Conflict!

I don’t like conflict, so watching the political debates makes me itchy.  Thus:

Tonight’s Presidential Debate:  Sashiko coaster project.  Coaster 1, sashikoed.

Last week’s VP Debate:  Turtleneck completed on the Rob sweater.  Now onto sleeves.  Next Monday?

Whew.  By election day, I could have a whole new wardrobe at this rate!

Stymied

Do you all get like this?

I have supplies for dozens of projects.  I’m, in fact, in the middle of THREE and just got new stuff for several more.

And yet somehow I am overwhelmed by all the options to the point of doing nothing.

To be fair, I’ve been cooking and I rarely do that.  Homemade, low FODMAP chicken stock made this week and today I made something I’ll call Quinoa Surprise which sounds scary but was rather tasty (and not very photogenic so I’ll spare you).

But in terms of crafting – Very strange.  For now, I’m off to read a book and hopefully will have some clarity before Thursday.  A weekend away is coming up and I’m going to be left with ‘TV’ as entertainment if I don’t sort something out soon.  Yikes!

Thoughts: Overdressed (book)

This week was Yom Kippur so, not a lot of crafting, rather a lot of reading.  My book: Overdressed:  The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion.

Cline’s book is a quick read and seriously thought provoking.  My mind was sent on many tangents and I’m still thinking over many points.  Overall, she covers the progression of the fashion industry over time, touching on its early years but focusing mainly on the past 20 and the advent of ‘fast fashion’.  Until about 15 years ago, stores would have several seasonal changes; now, stores like H&M, Target and Forever 21 introduce new clothes almost weekly and for crazy cheap.  How do they do that?  How does the manufacturing work?  How does the design work?  What about quality?  That’s what this book is about.

Click the link above for the full gist of the book but my scattered thoughts about the book are as follows:

1)  A lot of this book was a big affirmation of things I suspected were going on – to wit, quality of clothing, including midline-to-more-expensive clothing is absolutely in the crapper.  I still marvel at the crappy quality of my ordered-online North Face $250 winter coat.  I can sew better than this.  Threads hanging off, feathers coming out*.  And it’s not even that warm.  Made in China with a big pay out to the folks at North Face. The loser in all this?  Me.  Why bother buying anything ‘nice’ anymore when you can get the equivalent for $30 at Daffy’s?  That’s a big issue right there.

2)  I am tired of buying unlined stuff, especially ‘nicer’ pants.  Also – mid price range wool?  Largely gone.  It’s all wool/poly because it’s cheap.  Cline makes the point that you won’t find french seams or really any nice seaming done anymore because it takes time.  There’s no room to let anything out and sergers reign supreme sometimes where they really shouldn’t.  Interesting.

3)  The environmental cost of creating so many disposable garments (they fall apart as they are made so cheaply) as well as using so many plastic based fabrics is pretty monumental.

4) It would not – and should not – cost the consumer ANY more for the products to be made by people making a sustainable wage.  The companies moved from U.S. manufacturing to save money and have saved SO much and yet – despite all their ‘sustainability’ and ‘ethics’ – most companies are not paying their workers enough to feed themselves much less house or clothe themselves.  It’s really disgusting.

5) I can’t imagine China calling the U.S. on its debt anytime soon because if we were to stop buying from them due to not being able to service our debt at all, their economy would tank itself.

6) Donating to Good Will and thinking someone needs your worn out clothing (which most of recently made clothing IS worn out beyond re-wear as it’s been made so cheaply) is a pipe dream.  A huge portion is deemed unusable and is landfilled.  Own that. Ouch.

I’m not sure what the answer is.  But it did make me WANT to own nicer clothing which sounds almost impossible to find unless you go VERY expensive or handmade.  But still – clothing that is handled with care, that fits me and that is nicely made would be fantastic. Which mostly means I’ll be making it myself.  Cline says thrift is getting harder – most stuff is now worn out H&M, etc. which wasn’t designed to last more than a few wearings to begin with.

Which brings me to:

7)  Are we on the right track?  Am I?  Looking in the mirror, I am an acquirer, an accumulator of stash and stuff.  Stuff I may never use.  Waste.  My 350 sq. ft. apartment limits me but it is like any abode – a fishbowl that fills up with stuff to fill the space one has.  Look at any popular blog out there and that blogger is likely cranking out an outfit per week, a quilt per week, something volume-y per week.  It begs the question.  Do we WANT to live this way?  I mean, yes, it is satisfying to produce and complete projects but to what end?   At what point are we just creating things that we never fully use?  Don’t we and our planet deserve better?  Would we all be better slowing down and making a few things – *needed* things with exquisite care and then reveling in those things and not immediately moving on to the *next* thing?

This is sort of a vague review but suffice it to say, this book IS thought provoking and I give it a strong rec.  If you DO read, please give me your thoughts.  I have read so many interesting reviews of the book – everyone seems effected in a different way by it.  In that regard, Cline has done a bang up job.  If it were me, I couldn’t have asked for anything more!

* I actually MAILED the coat back to North Face for fixing; they sent it back (with the threads STILL hanging off it) and said they saw nothing wrong with the quality.  ’Nuff said.

Prezzie!

Look who got a shipping box full of YUM today:

 

New Crewel book, some very high end Belgian linen twill and a starter selection of crewel hanks.  Can’t wait to endulge!

For now, off to Temple, with New Crewel for subway reading.  For those who participate in Yom Kippur, have a good fast.  For all, see you on the other side of HiHos.

This Week in Stashbusting…

HiHos Hat – Finished!

While it IS finished, I tell you right now, this hat is getting ripped out. Seeing it on, I just do not like this hat style at all. Too wide, too boring? Regardless, too big. Ultimately: Too. The wool is fantastic, though, and I do want a hat to match my sweater so I’m now considering replacement styles: Possibles:

  

Links to above patterns:

Left: Chunky Slouch Hat

Center: Drops Crochet Pompom Hat

Right: Knitted Drops hat

Also tempting – remake the Drops Giant PomPom Hat. I made this two years ago with very pretty, cheap and sadly – as it turned out – OMG so itchy wool. Totally a drag. I do love the style of the hat though so it’s tempting to make it again here. Considerations:

• The matching sweater is knit in two strands/two colors at once. The hat pattern uses two strands for the edge but one for the body of the hat. The hat is already very heavy from the pompom so I’m disinclined to just use double yarn throughout.  My thought is wait until the sweater is done and if there’s enough blue leftover do the edge and pompom in both colors but the body of that hat in blue.
• Do I want to make this hat again? I’ve already made it twice.  Let’s reflect on this with a visual.

Not really fair to influence my decision with this picture. He could sell anything .

In any event, I’m totally on the fence with it all. I’ll keep you posted which way I go.

Skirt – Slowly but Surely….

After getting some helpful advice off the folks at Pattern Review, I decided to resize this slightly differently than originally planned. I did take the extra fabric near the waist out of the back piece but only to the hippoint and then went to 2″ off each side of front and back from hip to hem. Friday night was rebasting to do a check (worked) and then cutting it down and doing a final sew and finish.  Looking at photos, it seems to be pulling forward a bit but I’m letting this go on this skirt.  I think it will look fine enough in the end.  Photos of where it is now:

Good enough.  Also, it’s amazing what two different locations can do to the color!  I’d say the top is more true to reality.   I’ll post more pictures as it gets done.

Embroidery!

I’m totally hooked on embroidery after doing those pillowcases. Taking the ribbon class just added fuel to the fire. I spent a couple nights this week learning some new silk stitches and doing, yes, more embroidery stash building – ack! We’ll get to that in a second. First the fruits of my labors:

These stitches are out of Ribbon Embroidery – Basic and Decorative Stitches by Yukiko Ogura, Ribbon Embroidery by Natalie Bellanger-Clement and Martha Stewart’s Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Craft (only four stitches here – this is NOT your resource for ribbon but nice they included a few for good measure). I will say that my experience with this so far is folks are ‘very particular’ about how to do it (for good reason re: certain things) but ultimately, anything goes. We learned a very specific technique at City Quilter which I liked but which didn’t show up in either of the other two resources – granted, hardly a big scale survey. I did all the stitches from the handouts from class (several stitches from the Yukiko Ogura book which is sadly out of print) and then moved onto the Bellanger-Clement book which I bought at that time to practice at home. While I believe the Bellanger-Clement book is technically for ‘any level’ including beginner, it has, to me, incredibly confusing instruction. If I didn’t know how to embroider already, I think I’d be completely frustrated. She continually uses A and B within the same stitch to describe different moves. I find it very confusing. And the written instructions don’t really help either. I suspect this book wasn’t originally in English (although neither was the Yukiko Ogura book which has amazing explanations and diagrams). It’s a drag because the book is so visually appealing and has some great stuff in it. I’m going to soldier on with it since it’s all I have on hand at the moment but I expect to be frustrated. Not the best way to craft! Note to family: Finding that Ogura book (used – a libris?) would be a great Xmas gift. I’m just saying .

Stashbuilding (again)!

In addition to a few online purchases which I’ll talk about when I can show them, I did fill out my embroidery supplies a bit this week with a trip to the Garment District.

It started with some (not pictured) soft, solid white pillowcases from Jack’s discount store – $4.  I thought I’d try some  embroidery down the edges. Next came a stop at Daytona Trimmings for embroidery thread as, despite copious embroidering, all I had in house were the leftovers from the pillowcase project.  Now I have a nice variety for about $12.  At home, I reviewed Sublime Stitching and Doodle Stitching and was, as expected, inspired by all the material in there – score.  I also picked up a larger 8″ hoop to continue work on Ribbon with a sampler of the stitches I’ve worked on so far out of the Bellanger-Clement book.  As mentioned above, getting these ribbon stitches to look decent requires a lot of patience – this project should help.

And that’s the state of things here.  So much to do – so many ideas.  Once HiHos are over who knows what crafting is going to happen!

This Week in Stashbusting

Stashbuilding.

Okay, oops.  Too many hours on Pinterest got me completely interested in this art form and then an email from City Quilter reminded me they were offering an Intro to Silk Embroidery class this weekend, at a time and price which made me totally available and… there you go.  It was, in typical City Quilter fashion, a very relaxed and very informative three hours.  Teacher Judy Doenias taught us a lot of tips I have yet to see in the Silk Ribbon books I’ve checked out, and now I feel confident to explore on my own.  Here’s a shot of the sample stitches we worked on:

All I had on hand was black fabric so it’s very Black Light.  I’m all mod and shit. Dude.

Full confession time:  The stashbuilding could have been worse.  I had wanted to get a Sashiko kit and Crewel kit for ‘trips’ but they didn’t have anything to my liking.  I’ll have to go down to Purl Soho for that, hopefully after I’ve actually done some more destashing.  And speaking of:

HiHos Hat:

It’s HiHos (Jewish High Holidays) time and as I am/will be spending a lot of time on the subway and, as the sweater I’m making is just too cumbersome to lug around, I have moved to making the matching hat to said sweater.  I’m about 13 rows in and hopefully by the end of Yom Kippur I’ll have a new hat to show you!

Skirt Update:

I think I’ve figured out the sizing on the skirt but I’ve been so busy with rehearsals I’ve not had any time to work on it!  Still, it seems – based on this basting (ignore pockets), that I can take 6″ out of the back, leave the front the same and it will look okay.  This logic feels very wrong but it looks good.  I’m not sure.  Like why won’t it just be HUGE in the front and no fabric in the back.  So I’m thinking about it and also reaching out to the folks at Pattern Review for hopefully some sage advice.  In the interim, I did get to the Garment District to buy the covered button forms, heavier interfacing for the new waistband and other needed items. Now the only thing I need is time!  We’ll see how I do on that – time is short these days but at least I have some small projects to do in the interim.  More soon!

Sizing B5285

So I spent a week on this skirt. It’s listed as “very easy” which it would be to one who knew what they were doing. Alas, I do not.

The front looks great. I made a size 18 due to the fact that I have a 33″ waist. 18 is for 32″ waist so I figured it would fit. And in a way it does. The front looks good.  The back on the other hand….

Yes, that is a bottle of wine there. Way too much room.

At first I was peeved with Butterick – I mean, I made the right size! But as my boyfriend took these photos, I realized that the skirt DOES fit great in the front. And while I do have a 33″ waist, I really have a belly so I’m suspecting I would have done better to make a size 16 (30″ waist) and then somehow adjusted the front piece to accommodate my tummy.

But I am a new sewer. This is my second skirt! And to be fair, I had this problem with the first one which fits but is not as comfortable as a skirt you made yourself should be. In that instance, I took in the extra room equally from both front and back at the side seams. Since the front fits in this instance, I’m tempted to just take in the extra from the back pieces at the side seams. Will it work?  Is this a hare-brained idea?  I’ll find out today/tomorrow when I rip it all out and baste it in.  Wish me luck!

Other issues:

The waistband.  I do not like the thinness of it. Since it seems like an easy change and I have a lot of extra fabric, I’m going to redraft it about an inch wider.  I think it will look good.

The zipper.  I took out and reinserted it for hours the other night.  I am just not great at zippers yet.  But what’s worse is I ‘trimmed’ the top which I really should have left.  I’m not sure if it bugs me enough to take out and put in a new zipper (I have one on hand so I may just do it) but it looks lame as is.

The hook and eye.  I’m not sure how this is supposed to look decent but wow does it look bad.  I’m tempted to – in the redrafting of the waistband – adjust it so I can just use a button for closure.  I could pick up some covered buttons and do a self-fabric cover which would blend in nicely.  I have NO IDEA how to redraft this stuff so it could be a disaster but, again, I have a ton of extra fabric so I’m thinking, why not?