Time to bet on January UAH! (Yes… late this time. But it’s still unpredictable. So, get your bet in.)
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Bets Close on Jan 20.
Obviously… open thread. I’m waiting for official updates for some of the agencies (and meanwhile sewing. Yes. I go on binges.)
Miscellaneous Interlude:
Obviously, sewing is distracting me. These were finished on Friday; I got the happy recipient (aka reluctant model) to pose this morning. He likes the fit. We both agreed that I should take 1/2″ off the crotch depth. These hit just at the waist and a smidge lower would be nice. (I cut out fabric for the next pair; the zipper is inserted.)
Note these slacks don’t have back pockets. I was a bit nervous about making welt pockets in the sturdy-dense corduroy. I suggested substituting patch pocket traced from his Wrangler jeans. Jim said he never uses the back pockets and would prefer no pockets to patch pockets. The corduroy for the next pair is softer and dressier; it will have 1 welt pocket in back.
Jferguson asked whether the technology for home sewing had changed since the days his mother stitched his shirts. Some things have– for example, you can buy computerized sewing machines with hundreds of pre-programmed stitches and so forth. But other things have not. Many people still buy paper patterns that come in little envelopes like the one shown to the left.
Jim’s slacks were sewn from Butterick 3217 which includes directions for pleated slacks, flat front slacks, shorts and a fairly traditional shirt. All slacks have side pockets, a welt pocket, a traditional men’s zipper insertion and a straight waistband with belt carriers. I probably paid about $1 for the pattern. (Simplicity patterns are available for $1 at JoAnn Fabrics this week, so I’ll be buying patterns today; the official normal prices are something ridiculous like $15. They are listed as 40% off every day. They go on sale for $1 each roughly four times a year. Men’s slacks don’t vary much; the main reason for buying more patterns is to get versions with different types of pockets views. I’d rather spend $1 than trace my own from scratch. )
Open thread. Puns permitted. 🙂
1) Where do we send the specs for custom orders?
2) Are there provisions for noise dampening when these corduroy slacks are deployed in mobile use?
3) Any elastic considerations for IPPF (Inevitable Post-Purchase Fattening)?
And on an unrelated note… how come Dr. Roy Spencer no longer includes that suggestive sine curve on his monthly report anomaly graphs?
Uhmm…
None. Special trousers will be created for mobile use.
No. Jim has “plumped up” from a size 26″ waist in 1984 to a size 29″ waist in 2013. At his projected rate of “plumping up” these trousers will wear out before his waist hits a 30″.
I don’t know. I always preferred suggestive straight lines.
Lucia, I have a pants, shirt and sweater combination much like what your husband is modeling in the picture. I am quite a bit older than your husband, buy some of my clothes at Kohls and have what was once in my life called an athletic build that currently would be more like a line backer minus the muscles.
I sent a post to the initial sewing thread that I think got lost somewhere. It was too long but I did not think it was controversial. The gist of my comment was that I currently have two suits that I wear mostly to funerals and weddings that were purchased from around the time I retired. I paid good money and want to get my money’s worth wearing them now and damn any fashion changes. After visiting a high end men’s clothing store my wife and I agreed that the suit styles are not to our liking and the prices appear to have stayed ahead of the general price index. I was wondering what kind of equipment would be required and for what skill level for a person with time on their hands to purchase the necessary equipment to put together high priced items like men’s suits. Or would it be more economical to purchase a custom suit from a low cost shop in the Orient? We could afford purchasing suits from a retail store but we are frugal and very independent in our old ages.
It has been so warm in SC, my garlics have had a second growing season. They won’t flower, but it is nice to see them and the onions so I can have green onions and green garlic sprouts on hamburgers and salads.
John F. Pittman (Comment #108420),
.
It’s been warm in south Florida as well… pretty much continuous winds from the south to southeast for about 3 weeks. Lots of tropical air, so highs in the upper 70’s to low 80’s every day, and mid to high 60’s every night. A long way from three years ago, when we had an average temp 15F below normal in January, and millions of dead fish (and hundreds of dead manatees!) from the cold. Must be climate change. 😉
Cold today– but it’s been warm generally.
Kenneth–
The skills for tailoring are advanced. The issue is not the equipment. Men’s suits generally involve straight stitches — which all machines have. The only extra you might want is a machine with automatic buttonholes. As far as that goes, you could get a decent machine that suited your needs for… oh… $150-$250.
That said: If your goal is to make men suits– especially the suit coat– any time soon, you would be better off buying from the orient.
The tough issue is developing the skills to make the suit. As far as construction skills go you would want to make several pajamas bottom type pants with elastic waist and simple tops. Move up to real slacks, unlined or at least unstructured jackets (not currently in style for men:think Miami vice) etc. Only after that do you want to go into tailoring.
Generally speaking, women’s ‘basic’ clothes– like skirts and even women’s slacks– have easier details than men’s. Also, women’s clothes have greater variety so at any given time a beginner can always find some patterns for clothes that are reasonably in fashion yet on the easy side to make. For men… not quite so much– or at least not unless you want everything to be casual.
Notice I’m not making Jim slacks and matching jacket? I also have had a long pause in sewing– so some cursing is involved in the welt pocket. I’m not 100% happy with the way it turned out — but it’s good enough that if I don’t point to the “issues” Jim will think it’s fine.
The opposite happens with his home remodeling stuff. He’ll point to something he thinks is sub standard. I’ll be like.. what? That’s not right? Really…. But that happens when you make stuff.
Lucia, I am sure you know the skill levels required to put together clothes. I guess I was anticipating that machines and programs for producing clothes had reached the stage where it would depend more on learning the capabilities of those machines and programs. I have read some background on this subject that calls for tailoring courses at the college level. I had visualized some kind of a laser system for scanning an individual that would go into a computer that controlled the cutting and sewing of the clothe.
I have learned in retirement that the time available can be turned into cost savings and in some cases like investments into increasing personal wealth. That approach has worked well for me in investments, gardening (not vegetable) and home maintenance.
We did a recent kitchen remodel that some of my fellow retirees would have taken on without hesitation. I contracted it out without hesitation since it would have tied up the kitchen/house for too long, that kind of work is not my forte and I would be forever listening to my wife’s newest revelations about some detail I had missed. There is little that gets past my wife in the area of the results of my amateur undertakings around the house and yard. She even will bring in her friends to do inspections. I do not feel real bad about this since she does the same for professionals.
Kenneth-
Well… actually, they’ve advanced so that if you get a computerized machine, lots of things are easier provided you get a computerized machine. Non computerized still exist. Chips are sufficiently inexpensive that there is a range of choices that don’t cost toooooo much.
I could take a few photos to show how I load the bobbin on my old machine vs. my newer machine. How I would make a button hole on my old machine vs. my newer machine. The old machine had two ways to make a button hole. One involved a great deal of practice to make a decent one; the other one involved using an attachment– which was a bit fiddly. The new machine involves… very little.
These may exists somewhere but not for the home sewer!
Some people do make these to help them with fitting:
(I’d seen these for women before. First with a guy!)
Lucia, somehow duct tape was not the high tech approach I had visualized. I guess in a pinch one might just consider duct tape clothes. The guy in the video was enjoying way too much his modeling of his duct tape outfit.
I determined years ago that duct tape is not what you use on ducts – it is that metal tape with a sticky side.
When I was a kid, I arrived home to find my mother and 4 of her friends in the enclosed porch encased in damp papier mache shells from neck to somewhere above the knees. They were standing there waiting for it to set-up so they could remove them to use as female molds for the dress forms they had in mind.
I think it was a good thing I was 12 and so unable to invent the remarks that this scene called for. It was very funny at the time. And the resulting forms (well my mother’s at least. I was never permitted to see any of the others) were fairly explicit.
Kenneth–
It may not be high tech– but it’s useful for measuring and if you add a heat proof cover, during construction (for pressing and testing fit.) I haven’t made one. . .
jferguson–
Yep. That’s how these are used. The goal is to get a perfect match which is not possible with commercially available dress forms. Generally one wants to wear foundation garments similar to what one plans to wear with the outfit since that’s the shape you want to fit and flatter.
Here is my analysis of the January Bets.
Please note that I have excluded from these figures, the bet of 2c from EdForbes and 0c from Pieter, as they were replaced by subsequent bets, although they are not crossed out in the above.
Also I have excluded the bet of 28c by DaveE, presumably a typo, but there wasn’t a replacement figure in that instance. Even though some of the other extreme bets are unlikely, I assume they were intentional.
This month the mean and median figures are quite close and there is quite a lot of competition around those figures.
NO. OF BETS 25
MAX 0.420
MIN -0.084
MEAN 0.178
MEDIAN 0.180
STD DEV 0.109
MEAN 1-13 0.178
MEAN 13-25 0.182
MEAN PLUS 1 SD 0.287
MEAN MINUS 1 SD 0.069
WITHIN +/- 1 SD (%) 80.00
ABOVE MEAN (%) 52.00
BELOW MEAN (%) 48.00
Can we have a discussion on the maximum sea ice extent this year in the arctic soon. I noted that the warmist sites were very cold shortly after this time last year when 2012 nearly hit the last 30 years average. Similarly the warmist sites stopped discussing the issue when the summer melt became extreme. I think that with the current cooling of the northern hemisphere this year will see 2013 break above the average and a much slower melt in the summer. “Wipes egg off face”. Can you raise it as a topic or bet as it is currently neutral, Gavin still predicting low piomass and total extent because he has not noticed the slow encroachment upwards. WUWT’ers not game to have a go yet
correction Similarly the skeptic sites stopped discussing the issue when the summer melt became extreme
angech
I rarely discuss of maximum sea ice extent. We bet on minimums.
We’ll bet on that as summer approaches. If Gavin wants to bet when the time comes, he may. My impression is he never has.
I don’t know which sites you count as “skeptic” nor which you think stopped discussing summer melt. We’ve had betting on summer melt regularly, and bet on it during summer 2012.
Yes, my 28 entry was a typo and should have been 0.28C.
DaveE: I’ll remember to change that!
thanks very for posting. will keep watching with interest. angech