Funny thing, the price of clothes quite often is beyond our means. Our financial means, that is. Yet we know we want something a bit different, but don't quite know where to get it.
I found a remnant piece of fabric today at the local fabric store. A large carton of off-cuts was sitting there, with a placard stating "50 cents a piece". I casually looked at the carton while walking through to store back to the office after lunch, and then stopped and went back.
Here was just what I wanted. A piece of material in a lovely silky taffeta. I unfolded it, and saw that it was ample for a number of projects. It could be used for a waistcoat; a cami; a cummerbund or even (and this is what I really wanted it for) a sarong.
The girls at the office had been talking all morning about what they were planning to wear at a Christmas get-together. Some had even put new clothes on lay-by and had been paying them off for months.
But me? I'm going to ask a girl friend who does alterations and sewing just to sew up the side seam and hem and make a waistband through which she can thread a drawstring, and I'll have a sarong to sing about!
For 50 cents!!!
.....Autumn Parry
I realised this morning that a few weeks have passed by since posting. I can't say I wasn't aware that our blog had been ignored for a little while, but certainly not this long.
I can't recall when I've heard so many people speaking about the one subject. Not only here but through our networks of women overseas. People are of course always concerned with the basics of life - the economic downturn; the health and welfare, the education and the safety of our peoples together with more personal things like the bills we have to pay; and more likely than not "the weather" comes in for some discussion.
During the past couple of months however, conversations have included the plight of those people in Asia (Vietnam and the Philippines and Indonesia) affected by the adverse flooding and tornadoes; then the tsunami which hit Samoa and American Samoa, Tonga and other islands in the Pacific. Those references haven't only been for a day or two, but they've continued.
Now this past week has brought a deluge (literally) of flooding to England, Scotland and Wales. "Inclimate weather" is how they describe it. On this side of the world, bushfires have already appeared and are still burning in three States. The fact that we haven't even begun our summer season seems irrelevant.
But young and old are talking about the "global warming" - as if coming to a conclusion will enable the powers-that-be to right the situation overnight. That's impossible. Making any one country (and it's people) feel guilty about the fact that the world is affected by global warming (and there's plenty of debate on this particular angle) isn't fair or warranted. You can't insist that one country putting into place guidelines and penalties for not only industry or big business but also the ordinary person (you and me) and to then sit back believing that the problem is solved. It's not that easy - it has to be a concerted effort by everyone.
Scientists are not all in agreement as to what is happening, nor why it is happening. If any reasonable person looks att history, they'll see that this sort of thing has been cuclic since ttime began. Many scientists are even claiming we're entering into an Ice Age and that the out of proportion heatwaves and droughts are merely attempts by the planet to set the situation right. And there are always "conspiracy theories".
But whatever, there is plenty of debate, and plenty of talk, and plenty of scare tactics, making people confused and unsure of what is going on around them and with their lives.
..... Leonie Stevens
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