Websites for Parents

Over a series of classes I've had to come up with good internet resources for parents (parents-to-be, guardians, etc). It's a lot of work to go to waste, and these links should actually be helpful. (If you are a professional dealing with parents regularly, you might need a list like this yourself.) Check it out.

Parents-To-Be

• Baby-Safe Safely surrender your newborn baby anonymously
• Mother to Baby Fact sheets on in-utero exposures for parents-to-be
• March of Dimes Non-profit seeks to educate for healthy pregnancies
• Glowing Glow is a free fertility app

Health

• Donate Life California Organ and tissue donor registry
• Bioridge Pharma: Free epi-pens for schools
• CDC Cough and Cold Medicines: Information for Parents Dangers of over-the-counter remedies
• CDC Gather and Share your Family Health History For baby’s health
• CDC Protect your Baby with Immunization Scientific reasons in favor of shots
• Let’s Move Importance of physical activity for children
• WebMD Parenting Center My first stop when I have a medical question

Welfare

• Child Care Aware Information about how to choose a care provider, with resources
• Fire Safety For Kids Flash games, coloring book etc teaching about fire safety
• Incarcerated Parents Toolkit - SesameStreet.Org Support and comfort your child through this challenge
• Tools for Families | CASEL Social and emotional learning
• NICWA National Indian Child Welfare Association
• Hans Rosling: Religions and babies Video about world population
• How Parental Substance Use Disorders Affect Children - ChildWelfare.Gov Comprehensive chapter of manual
• Pound Pup Legacy Homeschool Abuses
• Homeschool Invisible Children The dark side of home schooling
• The Bystander Effect Video about community responsibility
• Child Stats America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being
• Parenting
• National Education Association
• SafetyNet from American Association of Physicians, how to keep your child safe online
• Health and Human Services: Families Federal Department with many programs
• American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• Federal Communication Commission: Child Internet Protection Act
• BBB Critical Viewing Guide be smart about what your child watches

Education

• Character Counts Teach your child to be the person you want them to be
• 10 Best Educational Websites for Kids (that are free!) - Parenting.com List for parents
• 10 Steps to Teaching Your Child to Read - I Can Teach My Child! Article for parents
• Reach Out and Read Nonprofit uses doctors to promote reading
• GreatSchools - Public and Private School Ratings, Reviews and Parent Community
• flippedmath.com Algebra and Geometry online (for the school-age child)
• Critical Thinking – Free Critical Thinking and Reasoning Activities for Kids – JumpStart Teaching reason to children with games, worksheets etc
• NASA GIRLS and NASA BOYS and NASA for Students K-4 Pairs schoolchildren with science mentors
• Preschool science activities Fun things to try at home
• Between Parent and Child Videos of noted expert Haim Ginott
• TACSEI Everything you ever needed to know about social and emotional development

Inclusion

• PBS: A Class Divided Documentary about prejudice
• PFLAG
• Teaching Tolerance
• Understanding Prejudice

Articles

• @Health: Parenting Styles What type of parent are you?
• Biology and social environments jointly influence gender development from American Psychological Association
• Importance of On-Time Deliveries - NYTimes.com (news) Best results when babies born at 39-40 weeks 
• Breakthroughs in Prenatal Screening - NYTimes.com (feature) Science behind newborn screening test 
• The Tests That Babies Need - NYTimes.com (feature) Impact of nwborn screening tests 
• Long-Term Benefits of Music Lessons - NYTimes.com (news) Children’s improvement scientifically observed 
• Warnings on Children’s Drugs Found to Help Curb Misuse - NYTimes.com (news) Less children now harmed by over-the-counter medicines 
• Barriers to autism screening adversely impact Latinos | Al Jazeera America Social obstacles to care 
• That’s not autism: It’s simply a brainy, introverted boy - Salon.com Excerpt from book 
• Giving Mobility When Legs Can’t - NYTimes.com
• Lifelines for Poor Children - NYTimes.com (Opinion) In favor of government support for society’s most vulnerable 
• America's children are the silent victims of the Great Recession | PBS NewsHour Poverty’s effect on children 
• Lake teacher uses exercise balls to control students' wiggles - Orlando Sentinel Innovative solutions for energetic students 
• City principal says pre-K suspensions are a matter of safety - baltimoresun.com Some preschoolers are being suspended for ‘misbehavior’ 
• Reuters Investigates - The Child Exchange Problematic off-the-books adoptions 
• Slate.com The tragic death of an Ethiopian adoptee, and how it could happen again Downsides of adoption to unprepared parents 
• God Called Them to Adopt. And Adopt. And Adopt. - NYTimes.com Trend of adopting large families 

Butte County / North State / California

• Help Central Community resource directory for Butte Co
• Butte County Public Health Low/No-cost clinics run by the county 
• North Valley Indian Health Low/No-cost health services for Native Americans
• First 5 California Parenting tips: health, learning and activities
• Butte County Library: Just For Kids Storytime schedule, internet safety, and more
• Community Seeds Sustainable lifestyle magazine
• 101 Things to Do in Butte Co Be a tourist in your own backyard
• Growing Up Chico Magazine that lists lots of activities
• Chico Parks and Recreation Department Many activities both summer and after school
• Chico Swim Lessons through parks dept
• YMCA Oroville Aquatics Oroville Swim Lessons
• Gateway Science Museum on CSUC campus, a science museum for children
• University Farm CSUC's farm offers tours, fruit picking, etc
• Patrick Ranch Museum Historical museum of farm life; in Chico
• Freecycle Chico Craigslist Free doesn't have it? All sorts of free stuff in this group.
• Downtown Chico Business Association Puts on activities like Treat Street, Thursday Markets, etc

Simplicity 1947 Suedesays Men's Corduroy Jacket

View of Cascade range as seen from tracks in Durham, CA

It was in summer when I got the pattern and fabric for Simplicity 1947, a men's casual jacket with a bit of a 50s edge. I am making this for my partner Mike. Upon consult we are omitting the horizontal topstitching details, the waist tabs, and the hood. I have chosen a grey corduroy for the jacket and a checkered shirting in white and blue for the pockets; I will also use it for bias binding the seam edges.
I fabricated this garment in November. It took about one week for preliminaries (layout, cutting, marking), two weeks for construction (stitching and seam finishing), and about one more week for finishing (final topstitching, hand stitching).
There was a rough patch where the sleeves were too long. I cut them off, shortened the sleeve, and applied new cuffs (yes both of them ugh).

Waiting until a garment is complete to check the fit often results in extra work, especially if you have to rip out finished seams to correct the fit. It's very important to try on your garment at certain points during construction to check the fit and refine it. Pin-fitting along the way is easy to do and can save a lot of time in the end. -Mary Ray, Threads Magazine  "10 Better Sewing Habits" 

 Lesson Learned.
The day Mike opened up his holiday gift he wore it. The fit is good. I am happy with the hand of the cloth. Time will tell whether the seam finishes hold up in the wash.

My Review on PatternReview

This project took me the most amount of time of any garment so far. Overall I like the pattern, the fit is good, the styling is neat.
I made this as a holiday gift for my partner Mike. I made him a size L; he's a 40R. I made this using cotton corduroy; for the pockets and seam finishes I used cotton shirting. I used a denim needle. For hand stitching, I used a thimble.
For this jacket we chose to do view B and omit the horizontal topstitching, the tabs at the waist, and the hood.
The first regret is using corduroy and cutting it with shears. There's a lot of cutting and corduroy is TOUGH like denim. I complained so much afterwards about my hand and forearm that Mike bought me a rotary cutter and mat for the holidays. If you have to use shears on bottom-weight corduroy then DEFINITELY do your cutting over a couple of days.
The second regret is my choice of seam finish. I honestly think I did it wrong, for starters - I applied bias strips it like binding on a neck edge, rather than a 'hong-kong finish' where the back side is ironed out so it catches much more easily. OOPS. After the garment was washed I went back and restitched the bias strips by hand for maybe an hour.
My third regret is not checking the sleeve length. The jacket hangs off the shoulders in an unusual way, so I didn't thinking testing the sleeve against an existing garment would work. There's a lot of pattern pieces, so there was no way I'd make a muslin/test garment. I just dove right in and never made Mike do a test fit... until the cuffs were on AND topstitched. The sleeves were two or three inches too long: OOPS. I chopped them off, shortened the sleeves and took them in, and made new cuffs. It looks OK now. This particular error is also my own fault.
My fourth and final regret is the sloppy job of easing the lower edge to the waistband. It's not something other people would notice (I hope!) but once it was all pressed and I looked at it, I saw my error. This was the last step and by this point I was just over it, so the uneven easing stays.
The other parts of the jacket I had trouble with include getting the points on the collar and collar band to match (this may be the fault of the corduroy being such a wide wale). I had some trouble with getting even topstitches, but there's SO MUCH that by the end I was more comfortable. I also had trouble visualizing the construction steps of the flange - I ended up doing seam finishes on parts that were completely enclosed.
In the end, I think it's a nifty-looking garment and I wish I got to see it on Mike more.
I like the look of the corduroy and the construction details: the topstitching (I used the heavy buttonhole thread), hand buttonholes, even the flashy check lining fabric. I love the flange design and the exposed zipper with the big collar.
I didn't have any more trouble than usual with the instructions - I grade them a B. I look forward to doing the matching SuedeSays trousers.

Party Dress Butterick 5761: In Action

My sister's wedding was a smashing success. Here are some photos of my party dress on the big day.

Bridal party of  GLAMOUR

Serious face in the ceremony

My family

Phase II: comfortable ugly shoes

Don't watch old movies? This is what you should see...

Statuesque  villainess in Ministry of Fear

More often than I would have ever imagined, people tell me they don't watch old movies. Maybe I am the only person left who still makes a habit of going to the video store? You don't know what you're missing. Here are some ideas of where to get started.

Romantic Comedies

I think old romantic comedies are about 10 times more funny than modern ones. Maybe because the sexism seems appropriately old fashioned rather than cringy.
Pick any of these actors for a satisfying black-and-white romantic comedy

• Cary Grant
• Fred Astaire
• Katherine Hepburn
• Mae West, so glamorous
• Myrna Loy
• Audrey Hepburn

Or try these films

• The Philadelphia Story (1940) with Carey Grant, Katherine Hepburn and James Stewart
• Mr. Deeds Goes to Town with Gary Cooper
• Easy Living (1937) with Jean Arthur
• Roberta with Fred Astaire is about a fashion designer. (Funny Face with Astaire and Audrey Hepburn as a photographer and model in Paris is not b/w but is thematic)
• Here Comes Mr. Jordan you know you want something funny and a little hokey for the holiday season
• Holiday themed romance: The Shop Around the Corner with James Stewart

Film Noir

It's imposingly French sounding, but the essence of the genre is simple. These movies were popular at the same time as racy detective and spy novels. Story-wise, films noir are gritty, exciting, and often require who-dunnit thinking on the part of the viewer. Fundamental to noir, however, is their visual style. These black and white movies were crafted very deliberately. Old cameras and lighting equipment were fussy, so that speaks to the time and care used in lighting (or shadowing) parts of a scene. The mysterious plots, with ambiguously evil characters, give substance to the extensive use of careful shadow. Good noir films have a lot of visual interest and a lot of thoughtful depth. If you like dramatic thrillers, tragedies, or suspense, check out noir. If you like photography, cinematography, or visual art in general, you should check out some of these classics.
If you don't want to mess around, pick something well recommended off a list:

• Fifty Noir Directors
• Essential Films Noir
• Noir and Neonoir

from The Killers (1946)

Some personal favorites:

• The Third Man
• Ministry of Fear
• Double Indemnity
• Touch of Evil (by genius director Orson Wells)
• The Maltese Falcon (with Humphrey Bogart, who is in a lot of noir)
• Clash by Night (by Fritz Lang with Barbara Stanwyck)
• and basically anything by Alfred Hitchcock

Hitchcock gives us noir shadows in The Wrong Man

More Black and White Winners

Black and white has practically become a genre. Kids these days, get off my lawn and so forth. Here are some extra credit movies to check out.

• Sunrise (1927) Very touching story.
• Freaks (1932) Whole movie available online for streaming or download. Timely moral.
• Pandora's Box (1929) Before racy movies were sanitized
• Wages of Fear (1953) Perfect for someone who thinks they only like "guy movies"
• speaking of guy movies how about They Drive by Night

Do you have a favorite black-and-white era star?

Party Dress - Final Pin Fitting

final fit

Finally I have bitten the bullet and completed the pin fitting on the party dress. I hesitated for fear of doing it wrong... but decided enough was enough and just did it.
First I marked all the take-ins, then I took out all the pins and laid the pieces out flat. Then, I could measure the total amount I took the dress in. There was a lot of variation - with much more taken in at the front. Having decided this looked weird, I divided the total amount reduced by the number of edges - giving me 36mm.

waist and hem level

The other modification I made at this time was lowering the neckline - by literally just cutting it down. I did this on the front center piece, lowering 3/4", and the side fronts (including arm hole) tapering to nothing at the side seam.
Then I repinned everything back together with an even reduction at the waist of 36mm per edge.
Next was a fitting. Having decided the waist was adequate I was disappointed that the repinning didn't eliminate another problem I was having - the front hem riding about 2.5" higher than the rear.
The solution was lengthening the dress at the lower "raise or lower here" marking - which I had forgotten to mark on most of the pieces. Poo!
So I marked each piece, unpinned from the hem to about there, cut across the line, pinned in a scrap of fabric, and finally re-pinned all the lower skirt edges. I lowered the front 2.5", tapering to 1" at the side seam and to nothing at the rear princess seams. I used checkered fabric which was really quite helpful in terms of measurements.
Five checkered extensions were added: one center front, one each side front, and one each side back. You can see them in the pictures.

with shoes

Final fitting... on the corset goes again. I was satisfied with the hang of the lower hem now!
I am satisfied with all of the fitting (sleeves not included... don't know what I'm going to do about those still) and am ready to move on to the next step - finalizing the muslin pattern pieces for cutting.
I have made all of my fabric purchases now - rayon lining from onlinefabricstore.net, and silk crepe de chine for the underlining from dharmatrading.com... where I also picked up some silk charmeuse.
The crepe de chine has great drape and all - but does nothing for the opacity of the dress. But it turns out that the sorta-impulse purchase of charmeuse has perfect opacity to conceal the corset. I was only going to make little drawers but now a corset cover (in this case a little camisole) is in the cards (if I have time).

love that level hem

P.S. sorry for the blurry mirror photos. They may be awful, but they help a lot with fitting!

Self-Drafted Summer Top in White Linen

We had a pretty evil heat wave a few weeks ago - a record breaking 110. Hot weather always makes me want to reach for natural fiber garments... and with the sweat situation, preferably not knits! Linens are completely made for hot weather, no? I picked up this linen cotton blend in a practical bleachable white during a recent sale.
Then, I challenged myself to make a top with only one yard. And draft it myself.

Using Eileen Fisher as an inspiration, I made up this boxy number with kimono sleeves, longer back, and a faced neckline with a broad shape.

I used the back neck piece from a previous make and sort of riffed from there. I made it about an inch wide and only dropped the front about an inch lower (not really low enough). All the other seams were straight lines, so it was dead easy to draft and fairly simple to construct other than the neckline.

I gave the shoulder a flat felled seam and just turned the seam allowance for the arm opening - the same idea as the side vent.

The lower edge of the garment is selvage (after a few times in the wash it did need some stitching but the edge is still raw).
In fact if you visualize that the lower hem is selvedge, you can see how I drafted it out of a yard. Shoulder to shoulder was 30" and the last six was used for the neck pieces. Fabric was 58" so neck area of front and back pieces meet in the middle during layout. It may break some grain rules but it's not really something that matters on a summer top in a solid colored plain weave.
If you have never worked with linen before I do recommend a cotton linen blend. Linens can be a really loose weave (in mid and bottomweights) but the cotton just brings it all together for a great everyday look and feel. So not only can you bleach it, you can steam iron the hell out of it and use copious amounts of starch. An excellent excuse to practice your precision ironing with various seam finishes and construction techniques. It's even easy to hand finish.
I do wear this shirt. It is not exactly the best shape for me in the rear but it's nothing a few contour darts can't solve. Something to try next time!

Jammies

I made my dad some pajama pants. He likes to sail hence the themed fabric. Oddly, the only other thing I've made my dad was a pair of pajamas (top and bottom in a ramie stripe).
I did a little creative hand stitching on the tag. I think it's really important to add some kind of hang tag to homemade garments for a couple of reasons. For one, simple garments like pajama pants look pretty much the same from the front and the back. Having a tag lets you know which side is the back. Secondly, horizontal hang tags and to a lesser extent vertical tags like the one shown allow you to hang the garment from a hook when you hop in the shower and so forth. Finally, I think it's a finishing touch that lets you add a tiny bit of personality.
It's funny, but I started making these pants last year. (You can see in the picture I used a really short stitch length. This is what I would have done a year ago - these days I'm loving long stitch lengths.) The poor little pants have been sitting in a box 9/10ths finished because I was frustrated by not having enough fabric. They came out a few inches too short. I finally pulled them out and decided to do a narrow hem and just... not care that they were a touch too short. I mean, no one wants to trip over their jammies, and people are usually barefoot when in nightwear anyway. It's better to have stitched and sent off than to have never finished at all.

How about that print?

Thematic tag.

Party Dress: Muslin Fitting

Today I put together my muslin (known elsewhere as a toile, which is funny, because each term refers to different types of cheap cotton). There was hardly any stitching besides stay stitching- just the center back seam, where the zipper resides. All the other seams are pin basted for the fitting.
I used a lot of pins, two complete sets. I don't know how many that is; over 100.
Pin fitting Butterick 5761:

Shapeless Sack

Pinned in at the waist

with belt

I have stopped waffling on the belt-over-corset idea, because this looks so cute and 50s!

In other news, I made cookies.

Chiffon Scarf: Left Handed Hand Rolled Hem Photos

hand hemmed chiffon scarf

I went to San Francisco recently to do some wedding shopping with my big sister. I insisted we visit Britex Fabrics. I bought a short length of Italian printed silk chiffon to make a scarf for my mother. Using the Coletterie tutorial, I have hand hemming a shot.

Begin with a machine stitched edge

Fix your work to hold it taut

Trim off the excess

Roll in the machine stitches and make a slip stitch: long

Short slip stitch opposite it

Loose stitching

Pull stitches taut

Rolled edge (wrong side)

Flat edge (right side)

Hand rolled hems in the wild: Hermes silk twill scarf right side

Hermes scarf wrong side

I am pretty pleased with how it came out (for a debut effort). I will share pictures of mum modelling it as soon as possible.

It didn't take too long and I would highly recommend trying it if you are a "scarf person!"

Edited to Add: of course I find this after finishing, but here's a video from Hermes showing a worker doing their hand-rolled hem. A few interesting notes: She pins the work to a fabric-covered weight, She uses paperclips to 'pin' her edge as she does a corner, it shows the corner process. You see her long needle, you see she snaps her thread in her hands which along with it's thickness and drape suggests it is cotton), she's wearing a thimble on her sewing hand (she's right handed). So definitely watch is video and do what she does.

Party Dress: So it Begins

Butterick 5761 view B (knee length dress)

I have dipped my toe in to the party dress project. Today I cut out the B5761 pattern pieces in some cheap, thrifted quilting cottons.One is the garish yellow I used for my first fitting shell, and the other is a flawed brown number. An explosion of hideous - I bet you can't wait for the fitting photos.
Within the next few days I'd like to start stitching the seams. These instructions have you do a test fit with wrong sides together so that's handy, because that's all this "muslin" is for anyway.

Party Dress in Silk Chiffon

My sister is getting married at the end of September. I will be her matron of honor. The bride will be wearing a short, full-skirted 1950s style dress in vivid pink.
I have decided to also go for a full skirted silhouette and have more or less decided to use a Butterick pattern of a plus size princess dress. I would need a petticoat to fill out the skirt. I am also considering adding sleeves.
I purchased a length of silk chiffon in palest yellow, printed with a jaunty collection of roses and fruits. I was able to go to Hi-Fashion Fabrics on a rare trip to Sacramento. I had a good time shopping.
Over the next three months I would like to complete this party outfit. There are many things to do.

• Make petticoat.
• Make muslin of party dress.
• Perfect the fit.
• Begin the lining.
• Begin the chiffon.
• Complete construction.
• Hem, make belt, hairpiece.

I am seriously considering underlining the yellow chiffon with a white chiffon. This adds a significant expense but I have the suspicion that it will significantly "fill out" the floaty chiffon effect.
Under normal circumstances I would solve this dilemma by going shopping and looking at a variety of high end silk clothing. Living in Chico, I have little faith that there will be much to look at. Maybe I should go downtown and to the mall and just look around.

Just Pics

Took a bunch of photos recently. The Rice Crispies were made in a jumbo muffin tin. These Peanut Butter Choc Chip Cookies came out really nice - I left out the cocoa so the peanut flavor could shine. This Chocolate Cake is from a Cooks Illustrated recipe. It was delicious with huge chocolate flavor.

Rice Crispy Treat

Peanut Butter Choc Chip Cookie

Chocolate Cake

Chocolate Cake Slice

Red Carpet Dress Disintegration

I love that these days I can see the latest formal styles being worn on the red carpet right away, in full color and zoomable, with commentary. Stars are much more polished these days compared to even the 1990s. Everyone looks perfect with makeup, coiffures, manicures, with perfectly coordinated shoes, bag, jewelry and most importantly a lovely designer dress. All kinds of actresses and hollywood women young and old, fat and spindly, wear lovely evening gowns to awards shows. I love it.What I don't love, what I am confused about, is why three times now I've noticed stars having major dress malfunctions. What's going on?

Sofia Vergara : Separated Zipper

Sofia Vergara: before

Sofia Vergara: Busted Zipper

Sofia Vergara's dress's zipper has failed. This dress is very fitted, and the seat is a stress point. Usually ease is added to the seat but this dress has been tailored perhaps too tightly, removing ease. (This fabric obviously has no stretch either.) If you must have a closure at a stress point, consider a more robust one, such as hooks and eyes or a metal zipper.


Julianne Hough : Ripped at Seams

Julianne Hough: Before

Julianne Hough: Ripped at Seams

This dress has ripped at the seams between the flat textured fabric and the charmeuse. Ostensibly the dress ripped due to vigorous dancing. The only way to avoid such a failure is to add design ease (or stretch), for movement. This dress appears to have been tailored too tightly, removing ease. When having a garment fitted, be sure to sit down, climb stairs, and if you're a vigorous dancer give that a try, too. Looking good standing still isn't worth it if you look like a goof when your seams fail.
This is an interesting example of the importance of stitch length. When choosing a stitch length, choose one long enough so when you stress the fabric, the stitches break rather than the fabric ripping. This is what happened to this dress, so it is repairable.

Jennifer Lawrence : Ripped or Weird Design?

Jennifer Lawrence: Before

Jennifer Lawrence: Exposed Thighs

I don't know who to believe on this dress. In the case that a seam has ripped, it is due to the same problem as Ms. Hough. The tailoring has been too tight, and the threads have ripped out due to lack of ease.
According to Dior the design is layered and the sheer panel is supposed to appear at the thigh. Apparently the actress was holding her dress up during her speech to cover her thighs. I guess designers and personal stylists having no clue what actual women do when they wear a dress. No one predicted this Ms. Lawrence would sit down, stand up, and climb stairs (an everyday activity done often at awards shows!) and expose her thighs to her own surprise. Prevent this by testing your dress during fittings to see if there are any design surprises.

I hope this series of "wardrobe malfunctions" playing out on Twitter, Instagram, and live on TV convinces stylists and designers to consider the importance of ease and of testing movements in a design. For people who sew or wear fancy dresses, consider carefully your stitch length, choice of closure, and amount of ease.

How to take a nice self-portrait

nice portrait, no photoshop

I don't have a glamorous lifestyle with lots of opportunity for candid portraits, so when I get bored with my profile picture, I shoot a new one. [I am not here to talk about how amazing I look in my new picture but I'm a good enough photographer and self-critic to know what looks good. I would have uploaded a no-makeup picture but they've all been deleted. Au naturale, I have uneven skin tone, acne, and unruly hair.]
Here is a quick tutorial on taking a quick seated self portrait.

Preproduction

Before we get started with the photography, take a minute to consider your grooming. Don't imagine you can photoshop flaws out later - it's easier and more honest to deal with your appearance before you shoot a frame.

• Attend to facial hair and blemishes, moisturize skin.
• Style hair (For me: wash, blow dry, flat iron, using setting cream and hair spray)
• Touch up the face: For most women, at a minimum use eyeliner, powder in the center of the face, and lipcolor to offset the effect of the powder. Men should apply clear balm to the lips and use blotting papers on shine. (For me: full makeup including foundation, blush, brozer, powder, eyeshadow, eyeliner, mascara, brow fill, and lip color.)
• Choose the right garment: a solid color is the safest bet. Don't clash with your background.
• Accessorize: the right earrings or coat will make you feel nice without being overdressed.

Setup: You will need

1. Digital camera with timer, flash, and tripod mount.
2. Tripod.
3. Plain background such as a curtain or unadorned wall.

Here is a diagram of how I set up my portraits. Men and people with thin faces may be satisfied with the camera at eye level rather than higher. Do not have the camera below your face.
Women look cuter when the camera is higher because it makes the male viewer think he's tall and masculine in comparison. Don't question the logic if you have any kind of double chin.
I shot these pictures inside on a rainy day; the only light source in these photos is on-camera flash. If you have found a nice wall outdoors you can certainly use the same setup but consider external light sources. The sun should be low or the sky overcast. All shadows on the subject and the wall must be considered.

Shooting

On most digital camera you are going to want to use two or three different setting tweaks to make this good. Take your time and shoot a lot of frames, stopping to check your framing, exposure, and expression. If your room is large you can move the camera back and zoom in. Take care to have excellent posture and experiment with different shoulder positions. Avoid the "mug shot" angle of facing the camera directly with face and shoulders.

The photo we're aiming for is a vertical or square portrait. The human face is generally a long oval so shoot with the camera positioned vertically.

Shoulders too square; Hunching

• Use an appropriately high quality picture setting
• Set the flash to "on," and decrease the intensity if necessary
• Use the timer (or a remote)
• Use the multiple-frame option, for more shots per pose
• Consider setting the manual focus to an appropriate distance.

flash too bright

Finishing

Crop the photos of extraneous background and torso. Crop before uploading or utilize the tools of your photo service: facebook, flickr, and many other websites allow you to rotate and crop.

arm's length portraits rarely have a clear background

If you have long hair it doesn't have to all be in the frame. If you background is long, include more torso if you'd like, but full length glamour shots are a different story altogether :)

I ran across this article on babble.com: 15 Women Photographers Share Their Self-Portraits and Photo Tips. Lots of examples of different poses and types of portraits.