I just created a new FAQ page to address some of the questions I commonly get in comments or via email. Let me know if there’s anything I missed that I should be addressing!
About this blog
The Selfish Seamstress loves to design and sew garments, but only if she gets to keep them. I'm Elaine, known in the online sewing world as elainemay, and welcome to my selfish sewing blog.
Get Selfish Seamstress Haiku Stuff!
100% of sales proceeds are currently being donated to the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Total donations to date:
$270.00 to the Atlanta Humane Society
$464.00 to the American Red Cross
$119.56 to Doctors Without Borders
The Selfish Seamstress 
5 comments
Comments feed for this article
May 18, 2010 at 5:47 am
Joyce Schwartz
I couldn’t agree more. I t’s almost as if the fashion industry (still dominated by men, I believe) wants to put uppity women in their place–or maybe it’s just male fantasy time in the fashion world. I have another gripe–where are the clothes for the mature woman of over 65? Hems are halfway up ones thighs or the maxis have spaghetti straps and revealing necklines, none of which do much for the older body. No wonder so many of us have started to sew again.
May 18, 2010 at 1:07 pm
Catherine
Joyce, I agree with you. I recently turned 50 and am finding it difficult to avoid the mutton-dressed-up-as-lamb look when shopping ready to wear. I don’t want to look too much like mutton either, but spaghetti straps do nothing for me. My gams are still good enough for a mini but it feels inappropriate. Fortunately, I can still find skirts that go to the knee, but most dresses are just too short. That’s one of my main reasons for going back to sewing.
May 18, 2010 at 7:24 am
Melissa
It seams to me that many people are trying their hardest to pretend that gender differences are falsities created by ignorant generations of the past. Somehow we are more intelligent and elite today then to allow ourselves to acknowledge the “natural” masculine and feminine traits that we were born with. The majority of women like to dress feminine and their husbands like it too. :) Why is that so wrong?
One of the most horrible displays gender manipulations I have ever experienced was a trip to Berkley, CA one Easter while visiting my brother. I witnessed a young woman with a toddler boy who in her perverted political agenda dressed her boy in dresses on a regular basis to teach him that it was okay to be feminine. To her chagrin her 8yo girl was as feminine as they come. As hard as the mother tried she could not get her daughter out of dresses! lolol
May 18, 2010 at 9:04 am
Melissa
Hope my post was not harsh… It really was not intended to be. I’m not exactly fond of baby doll dresses for women but I don’t see understand the big lash out against a feminine dress… even if it does have girly features.
May 18, 2010 at 9:38 am
selfishseamstress
From my reading of her essay, Dinah’s issue is not with femininity in dress. In fact, I think she makes several points which express a very positive attitude towards femininity in dress. What she seems to be referring to is childishness in dress, which comes from the layering and piling on of such details the the point of immaturity. A parallel example might be the difference between wearing one elegant necklace versus wearing 10 elegant necklaces at once. To say the latter is tacky and former is preferable is not the same as saying that necklaces themselves are tacky, or to say that one shouldn’t wear jewelry. If you re-read her post and her subsequent comment, you’ll see that she is as much a fan of a feminine dress as anyone.