Category: FAQ

What’s with all the underwear?

I was chatting to a friend who reads my blog posts when they pop up on Facebook, and he wanted to know why I’d been making such a lot of underwear recently.

There are two reasons, really. When my latest work contract came to an end, I thought that making simple little knickers would be a good way of using up some of the smaller pieces in my fabric stash. This has turned out to be far more complicated than I’d thought (don’t things always?) because of my apparent inability to draft a knicker pattern that I actually like. Once I’ve got that part sorted out I’ll be good to go, but there’s going to be a lot of trial and error along the way.

This ties neatly into the other reason I wanted to make my own underwear – I can’t find anything that fits. In my goth clubbing days I used to wear corsets, but because I’m so short-waisted they didn’t fit properly. So I decided to make my own. The same goes for bras – despite being allegedly an “industry standard” size, it’s painfully apparent that there’s no such thing. I don’t think I’ve ever worn a bra that’s actually fitted me well and been comfortable.

But, despite my overwhelming desire to be comfortable, I don’t want to head into my forties in boring old underwear! And when I went window-shopping online to see what else was out there, I discovered that most people’s idea of glamorous underwear is either horrid thongs and scratchy lace, or vintage-inspired pieces based on shapewear. And to be honest, I’m not really interested in being squished into someone else’s idea of a mythical “ideal” shape – I’d much rather wear something that fits the shape I actually happen to be.

So, I’m trying to design some underwear that fills a few important criteria:

  • MUST be comfortable!
  • Preferably made from a natural fibre
  • Pretty and luxurious without being scratchy or squashy
  • Can be worn everyday, rather than saved for “best”

I’m nowhere near there yet, but that’s what I’m working on, and why!

how to be happy in business – venn diagram

I keep seeing this venn diagram popping up all over the place. It belongs to Bud Caddell, and accompanies an interesting post on how to be happy in business.

I ventured up into the loft the other day, to dig out some coat hangers to take the skirts and dresses down to Tiger Lilly. This necessitated rummaging through the three enormous laundry bags that contain the remains of my former business, “GothStuff”. (I made Stuff for Goths. It did exactly what it said on the tin!)

GothStuff started winding down in 2005. I’d spend much of that year in and out of hospital with my endometriosis (culminating with my appendix being taken out by mistake!), I’d started re-training as a massage therapist, and I wasn’t happy with what I was doing, so I decided to make some changes.

Since then I’ve done a bit of soap-making, a lot of custom dressmaking, made a bit of jewellery, taken a lot of photographs… but nothing’s been as successful as GothStuff was, and I’ve spent quite a lot of time wondering why. But when I went up into the loft the other day, the reason became obvious.

I simply haven’t put as much commitment into any project since.

Tucked away in the loft I have clothing rails, hangers, display boards, flyers, labels, business cards, price lists (including the one printed on a giant t-shirt!) and catalogues. I started GothStuff at the same time as working a full-time job, and I still managed to put in eight hours’ work a day. Paul very patiently drove me and a car full of clothing all over the country to go to festivals and run market stalls.

Admittedly I’ve continued to have problems with my health over the past few years, but honestly, that’s not a reason for having given up – it’s just an excuse. If I’d been truly committed to any of the projects I’ve tried, I would have worked as hard as I possibly could to try and make it a success. And much as it pains me to say this out loud, I simply haven’t done that. I’ve spent a lot of time hovering around the edges of “what I do well” and “what I can be paid to do”, and the sad truth is that it isn’t good enough.

Time to try harder.

Smocking workshop this weekend

Just a quick reminder that this weekend is my smocking workshop at the Museum of English Rural Life.

Today is the very last day that you can sign up – in fact you’ve got about an hour and a half left if you want to secure a place!

The course runs from 2:15-4:15 on both Saturday and Sunday, and you need to be able to attend both sessions. It costs £35, and you’ll be provided with all of the materials you need to make a smocked bag.

All abilities are welcome! Even if you’ve never sewn a stitch in your life, this is a simple project that you should be able to manage over the weekend. If you’re an experienced needleworker, then you can used more advanced techniques to produce an intricate design.

To book your place you can call 0118 378 8660, send an email to merlevents@reading.ac.uk, or fill in the online booking form.

This is why I write tutorials.

Pink Salamander's Bird Skirt

Pink Salamander made a skirt, using my Gathered Skirt Tutorial.
The bird fabric is from IKEA – isn’t it adorable?

You can read all about the project over on Burda Style.

British Cowgirl's Flower Brooches

Ariane had a go at the Flower Brooch Tutorial, and came up with these gorgeous creations.
Not having a huge stash of buttons, she got creative and gathered up a strip of fabric to make the centre of the flowers. Beautiful, and clever!

You can see how Ariane did it over at her LiveJournal, British Cowgirl.

This is why I like writing tutorials – because I get to see what comes back from them. All of my projects use the absolute simplest of techniques, but you can come up with such an amazing variety of results. As Ariane demonstrated with her flower brooches, it doesn’t even matter if you don’t have all the “right” materials! You can use your own imagination and ingenuity, to make exactly what you want.

That, for me, is what sewing’s all about.

If you want to, you can learn professional techniques and make astonishingly complicated things. But these simple projects show that even as a complete beginner, you can pick up a needle and thread and make something beautiful.

Head in the clouds.

Little fluffy clouds

I started working for myself for two reasons.

  1. I went to an event with a lot of independent traders, and came home thinking “I could do better than that”. And I did. For a while.
  2. I became frustratingly and unpredictably ill. Working for myself gave me the flexibility I needed to work as much as possible when I was well.

For a long time I’ve combined working at various part time jobs with working for myself. This gave me a convenient source of regular income, whilst also allowing me the time to work on my own projects and business ideas. In 2008 I became sufficiently ill (ironically thanks to the medications I was taking) that I could no longer reliably hold down a part time job, so since October 2008 I’ve been working entirely for myself.

My bank balance sadly reveals that I haven’t been making a very good job of it, and so I find myself in the position of looking for a job again.

Unfortunately, the down side of being a “magpie” is that I find it terribly difficult to stick to just one thing. When it comes to getting a job and staying with it, that’s a bit of a drawback in terms of finding something that isn’t going to bore me to death after a few months.

Since I left University I’ve taught myself to sew, to make alterations, to draft my own patterns, researched historical costume and learned to make corsets, studied the Pre-Raphaelites, learned how to use a digital SLR, taken up wildlife photography, learned to knit, written and published my own knitting patterns, taken life drawing classes, qualified as a professional massage therapist, designed, built and run an online shop, made jewellery using semi-precious gemstones, studied historical crafts, written sewing tutorials, volunteered to study 19th century smocks and signed up to give a workshop on smocking, made my own slippers, recycled pillowcases into tote bags, made my own soap, bubble bath and body lotion, taken up clog dancing, researched sustainable textiles and fashion production, started writing this blog, set up my own t-shirt printing business… and that’s just the stuff I can remember off the top of my head.

On the job front, I’ve designed and built websites using a number of different systems, trained other people to use them, written instructions and documentation, typeset, edited and proof-read all sorts of things, fitted and altered bridal dresses, worked in a library, and sold cosmetics, fabric and books.

The list of things I want to learn is as long as my arm (and growing by the minute), but the three things that are vying for my attention at the moment are training to become a qualified aromatherapist, learning to make my own shoes, and learning to make silver jewellery.

The problem with looking for a new job is that it’s very difficult to condense all of this into a coherent and appropriate CV! The other problem with looking for a job is that I don’t want one. Not a job in any conventional sense that I can think of anyway. The thought of having to pick one thing and stick to it seems completely ridiculous to me. How on earth would I choose what to do?

The primary skill that I bring to everything I’ve ever done is relentless enthusiasm.

I have a peculiar ability to be interested in just about anything – until I’ve understood it, figured out how it works, or learned how to do it for myself. After that I’m quite happy to move on to the next thing, whatever that might be.

Unfortunately, as far as I’ve been able to tell so far, that’s not a job.

I don’t need mountains of money. I’ve never aspired to be especially rich. But obviously I have bills to pay, so I need to earn some kind of a living.

So, I guess what I need to find out now, is how to get paid for being relentlessly enthusiastic about things.

Your suggestions are extremely welcome!

Making a CV for your “Right People”.

This week I got myself into a terrible state trying to write up my CV for the Museum of English Rural Life. One of the difficulties with being self-employed is that it’s often necessary to take part time or seasonal work, to make sure you have some form of income during those quiet patches. Unfortunately, when you put that on your CV it looks as though you’re forever chopping and changing jobs, and it can be difficult to explain what you do all day in your own business.

The standard format of two sides of A4 paper detailing your education, employment and interests just wasn’t suitable for the way that I’ve been working for the past eight years. I received an offer of help from an old school friend who is now a Recruitment and HR Consultant (thank you Facebook!), and she advised me to emphasise my skills rather than my employment history, and to relate those skills to the context of the position I was applying for. But I was still trying to do that on two sides of paper, and it just wasn’t right.

So I thought about Havi, and everything she says about finding your “Right People”. And I remembered that I have a degree in Graphic Communication. So, why not communicate my CV in a more graphic way? That’s when the penny dropped, and I decided that the proper format for my new CV was actually a magazine.

It’s just 3 sheets of A4, folded in half to make a little 12 page A5 booklet. That sounds like a lot of CV, but all the important information (contact details, qualifications, job history etc) is on the first two pages, so if anybody really doesn’t want to read beyond that, they don’t have to. Following on, each page has a big photo at the top, and a little paragraph of text underneath. Kind of like this blog.

In each section I’ve tried to make the subject link back to the kinds of work I would be interested in doing for/with the museum, so they can understand clearly what I can do. (Interest in craft & costume history, self-directed research, that kind of thing.)

I wouldn’t say that this was the ideal solution to applying for any creative job – there’s no point in being quirky just for the sake of it. In my case, everything I’ve written in the CV is condensed from something I’ve written about on this blog, so there was no need to try and talk myself up, or make my interests seem relevant – it’s all there already. The magazine format simply presents the information in a handy package, which should hopefully be memorable.

And if it’s memorable, then hopefully I’ll be remembered when they’re looking for someone to give a lecture or teach a workshop or do some research.

 

Speaking of which… I’m going to be teaching a workshop in smocking, in September!

Suffolk Puff (Yo Yo) Flower Brooch Tutorial

Flower Brooch Tutorial

This is what I’ve been up to today – making an enormous flower brooch using suffolk puff (yo yo) techniques.

I’ve written up a tutorial for you, if you’d like to make your own!

Just so’s you know…

All of the entries prior to this one were imported from my two LiveJournals – Design By Claire and Eternal Magpie.

I’m keeping the Eternal Magpie Livejournal, as I’ll be using it to participate in a number of communities there, but I’ll try and keep duplication to a minimum.

Doing My Homework.

Last week I received an email from Kirsty, who’s studying Fashion and Textile Technology. She asked whether I would mind answering some questions about using recycled textiles, for a project that she’s doing.

here are her questions, and my answers…

1. Where do you source your fabrics from?

For recycled fabrics I usually go to Ebay, and to my local charity shops. I look for any large piece of fabric with a nice print, that I could imagine being worn as clothing.

2. What kind of fabrics do you use?

I use cottons and poly-cotton blends, almost exclusively. Usually I buy these in the form of bedlinen, such as sheets and duvet covers. Sometimes I will choose old curtains, if I think that the fabric can be washed, and will stand up well to being worn as an item of clothing.

3. What methods do you use to:
a. clean

I always wash any used fabrics before I start to work with them. I do this by simply washing them in my own washing machine. Whoever buys the resulting garments is probably going to wash them in this way, so I need to know that the fabric can survive, and isn’t going to fray, shrink or fade.

b. prepare

Once the fabric is clean and dry, I inspect it thoroughly for any worn parts, and any holes or marks. Sometimes small holes can be mended, or covered with embroidery or other decorative work. Any dirty marks which can’t be removed must be worked around. I don’t use any area of the fabric which I feel is too distressed to stand up to being worn as clothing.

c. plan

Usually the type of fabric and the print will dictate what sort of item it will be reconstructed into. A small print, for example, could be used for a skirt or a top. A larger print might be better for a bag, or the back of a jacket. Plain fabrics can make more subtle garments, or be used as linings.

d. construct your designs ?

Everything I make is designed, cut out and sewn together by hand. I make everything myself, nothing is outsourced. I use new sewing threads, zips and other fasteners, as I then feel that I can guarantee that the garment will last a long time.

4. Why have you chosen to use recycled fabrics over new fabrics?

I have chosen to use recycled fabrics because I think it is a resource which is often overlooked. The textile industry is enormous, and we are being encouraged as consumers to buy cheap garments, change our trends every few months, and to treat fashion as something transient. As a result there is a great deal of waste fabric generated, which can easily be used in different ways.

I do use some new fabrics, but I am trying very hard to buy responsibly, and to only buy new fabrics which are organically produced or fairly traded – preferably both.

5. What has the public reaction been and how commercially viable do you think recycled production is?

The public reaction so far (from my personal experience) has been somewhat confused!
An enormous number of people don’t see the point of spending money on a recycled garment, which they perceive as “used”, when they could go down to their local high street shops and pick up something brand new for a very low price. So much of modern fashion is cheap and disposable that It seems difficult for people to understand that recycled garments can be of good quality, and long-lasting. Even if the original fabric used to be something else, what could be more luxurious than having a garment hand-made especially for you?

I think that recycled production can only ever be commercially viable on a small scale. To produce recycled garments industrially, there would need to be an enormously large availability of recycled fabrics. The raw materials would still have to be collected, cleaned, inspected and deconstructed before any new production could begin. These processes can be very time consuming and labour-intensive, and so it becomes more commercially viable to produce your fabrics from scratch. This is why I believe that it is very important to encourage the textile industry to manufacture in a sustainable and environmentally friendly manner.

Having said that, there are ways in which technology and recycling can work together to create new fabrics. Polar fleece, for example, is made by recycling plastic drinking bottles. New cotton yarns can also be made from industrial waste such as fabric offcuts and used clothing, and then woven into new fabrics. Worn out cotton fabric is often recycled into paper products. With a bit of lateral thinking, I believe that a lot more could be made from products which are currently treated as waste. The success of this approach from an environmental point of view will at least partly depend on whether the energy required to recycle a product is going to be greater than that consumed by making it from raw materials.

Maybe I should think about adding something like this to the website. I found it really interesting to be forced to think about why I’ve made some of my decisions regarding my fabric choices, and explaining things to someone else really helped to clarify things in my own mind.