Poetry and Clothing Project: October

The P&C project is now over half-way through and the garments I've been making for Harriet have started to reflect a nod to the colder weather. October's clothing side of the bargain comprised of two garments which could potentially be worn together as an outfit. The first is the Peter Pan collar leopard print top pictured above.

This is the first garment I've made for this project since June which actually started out as a different garment, rather than a flat piece of fabric, before I got my hands on it. This stretch fabric leopard print dress (pictured above and below) had a broken zip and had been returned to the famous high street shop that donates a lot of its seconds to the charity I work for. You would be correct in thinking that the fabric of this garment is totally up my street, and I must admit I did consider the possibility of resurrecting it for myself. However, it is a size 10 (and a very small one at that), and my dimensions most certainly aren't. I decided it would be a waste to hack it up just to harvest some fabric to use as contrast panels or something when I could use most of it by transforming it for Harriet instead who is a size or so smaller than me.

I started by carefully harvesting the Peter Pan collar before deconstructing the rest of the dress. Harriet is often smitten by a Peter Pan collar so I definately wanted that to still be the key feature of the final garment. Using a fairly fitted T-shirt block, I then re-cut the rest of the dress into a top by aligning the bottom edge of the pattern pieces with the existing dress hem. This meant the final top could be a bit larger than the tiny dress was initially.

I overlocked the centre back seam closed where the zip had been, then re-cut a back key-hole to allow for getting in and out of the final thing. I reattached the collar and stitched a little hook and eye closure. Bish bash bosh, job done.

The second garment is a full skirt with box pleats and a curved waistband. It is designed to sit snugly on the natural waistline and emphasise that part of the body. The fabric is charcoal suiting with a nice drape and slight stretch. I thought a plain coloured classic fabric like this would make the skirt more versatile for different occassions and easier to match with different tops.

This skirt design (the 'Camille'!) is one I developed for the range at work, and is sometimes available in various fabrics on the website here. I really enjoy making these Camille skirts because they look best when made in medium weight woven fabrics (my favourite to work with) and you can get a nice crisp finish to the garment if you use an iron to press each stage of construction.

I haven't made myself any of these skirts however, because my stupidly high natural waistline means the top of the skirt's waistband is basically touching my boobs! NOT a strong look. But is was a pleasure to make it for Harriet, and I've been informed it fits her perfectly and she's got heaps of wear from it so far. Can't ask for more than that!

So, enough of my garment-based warbling, 'Where's the poetry?! Damn it, that's what we've come here for', I hear you cry. Indeed. Today's poem, if you recall, is in reference to the slinky batwing jersey dress from September's installment if this project. It may interest you to know that Harriet teaches English in an international school in Spain.


September

The goat bells are ringing in a nearby field
one of the children looks up and smiles.
On the wall is a poster of similes
made by a Japanese boy who speaks next to no English.
By each simileis a picture
the last of them reads
It is as rough as a moth's wing
each word carefully unearthed from the dictionary
his face crumpled in disgust as he searches for
a picture of this creature he hates.
He probably still wonders how it is that gh
makes an f sound. I save it for later:
the question of how we defy phonetics -
how foggy and phoney our definitions can be.
The bells continue their ringing
(a vapid, unsatisfactory word)
and mingle with the slippery soft bat wings
against my arm and the side of my back.
Bat wings leave just enough room -
flexible, forgiving.
They hang the way that words ought to hang
brushing the skin gently
twisting the fibres of colour and sense.

'How To Be a Woman' by Caitlin Moran

I'm harbouring a substantial girl-crush at the moment. The focus of this crush is the British author and journalist Caitlin Moran (pronounced Catlin) whose recently published book, entitled 'How To Be a Woman', attracted a lot of media interest over the summer. The flippant synopsis of this book is that she 'rewrites The Female Eunuch from a bar stool and demands to know why pants are getting smaller'. Actually, it's a timely re-evaluation of feminism as it stands today for women who maybe haven't given Germaine Greer much thought since their teens. It highlights a whole wealth of modern day experiences that warrant investigation whilst being openly and revealingly autobiographical and intensely funny.

I've found that, since my age has a good solid 3 at the front of it, I've been thinking more and more about how women are expected to behave and function within our society and have been re-analysising my past and present experiences. I think that generally speaking, there is a loose assumption that feminism has 'won'; that today, women get an equal and fair shot and that anyone still harping on about the 'f' word is a bitter, sexually frustrated bint who can't be arsed to shave. But as Moran reveals, it can be argued that in some respects a lot of the ground women gained through previous waves of feminism has since been lost again, particularly since the 1990's.

For the record, I don't whole-heartedly agree with everything Moran writes, just as she disagreed with her idol Greer from time to time. But I do think that if you have any interest in how society works and basically calling bullshit on heaps of stuff that makes womens' lives more hassle and unpleasant that they need to be, then I'd recommend getting hold of a copy for some catharsis and a chuckle.

There is much more I'd like to say about this book, even though I'm currently only two thirds the way through. In particular, her section on fashion and clothing naturally caught my eye and I'd like to explore her comments further on this blog, but I'll do that another day. Right, I'm off to bed now for a read so Caitlin and I can have a giggle whilst getting pissy about some inequality.

Joe's Jumper Trousers

Right. It took a few months, but I'm now armed with detailed reviews on my lunch-hour baby trousers from the mums of baby Joe (pictured below) and baby Surayya. Overall, the feedback has been positive, and all those initial attempts have apparantly seen a fair bit of action which I'm pleased about.

It would appear that the overall size and volume make them suitable for easily up to six months (despite the two months as stated on the initial pattern). Sophie, baby Joe's mum, requested some extra length for future pairs so they can be rolled down when he's in his carrier so his legs are well covered, and rolled up when he's chillin' having reached his destination (see above).

I also received an order for four pairs as Christmas presents, including a larger size so have had to develop an eighteen month version as well. Basically, it's been baby-trouser-athon round these parts having made eight pairs last month.

My favourite pair, although arguably the dullest to look at, are the pair pictured above and below. These trousers started out life as a lightweight jumper belonging to my dad. He look a dislike to it for some reason so it got passed on to Patty. However, it was way too big for Patty (not that such a triviality would have prevented him continuing to go to work in it until I insisted he took it off and wore something else that actually looked like it belonged to him!). By that afternoon the jumper in question had become a new pair of Winter trousers for baby Joe. I lined up the bottom edge of the trouser pattern pieces with the bottom edge of the jumper so its ribbing would be included and I wouldn't have to bother finishing the hems of the final trousers.

Agh! He's so cute I have to keep looking away so my eyes don't start watering! What I loved about making this particular pair of baby trousers above the others is that it is directly making use of an unwanted garment that has gone down a small chain of owners, all of whom are very special to me. The jumper is now being enjoyed in its new incarnation, which reminds me a lot of the way women had to creatively reinterpret unwanted adult garments to clothe their children when clothing and fabric were scarce and being rationed during the Second World War, and no-doubt in many difficult times before and since the 1940's. Making a garment in a similar vein makes me feel connected to that tradition and the women before me to whom this was a regular activity. Using sewing skills in this 'old-fashioned' way, i.e. to make essential clothing that will be regularly worn increasingly inspires and appeals to me above making another pretty dress that may see two or three wears a year.

The Seamless Pledge and The Sound of 'So, Zo...'

I had the pleasure of e-meeting Elena Cresci when she participated in with one of the early Me-Made/Self-Stitched challenges to wear a self-created garment every day for a month. Aside from an interest in sewing and thifting, at that time we also shared the experience of being ex-pats as she was living in Germany and when I was in Spain. Well, now we are both firmly back on UK soil. Whilst currently studying for a postgraduate diploma in journalism in Cardiff, Elena is re-establishing her connection with her handmade and ethical life whilst making an interesting and significant contribution to those twin causes and communities.

''I want to explore the avenues outside of mass made clothing, whether that’s through sewing, knitting, trawling through charity shops, gawking at vintage wares or using good old eBay.''

Through her shiny-new and visually pleasing blog 'Seamless', Elena has created the Seamless Pledge to encourage others to join her in eschewing fast fashion in favour of handmade and thrifted clothing. The pledge-e is free to determine the length of time they wish to commit to the pledge and how they wish to clothe themselves for that period (self-stitched/knitted/up-cycled/thrifted/vintage/etc.). She has created a fantastically simple template for people to try and apply their convictions and interests over a period of time, the type of which has been missing from the online creative community since the Wardrobe Refashion pledge (RIP).

But before I over-complicate the situation with my explanation, let's just hear about it from the horse's mouth:



Speaking of horse's mouth, Elena interviewed me the other week for a blog post about my thoughts on sewing and sustainability, and the 'journey' to my current relationship with comsumerism and consumption. At the time I didn't realise that our telephone conversation would result in audio clips embedded into the resultant blog post, and although I have a near-pathological hatred of listening to recordings of my own voice, I have to say used in this context it's an effective device for getting points across. So head on over if you want to hear some of the content of that interview. And if you are signing up to the Seamless Pledge, good luck and enjoy!!!

School Boy Trousers

A few weeks ago, a tragic washing machine-based accident rendered my beloved black sailor trousers all shrunken, unwearable and basically dead. To be fair, they were getting really worn and faded from a lot of wear so I was ok about it. But the incident left me with only two pairs of trousers to my name (my denim sailor trousers and some secondhand Topshop black jeggings that had a rip that needed fixing to make them wearable). I spend about 80% or 90% of my time in trousers, particularly in Autumn/Winter and particularly at work, so I realised it was time to turn my attention away from making piles of baby trousers and make myself some damn trousers instead.

I carried the plan with me for a while, unsure of what direction to take. Then Ali's fantastic post chronicling her trouser-sewing endeavours not only gave me a kick up the butt by seeing all her effort, but it also reminded me that I, too, have the pattern pictured above! I'm a fan of the Built By Wendy/Simplicity patterns but had only got round to making one rushed project-fail from this pattern since I'd got it a few years ago. Time to have another bash.

I think the main thing that puts me off making lots of trousers, as Ali noted, is that it is so damn hard to achieve a successful fit without heaps of effort and toiles. And fly fronts, I avoid those like the plague usually. But the style of trouser from this pattern would look funny converted to a side zip, so I decided that if I was going to bite the bullet and make a fly front, I should at least make one toile (pictured above). Now, you rarely see pictured of toiles (muslins, mock-ups, etc.) on this blog, for two reasons: they aren't very interesting, AND I almost never make them anyway. So I've included the picture above as a testimonial to this rare occurrence.

I made a size 14, and thankfully my uncharacteristic toiling behaviour was rewarded as the overall fit came out really well. I made the toile without the pocket mouth so I could draw my own directly onto the toile where I liked it, from which I made my own pocket position pattern (why, I'm not entirely sure because the new one I created is more or less exactly the same as the pattern's original - I just can't leave things be!). From the toile I also decided to add a tiny bit of extra width to the thigh area, which I then removed again during construction when a mid-way fitting proved it unnecessary. Plus I added 1 cm extra to the front rise measurement.

I was super-intrigued to see how this pattern would look at the rear. I had my concerns because God (or whoever is responsible for these things) has been quite generous to me in that department, and the back pattern pieces have no back darts so I was concerned the shaping wouldn't be accommodating, but actually it looked fine.

As you may know, I try to sew exclusively from my stash, and this piece of synthetic blend grey stuff had been in there since I 'appropriated' it from a crappy clothing company job I had back in 2007. The fabric is pretty light weigth and really soft, and the synthetic quality means it doesn't really crease (win). I didn't quite have enough for the whole garment, so I've used some contrast floral cotton (Liberty I believe, if you happen to be one of those Liberty-print festishists) for the inside waistband and inside pocket bags. You can see the odd sneak of it when the pocket mouths crease open a bit, but I don't mind the odd flash of something being visible from the outside.

As for the finish, I have to say I created the kind of fly front that dreams are made of. Almost flawless. I bypassed the pattern's fly front instructions and instead followed the directions once given to me by a professional and incredibly experienced sample machinist. There's only one bit I don't understand in the notes I took, but I am unable to ask her to clarify as she worked at the same place I mentioned before where I got the fabric from back in 2007, and I no longer have any connection with that place. Anyways, I struggled to get a good pic so you'll have to trust me.

The overall fit is what I believe fashion lexicon would term 'boyfriend cut', by which I mean they are quite hipster-y and low slung. Though maybe not because the legs aren't particularly wide. I really like the fit of the legs actually, and the whole garment is really comfortable. Like, too comfortable. A couple of times during their maiden wearing, I panicked because it felt like I was still wearing my pyjamas! However, I don't think this will be a 'go-to' pattern for me. I may crack it open again in the Spring to make a capri version, but I probably won't make another long-legged version. I just don't think this style of trouser fits with my current style of dressing well enough that I would require more than one pair. But the main criteria of making a wearable, work-friendly pair of trousers has been fulfilled and the fact that they are actually comfy is a major bonus. I may even consider making another toile one day (though not any time soon!).

The Great Crochet Heist

So for ages now I've been planning on getting into crochet. In fact I had been declaring so to my boss repeatedly for months. At first she agreed with me as she also wanted to get back into it and got her mother-in-law to re-teach her the ropes. I, however, have been slower off the starting block.

I thought getting into crochet would be good for a few reasons. The main one being that I don't really have the ability to create knitwear for myself, and being that I don't buy new clothes, knitwear acquisition has been a problem for me for a few years as my old previously shop-bought knit items have slowly died and been decomissioned. A couple of years ago I got to grips with my overlocker and stretch and knit fabric bought on the roll and made myself a couple items (a cardigan and a jumper). But since then I have chosen to stop buying new fabric as well, so I've been trying to make knitwear by remaking and altering existing secondhand knitwear garments (like this, this and this) or sweatshirts (like this and this). For all other knitwear items I've been at the mercy of the charity shops.

But I thought that by learning to crochet (I'm not quite up to introducing knitting into my life) I'll be able to made some toasty-warm garments that have a different look and perform different wardrobe roles than my remakes currently are. I would be creating the very fabric of a creation too, rather than only a creation from fabric. Also, adding a new skill/activity to my life (other than sewing, drinking wine and planning adventures that I can't afford) might be fun. I thought it might an excellent Winter sofa-bound creative activity, or even one I could take to do elsewhere, maybe with friends.

The idea was to get super-good over the Winter, figure out how to get hold of secondhand wool so I don't have to compromise my 'not-buying-new-stuff' ethos, and eventually be cranking out incredible garments like the cardigan pictured above. So I procured some secondhand crochet hooks (thanks Mum and Sophie) in a variety of sizes. Next I guessed correctly that a knitting enthusiast would have a stash of unused wool akin to a sewer's stash of fabric, so cheekily asked my friend Michelle to flow me a ball or two to practice with before I launched myself in any further which she did willingly (thanks Michelle). I also joined Ravelry.com (which is where I found the cardigan pictured above), which I had heard on good authority was like a knitter's and crocheter's Burdastyle, to soak up some inspiration. Many of the creations on there are off the hook (pun intended). I also got hold of a print-out about different stitches from the Brighton Mini Maker Faire, which I have annoyingly temporarily mislaid.

Well, as you can imagine, all this garnering of items, inspiration and the like took a while. But just as I felt it was all falling into place, I came home one day to find that my exciting foray into crochet has been hijacked by Patty (Mr 'So, Zo...') before I've so much as made my first stitch! Can you BELIEVE the cheek of it?! I scarcely can. PLUS he's now developed an obsession for it: the kind of deep 'hours-slip-by-unnoticed' type of obsession that I believe men are far more susceptible to contracting than women (the latter being far more capable of participating in more than one activity at any one time). So, over the last week or so, whilst I've pottering around the living room doing some sewing and trying to discuss what we should have for dinner, Pat has been glued to Amigurumi pattern blogs and swearing at crochet-stitch You Tube videos for them to 'slow the f*^k down'. This is my new reality.

(Pictured above, Patty on a train journey coming back from London this weekend. In case you are wondering what is in his mouth, it's a safety pin that he had been using to hold his stitch, or something.) Don't get me wrong, I'm all for dudes getting involved in this kind of activity. I'm really happy that traditional gender stereotypes have not put him off developing a new skill and enjoying a new hobby. I'm also really glad that he is doing something that takes him away from a computer screen (some of the time). But what pisses me off is that A) I was really looking forward to becoming a crocheter and I feel that, now someone else in the room is already better than me, that there is an element of discovery tha now will not be there, and that B) I can now never find my thread cutters or wool needle (which I use for poking the loose tails of overlocking threads away to neaten my work). Oh, and C) he is making the wierdest, freakiest looking things you ever did see:

This thing spooks me out, especially when it stares at me with its little yellow eyes whilst I eat my breakfast.

Nautical Diner Dress!

Yep, I did it. I crossed the beams. I created a garment that references two of my main stylistic obsessions: 'nautical' and diner waitress uniforms. Can't you believe it?! I barely can! Basically, it's a faux-shirt dress with three functioning front buttons but also a concealed side zip so you can get in and out of it. The skirt is made from two gathered rectangles. The sleeves are my favourite kimono/dolman/grown-on variety. The collar has contrast anchor print fabric on the revere. So now you're acquainted, let me tell you the whole shebang.

I think the most important thing you should know about this project is that is was a total arse-on. I blogged about the pattern on which it was based (pictured below) back in October 2010 but didn't start doing anything with it until about June/July this year. I finished this dress just a few weeks ago. EXACTLY. Five months on one dress. Not five solid months, obviously (there have been many other projects that got done inbetween), but even my epic Winter coat project took less than two months, all told. I just hit a brick wall that only the accumulation of time could provide the motivation to get back in the saddle and finish it off. 'So, what happened?' I hear you ask....

The keen-eyed amongst you will have noticed that my dress has a full skirt, yet the pattern pictured above has not. I was all for the pencil skirt variety as illustrated, and thought it might be fun to play with the contrast nautical colours and make the skirt part from some blue drill that I'd had in my stash for years. However, the skirt for the pattern didn't use darts to create the shaping, instead it was gathered into the waist. I couldn't see how that would be particularly flattering as it would kind of be adding bulk, and anyway would be totally inappropriate to do in this thick-ish drill. So, I used the basic pencil skirt that I used when frankensteining together the pattern for my Summer Holiday dress. The original dress pattern also had a kind of fly front, which I tried to incorporate back into my new version, and only just had enough fabric to squeeze the pieces out. I got fairly far with the construction then decided to try it on. TOTAL. FAIL. I cannot find words to describe how terrible it was looking.

By putting the offending half-made garment on the dress stand, you can see that the whole balance of the waist is off. The front it much higher and slants down towards the back. So obviously the normal straight waistline of the pencil skirt I'd added to the bodice was being pulled up at the front and was just all kinds of wrong. I was so disappointed having put so much love and (wo)man-hours into the project by this point, I just bundled it up and shoved it away until I felt strong enough to attempt a resurrection.

Up until that point, the whole thing had been time consuming but was going pretty well. This pattern taught me how to do underarm gussets, in the same way (and at more or less the same time) as Karen tackled her own for her fabulous retro floral dress, the only differences being that I used some interfacing to secure the area on mine, and then I added some top-stitching. And uncharacteristically, I was actually into adopting this new fiddly method and expanding my sewing repertiore. The revere collar malarky was also a bit tricky to get nice and neat, but I took my time and was really pleased with the outcome. I hemmed the sleeves by applying satin red bias binding that I hand-stitched in place to get a super-clean edge finish. And then the aforementioned skirt drama struck and it took the wind out of my project-sails (no pun intended but welcomed!).

Eventually, after a fair few successful projects, I came back to this UFO. I unpicked the blue skirt and tried the bodice on with no skirt attached. I got my boss to mark on it an even and straight waistline, which I then recut as the new bottom edge of the bodice. Unfortunately that meant the waistline is a tad too high, even for me and I have a naturally very high waistline but that couldn't be helped. I then unpicked the side seam on the left side so a zip could be inserted. I snaffled some more of the red fabric (from an enormous roll at work) and made the full skirt, inserted the zip and hand-stitched the skirt hem: job done.

So, final analysis: overall I'm happy with it. The waistline is a tiny bit too hight, but that can be disguised fairly well by adding a belt. Adding the belt also helps to overcome the fact that it is too wide in the waist area. When I was cutting out the bodice pieces out, I added a bit extra to the side seams at the waist because my waist measurement was bigger than the measurement written on the envelope. The eventual largeness in the final garment's waist may be due to the fact that I've lost a few pounds after a horrendous stomach bug I had a few weeks ago (silver linings and all that...) or the newly-raised waistline sitting somewhere slightly different than intended, or because the fabric has a bit of stretch in it; I'm really not sure. But I'm sure as hell not going to do any more unpicking of this dress so cinching in the waist with a belt is what is going to happen. One more quibble is that the fabric is a bit itchy (which I should have known because it's the same fabric I used for the skirt of my Frida Kahlo dress) so I'll make sure to wear it with a vest and tights. My trial run on Saturday went ok, but when I teamed this dress with my Captain jacket, I looked very Japanese school girl! Ah well, you win some...