2016: Wrapped

I love doing these annual wrap up posts, as it gives me a chance to evaluate my year, sewing and other-wise.  I thought about participating in the Take Five link up, but I'm not very good at whittling things down to five.  So I'll just make it up as I go along.

~Hits~

1. Folk Tapestry dress: I love this dress.  It is easily the highlight of my winter rotation, and I really love wearing it.  I like the heavier weight, the print, the whole thing.

2. Bandana dress: I wore this rayon dress a LOT this summer.  It was cool and comfortable, easy to slip on in the high heat, and I got tons of compliments on it every time I wore it.

3. Linen dresses (1) (2) (3 & 4) (5): more of a category than a specific dress, I developed a serious love affair with linen this year, and made six linen dresses.  One of them I'm saving for next summer and haven't worn yet, but the other five I wore very regularly.  I did have to take the red linen dress out of my winter rotation because it was leaving a faint pink cast on my favorite cream colored sweater just from wearing them together, and I don't have anything else in this rotation that is warm enough and coordinates with the red.  Hopefully I can wear it in the spring or summer.

4.  Lawn dresses (1) (2) (3) (4): another category of fabric that I got to like very well this year.  I bought several of Robert Kaufman's London Calling Liberty lines of fabric, and got a lot of wear out of almost all of them.  The only one that ended up being a bust was the Art Deco lawn dress, that I gave away at the end of the summer.

5. Geo Flannel skirt: I love this skirt.  It is funky and warm, it fits me very well, and goes with several sweaters in my drawer.  I get compliments every time I wear it, and I feel good in it.  

6.  Bluebird dress: I wore this dress so much in the first half of the year, that I ended up remaking it earlier this month with the modifications I've added to the pattern over the past year.  (The fabric was starting to fray under the arms, and I really prefer a longer length in my dresses)

7. First Light Dress: I wore this dress a ton in the spring, and really liked it at both ends of my rotation.  It worked with a heavy sweater, with a light sweater, with no sweater, making it an ideal transitional dress.  I'm looking forward to wearing it again in the spring.

*The jury is still out on my Return to Tokyo dress from the spring.  I really like the print, but the length still bugs me.  I'm going to put it in my spring rotation and see how it feels in the spring.  I tend to like shorter lengths with tall boots, so perhaps I'll just reserve it for the first half of the rotation when it is still cold.

~Misses~

1. Ivy League dress: This dress reminded me why I dislike working with Michael Miller's fabrics.  They are too stiff, they are printed only on one side, so if you use pins, it tends to put a white runner in the fabric, and unpicking any stitches is a total nightmare.  This dress also convinced me to tackle the underarm sleeve draft on my pattern, as it fit poorly and wore badly over time.

2. Asian floral dress: I didn't even wear this dress except to photograph its awfulness, it was that bad.  It was an experiment in making the Afternoon blouse neckline with my Simplicity 1080 and was generally a disaster.  I do think a lot of it had to do with fitting issues, but I just wasn't in a place to tackle them at that point.  I also chose a fabric that was particularly unflattering to my skin, which didn't help.

3. Chambray skirt:  I wanted to like this skirt, and I did wear it quite a bit over the summer, but I spent a lot of the summer fiddling with the fit, because I couldn't get it right.  First it was too tight, then it ended up a little bit too loose, and generally didn't fit the way I wanted it to.  I think it was probably a poor match of fabric and pattern, as my Anne Adams 9486 is generally a good pattern for me, but in stiffer fabrics.

4. Cherry blossom dress: this was just a poor fabric choice.  I really don't care for Art Gallery's mid-weight cotton as a dress fabric, and I didn't like wearing this dress at all.  It made me feel like I was wearing paper.

5. Moneta, Coco: this fall I made the long leap into sewing with knits, and I discovered that I really don't enjoy it all that much.  There is the instant gratification factor, but I learned that I prefer to buy my knits ready-made.  I didn't like a lot of things about the fit of Moneta, and even after fiddling with it a lot, I couldn't get something that felt good on my body.  The Coco fit pretty well, but I didn't care for the style for every day wear.  I had a hard time sourcing fabric that I liked and that turned out the way I wanted it to, and I didn't really care for the look of zig-zagged hems.  I couldn't master my twin needle, and didn't have the lightning bolt stitch on my machine, so I felt limited in the finish that I could accomplish.  That said, I ended up liking my Coco dresses for pajamas, and as I do have a terrible time finding nightgowns that I like, I consider this a minor victory.  I have some navy blue printed knit fabric that I bought in the fall that I intend to make into a summer pajama dress in the late spring.

6. Pullover sweaters (1) (2): I made two pullover sweaters in the late winter and early spring and both were total fails.  I didn't care for the way they felt on my skin, or the style or the fit.  I passed them both on to a good friend who looks great in them!

7. Pincushion dress: I actually liked this dress a lot when I first made it, but I quickly fell out of love with novelty prints in the spring sometime, and by summer, the dress was about two sizes too big on me and the too-wide shoulders just annoyed me without a sweater over top.  I think some fitting changes I made in the spring may have contributed to the poor fit by the end.  I gave it away earlier this fall.

8. Pots and Pans dress: this dress was a spectacular fail on many levels.  I was using a vintage novelty print and stretched it with some contrasting broadcloth (mistake #1); I hadn't figured out the optimum length for my Simplicity 1080 at that point, so it came out too short for my liking (mistake #2); I made contrast pocket facing which looked awful (mistake #3); I didn't have a cardigan that looked good with it, and the red shirt was not really that great.  I did make it into a blouse later in the spring, and I really did like the blouse, but the vintage fabric proved to be a little too fragile to stand up to regular wearing.

9. White florals dress/blue gingham dress: I liked both of these dresses in theory, and I did wear them all summer, but by the end of the summer, I was just really meh on them.  I never did get the fit right on the white florals dress, and the print, which I still love, looked terrible at a distance.  The blue gingham dress fit very well, and looked good on me, but it felt too young for me by the end of the summer.  I gave both dresses away.

I had quite a long string of misses in the late spring and early summer, but things perked up by fall when I figured out the best way to draft my Simplicity 1080 (aka Dottie Angel frock).

~Highlights~

1. The biggest highlight of my sewing year was the 18th century working woman's outfit that I sewed for a presentation at my kids' school.  I learned so much in the process of researching and making the garments, and I really enjoyed wearing it.  The cream on the cake was the stays that I made at the eleventh hour.  I love them so much.  (And yes, I know I promised construction posts about that outfit, but things have been kinda nuts in the last six weeks...maybe I'll get to it in 2017)

2. A non-sewing highlight was being told my my optometrist in June that after 30 years of wearing bifocals, I could now wear drugstore readers!  Yippie!  I promptly bought three pairs for less than the cost of one of my previous pairs and spread them throughout the house.

3.  Another non-sewing highlight has been the changes we've made to the house in the past month or so.  We had the interior and the wooden bits on the exterior repainted, we bought (and I helped assemble) a lot of functional furniture for the kids' rooms (dressers, bunk beds, a few bookcases), and changed out the futon and cushion covers in the living room and office, plus a few other little things like that.  I'm still waiting to rehang the pictures and icons on the walls, but I should be good to go by early next week.  I'll try to take some pictures to share when things are settled in their places.

4. I continued my weight loss journey this year, and stalled out over the summer.  I realized that logging everything on My Fitness Pal had become a problem for me, on several different levels, so when we went to the Midwest to visit my parents and some friends, I stopped.  I felt free of a burden.  I also had my last dilation endoscopy early in the summer and had a much rougher recovery after that, so eating almost anything this summer was super stressful.  At the end of August, the doctor decided to try a different medication therapy (one I'd taken years ago with good effect, but isn't clinical standard in their office) and things have improved a lot since then.  I'm eating more or less normally (although I still can't manage bread and a few other bolus-producing foods) and I've successfully challenged a few foods that I have been avoiding for a long time (sweet potatoes, buckwheat, eggs).  I decided that having a varied diet was more important than the lower GI consequences that I suffer, so I've been eating more fibery things like brussels sprouts and onions and oatmeal.  I've had a few rough nights as a result, but I feel better overall, so I think the trade off is worth it.  

5. I did some meatier writing this year, mostly in the summer and the fall, as a result of reading Matthew Crawford's excellent World Beyond Your Head and some related books and articles.  I also finished an essay on body image that I've been picking away at for ages, and I am happy with the result.

6. I read some great books this year: I started War and Peace as a Lenten podvig, and am now nearing the end (I'm part II of the epilogue, 93% done!).  I'm hoping to finish it sometime in the next couple of weeks.  I read The Light Between Oceans in the summer and was gutted by it.  I'm eager to watch the film version when it hits amazon in January.  I am currently reading the excellent Laurus and finding it quite profound.  I read a lot of non-fiction this year as well, including several gulag memoirs, social history of the Stalinist period, a few books about East Germany, and several books by Svetlana Alexievich.  I read a bunch of light fiction earlier in the fall--I got caught up on my Decker/Lazarus mysteries as well as a few other easy mysteries.  I also re-read several books in the Outlander series when I was looking for comfort reading.  I'm currently in the middle of book six.

7.  I also completed several sweaters, a bunch of knitted accessories and some non-selfish sewing this year.  I made most of the girls' summer dresses, sweaters for each of them, a vest for Boo, a wool kombu for my husband to replace one that fell of his bike (!!), and tried to mend things that needed it as I went along.  I made more of an effort to recycle clothing and textiles that were past their shelf life (having an H&M on the way to school has proved useful in this regard) and have gotten pretty basic with how many items of clothing each person in this house has.  It is a delicate balancing act.  

~Goals~

1. I don't have a lot of sewing goals for this year.  I'm pretty happy with the range of patterns that I work with right now, and while I bought a few more this past year, I don't have a great desire to sew any of them right now.  My sewing storage expanded a lot with all the changes we made to the house in the late fall, so I don't feel an intense need to cull my patterns at the moment.  I do try to get rid of patterns that don't work for me, so my pattern pile fits tidily into two small shelf boxes.  I've planned my sewing projects through the summer, and went through my fabric stash earlier this week to cull it a bit.  My main goal is to pick fabrics that I will want to wear a lot during a rotation or two, and to keep my rotations between 25-27 pieces.  I just bought some Monmouth flannel for a winter dress and hope to sew that up in the coming weeks.

2.  My knitting goals are limited as well.  I'm still working on several pieces for myself, and learning some new techniques along the way.  I've accepted that I can't handle complicated all-over stitch patterns right now, but I can manage something that is in a small panel, or is an easily readable 4 row pattern.  I'm also getting better at understanding what sort of fit to aim for with different sorts of sweaters, and I'm finding I want a little more ease in my clothing generally speaking.  I'm working on a pullover and a cardigan that I think meet my criteria.

3.  During the all-consuming stress of the repainting and everything else earlier this month, I briefly dropped close to ten pounds in two and a half weeks' time, putting me at the first of my weight loss goals for the first time.  I've since gained back about two and a half pounds, but hope to continue on the path started.  I've made more of an effort to give up sweets, and to be more structured about when I do have a treat.  I can say with confidence that any success in this area is all God's doing, and not any of my own.  I do find myself craving salty things more as I get older--I've developed a particular fondness for tortilla chips and salsa, and anyone who knows me well will know how strange that particular liking is!  This fall particularly, I find myself craving wholesome foods.  Not necessarily what is marketed as "healthy" or would show up on a Beachbody-approved diet plan, but plain, whole foods.  Things like roasted autumn vegetables with olive oil and maldon salt, or grechka (buckwheat) with homemade gravy and mushrooms, a plain or baked apple, or fried eggs over easy with thin sliced black forest ham on the side.  Foods that make me feel like I've eaten real food at the end of the meal. I am still relearning how to eat, after 18 months of completely abnormal eating patterns, and have to relearn things like portions and satiety and get better at reading hunger cues.  I also have to be careful as I still have things get stuck in my throat (although it tends to go down now with liquid, rather than sticking in my throat for hours or days).  It is a process.  I'm slightly nervous about the 12 Days of Christmas, which tends to be gloves off with regard to desserts and rich foods, but I'll beg God's mercy to help me get through it.

As with any blog, there is much about my life that I don't write about, and my heart is sometimes heavy with things I cannot share here.  I do not know what the future holds, but I do know Who holds the future.  And I try to rest in that.

Happy 2017!

Red Linen

This week feels like an All The Things week.  The house is s-l-o-w-l-y coming back together after all the upheaval of the last few weeks.  

The boys' room is more or less done; I can't put pictures back on the walls until the end of the month, but the furniture is all built and in place.  FedEx messed up the delivery on the bunk beds  (it is always something!), so we are still missing the under bed drawers, but at least I was able to work with our task rabbit person yesterday to assemble the beds and the desks.   Their room looks so different from before!

  I'm sort of embarrassed how long we have managed in this house without proper dressers for the children.  I'll take some pics after everything is up on the walls and I get stuff on top of their dressers and desks--right now it resembles a generic dorm room.

And of course, IKEA messed up our delivery on Monday and neglected to deliver one of the two boxes for the girls' bed, so I have to wait another week before we can finish up in the girls' room.  I'm hoping that by this time next week, all the furniture building will be complete, and we'll be ready to finish putting the house back together.  The kids are having a hard time coping with everything being different, and I'm having a hard time living with all the chaos and frustration of companies who can't manage to do their jobs.  In any case, the living room is clear enough now that I can contemplate putting up Christmas decorations this weekend--I usually try to get them up right before St. Nicholas Day (which is on Monday).

 

But enough about that.  This is one of the dresses I made for my winter rotation: a red heavy-weight linen dress.  It is exactly like the charcoal one I made in the fall but heavier.  I finally remembered to put a note on my pattern to remind myself to raise the back neckline a few inches.  I should probably just redraft it higher, but I do occasionally make it where originally drafted and like it, so I guess I'll just leave it.  No construction notes, just a straight forward, easy TNT make.  I zig-zagged all my raw edges in addition to pinking them, as I find linen frays a lot.  The red is really pretty--much more of a true-blue red than the photos make it seem.  I'm a fan.  I think it goes well with this sweater.

It is very cold today (the highs are barely going to hit 20F) so I didn't want to faff about in shirt sleeves.  You've seen this before, so I think you get the idea anyway.  Nothing to see here, moving right along. 😉

Just the facts:

Red linen dress: Simplicity 1080, heavy weight linen in crimsom from fabrics-store.com (I *love* that place), bias tape

blue undershirt: JCrew via thredup

cream heavy weight wool sweater: Banana Republic (thrifted--either ebay or thredup, can't remember)

Pavlovo-Posad scarf: bought in Moscow in 2002 (still one of my favorites despite a few moth nibbles)

earrings: etsy

boots: Uggs via ebay

Folk Art Tapestry dress

Finally I get around to wearing and photographing one of the new makes for the winter rotation!  

I present, the Folk Art Tapestry dress.  This dress was a little bit of a fabric experiment.  I've been absolutely in love with Cotton+Steel's first collaboration with Rifle and Co. and I particularly like the folk art prints.  Unfortunately, almost all of them are in a linen-cotton blend canvas weight substrate.  That sort of fabric works well for skirts but not always for dresses.  

I did buy a couple yards of the hobby horse fabric in the summer to save for a spring/summer skirt, but I really don't wear print skirts all that much, so I wanted to figure out if this type of fabric would work for a dress.  I really liked the pattern on this fabric and thought it would work well with my winter rotation--I have several sweaters and undershirts that coordinate, plus the cowl I'm wearing.

It was a pretty straight-forward make, if you put aside the weight.  I think I used a heavier weight needle, but that was the only change I made to my basic construction for the Simplicity 1080.  

Kangaroo pocket because I like them best and find them the most functional.  

I'm going to count this one as a win, because I'm finding the weight of the dress to be perfect for colder weather (and it has turned quite cold in the last day or so).  The fiber blend makes for a nice weight and drape, and I'm pretty happy with this dress!  

I bought some Jade swish yarn to replace my sad worn out Ramona cardigan and I think it will coordinate nicely with this sweater.  Whether I finish the cardigan in time to wear this season, we'll see!  I can still wear the Ramona in the meantime.

Like my boots?  They were a random great ebay find last spring at the very end of the season.  I have trouble with cold extremities in the winter, and the boots I've been wearing the last two winters were a snug fit such that I couldn't layer socks and tights and still get my boots on.  The tread was also going on them after almost constant wearing for four seasons.  I wanted something with a roomier toe box to accommodate extra foot layers, plus a shearling lining to keep my legs warmer.  These are Uggs, and my first foray into wearing this type of boot.  They do take a bit to get into, and the laces need replacing, but they were such a bargain compared to the new price, I don't mind.  I like the looks of them very much and toasty toes are worth every penny.

Just the facts:

Folk Art Tapestry dress: Simplicity 1080 (with modifications), Cotton+Steel Les Fleurs canvas fabric, bias tape

Undershirt: ThredUp (thrifted)

Tights: Sage cotton Foot Traffic signature tights

Olive green earrings: thrifted

Cashmere cowl: ThredUp (thrifted)

Boots: Uggs via ebay (thrifted)

Yarn Along: Ruby Stoker and War and Peace

~knitting~

I finished a sweater!  I mentioned that I was nearly done with my Ruby Stoker cowl, and indeed, it was only a few days work to seam all the pieces and add the cowl.  Weirdly, the instructions do not have you reblock after the cowl is finished, and I think mine could benefit from a light blocking.

I wasn't sure if I would like this sweater after I finished it.  I was underwhelmed when I first put it on, but I ended up wearing it all weekend and Monday too, so I guess that is a success!  What I like about it is that it is loose enough to wear over a dress.  I've been wanting a pullover that I could wear over one of my dresses, but none of my current pullovers has enough ease to look right.  This one is just perfect.  It has enough shaping to look nice, but is loose enough to easily pop over a semi-fitted dress.  Win-win.

It also felt good to wear this dress again--it is a particular favorite of mine, a thrifted vintage rayon dress from the 1980s.  I replaced the ugly pearl buttons down the front with small vintage teal buttons a few years ago and I like it even better now.  

I used O-Wool Balance for the yarn, which is a wool-cotton blend, and I had a terrible time getting gauge for the pattern.  I had to go up two needle sizes for the base needle, and then had to modify the needle recommendation for the cowl as a result.  I probably could have gotten away with doing the whole thing on size 9 needles.  I suppose if the cowl really bugs me, I could frog it back and reknit it with the smaller needles.  

I probably won't, though.  I do think blocking will solve a lot of what bugs me about it.  I also wish I'd made the body about an inch longer, but the beauty of cotton in the mix is that I can tug it down.  I may also block it more aggressively the next time I wash it.

The pattern is from Amy Herzog's Knit to Flatter book, and the instructions were very easy to follow.  It is the first time I've successfully fitted inset sleeves so that they sit properly on the edge of my shoulder, so that is a victory!  I also set in the sleeves differently--I took a page from my sewing with knits book, and set in the sleeves the way you do machine knit garments, and it went extremely well.  I'll definitely keep doing that in the future. (I used to set in sleeves the way you set in sleeves with wovens, and had mixed success)

The color is a little hard to describe--not quite pink, not quite rust.  I worried that it wouldn't look good with my skin tone, but I think it works.  In any case, it is a good sort of schlubby-but-flattering sweater of the sort that I often have trouble finding.

I'm making good progress on the Clouds in my Coffee cardigan, am a bit stalled on the Tess/Rent shawl. I am hoping to swatch another project soon.

~reading~

I picked up War and Peace again at the beginning of the month because I'm so close the end I can taste it!  I'm two chapters into the Epilogue and at 91% read.  (Yes, I switched to Kindle Edwards translation to finish the beast, because I was getting bogged down with the Peaver/Volkonsky translation which is difficult to read with all the original French/German plus extensive footnotes). 

I started Meditations for Advent at the beginning of the Nativity fast, but haven't gotten very far in it. 

I also picked up Murray Pittock's Culloden last week and am enjoying it very much.  It is part of a larger series on war, and I appreciate the perspective he brings to a pivotal 18th century battle.

~watching~

I'm 13 years late to the party, but I just discovered NCIS on Netflix and have been enjoying that very much.  While the painters were here, we were confined to two rooms of the house, and I confess I spent a lot of quality time with Gibbs, Tony, Kate, and McGee.  I'm somewhere in season two at the moment.  Coincidentally, the boys are going through and intense U.S. Navy phase and are reading all about navy aircraft carriers, navy planes, and anything else related to the Navy that they can find.

Ponchik and I watched a delightful documentary on Leonard Nimoy this week called For the Love of Spock.  My husband and I have been watching the original Star Trek series on Sunday nights for the last few months and it was really fun to learn more about the show, the character of Spock and about Nimoy the man.  I grew up with Star Trek: The Next Generation, and have a soft spot for that series, but it has been super fun and hilarious to watch the originals with my husband. 

The painting of the house is done, but the furniture stuff is not.  There have been delivery delays, mistakes on deliveries (I'm not particularly happy with IKEA at the moment), and general stress and anxiety with the whole process.  I did have someone out yesterday to put together the boys' dressers and a bookcase, and I'm hoping we can tackle the bunk beds tomorrow (assuming they show up today as promised).  So probably another couple of weeks of mess and stress.  I keep trying to remind myself that it will all come right in the end.

Linking with Ginny for Yarn Along!

Project 333: Winter (ish)

I should probably say for the record that we are having our house repainted inside and out this week, so there is a LOT of chaos in the house.  We are basically confined to two rooms (my office and our bedroom) so it is kind of nuts after school.  We are also getting some functional furniture for the kids' rooms at long last (bunk beds, dressers, etc) so I'm going to be in high-organizational/furniture assembly mode for the next few weeks!  Please excuse me if I'm a little AWOL.  I made a few dresses for this rotation and some in-progress knitting that I have to blog about; I hope to get to them soon.  

I wrote about my fall rotation wrap up yesterday, so now time to talk about my winter rotation!

For those just tuning in, about 18 months ago, I started following Project 333 for my wardrobe.  The idea is that you take 33 garments and wear them for 3 months.  Some people include accessories and shoes in the 33, some don't.  The point is to live with less.  I've found it very helpful, not only to keep my wardrobe small, but to plan sewing projects that I wear a lot, and really think about what is worth spending money on for clothing and shoes, rather than just buying stuff (or fabric) here and there all the time.  I've found that about 25-27 actual garments is about right for me, and I don't count things like undershirts, jewelry, or shoes in my count (although I do rotate my most-worn jewelry from season to season and stick to between 2-4 pairs of shoes or boots per rotation).

Left: Vignette dress, gray eshakti dress, Berry Tinsel dress

Middle: red linen dress (unblogged), Folk Art canvas dress (unblogged), olive knit eshakti dress, Bluebird dress

Right: navy linen dress, vintage rayon dress, teal knit eshakti dress, Midnight Sky #2 dress (unblogged)

*not pictured: navy sapphire knit eshakti dress, garnet knit eshakti dress

My winter rotation is the one I liked the best last year, and the one that had the least changes over time.  I didn't add or change much this year, but I did find myself making changes on the fly, such that some of these photos are inaccurate (hence the cross-outs).  As I noted yesterday, I was buying my eshakti dresses shorter last year, and I don't really care to wear them at that length right now.  So the gray knit dress is out.  I did purchase two additional dresses in the longer length recently, so they will be added in when they arrive.  I'm also a little uncertain about the Vignette and Bluebird dresses.  I wore them a ton last year, but they were very early versions of my Simplicity 1080, and I'm making them differently now (especially in the sleeves and overall length), so I'll have to see how I feel in them.

Far left: burgundy wool cardigan, green Ramona cardigan, coral rose cardigan

Middle left: Geo flannel skirt, Zwei Leben denim skirt, rust cord skirt, vintage wool wrap skirt

Middle right: LLBean purple wool sweater, navy cotton pullover sweater, gray wool pullover sweater, Banana Republic cream wool cardigan

Far right: cranberry waffle henley, navy blue waffle henley, cranberry wool cowl neck sweater, bright teal blue cashmere cowl neck sweater

My winter rotation is a pretty even mix of separates and dresses, and last year, I wore everything, so I hoping this year will be no different.  As I wrote yesterday, the burgundy cardigan is not my favorite thing, but I put it away with my fall things since it really didn't go with anything in my winter rotation.  The Ramona is probably going to go to the great sweater pile in the sky after this rotation (I'll salvage the buttons, though).  

I have two sweaters on needles that I'm hoping will be finished in time to wear this rotation--the blue Clouds in my Coffee cardigan and the ruby Stoker cowl neck pullover.  I'll blog about those separately soon.  The cowl neck sweater is nearly finished--I've blocked all the pieces and just have to seam them and put on the cowl.  Probably a day or two's work.  The cardigan is coming along--I'm nearly to the point of taking the sleeves off the main needles, and then the body should move along more quickly.  

I've also got yarn to make a deep garnet colored L'Enveloppe.  I love my gray one so much, I wanted another in dark red.  The first one went pretty quickly once I put my mind to it, so hopefully this one will go fast too, once I've got it on needles.

Project 333: Fall Wrap

November 30 and that means the last day of my fall rotation!  I'm not exactly sick of this rotation yet (not like how I'm always ready to burn my summer rotation by September 1!) but I'm ready to move into winter clothing.  I've been feeling a bit cold in the last week or so, and my options have been limited.  

Far left: Zwei Leben denim skirt, rust cord skirt

Top Middle: purple elbow tshirt, dark teal button up knit shirt, striped boatneck, rust henley

Middle: rust lightweight cardigan, dark green light weight cardigan, navy light weight cardigan, red light wool cardigan

Bottom Middle: cranberry waffle henley, green Ramona cardigan, burgundy wool cardigan

Once I got over my initial flurry of changes, my closet stayed pretty stable.  It is different from where I started, but the winnowing process was good, and I wore almost everything I had in my rotation this time.

I mostly wore my Dottie Angel dresses this fall, and didn't really get into my separates that much.  I did wear the blouses with my denim skirt a few times before the weather cooled, and I wore my Liberty dresses a ton when it was still in the 90s in September.  My chambray dress didn't get a lot of love this rotation; I prefer a looser waist line at the moment. 

Left: Rennie dress, chambray dress, Liberty #2 dress, olive knit eshakti dress

Middle: teal knit eshakti dress, burgundy rayon floral blouse, navy linen dress, autumn floral blouse

Right: Kennedy dress, gray linen dress, Liberty #1 dress, evergreen linen dress

I barely wore the green and navy lightweight cardigans, in part because I sort of forgot about them.  I put my two heavy weight cardigans in easy view, whereas the lighter ones were in a drawer away from my tops, and I just didn't see them.  I also think that because I tended to wear a shirt under my dresses, the third layer wasn't as necessary for most of this season.

The major hits of the rotation were the three linen dresses I made--I wore them constantly, usually with a knit shirt underneath.  The surprise hit was the Kennedy dress--I was on the fence about it after the photos I took in October.  I later realized that some dresses look better with layers and others look better without.  It helped that my layering dresses were slightly heavier weight than the thin lawn dresses that looked better without.

I almost wore the Kennedy for our Thanksgiving gathering, but the navy linen with the rust henley underneath won the day.  I was so comfortable all day!  I also wore that outfit to a birthday party in a park earlier in the fall and really liked it then as well.

 

A couple of misses: the red knit eshakti dress is too short for my preference.  I was buying my dresses to hit just at the bottom of my knee last year, and I really prefer another inch or two, particularly on these full-skirted dresses.  The olive green and dark teal knit dresses are my preferred length and I'm carrying them into my winter rotation.  They both got a lot of wear this fall.  I bought the teal one a size up since that style seems to run small in the arms and torso, and so it is a little roomy, but I think that is not a bad thing.  Some days you want less fitted.

I also noticed that my "wool" red sweater has a bit of acrylic in it, which explains why I sometimes feel simultaneously hot and cold in it.  I'm trying to decide what to do with it, as I do like the color and length, and it goes with a bunch of stuff in my closet, but I don't like wearing synthetics if I can help it.

My Ramona cardigan is starting to look pretty sad and ratty, so I'm not sure how much longer it will last.  I made a not-so-great choice in the yarn, and it pills constantly and picks up everything in sight.  I also made Russian joins throughout the sweater which was a mistake, given the weight of the yarn--the joins are a little more obvious than I would like.  I do wear it a lot, and it goes with a ton of things in my closet, so I'll probably make a similar green one in Swish sometime next year.  I'm hoping to limp it through my winter rotation and then retire it.

The burgundy wool cardigan is a nice sweater, and I wore it a lot because it is warm, but I don't think it is the most flattering thing I own.  The color isn't that great on me, and the shape is pretty boxy.  But it goes well with a lot of things in this rotation, so I'll probably hang on to it.  I wish I could find one that was similar in weight but more to a cranberry shade.

I'll share my winter rotation tomorrow!

Let's Party Like It's 1765

Every year, my kids' school has a History Day celebration sometime in November, usually near the Thanksgiving break.  It is a nice way to end before the long break for Thanksgiving, and the kids look forward to it almost as much as the spring Literature Day celebration.  They get to dress up in costume and participate in a ton of history-related activities all day.  

In classical curriculum, the students study a different period of history each year, starting with the ancient world in kindergarten.  By the time they are in 3rd grade, they are studying the modern period (about 1800-1900).  In 6th grade, they start over again with the ancient world and delve more deeply into material as they move through middle school and high school.

Piglet is in 3rd grade this year, and his costume options included colonial dress, so he decided to go as George Washington.  

Boo's class is studying the medieval period, so he went as Robin Hood.

Birdie is in kindergarten so she went as a Roman princess.

When I heard that Piglet's class was focusing on colonial history, my ears perked up.  Long time readers might remember my brief foray into 18th century costuming way back in 2014.  I hadn't really abandoned it, but I did shelve the project for a long while.  I have been steadily researching textile history and keeping up with other 18th century historical costumers these last years.  

In any case, I decided that I could cobble together a working class outfit and make a presentation about it, if the teacher was interested.  She was enthusiastic about the idea (and it helped that the kids had visited a colonial farm in early November), so I spent a rather frantic 6 weeks putting together all the pieces I lacked, including stays!  (gulp!)  I'll try to do a post about constructing the individual pieces soon, but thought I'd share the photos from my presentation in the meantime.  I asked a friend to take them and she was sitting on the floor with the kids, hence the angle.

I started out in my shift, cap, and stockings.  (I had some modesty stuff underneath the shift to keep it decent in a public place).  I talked about my cap, and that I wore it to keep my hair clean since I would be working over an open flame most of the time, and also because it was considered proper for women to cover their hair.  I explained what a shift was, and that it was a prehistoric garment worn across many societies and cultures, by both men and women.  The basic shape didn't change much over time, and was constructed from a long rectangle of fabric.  

I explained that it was made from linen in order to make washing easier, and that people changed their shifts the way that we change our underwear.  I talked about pre-modern water usage (no running water = no easy baths or showers) and how keeping clean was different from today.  

I put on my garters to hold up my stockings, and explained that before elastic, women and men needed something to hold up their socks!  Many 18th century garters are embroidered with funny sayings, but mine were pretty plain (a folk-ware inspired ribbon strip on linen ribbon ties)  Then shoes.  (Cardinal rule: shoes before stays)

I talked about my stays, gave a brief history (starting with the Elizabethan "pair of bodies") and talked a little about how they are constructed.  I forgot to mention that stays were primarily made by professional stay-makers who tended to be men, because it takes a fair amount of finger and hand strength to sew stays (speaking from personal experience!)

Mine are front and back lacing so that I could get into them myself.  Stays can be front- or back-only lacing, and some maternity stays laced on the sides.  I find front and back lacing stays to be most comfortable as they are more adjustable for optimum fit.  They are also much easier to get into by yourself!

Lacing.

Still lacing.

Pulling it all tight.  Stays were not tight laced, but rather provided good back support for the heavy labor of the day, and also to give the body a particular shape under clothing.  The goal was a conical torso shape, not small measurements.

Tying the ends into a bow to secure the lacing.  I added my pockets here (you can see them peeking out in the photo below)  Pockets were a separate item of clothing for women until the late 19th century, when dresses became extremely fitted over the hips and separate pockets ruined the line of the dress and became impractical.  You read sometimes about women losing a pocket at a ball or some such.

This is my modesty petticoat, which is shorter than a regular petticoat skirt, and designed to prevent wardrobe malfunctions in a high wind or other activities where skirts might fly up!  As women (and men) didn't wear anything under their shifts/shirts, this was a real concern.  

It laces front to back, just like a regular petticoat skirt.  I made this out of a yard of linen and pleated it to a linen tape.  The slit in the side allows access to the pockets.

Then my heavy flannel petticoat.  You can see how it ties here.  The kids were curious about all the ties and lacings.  I explained that since washing machines hadn't been invented yet, clothing had to be cleaned by beating it with a stick in running water, so whatever was on your clothes had to be able to survive that.  Buttons wouldn't, and were too expensive for my farmer's wife persona.  Most clothing was laced or pinned shut.

Then I added my final petticoat skirt, a heavy-weight gold linen that I lurve so much.  I can't wear that color next to my face, and this was a fun way to be able to wear it!

I used two full yards and pleated them to a double fold bias tape that I sewed shut on the ends.  It isn't as historically accurate as the linen tape, but it worked okay.

Then my shortgown, made from some heavy weight linen scraps.  A short gown is a t-shaped jacket without closures that has cut-on sleeves.  I had to do some piecing to get it to work, but they would have done in the 18th century as well, so I figured it was all to the good.  I left it unlined because I ran out of fabric.  I based the shape on several extant short gowns, and the length and general measurements are similar.

There is some debate about whether linen would have been used for an outer garment like this, but I think it must have been since cotton was used once widely available.  These jackets and many dresses of the period were often held together with small straight pins.  

There was in fact a shortage of pins during the Revolutionary War, and Abigail Adams writes to her husband John, in England at the time, and begs him to send her a bundle of pins in his next consignment to her, as they are desperately in need.  I read out part of the letter.  I made a little pincushion on a ribbon tie to wear on my apron, since women would have wanted pins near to hand in case they lost one on their clothes during the day.

Pinning shut.  The pins are inserted lengthwise, with the pointed end down.  Someone asked me if the pins would stick you during the day, and my answer is no, because: stays. There are four layers of heavy cloth plus bones between you and any errant pin pricks.  Another person wondered about holding babies with straight pins in the clothes, but babies tended to be swaddled in lots of layers of linen at the time, so I suspect they wouldn't have made contact with the sharp points all that often.

Tucking in my fichu (neckerchief).  It fills in the neckline and adds some modesty to the low cut of the shift and stays.

Adding my apron.  I showed them how the apron can be tucked up into a little pouch to hold things like potatoes or other garden produce.  I'm sure the pouches were used to carry other things as well!

And finally, my Bergère hat!  It is quite a hack job, but it worked well for the presentation.

Bet you'll never guess what it is made of!  (Hint: a placemat)  It is tied on over my cap.

The finished outfit!  The hat would only be appropriate for going "to town" or other public places, whereas my cap is more appropriate around the house.  This outfit is the 18th century equivalent of jeans and a t-shirt.

I'm ready to haul water, chop wood, tend my cooking fire and the copper, weed the garden, slop the pigs, milk the cow, and generally do the hard labor of the farm!

I'm sure there are a ton of Historical Sew Monthly challenges tied up in this outfit, but I'll hit the details later.