Me Made May

On the last day of May I kind of dipped my toe into the thing.

I went to The Workroom (conveniently down the street from Romni) and for the first time in decades, bought myself a couple of sewing patterns.

"Me Made May 2016" blog posts wherein the bloggers/instagrammers put up photos of themselves every day in May wearing their own hand made clothes is prompting me to work up casual basics like tops, tanks, pj's, maybe even the odd simple skirt or dress.

I'm likely late in discovering the world of indie sewing pattern drafting. It seems an echo of the explosion in knitting patterns early in the 2000's but now pairing hand knits and home sewn pieces.

For a while, and for all the fair trade/ethical/shop local reasons, I've also been weaning myself from mass produced/marketed clothing and department/chain store shopping. Its been more of a challenge than I imagined and I hope sewing some stuff will help make it easier.

This is what I've now assembled so far...

The amazing hand dyed indigo from London, I think is going to become a swingy tank...

...possibly lined so as to keep indigo from rubbing off on me and my clothes.

Gauzy plaid cotton will be a lightweight, sun blocking scarf edged with embroidery using the French floss Number One Son gave me from Loop last Christmas...

...This fabric/yarn combo I've already shown you now has a sewing pattern for the top portion of my own top/cardi set.

Then in a fit of optimism I picked up a roll of sewable tracing paper-type stuff from Sweden with which to duplicate patterns for re-use or even to make up some of my own from existing pieces I need to replace but the fit/function of which I love.

I want to sew up at least a couple of these things to "warm up" my technique before tackling Darling Daughter's Bride's maid dress.

Fun and exciting, colourful things to ponder as I take a break from afghan knitting. Another baby has been born into our social orbit so my trip to Romni yesterday yielded yarn for Tom Ten Jacket IV.

Not a lot of colour here either but the yarn's 50% cotton content is novel in my hands, the prospect of a sweatshirt vibe in the FO is engaging and the creamy cotton wool planned for a little hat is lifting my knitting spirits even more.

And so onward!

So Sew?

Yup, I've been sewing! ('knitting too of course - more on that later.)

I've been thinking about sewing again for a while after seeing many fantastic home sewn wardrobes - that can really show off the hand knits - there's gobs of them on Instagram and Kollabra.

"Reminds me of the early 2000's when the knitting explosion blew through the internet but today, these "Slow Fashion" enthusiasts are diving in and also sewing stuff to go with their knitted pieces.

They're stitching tops, shirts, skirts, dresses, shorts and even jeans, lined jackets and lingerie. Some make shoes for themselves!

So, so much to be learned from the Millennials I'll tell ya!

Anyway, my own Millennial Darling Daughter recently came home with yardage of soft pink broadcloth for a dress she'll wear in a wedding this summer so I talked her into letting me make the muslin version to nail down fit/size/style before she hands it over to a dressmaker.

(I'm secretly hoping to sew the finished product and save her the hundreds of dollars it will cost to have it professionally made but I won't float that notion until we have success with this phase first!)

She agreed and since the Bride-to-be will be in town over Easter for a dress fitting of her own we're aiming to have something ready to model for her when she's here.

Is sewing something for myself in the cards? Maybe. First I've got a muslin to finish and I'm having great fun diving into a basket of CO-ready knitting "kits" I assembled 10 days ago while avoiding the two sweaters-in-progress I should be attending to.

Finally landed on an edging Darling Daughter is happy with on the little hand stitched lunch sack I made for her birthday. Not super exciting from a stitching point of view but she's happy with it so we'll call this one "done".

I'm hoping the two little knit projects I finished last week/blocked yesterday and the one to be bound off tonight get me back in the mood for some sweater knitting.

I'll let you know how that goes! Thanks so much for dropping by!

Re-purposed

From my earliest memories "Viyella" was a word my mother and the women in her family used when referring to wool and/or plaid clothing. I didn't understand why but I got it that this Viyella stuff was primo quality.

So its not surprising that decades ago when I found a cast off Viyella robe my mother had worn out at the elbows I harvested the generous bias cut, floor length skirt from it.

Yesterday I re-purposed the fabric which is by now easily 50 years old or so into"new" throw pillow covers for our bed at the cottage.

With a little fiddling I managed to get the selvage edge, complete with what looks like hand stitching to run up the open ends of both pillow cases.

Its a bit worn in places - I might work a duplicate stitch over it to stabilize things. I'll decide when I get them back up north.

I find this kind of thing so satisfying - much more than buying new. Probably not surprising when the matching robe my mother's sister had she re-purposed into matching pants with suspenders for her then toddling baby boys in the 60's. What's that saying about where the proverbial apple falls in relation to the tree?

Thanks for dropping by!