analog me

A Weird T-Shirt

The following is a real conversation that the author had with her 10 year old son. 

Boy: Mom, did you make that shirt?

Me: Yes ! (A short pause follows in which I realize this might be a loaded question.)

Me: Why do you ask?

Boy: Oh, well. . . . It looks sort of weird.

Me: (Controlling myself and using fake calm voice) Umm, Weird like wonky and sloppy or weird like unusual?

Boy: Oh just. . . experimental looking. Like no one else would wear it, because a store wouldn't ever sell it because no one would buy it. 

Well that statement pretty well sums up my me-made clothing dilemma. If I am going to bother making clothes do I sew stuff that looks like something that would sell in a store? Or do I create (and then wear) "experimental looking" clothes that could be described as "weird" by a 10 year old boy who think wearing mis-matched socks with paint splattered cut-offs held up with suspenders is normal? Well, I guess I can't help it, but I am going to walk around looking like this freak:

The experimental part is the slightly pleated shingles on the shoulder and front, because I'm tired of plain T-shirts and feel weird in ruffles. Maybe the next new thing in fashion is going to be shingles, in which case I'll be prepared.

 Sewing Notes:

 

This is another knit top based on the Burda Lydia pattern. I find that the Burda patterns seem to run large. So, I recommend using a favorite t-shirt to check the size first. Now that I have sewn a couple, I realize I need to grade everything down except the shoulders. Since you have to print out all the pages and tape them together anyway, this isn't too hard. I just made a vertical fold through the lower front pieces after I taped them together, and left the shoulders as is. When I taped the shoulders to the lower front I just cut a new armhole line to smooth the transition. I'm sure other changes could be made in a similar way.

This soft rib knit fabric was very hard to sew on the cross grain because the needle would just push the fabric down through the needle plate bunch up and then skip stitches. I found it to be one of those "easy" projects that expanded my ability to combine curse words in new combinations. I had to use a stretch needle (and a double stretch needle for the hems) and finally just put tissue paper under all the hems to stabilize the fabric. I'm still picking it all out. I'm wondering if there is a cheap paper that dissolves easily because this fabric is so soft and I have a lot more. 

Beauteous Socks

Well, I have been mostly keeping up with self-made clothes. Unfortunately, the intrusion of dentistry into my life has made me incredibly boring and incapable of documentation, let alone clever documentation. Several weeks ago the clever Zoe kindly passed an award along to several bloggers, including myself, who she noted was "frickkin funny." So now I feel pressured to be humorous which is giving me blogger's-block. Definitely not the intension of these "awards"--I'm sure. I am very much enjoying seeing all the sewing creations on Flickr and their blogs--Thanks to Zoe for organizing us and thanks to everybody who stops by here thinking they are in for funny in the sense of comical and finding funny in the peculiar sense. 

Anyway, my sister surprised me with a lovely hand-made present that has made me feel very loved, and has been integrated into my May wardrobe. Ta-da!

  I've been wearing my handknit socks for quite some time now, but I have never had anyone make some for me. Truly, it is a wonderful and unusual feeling to slide one's foot into a custom made sock that snugs up around your sole and hugs your ankle and think: "someone made these for me!" 

 I have become a bit disenchanted with sock knitting lately--those tiny needles were starting to wear on my hands. Instead, I began self-soothing but aimless granny square crocheting. Then I saw these crocheted socks in a listing for a Japanese crafting book:

 I think my life's crafting course has been changed. Now if I can just find that book again. . .  (Found it ! In the Japanese book Tricotage De Lin Handknit and Crochet currently at this ebay seller.

Asymmetric refashion

So far, the challenge of wearing self made clothes each day of May has not been too hard BECAUSE I'M SO DAMN COLD I AM WEARING HAND KNITS ALL THE TIME ! Wooly sweaters, wooly socks, even my alpaca mitts feel good when its raining with highs in the in 40s (According to my conversion, that's about 6.5 degrees celsius). (No I'm not going to start ranting about archaic weights and measures again, although I want to. . .)

I had hoped this challenge would be more about wearing and sewing lightweight spring skirts and what not, but this is more like it:
 Although I usually have on a scarf too.

I had fun making this purple shirt. I have been buying too-big or maternity knit shirts in thrift stores when I like the fabric, cutting the sides down and using the extra fabric as embellishments. Target seems to be donating unsold, unworn shirts to Goodwill, and as I can't find decent knits in local fabric stores, it has become a good fabric source. Technically these are new clothes, but as they are being donated to a charity instead of destroyed, I'm hoping that it is morally okay to consider them refashions. (Refashion Police, any comments?)

I even kept the serged side seam on the trim piece, pleated it and then sewed it on the front. Because the shirt was so large, I had to re-do the armholes and sleeves. I think I used the Burda Lydia pattern for the armscye. I messed up insertion the first time. (Maybe that's why the word is pronounced arm-sigh., maybe it should be arm grrrr).

But even with all that chopping and re-sewing and ripping, I think it took me less time to refashion it than to photograph it. I don't seem to be able to center myself in front of the camera, or find a neat spot that has light, or make one of my male offspring take a decent picture. 

(See what I mean about being off center?) 

I need some modeling tips.

EXPOSED !

Yesterday morning I put on my self-made underpants and undershirt, a long-sleeve Target T-shirt, jeans and a me-knitted sweater and scarf on top. I was just warm enough for the cool morning and I felt good to be wearing a good proportion of hand made clothes. 

In the afternoon I had some free time so I went to my new community garden plot to engage in warfare with the binder weed. The sun came out and it was lovely, so off came the sweater and the scarf. There I was, exposed from socks to jeans to shirt in a not-made-by-me outfit ! I felt like such a poser. As I dug, I began to think about the complications to the Me-Made-May challenge that the layering needed to get by in May in Minnesota causes. Do I need a new exception to the rule?

The weed battle intensified, I got really hot. There was nothing to do but strip off another layer. There I was down to my self-made white undershirt. That's when a old guy came over to ask me if I could lend him a key to the tool shed. Thank God I was in a me-made layer or I would have felt so embarrassed. 

 Gardener exposed in factory-made garments, while dog looks on unhelpfully.

Me-Made-May kick off

Saying "yes!" in a moment of enthusiasm can often be regrettable. So yes, I have been a bit worried about my Me-Made-May commitment. But, I'm still up for the challenge. 

My personal rule is that I will try to wear one major or two minor self-made garments a day. (I am counting refashioned clothes as self-made if I had to alter more than a seam line, a hem or an embellishment to make it wearable.) 

Like some other Me-Mad-May-ers, I'm finding that my self-made wardrobe is a bit unbalanced. I'm good to go out for the night in a dressy skirt, to cook dinner in a snazzy apron, or to lounge around in nothing more than fancy wool socks and strange underwear, but I am lacking in basics. Thus, I spent some time this weekend sewing my wardrobe staple: knit shirts. Every time I got really frustrated with skipped stitches and stretched hems, I just made another pair of underwear. I now have enough homemade undies to almost get me through two weeks! But I promise to combine them with some visible clothes.

Here is the latest panty crop--all but one up-cycled from just 3 T-shirts.

  

I am hoping that the ridiculous Chinese character pair is not somehow offensive in it's use as underwear, but it was a T-shirt so how much worse is underwear? Anybody know what it means? Jessica, I'm counting on you here. I'm hoping it's not something like: "Pig," and guessing it is something like "Peace" or "Love."

I had to piece the sides on these because I refashioned the original Chinatown souvenir shirt into a boy's shirt that looked like this:

So the mysterious symbol lives on as a double refashion. Maybe it means "long life?"

I'm finding that sewing underwear is like knitting dishclothes, it can prevent you from ever completing another real project.  Now I'm even thinking about bloomers.  

And stay away from this site.