Me-Made May: Part 2

To say we are living through history right now would be an understatement.  This past week has brought the highs of the successful SpaceX space launch, the pains of the continued lockdown and consequent economic devastation, to the lows of riots and looting, of peaceful protests turned violent.  

Saturday night was pretty tense here, as rioters and looting took over the main part of downtown, which is a mere stone's throw from us, and the air was uneasy.  Police choppers had been overhead for hours by then, and it was clear that things were escalating rather than dying down.  A neighbor returning from a shift at one of the hospitals knocked on our door to offer to store our bikes overnight in his garage, as he had seen first hand what was happening, and was worried about what the night hours would bring.  We scrambled to move the bikes as choppers circled our streets and the curfew loomed.  (We securely lock the bikes to the iron grates and railings on the outside of the house and cover with heavy duty covers most of the time and do not have a garage to store them).

This morning (Sunday), the heat and humidity broke, and the day dawned sunny, cool and pleasant, a welcome relief to the stifling wet heat of the previous days.  This last week of May has felt more like the dog-days of August.  

The choppers are still swirling overhead, but with less frequency as the day has passed, and the sound of sirens is mostly replaced with the more homely sounds of birdsong.  Some clean-up has begun.  We shall see what the night brings.  I have many thoughts jumbled in my head, but no coherence to write about it.  

With that said, I'll just wrap up Me-Made May, this being the last day of the month.  I'm well aware of the frivolity of such a post on a day such as this, so please forgive the dissonance.

May 19-24

This week was still cool, but definitely the last gasp for my corduroy and denim skirts until the fall.  I pulled out my Fusion dress again on May 21, and enjoyed wearing it, to my complete surprise.  I wore it quite a bit in the fall, and liked it with my Seafoam shawl then and now.  That shawl is probably my most-worn make from the past year.  May 22 would have been my gram's 93rd birthday, and I wore a bracelet of hers that day in remembrance.  I miss her so.  It was also a bit of an outfit experiment I had been wanting to try with my Purple Violet Squish dress, which had been slated for the block, but has been granted a place in my closet again.  

Incidentally, I'm not sure if I ever explained the origin of the name of the dress.  When I was in college, I had a semester where I wrote two 30-page papers simultaneously, one on the Haight-Ashbury in the 1960s, and one on Robert the Bruce and the fight for Scottish independence.  It was a bonkers semester, as I would spend one weekend immersed in the American 1960s, and the next in medieval Scotland.  "Purple Violet Squish" was referenced in the Haight-Ashbury research--a hippie poem, I think, and I used it as part of the title of my paper. 

May 25-31.  I suppose I need to practice looking to the left for a change.

 This week the weather turned hot and steamy and just gross.  It was pretty hard to keep putting one foot in front of the other, and maintain routines, particularly with everything going on in the world.  

 The cooler weather today has been a major boost to me.  My only complete outfit repeat of the month was May 25, when I wore the red Brussels linen Everyday skirt again with my stripey top, and I think I like it well enough to keep it in the closet for the summer.  We celebrated Ascension on May 28 (thrifted RTW mint skirt and white top, with my Chinook scarf, a MMM stretch but I'm counting it). I debuted two new skirts and an altered dress this week (May 30...details to come).  I also cut down my green linen skirt for Birdie, and refashioned an old toile into a dress for Ponchik, as well as cutting down another old dress of mine for her.  I'll post those photos separately. The blue skirt on May 26 is really a refashion of this dress, but it is a decent comfy skirt for gross weather, so I'll take it.

So that's a wrap on Me-Made May for this year.  Over and out.

Pink clay

Please forgive a rather frivolous sewing post in the midst of all that is happening in the world right now.  I find I do not have the words to address the pain and terrible things, but my heart is deeply grieved for all those who are hurting.  I am minded that all I can do is to tend the garden of my own heart, to continue weed out the evil that would root there.

 

So.  Another skirt.  This is the skirt I made first, before the teal and flame ones of my previous post.  I wouldn't call it a palette-cleanser exactly, more like a warm-up lap.  The fabric is 100% linen from fabrics-store.com in English Rose, which is a lovely pink-clay sort of color that was difficult to photograph accurately.  It is a bit more muted than in the photographs.  Before this month, I hadn't sewn a full garment since the fall, and I wanted something that I didn't need to think too much about, since these days I am sewing with utter distraction, in stolen snatches of time, surrounded by the demands and needs of my children all day, every day. 

I started with the Everyday Skirt pattern, which I've made enough times at this point to not think about it much, but I wanted to see if I could take the sweep of it down a bit with some gentle tweaks. 
This pattern runs quite big, and I also have wondered if it was time to size down again.  The first time I made this pattern, I made a size large, based on my body measurements, but it was too big, so I've been sewing a straight size medium with an inch of added length since then. 

The grade between sizes on this pattern isn't very much on some pattern pieces, and is 1/2" all around on others, so I decided to leave the back piece alone, since I carry a lot of my weight in my seat, and to take the side panels down to the XS size and the front panel to the S size.  (I should add, just for the record, that I can never wear these sizes on the bottom in ready to wear, ever.  Just to give you a sense of the sizing on this pattern). 

I made the pattern with my usual modification for a 1" waistband, and used two lines of 3/8" elastic to make the back waist width line up with the front (I've handled the width discrepancy between the front and back waistbands in different ways since making this modification, and I think I like this one the best).

I think I cut the elastics to 11.5."  I tried it on, and did not like the fit at all.  The sweep of the skirt still felt too big, and the fit around the waist was just off somehow.  It felt too long, too big, just Too Much Skirt.  In the meantime, I had made the teal skirt and liked the sweep, so decided to use that as a guide to take off some width to this skirt. 

This is probably closest to the color.

(I should add: I think I may have cut this one at pattern length instead of adding my usual inch, and then doing a 1" hem.  This is one of the challenges of my proportions: long rise, long femur, itty-bitty shin bones.  My height is all between my natural waist and knees--ha!  The trouble with that is, if I make a skirt to industry-standard "knee" length--21" say, it tends to hit me at mid-thigh.  But if I add too much length to get below-the-knee in a non-pencil silhouette--say, 25-26"--I quickly end up in frumpy-town because the length plus short calves means the visual proportions are off.  24" is often a good right-at-the-knee length, but it doesn't always look good for one reason or another. Tricky, that). 

 

At first, I thought I'd have to totally deconstruct the skirt, and maybe even recut parts of it, but in the end, pinning out a wedge from each side panel was enough.  I measured the width of the teal skirt (48" all around), and then measured this skirt (around 62", I think) and decided the best place to take out the width was the side panels, since that was where most of the A-shape comes from.

I needed the waist measurement to stay roughly the same, however, so the width needed to come out in a wedge rather than just trimming the seam allowance down.  In a way, it was an easier alteration since I didn't have to unpick the waistband. 

I unpicked the hem for a few inches to either side of the seam allowance and measured out a 2" wedge on the fold along the seam allowance, and tapered it to nothing, ending at the waistband seam.  That way when I sewed along the new seam line, the old seam allowance was captured inside the wedge.  The finished sweep is one I'm happy with, and taking out that wedge fixed whatever was going on with the waistband fit, so there you go. 

An outtake!  Photos by Birdie today.

I'm not sure I would make a skirt on this pattern on purpose in the future, given that I like the Rose hack and it is slightly fewer pieces to sew, but there are some nice features about this pattern that I could see making it again with the narrower side panel, or altering older makes to mimic this one.  And I think that's my skirt sewing mostly sorted for the summer.  I have a dress hack that I think is going to work well, so will show that soon too.

A Tale of Two Skirts

I've long lamented my warm weather wardrobe.  A lot of this is a function of my basic unhappiness with hot weather, and my inability to find clothing that ticks all the boxes for me: cool enough to wear in 80% humidity and 90-100 degree temps + hot flashes without central AC all summer, fitted enough to feel like "me" but not so fitted as to make me sweat a lot or be grumpy when bloated, covers my arms and shoulders for skin cancer avoidance reasons, but doesn't look frumpy or oversized, not too short, not too long, yadda-yadda-yadda.  My skin is fair enough that I have been known to burn through clothing, so I have to watch sheerness too.

One of my chief complaints about summer skirts (and dresses, really) is one of volume--as in, I don't like a lot of volume.  I generally don't like big billowy skirts, fit and flare doesn't really suit my style or proportions, and maxi skirts annoy me because they are always too long (and, by the way, trap heat around the legs).  The fitted pencil skirts I prefer the rest of the year are often too heavy for summer weather (or too fitted to be cool).

The other issue with summer-wear is that it tends not to last more than a season (or two at best) because of the above-said weather.  Summer clothing tends to need washing after nearly every wearing, and no fabric is meant to stand up to that kind of wash and wear for months on end.  Which is how I found myself staring down hot weather this year with a skirt and dress shortage.  Again.

I had a few lengths of linen that I intended to make summer skirts with, but the fabric languished as I suddenly found myself on lockdown with all my kids, homeschooling, being ill for weeks and weeks, and trying not to lose my mind.  We are still homeschooling for another week and a half, but we had a long break over the holiday weekend; I was able to eke out some drafting and sewing time. 

My first thought was to make more Everyday Skirts to avoid having to fit a new skirt block on limited time and patience, but sometimes I find too them too voluminous with bare legs (it's a weird thing I have about having feedback from my clothes against the back of my legs--if I can't feel my skirt against my legs and my skirt is knee length or slightly above, I worry that I'm flashing someone). 

To start with, I made a clay-colored linen skirt as a straight Everyday skirt make, just to get back into the swing of things since I've not sewn a full garment for months, but despite some size fiddling, I didn't love the sweep or fit.  I set it aside to deal with later (and have since fixed it, but not worn it yet).  Will blog details when I have photos to share. 

Next I set to drafting, which requires more mental space for me.  I decided to use Helen's tutorial on converting culottes to a skirt, since I really liked the narrower sweep of the skirt, but the ease that suggested it would work with linen or rayon.  Readers who have been around a while will also remember that I altered a pair of RTW culottes last summer on the same principle and really liked the sweep of the finished skirt (just not the length or overall fit).  I don't have the Winslow Culottes pattern, but I do have the Made By Rae Rose pants (total fitting disaster for me), and I like the pleats and volume on them, so decided to start there. 

I was nervous about the sizing, since the finished garment measurement chart and the body measurement chart on that pattern are a bit bonkers.  Compare the XS sizes to see what I mean: if your waist measures 26", how is a finished waist of 34" ever going to fit at the high waist?  My natural waist is somewhere in the neighborhood of 32", give or take, and a 34" finished waistband is going to gape on me, who never fit an XS anything in my life.  I had cut an XL based on my hip measurement (although I'm closer to 42" at the hip, but would rather have to take something in than let it out on a tiny seam allowance).  I did some measurements after folding out the crotch curves and truing the lines, and decided to stick with the size and keep the seam allowance on the center seam, but cut on the fold, just for an extra bit of wiggle room.

The result was a great teal linen skirt that is comfortable in the heat and I'm happy to wear.  My only complaint is that the waistband is slightly too tall--I'm very short-waisted, so even 1" waistbands tend to roll on me, because my ribs end less than an inch above my natural waist.  I may go back and redo it as a 1" band, just to reduce the rolling, but I kind of like the look of the higher one.  I did three lines of 3/8" elastic to match the width of the front waistband, instead of the elastic width recommended by the Rose pattern, and I like it.  I cut to 14" long, which was perfect (instead of the 16" recommended for the size).  I like all the ditch stitching on this pattern too.

I also experimented with interfacing on this skirt, since I wanted to see if something worked better than Petersham.  (I've tried elastic, fusible interfacing, waistband interfacing, grograin, and Petersham, and Petersham tends to behave the best over time and feel the most comfortable, but it does wrinkle slightly with washing).  I ended up interfacing with quilting cotton, which is okay.  After doing some alterations on my husband's suit pants over the winter, I'm curious to try a stiffer sew-in interfacing, like what was on his pants--Ban Roll, I think is the trade name--but it only seems to come in huge rolls for lots of dollars, so I'll wait until I see a small amount somewhere to try it.  I suppose horsehair braid might work too.

My next skirt on the same pattern hack was a Brussels Washer Linen in "Poppy", which isn't red at all, but a nice deep flame orange, exactly what I wanted.  I decided to take the waistband down to 1" and see if it rolled less, and interface with Petersham again.  I cut everything out, pinned carefully, and tried not to let the fabric "hang" to keep the rayon from stretching and the linen from growing, but something happened between cutting and sewing, and I found myself with a front and back skirt piece that didn't match at all--1/2" off on one side, and more than an inch on the other. 

Rather than just truing the edges as I should have done, I tried to ease in the side seams, to disastrous effect.  The pockets gaped badly and somehow pulled back from the front, the waistband looked really weird; I thought the project was a wash.  The skirt went into the naughty corner to sit for a day before I could tackle it again. 

It turns out that unpicking most of the side seams (from the pocket bags to the hem) and repinning with a bit of hang to the fabric, as well as truing the hem, was the way to fix it, and I'm pretty happy with the result now.  The fabric is slightly more sheer than I expected (and than other colors in this substrate) but I always wear a slip anyway, so that's okay. 

As the school year winds down, I'm finding it easier to carve out small bits of time for my things here and there, but it is still going to be a long summer.  For sewing, I'm finding that leaving my sewing machine case and thread box in an easy-access place next to the kitchen (where I sew), but not in the way of foot traffic, is a good way to allow small snatches of sewing.  Normally I have to do a big set up and take down of sewing stuff, to keep the living room clear of clutter, so the trade off is more stuff around, but with the home school books and things littering the living room anyway, it's not much more mess to add.  It's worth the mental boost I get from some creative activity.

Next up: Emerald tops from the leftovers, plus a few things for the girls.

Me-Made May 2020, Part 1

I've done Me-Made May for several years now, although I think last year I didn't document it at all.  No particular reason--I think my school drop off schedule in the morning just didn't allow for any picture taking and it seemed like too much of a hassle in an already overburdened month.  But I enjoy seeing other people's photos during this month, and what comes out of it in terms of my own sartorial thinking and making plans, so I decided to do it again this year.  (Being on lockdown has actually helped because I have two willing photographers in the house to help.  Some days I've just used a tripod and timer, though).  I've done all my sharing on Instagram, but since my account there is private, I thought I would do a couple of summary posts here with the photos and a few thoughts. 

May 1-6

The first week was mostly a bunch of favorites--my corduroy skirts, my marigold linen skirt, my Rent/Tess shawl.  The oregano cord skirt (May 6, bottom right) fits ever so much better since I did a lazy alteration on it in March and I've been wearing it regularly since.  I did pull my red Brussels linen skirt out of the bin to wear again (May 2, top middle), and it is...fine.  I think maybe a shorter hem and a narrower waistband might help me like it better, but it is okay for now.  I like it with the stripey top, so that's something.  The burgundy twill skirt is from the fall and had gone into the donation pile because it doesn't fit me quite right and the material sticks to itself more than I would like, even with a slip under it.  It is better without tights, though.  I can't quite decide whether to take it in or not. 

May 7-12

I was eager to wear my newly finished Doocot (top right), but the weather didn't really cooperate until May 9, and then I was happy to wear a wool sweater all day!  The Doocot went surprisingly well with my yellow Chinook scarf, which is a shade of yellow I struggle to pair with things, even though I like the scarf a lot.  I love the pairing with that dress, too.  I also realized that the mint sweater (top left) doesn't look that great on me.

May 13-18

I did some outfit experiments during these days, and came up with a couple new things and I think I like them!  The top left outfit was a new combo, and not my usual silhouette, but I felt really great in that outfit.  I also dug an old Washi dress out of my fabric bin where I had planned to cut it down for one of the girls and paired with a recently thrifted sweater and I like the combo very much.  That dress always went really well with my Spruce Carbeth too, but it is way too warm for that sweater right now.  The green linen skirt on the bottom left has undergone further alterations since the photo, but I have yet to test drive them.  I also made a small alteration to the marigold linen skirt to fit the back elastics better.

I've read a few things from some makers lately about whether it is better to dress to flatter (a word some curvy sewists find offensive because they've been told all their lives that they "can't" or "shouldn't" wear such-and-such, or have been excluded from fashion all together by a thin-obsessed industry) or to wear what you like/feels comfortable, regardless of whether it fits a conventional idea of figure flattery?  I'm not sure the two things are mutually exclusive.  

It is a tricky question, however, because anyone who does not fit our particular cultural visual ideal of tall, straight-figured, relatively flat-chested, and very thin can find certain styles that appeal don't look the way they are "supposed" to look.  There are lots of styles that I like the looks of (the loose culotte style pants that have been floating around the last couple seasons are a good example) but look really unflattering on my figure for one reason or another.  I tend to feel yuck in stuff that doesn't flatter in a conventional way, and so tend to gravitate toward stylings that work best for my proportions.  (I did make a pair of Rose pants to try out the pattern, but the fit was so badly off, I couldn't even make myself revisit the pattern to try again.  My experience fitting pants to my proportions is always maximum frustrating, and I never get something I really like in the end, so I give up easily.)

On the other hand, I do get sick of having to tuck in my shirts and sweaters all the time for maximum flattery (and feel good about what I see in the mirror).  The outfit on May 13 was born of my desire to not have something tucked in, and also to have an easy-fitted waist, something I can only get with my Everyday skirts.  It turned out flattering, but normally it wouldn't have been because almost every ready-to-wear sweater or shirt is cut too long for my proportions and looks weirdly big on me or emphasizes my lumpy bits.  So I tuck most things in to get around that.

Which leads me to my perennial warm-weather quandary.  What in the world am I wearing this summer?  My preferred silhouette these days is a knit stripey shirt with 3/4 or long sleeves, tucked into a fitted straight skirt that ends at or just above the knee (i.e. May 18, on the bottom right).  I can't seem to fit a skirt in a warm-weather fabric that meets that requirement, and while my Everyday skirts are good and swishy, I can't seem to find a length or volume that is just right.  And tucking in shirts in hot humid weather is not always my idea of a good time. 

Cropped woven tops that end at the waist like the Ashton with some kind of capped sleeve like the Washi sleeve cap are a good thought, but I really prefer t-shirt type tops in the heat.  (I don't mind bare shoulders, but I burn extremely easily and so try to keep my arms at least semi-covered in the summer, but I have to strike a balance between hot flashes and skin cancer avoidance).

I did thrift a few basic t-shirts that are the right length for me to wear untucked, so perhaps it will be okay.  I made an Everyday skirt out of some clay-colored linen this past weekend and it is a smidge too big and slightly too long, so I'll need to fix that before I wear it out, but I was looking to make something tried and true since I haven't really sewn anything for myself for months.  (Just endless sock darning and lazy skirt alterations). 

But the current cooler weather means I can put those thoughts on the back burner at least for a little while yet, and be glad.

Mother's Day Part II

I tried to get this up yesterday, but: mom duties.  (Happy Mother's Day! Enjoy 2.5 minutes all to yourself!)  

With a non-walking Boo and 7-day-old Birdie in the carrier. Oof. Those were hard days.

I ended up looking through baby photos of my kids while looking for photos of my mom, and so in honor of Mother's Day (yesterday), here are some favorite photos of the kids who made me a mom.

With newborn Piglet

Piglet, around 4 months

With Piglet in Moscow at Gorky Park, around 16 months

With newborn Boo.

This is a particular favorite of mine.  Piglet and Boo, 2 and 2 mos. respectively.

Boo, 7 mos. 

Newborn Birdie.

With newborn Birdie. Photo by Emily Photography.  (Em is a college friend and her work is gorgeous!)

Newborn Birdie.  She was such a stinker during this photoshoot--refused to sleep, wanted to see what was going on all the time.  Radioactive brain already at less than 10 days old!  Photo by Emily Photography.

Birdie on Pascha morning, around 8 mos.  This was the first or second time sitting in the Bumbo for a few minutes and able to hold her head up!  She had been on medication for about 2-3 weeks at this point, but still landed inpatient for a week a day later.

Birdie, probably around the same age.

With preemie newborn Ponchik.  She was about a month old here.  Photo by Emily Photography.

Newborn Ponchik.  Photo by Emily Photography.

With Boo at Ponchik's baptism.  She was just over 40 days old.

Birdie and Ponchik, in one of my first sewing attempts for the two of them using a random remnant from my gram's stash.

Birdie, right after Ponchik was born.

With Ponchik, around 2 months old.  Unintentionally matchy-matchy.

Double baby wearing with Birdie and Ponchik.  I did this a lot with Boo and Birdie, because Boo wasn't walking when Birdie was born, but I don't have any photos.  Suffice to say, it was the chief reason for my stress fracture that year.

Da girls.  Ponchik was around 6 months here, I think, and Birdie just over 2.

With Ponchik.  She was my first true Mama's girl (although Boo sort of was/is) and couldn't stand to be separated from me.

Boo and Ponchik around Pascha just before her first birthday.  Boo was close to 4.

The only ultrasound photo I have of Philip.  It is pretty grainy because we received the actual x-ray film and had to photograph through a window.  His head is to the right side of the image.  He was waving his hands the whole time.

Ponchik, about 13 mos.  It was her first time on grass and she was very perplexed.  What you can't see in the photo was Boo sitting nearby to keep her company because he could tell she was nervous.

Boo sitting nearby to provide moral support.

Da boys.  That same summer.  Boo was four and Piglet was 6.

A lot of these photos are or were framed on my photo wall in the stairwell, and remain favorites.  I remember the chaos of having all babies and toddlers, and am glad that the kids are all weaned and potty-trained, and we are now in the "older" kid phase, but sometimes I miss the squishy softness of their younger days.