Month: April 2015

Making Do and Mending

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Well, isn’t this irritating? One freshly-dyed white t-shirt (Dylon Rosewood Red, not as lurid as it appears in these photos!) complete with stain that, annoyingly, wasn’t visible when the t-shirt was white. Now that the t-shirt’s dyed I can’t use a stain-removal product or scrub at the fabric, as that will most likely take off the dye as well as the stain. My only option now is to cover it up with something.

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That’s better! A bit out of focus, but these are floral motifs carefully snipped from a small piece of Lancaster & Cornish organic cotton lace. I’m hoping there might be just enough loose dye still in the fabric that a little bit of it leaches out into the lace the next time it’s washed, just to soften the cream colour a little bit. But if that doesn’t happen, no worries, because the cream lace makes the white stitching on the t-shirt look as bit more as though it’s supposed to be white on purpose.

Knowing that the stitching wouldn’t take the dye was the main reason I chose the colours I did for dyeing my trousers – beige to dark brown, and pale blue to dark grey. With the contrast stitching they just look like smart, lightweight jeans. I also have plans for mending all of my funny-coloured trousers in the future. I’m on the look-out for small pieces of Liberty print fabrics that I can use for patching, and maybe for adding a hint-of-a-print on the turn-ups. Hopefully that will be a long way off yet though!

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While I was mending things, I made the decision to take two of my most beloved t-shirts out of my wardrobe. This Suzanne Vega t-shirt is from the very first gig I ever went to – at the Wulfrun Civic Hall in Wolverhampton, on April 8th 1993. (We were sitting three rows from the back, and Suzanne Vega had a cough.) Having been worn pretty often over the past 22 years, although recently relegated to hospital wear or pyjamas only, it’s safe to say that this t-shirt is very much past its best! But there was no way on earth I was going to throw it out, and it’s really not fit to give to a charity shop, so it was the work of about five minutes to turn it into a cushion. The tour dates are on the back.

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The same fate befell my other favourite t-shirt, also purchased in 1993, this time from Forbidden Plant in Hanley. I didn’t own any other green clothes, and it was far too big for me (being a men’s size XL), but I just had to have it. It saw me through art college and University, but again, it’s not even really fit to wear as pyjamas any more. But, because it was still in my wardrobe, it kept mysteriously finding its way out and onto my body. Drastic measures clearly had to be taken. So, cushion it is.

(No, I don’t iron my bedding. Sorry, Mum!)

Making these two cushions from my favourite t-shirts has made me wonder though – are there any items in my current wardrobe that I can imagine myself still wanting to keep in 22 years’ time?!

Wardrobe Analysis – Part Two

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Look at that! Progress is being made! No longer a mountainous heap, but nice tidy stacks, all colour-co-ordinated. At the top there you can see a Dylon colour chart. Once I’d sorted everything out according to which tops went with which colour of chinos, it was very easy to see where the gaps were. Dyeing the pale blue trousers dark grey will mean they go with almost all of my existing tops, and stand a lot more chance of actually being worn! And dyeing the beige pair dark brown means I can throw out an ancient pair of cord trousers that my sister gave to me years ago. I bought the dye this morning, along with a (hopefully nice) “Rosewood Red” packet. I’ll use that to dye my cream yoga pants (which also never get worn), and a t-shirt to go with the new brown trousers. The boxes of dye cost about £6 each, and whilst it does feel a bit weird to completely alter two pairs of brand new trousers (I usually only over-dye worn out jeans), it’ll make a huge difference to my wardrobe.

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The wardrobe, which now looks like this! Well, almost like this. I did a bit of a swap, and all of Paul’s t-shirts are all now on plastic hangers, so I could put all of my clothes on wooden ones. I think they’re much nicer and Paul doesn’t care, so that worked out nicely!

The top rail is now organised by colour. Each pair of chinos is accompanied by its matching shirts and t-shirts on those multiple-hanger-thingybobs. They keep each group together and save so much space in the wardrobe, so that’s a win-win! The bottom rail has all of my “neutral” tops – black, white and grey shirts, t-shirts and all those H&M jumpers.

On the right, the top two cubbyholes are things I don’t wear for work. T-shirts with cartoons on them, and jumpers that are comfortable rather than smart. The cubbyhole with all the extra space in it is for yoga pants and leggings. That’s a section that needs adding to, I think.

And in the bottom square, jumpers that I can wear for work, including two chunky cardigans that I was going to unravel because they didn’t go with anything. (The green one, and the pink & orange.) I’m very glad I didn’t take them apart now! That section actually needs adding to as well. The sooner I can finish knitting my yellow cardigan the better – it turns out to go with almost all of the trousers, which is quite exciting as I would never have considered yellow to be a neutral colour before! I also have a bag full of grey wool, and some lovely Rowan Colourscape that should go with several pairs of trousers as well.

Of course, this is only half of my wardrobe… the non-work section’s going to be a different challenge, I think.

Oh, and I should also mention, the thing that got me started on all of this (aside of being incapable of making a decision at seven o’clock in the morning) was reading Coletterie’s Wardrobe Architect series. It’s a little more in depth than I needed, but it’s an interesting read, and should be a real help to anybody else who’s struggling with what to wear!

Wardrobe Analysis – Part One

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This frankly ridiculous pile of STUFF is the entire contents of my wardrobe.

(Well, except for the formal dresses for choir concerts. And the costumes. And the sports kit. And the pyjamas. And the band t-shirts that are too ancient to wear but must never be thrown away. Apart from that, it’s everything.)

I’ve been struggling with insomnia again, which means that today is one of those days where I can’t be trusted with a sewing machine, and I’m too frazzled to think about my Aromatherapy homework. So, given my recent smart-versus-casual crisis, I thought I’d take the opportunity to have a really in-depth look at all of my clothes and see what’s going on.

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Armed with a pen and paper, and then with Excel, I ended up with this inventory. (No, you’re not supposed to be able to read it. Yes, I do have seven pairs of bloomers. Shush.)

Everything with a white background is an item that I’ve made myself, or that my Mum has knitted for me. Everything in grey is something that came from a high street store, before I stopped buying my clothes that way. Everything in green is something that I bought from a store, but is either organic or ethically produced. The yellow items are second-hand. It surprised me that there were so few of those, as I used to buy a lot of things from charity shops!

To be honest, the proportion of things-made versus things-bought is actually better than I expected it to be. But, you can see that there are a few key areas where I need to make some quite drastic improvements. A few years ago a number of the jumpers that my Mum had knitted for me (way back in the 1990s!) sadly reached the end of their useful life. I still needed something to wear for work, and I know I’m a slow knitter, so I bought half a dozen “emergency” cotton jumpers from H&M.

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I know I bought them long before the appalling accident at the Bangladesh factory where all of these jumpers were probably made. But seeing these labels in my wardrobe, and knowing that my money went straight into the profits of a company who value their worldwide workers so little, makes me feel more than a little bit sick.

The worst of it is, I haven’t even stopped shopping there! I don’t buy things for myself any more, but their children’s clothes are so lovely, and so affordable, and they have such pretty little things for my niece… but I’m going to have to stop that. I’m not a very militant campaigner, but I do what I can with the little money I have, and I can definitely stop doing this.

There’s no point in sending these things straight down to the nearest charity shop though, even if I do feel bad every time I look at those labels. The jumpers in question are actually some of the most-worn items in my wardrobe, and I haven’t even started knitting a plain black jumper and cardigan to replace them. So they can stay for now, as a reminder that I can, and must, do better when I buy.

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These three pieces are waiting to be finished or altered before they can go into the wardrobe. The yellow blouse needs the hem and side slits finishing, and the buttons and buttonholes. The blue dress (covered in BEES!) needs the front placket sorting out, and the buttons and buttonholes. The broderie anglais dress came out looking too much like a nightie, so that’s awaiting the fate of being chopped in half and turned into a pretty layering tunic for the summer.

I was surprised there were so few unfinished pieces, to be honest, given how easily I get distracted. The blue dress has only been waiting for its buttons since, ooh, last May, or maybe June.

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Now my next problem (aside from how I’m going to get into bed tonight, if all my clothes are on the bedroom floor!) is how on earth to decide what I should keep, what I should take to a charity shop, and what gaps I need to fill in order to have Actual Outfits rather than just All The Clothes.

I’m going to start with all of my brightly-coloured trousers, I think. I do have organic cotton long-sleeved t-shirts to go with almost all of them now, although there are a couple of pairs I’m thinking about dyeing a different colour. Pale blue? Beige? They’re going to be ruined in three seconds flat! And my cream yoga pants are virtually unworn, for the same reason, so I might as well dye those too. If I can match them up with tops I have already, so much the better!

But hopefully, by the end of this process, I’ll have a much clearer idea of what I can wear on a daily basis, without looking into my over-stuffed wardrobe, having a great big panic, and pulling on the same old jeans and t-shirt because they don’t need thinking about.

(Although, having said all of this, the temptation to follow the example of Matilda Kahl and just buy multiples of the same outfit is currently extremely tempting!)

Hats, Shoes and Dolls.

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I mentioned, back in my New Year post, that my One Word for 2015 was going to be “focus”.

I also mentioned that the three things I wanted to focus on were HATS, SHOES and DOLLS.

So, as you do, I promptly took a three-month sabbatical from making hats.

Although this might seem counter-intuitive, it actually gave me time to think about how the hats had been received at the wedding fair in January (nowhere near as well as they were at the Christmas craft market), and start to gather some extremely useful feedback. As a result, I’m having a bit of a re-think about the styles of hats I want to make.

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This is the first experiment off the blocks (well, actually, off an old biscuit tin!), and I have to say that I’m quite pleased with it so far. It’s a small top hat, about 10cm in diameter, and about the same high. The brim was blocked flat and then hand shaped and wired, and finished with bias binding. The embellishments are some felt “tentacles” I made a while ago, and you can see that I’ve started to add a few sparkly Swarovski crystals, which I love against the matt felt. This particular one won’t be for sale, as it’s part of an outfit that you’ll have seen a sneaky glimpse of if you follow me on Instagram. All will be revealed when it’s complete!

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As far as shoes go, a plan is currently in the works! These are a few cotton pairs that I made back in 2011, but decided not to take any further. This time I’m changing both the materials and the method, and I have a few people signed up to do some wear testing of a batch of prototype wool felt shoes.

They will be shoes, not slippers, as they’ll have a durable rubber sole that can be worn outside. They’ll need the same sort of treatment as any fabric summer shoes, although I think the wool will be fairly robust. If they turn out well, I have other fabrics in mind. Harris Tweed, anyone? Silk, for weddings? We’ll see. Fingers crossed that the prototypes turn out well!

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As for the dolls… well, they’re firmly stuck in my imagination at the moment. They were going to live over at Mr & Mrs Magpie’s Inexplicable Emporium, but I simply haven’t had the time or the energy to do anything other than think about them. Olaf hasn’t even been tweeting very often.

I know exactly what the characters all look like, and I know how I want the dolls to turn out… but the gap between my current skills and the finished dolls seems impassable right now.

For the moment I’m concentrating on the new top hats, plus my favourite shape of close-fitting cloche. I’m ordering the materials for the shoes this week, so I can start to get those into production as soon as the felt arrives. But after that, and my Proper Job, and my Aromatherapy distance learning course, I think the dolls might just have to wait for a little while.

I’m sure they’ll demand to be made when they’re ready.

Smart Casual

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I work in a museum where the dress code is “smart casual”. For many of the staff, this most often means jeans, converse, and a nice top of some description. Maybe a White Stuff or Boden dress. For the visitor services desk (where I work), it means probably not jeans, and primarily Something Warm. The museum’s temperature controlled, to look after the objects, and of course the front door’s opening all the time, so it’s largely freezing. As someone who’s pretty much always largely freezing myself, this has been presenting some sartorial challenges lately. There have been days where, despite the heater nestled under the desk, I simply haven’t taken my coat off, which doesn’t look terribly smart! (Normal rules don’t apply when you’re in the museum’s garden, holding a chicken. Obviously. I love my job.)

10414450_10153106962778829_244072257356306818_nTo try and overcome my chilliness I have been knitting a cardigan… but I’m a very slow knitter, and I’m still only a back and half a sleeve into this one. Once I get into the cables, it could be a fair while before this cardi sees the light of day. Sewing, of course is much quicker, so I’ve been on the lookout for a nice smart jacket pattern that I could whip up in lots of colours to match all my different trousers.

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This is Vogue 1435, a very smart suit by Tom & Linda Platt. I’ll never wear the dress (not least because I can no longer reach behind myself to do up a back zip – stupid fibromyalgia), but the draped jacket looks as though it would be interesting to sew, and easy to wear like a cardigan over lots of different tops. The collar would keep the back of my neck warm, and it wouldn’t look as though I’ve left my outdoor coat on indoors. The pattern recommends both tweed and linen, so that’s summer and winter covered right there!

I’ve been waiting for a pattern sale to come along, because Vogue patterns at full price are out of my budget, so I almost always buy them in a sale. Except I obviously wasn’t paying enough attention, because the sale in my local fabric shop ended yesterday. Drat.

But!

The pattern sale also means new patterns, and Marcy Tilton blogged about two new dresses that she’s designed for Vogue, so I had to go and check them out.

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This is Vogue 9112, the “cirque” dress. It looks a bit short because the model’s extremely tall, but a centre back length of 35″ should bring it just about down to my knees. Again, the big collar should keep the back of my neck warm, the loose shape makes it perfect for wearing over trousers, and of course it has the all-important pockets, tucked away in the side seams. Unusually, this dress is shown in only one fabric, but I think the piecing means it would work well in different colours. As with all of Marcy’s patterns, the construction is a bit of a jigsaw puzzle, but the resulting shape makes it worth the extra little bit of brain power required.

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This one’s Vogue 9108, the “apron” dress. Designed as a layering piece, it comes complete with patterns for leggings and a long-sleeved t-shirt to wear underneath. Like several of Marcy’s dresses it’s longer at the front than the back, though I think that could be easily altered on this one if you felt like it. It’s designed for stretch knits, so this would be an extremely comfortable summer dress. (There’s also a version with crossover straps at the back, which reminds me of a dress I wore constantly during the early 1990s.)

But!

I’ve made two Marcy Tilton dresses already, and I simply don’t wear them very much.

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I blogged about the construction of Vogue 8975, but I haven’t worn the resulting dress more than a few times, even though it’s extremely comfortable and I really like it. Firstly, I think I made a mistake with the neckline because no matter how much I iron it, it simply refuses to stay flat. Very irritating. So I think I need to unpick that and do it again. Secondly, I’m just not quite convinced that it’s smart enough to wear to work. I have done, and nobody’s complained… but it’s not quite on a par with the Tom & Linda Platt lady in her nice swingy jacket, is it?

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I made this one in January 2014, and despite being deeply in love with it, I don’t think I’ve worn it once. Okay, so the tea-dyed fabric was an experiment, and I like the way it looks, but honestly, I can’t go to work in a dress covered in (albeit deliberate) tea stains, no matter how comfortable it is. And given the colour, and the smocking, and the nature of the museum… it’s just going to look as though I’ve borrowed a 19th century smock straight out of the collection. Not ideal.

I could re-make it in a different fabric (I have plenty, and I had lots of ideas and enthusiasm once I’d finished making it!), but at the end of the day, will I ever actually put on the resulting dress and wear it? I don’t know.

I go through these phases every now and then, of deciding that I must dress more smartly for work. Sometimes it’s brogues and button-down shirts. Sometimes it’s a nice tweed jacket. Sometimes it’s vintage dresses, novelty print blouses, or lots of organic cotton chinos.

Is it time to grow up, smarten up, and become the sort of woman who wears a smart jacket to work? Or is it time to embrace my inherent need for comfort and desire for funny-shaped clothes, and just give in to the eccentric middle-aged art teacher look? And more to the point, how on earth do I decide?