Embracing a lack of change
I am short of time and jeans. I'm not too short of money at the moment, so the obvious solution to this is to go to a shop and buy jeans, right? Except I have already spent too much time in the last two weeks trying to buy jeans and have established that a) finding any trousers with a 36 leg in Dutch shops is still hard, b) there are some available in the fashion chains but they're all of the skinny and distressed variety, c) skinny distressed jeans don't suit me, d) jeans made in any non-fashion-driven shapes are cut for what you might call the more traditionally feminine shape, that is, women with the sort of curvy thighs that I don't have and, therefore, e) all non-fashion jeans make me look like I've borrowed my mum's. Plus ça change.
My usual solution for this is to make them, but I'm short of time. Getting clothes made for me by anyone else is still a very long way outside my price range, but one thing I can afford is a better sewing machine. Mine was basic even when it was new, and having been to a sewing machine shop this morning and had the full sales pitch, I'm now aware of exactly how lacking my machine is, and how much easier many of the fiddly bits could be. One that does all the shiny things costs €500 - €600. There are cheaper ones that don't do some of the things I want, and there's a second-hand one I'm eyeing up for about €250, but all machines that do what I want are computerised. Buying something that is slightly elderly and second hand and also computerised, in fact from the early days of computerising these things, doesn't sound like a brilliant idea.
Five or six hundred Euro is a big investment, though. It would be a sort of declaration of independence of the clothes manufacturing system, but therefore also a declaration that I'm going to spend more time making my own. Then again, if money still doesn't buy me clothes, how else am I going to get them? And if a better machine saves me time, what other option do I have?
My usual solution for this is to make them, but I'm short of time. Getting clothes made for me by anyone else is still a very long way outside my price range, but one thing I can afford is a better sewing machine. Mine was basic even when it was new, and having been to a sewing machine shop this morning and had the full sales pitch, I'm now aware of exactly how lacking my machine is, and how much easier many of the fiddly bits could be. One that does all the shiny things costs €500 - €600. There are cheaper ones that don't do some of the things I want, and there's a second-hand one I'm eyeing up for about €250, but all machines that do what I want are computerised. Buying something that is slightly elderly and second hand and also computerised, in fact from the early days of computerising these things, doesn't sound like a brilliant idea.
Five or six hundred Euro is a big investment, though. It would be a sort of declaration of independence of the clothes manufacturing system, but therefore also a declaration that I'm going to spend more time making my own. Then again, if money still doesn't buy me clothes, how else am I going to get them? And if a better machine saves me time, what other option do I have?