seriously, do the readings and participate in the discussions, and be respectful and kind about other perspectives voiced through the discussion board. My aim here is to create an online intellectual community where we could think and talk together in critical ways about issues related to animals, humans and the environment.

So, here’s where I’d like to get your feedback. If you could answer these questions in the comments below (or via email, if you prefer), I’d be so grateful. I want to gauge whether there is sufficient interest to proceed with this idea.

Should Serenity in the Storm offer classes online?

Would you personally consider signing up for one of these courses if they were offered?

If so, which courses would you be interested in taking (see below)? Please rank the following:

Animals, Ethics & Food
En Vogue: From Feathers to Leather (human, animal and environmental dimensions of the fashion industry)
Social and Environmental Justice in Animal Agriculture (a new course I’ve just designed focused on the human, environmental and animal impacts of meat, dairy and egg production)
Environmental Justice & Public Policy in a Multispecies World (a new course I’ve just designed which considers the (at times competing) interests of humans, animals and the environment together within an environmental justice framework).

If you would not sign up for a course, is there something that would make this idea more appealing or manageable for you?

Are there other courses you would like to see offered?

Thank you all so much in advance for your feedback!

Blueberry Cream Cheese Pastries

Last week was one of the toughest weeks I’ve had in a long time and then, on top of everything else, it ended with the death of my grandmother. In true Gillespie fashion, when the going gets tough, the tough eat. My grandmother used to make blueberry pies in the summer. We would go blueberry picking (and I would end up eating the blueberries in the field until my stomach hurt) and then come home with gallons of blueberry and she would get into the kitchen (my sister at her side) to make some pies. My grandmother’s kitchen has this distinct smell to it (hard to describe) and, even now, I still associate that smell with pie making.

Anyway, I love blueberry pie (though maybe not as much as my sister does) and I also have this weakness for blueberry cream cheese danish. I always see them at the grocery store, at bakeries, at Costco (in giant quantities) and I think “Mmmm, that looks so good” and then I move along because, of course, they’re never vegan. Yesterday, I got a wild hair to make a vegan version. This is a fairly quick and easy version (I have not yet tackled making my own vegan puff) and I make no pretense that these are healthy. But they are yummy — creamy cream cheese, blueberries, a hint of tartness from the lemon, and the delicate crispiness of the pastry.

Blueberry Cream Cheese Pastries: The Recipe

Makes about 18 small pastries

1 package of frozen puff pastry (many brands are vegan, just check the ingredients), thawed

handful of slivered almonds (optional)

For the blueberry mixture:

3 CUPS frozen blueberries

2 TBLS cornstarch

2 TBLS sugar

1 TSP lemon juice

In a small sauce pan, heat the blueberries and sugar until the sugar is dissolved and the blueberries are simmering slightly. Add the cornstarch and the lemon juice and simmer to thicken. Turn the heat off and set aside.

For the cream cheese mixture:

1 8-0unce package of vegan cream cheese

1 TBLS lemon

1 TSP vanilla extract

1/4 CUP powdered sugar

Using an electric mixer or a hand mixture, beat the cream cheese together with the other ingredients until smooth and creamy. Set aside.

To assemble:

Preheat oven to 400° F. Roll out the puff pastry dough and cut out rounds with a cookie cutter (you can also get creative and cut these into any shape). Fold up the edges of the rounds just a little, so there is a little indent in the middle of the circle, for the cream cheese and blueberry filling. Spread a generous smear of the cream cheese mixture in the center of the round. Top that with a spoonful of the blueberry mixture. Sprinkle slivered almonds on top. Bake for 15 minutes, until lightly golden. Best the same day.

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Celebrating 100 Years. Saying Goodbye.

My grandma, Florence, died this morning. She would have turned 100 on the 19th of April. She died at home in Portland, which is what she wanted. And she got to live at home until the end, thanks to my uncles’ care and a number of caregivers who cared for her over the years. Part of me thought she would just continue living on forever; she had so many close calls over the years (‘turns for the worse’), but she had always perked up and kept on living.

Even though she lived such a long and good life — a life that should be celebrated — I feel so sad that she is gone. That she is not in the world anymore. For me, that’s the really shitty thing about death — it always hits me as a shock that suddenly this person in your life, who you love, is not there anymore. You can’t call them up or go visit them. You can’t save a funny story to tell them when you see them. You can’t touch their hand or kiss their cheek. (She had the softest hands I’ve ever felt.)

Florence Gillespie was an amazing woman. She was funny as hell. Sharp as a tack. And honest in a refreshing way. She loved to tell stories. One of my favorites was to hear about when she and my grandfather eloped. They snuck out in the middle of the night, drove over to the next town and woke the minister up at his home to marry them. The minister’s wife was the witness.

She was born in 1914, the year World War 1 began. She lived through both World Wars, she lived through women getting in the vote in the U.S., she lived through tremendous technological innovation and landscape change. Her death, in many ways, marks the ending of a generation.

100 years. Sometimes when I visited her, I would sit there and watch her doze and wonder about the remarkable things a person sees and learns and witnesses in 100 years. She outlived her friends and many of her family members. She saw such a lot of loss and pain and beauty and change.

For now, just a simple note to mark her death, celebrate her life, and say goodbye to a life well-lived.

(Re)learning to Sew

Last quarter, I taught a new course at University of Washington — En Vogue: From Feathers to Leather — about the animal, human and environmental impacts of the fashion industry and garment production (with a focus on leather, wool, feathers, and fur). Going into the course, I really had no idea how students would respond to the material. There’s always a chance that things will go awry with a new course. But the students were engaged and motivated by what we were learning together and we had an overall pretty productive quarter.

What I really wasn’t expecting was just how much I would learn about fashion and garment production throughout the quarter — I was so busy trying to anticipate what students would get out of the class that I forgot that a lot of this material was new to me. We read the book, Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion, by Elizabeth Cline, which talks about the rise of fast fashion, sweatshop labor, and the general trend toward treating clothing as disposable. Cline explores throughout the book the history of garment production and reminds us that there was a time, not too many decades ago, when people knew how to sew and would make their own clothes. Or when people would buy ready-to-wear garments and then have them tailored to fit them.

What we’ve lost in the rise of fast fashion (and places like H&M, Forever 21, Walmart, etc.) is the ability to make and have control over how our clothes are produced and take shape. The result? A population walking around in cheaply made clothes that don’t fit us and supporting cruel and unjust labor practices around the world. When we dump our unwanted clothes at Goodwill, we don’t think about the enormous amount of clothing that leaves Goodwill as waste — shipped overseas and dumped on vulnerable populations who now have to deal with the environmental burden of Western overconsumption. We don’t think about the environmental and animal welfare burden of leather production, polyester or spandex production, or the devastating pollution created by processes like dyeing clothing.

In just one or two generations, the vast majority of us have lost the ability to sew. Indeed, many of my 18-21 year old students had no idea how to even sew on button. With the loss of sewing knowledge, we’ve also lost much of the sense of pride about the clothes we wear — because so many of our clothes are manufactured to be disposable (we may have many of them for only a few years before they wear out), we don’t think about how to make a garment last a life time, or at the least, for a decade or two. This was one of the truths that hit my students and me the hardest throughout the quarter — the fact that relearning to sew, as a generation, could be a powerful statement about the kind of global citizens we wanted to be.

Sewing suddenly became political to us. And we were inspired! Not only was sewing a way to reclaim a lost art, a way to push back against capitalist globalization, unfair labor practices, and environmental degradation, sewing our own clothes also offered a way to avoid animal-derived materials in garments. Several of my students made their own clothing for their final projects — impressive, beautiful garments which they could take pride in wearing. Quietly, on my own, I started sewing again. My mother taught me to sew and it’s a skill I have tried to cultivate over the years. I had never made adult clothing before, so this was new to me and I started slowly — with a dress. It turned out well and I’ve worn it a few times, but I chose the wrong fabric and it is a cat hair magnet! This spring, I intend to look for patterns and make some spring/summer clothes. And maybe even design some of my own clothes. For now, though, I’m already daydreaming about making the jacket and pants in the picture above from Burda Style Patterns for next fall/winter.

Nowadays, you can purchase inexpensive PDF patterns online and print them out on scrap paper and tape them together and do it all at home. Fabric can be found at local thrift shops, or you can find lots of new ecofriendly fabrics online and at local fabric stores. In Seattle, many of the fabric stores have their own sewing classes for different levels, if you’re new to sewing and need to learn how. This is a great way to try out sewing and see if it’s for you before investing in a sewing machine and other sewing supplies. So I have to ask — do you all do any sewing? Have you ever made (or thought about making) your own clothes?

Photo Source: BurdaStyle.com

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