This is a long-awaited-with-baited-breath for those of us who have been anticipating a fight against the obesity scare and its various trumped-up statistics. Dr. Benjamin is a family doctor from a high-poverty region of Alabama that was hard-hit by Katrina. It will be a HUGELY positive step if she can serve as an advocate for the most overlooked and underrepresented "interested parties" in the health care debate. It seems like the first thing on the chopping block when the budget gets tight is health care for the poor. Michigan, for example, has cut both dental and vision services to adults on public assistance for this fiscal year, and is talking about eliminating them altogether. There's some kind of freakish cognitive dissonance going on when the government cuts services when they're most in demand. It will be very interesting to see what happens when they have someone in a powerful position that has seen, first-hand, how health and poverty interact.
She's been awarded the Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights (1998) and was the first person under 40 to be appointed to the board of the AMA (as well as the first black woman!). She's an activist, an environmentalist, and a humanitarian by all accounts. She's a supporter of reproductive rights for women (despite being Catholic) and has reportedly worked to encourage medical schools to include abortion training that helps new doctors understand all the ramifications of the surgery.
Link to her clinic
Of course, news agencies are already stirring up a whirlwind of objections. Not to her medical experience, knowledge, or practice.....but to the fact that she's fat. Actually she's what the fatosphere would call an "in-between", meaning that she looks pretty average, but reporters inudated with the body dysmorphia of celebrities assume she's about to drop dead of a heart attack. Depending, of course, on which photo you're looking at. Isn't it funny how you can't really tell how much someone weighs by looking at them? Doesn't stop them from guessing...badly.
Somehow, of course, a fat surgeon general (or rock star, or politician, or actress) will somehow magically make everyone else in the country fat. Of course that's what they say they mean. What they might actually mean could be more along the lines of "how dare this fat chick be successful, powerful and visible!?"
Just as Sotomayor has been attacked for not apologising for her strong Latina-ness, Benjamin will be attacked if she doesn't apologise for how her body is shaped. She's already being attacked for being black; the comment streams on some articles are complaining that her appointment is due to her race instead of her qualifications. Come to think of it, Sotomayor had to deal with some douchehound reporters commenting on the relative weight of the canditates instead of their qualifications as well. Paul Campos's response was my particular favorite:
"For some men, the only thing more intolerable than the sight of a powerful woman is the sight of a powerful woman they don’t want to sleep with." - Paul Campos
Her position on obesity isn't readily found, which means it's probably not her
top priority. Smoking definitely is, however, since she's lost at least one
family member to it. HIV prevention is another possible point of emphasis because another family member died of aids-related illness. She mentions that her father died of "diabetes and hypertension," which since those conditions are so often blamed on fat (rather than genetics, inactivity, poor diet and weight-cycling) raises a red flag for me that she might make the obesity panic (ooga booga!) worse. The flag waves a little harder when she refers to them as "preventable diseases," since "prevention" usually focuses on (ineffective and short term) weight loss.
Having an advocate for the poor, a pro-choice doctor, an environmentalist, a woman willing to re-build a clinic twice destroyed in order to bring health care to a small town in need, a woman who understands the disparity of medical access not only between the rich and poor, but the urban and rural, a strong WOC, in this highly visible position is going to be hugely positive for this country. She'd have to hate on fat pretty severely for me to admire her any less.







Slip it on and check it for fit, adjusting as needed.
Unpin the sleeve fabric and lay it flat but still folded so that the marks are visible. Draw a line ½” below the mark, down the end of the sleeve. Cut along this line.
Re-pin the sleeve back onto the shirt, lining up the sleeve seam and the side seam of the shirt. Use a basting stitch to attach the sleeve and check it for fit. Once you’ve adjusted it, stitch over the basting stitches, then remove the basting stitches.
With the cami on inside-out, push the fabric together to bunch up on the loops. Decide for yourself how much or little you’d like it to bunch. You may want it to bunch tightly to resemble a halter top, or just let it hang loosely across the front. Once it hangs how you’d like, pin it into place. Take it off and put a few stitches along the pocket every few inches to hold the gathers evenly in place.
Continue to construct the Cami per the 

Determine how long you want the shoulder straps to be in order for the cami to hang where you took your original measurements. Remember that the straps will go all the way around to the side seam (“B”). Add ½” to this measurement. (You can try pinning the strap and trying it on to make sure it’s the right length).
Turn the loop back right-side out. Line the seam of the loop up with the seam on the side of the cami (at the outside edge “B”). It helps to pin it in place first. Following the sleeve hole on the front, sandwich the binding over the raw edge of the cami up to the neckline, overlapping the edge of the binding across the front neckline. Repeat at the back. When you get to the top of the garment continue stitching the binding closed all the way up and over the shoulder (red line).
Now hem the bottom edge by folding ¼” of fabric up, then folding again to tuck the raw edge under. Iron the fold, pin to make sure it lays flat, then stitch.
You need two measurements on this one. First the distance from your throat to wherever you want the top to hang (waist, top of hips, etc.) plus 3 inches (we’ll call this number L for length). Then the measurement around of the place you wanted it to hang to (waist, hips, etc.). We’ll call this W for width.
Now of course this was meant to fit the skinny flat-chested woman idealized in the 70’s, so if you have what so many lovingly call a “rack of doom”, (or as my mom puts it, were “blessed by the hooter fairy”) feel free to adjust the fit. If this really doesn’t cover your front, try this adjustment:
If it’s still not going to cover you, make the W measurement based on your bust and use darts 
Sew binding along the two short edges, trimming it to be even with the fabric. Then add binding to the long edge, but let the binding extend past the edge by at least six inches on either side (this is your tie).
For the neckline, fold under 3” of fabric (so that the extra fabric is on the back side) from the peak of the triangle. Stitch approx 1” from the fold.
String a ribbon, necklace chain, choker, or more (stitched) edging through the gap created. This ties behind your neck.
Now this is a case where you’ll definitely want to make a test piece first, before using your final fabric. I highly recommend buying up old bedsheets and fabric at garage sales all summer (you can’t beat 10 cents for several yards of fabric). You can also often find cheap sheets or rolls of fabric at Goodwill or other re-sale shops, or ugly fabric on super-markdown at fabric stores. The practice version allows you to adjust fit. If you’re going to find out you cut something too small, it’s better to do so on throwaway fabric than the pricey stuff.
Now that you’ve cut these pieces from your test fabric (you’re using test fabric, right?) pin or stitch the two seams (where “S” is in the above diagram) loosely together and check the fit. The “S’ seams should come down your sides, while the corners of pieces #1 and #3 should wrap over each other and come right to the “S” seam without the whole thing being baggy. (note: if the difference between your bust and waist is large, you may need to add darts to make the shirt really fit your body well. See the instructions on darts in 
Shorten the string to 6” and make a smaller arc near the corner. This will be the opening for the neck. (Note: if you have a thick neck or broad shoulders you may want to make this 8”)
Since the seam at the back of the hood (red line) will be visible with the hood down, you may want to do what’s called a french seam. Put the fabric WRONG side together, so the part you want on the inside when wearing the cloak is on the inside. Stitch a ¼ inch seam along the long end. Snip any stray threads and make sure the fabric is cut as close to the stitches as possible without them actually coming undone. Fold the hood inside out so that the seam you just made is on the inside. Along the same seam, use basting stitches (long, loose stitches) a little over ¼” from the edge so that your original seam is tucked inside. When you turn the fabric again you should have a clean seam on one side and just a fold of fabric on the other. If you see the raw edge sticking out of your french seam, undo the basting stitches and try again a little further from the edge. Otherwise go back over your basting stitches with a straight stitch to close the seam.
You’ll attach the unfinished short edge of the hood to the neck opening of the cloak itself. Use the french seam described in the above paragraph, but make your second seam at least ½” to ¾” away from the first, so that a tube or pocket is created for a drawstring.
A is the larger of your waist or hip measurement, plus six inches, divided by four.


After overstitching the edge, fold up ½” to the inside, iron to crease, pin and stitch.



This means that when buying your fabric, you’ll want to get a length at least equal to the length of pieces 1 and 4. Make sure it’s wide enough to also do a 2” waistband. 







Check for fit again, then close the skirt by putting the two ends together with the right side of the fabric (the side you want visible when you’re wearing the skirt) facing each other and stitching ½” from the fabric edge. This will create a seam that is only visible on the inside of the skirt.
Cut a rectangle of fabric WxL. Hem the sides and bottom of the curtain panel and follow the pleating instructions above. When you’re done, measure down the fabric by the amount you determined you’d need for the curtain rod sleeve. If you’d like to double check you can actually hang the curtains, pin them onto the rod and check the length. Run a line of basting stitches across the fabric where the loop will join to hold the pleats in place.
Flip the panels over and open the seam, folding the seam of each gore back onto itself. Continue this seam all the way down the skirt.
Measure the length of the opening from where you left off stitching and add 1” (we’ll call this L). Cut the contrasting/inset fabric into a trapezoid 4” wide and (L) inches long. We’ll call this the Inset. If the fabric is a kind that frays/shreds easily, use pinking shears to keep it under control. These are scissors that cut in a zig-zag pattern like /\/\/\/\/\/\ . You can also put a row of stitches about 1/2" in from the edge to control fray.
Trim away the extra fabric from the inset (up to any fray-control stitches you added) and finish the skirt
Hem ½” from the bottom of all panels. Hem ½” from the top as well.
For a faux wrap skirt that stays closed, take the edge you want on the underside of the wrap and pin it to the second panel from the finished end. Stitch ½ to 2/3 of the way down the seam, letting the rest stay open. For a regular open-wrap skirt, skip this step and proceed to the next.
Where the two ends connect behind the wrap front, use a pin or seam ripper to pick just enough stitches below where the waistband meets the skirt panel to thread one end of the long tail through the hole. You may want to use a needle and thread to make a few extra stitches on either side of the hole to help reinforce it. Thread the inside waistband tail through the hole.
Make a waistband per the normal instructions, using whichever fabric you want to be visible from both sides. (note: you can also put a strip of this near the hem of the coordinating side for a cute retro look. See instructions for making contrasting trim in the section for a faux wrap skirt).
Insert elastic or drawstring per the waistband instructions for the gore skirt. If you’re making a reversible skirt I’d recommend elastic, as the drawstring will be on the inside when you reverse the skirt.
Now add ½ inch to every edge of the trapezoid. This is what’s called a “seam allowance” because it represents fabric that will be on the loose side of the seam when everything is stitched together.
Congratulations, you have a pattern! Still using your test fabric, cut out four copies of this, using the outermost (dashed) trapezoid for the line to cut.
Stitch the two ends of the waistband flat together like this, leaving 1/4” seam allowance:












