Project 333: Summer 2017

Welcome to my summer rotation!  Although, as I write this, I'm still in cardigans and stockings, so I can't really believe that it is June 1st already.  Aside from the freakshow heat wave for a week in the middle of May, it has been very pleasant and cool this spring.  By this time last year, it was disgustingly hot and humid and I couldn't wait to get into my summer clothes.  This year, I ended up leaving out a few extra cardigans because I think I'm going to need them for another week or two.

Left: Blueberry dress, Paintbrush dress, coral linen dress (unblogged), Liberty #3 dress

Top right: vintage yellow floral skirt, green knit top, coral knit top

Middle right: red twill skirt, ocean blue twill skirt, navy twill skirt (unblogged)

Bottom right: Bunny blouse, Feedsack blouse, vintage floral blouse, Strawberry Fields blouse

Left: Liberty #5 dress (unblogged), Periwinkle Birch dress (unblogged), Lily Pad linen dress

Top right: light blue cardigan, royal blue cardigan, coral cardigan, red cardigan

Bottom right: linen blouse, teal cardigan

Left: Dejavu dress (unblogged), red linen dress, Picnic dress (unblogged), Bo Peep dress (unblogged)

Right: Hebrides dress (unblogged), Orkney dress (unblogged), green linen dress (unblogged), Skye dress (unblogged)

Obviously, there is a lot of new stuff in my rotation.  I find that every summer, without fail, I get to the end of it and I want to burn everything.  I'm so sick of being hot, and of the clothes I have to wear while being hot, that I just can't stand them any more.  It is also true that summer in the wet heat in a non-temperature controlled environment is very hard on fabric, and so some things tend to look rather shabby by the end of the season.  So while I technically had clothing from last year that was wearable, I didn't really want to carry much of it over this year.  My Nike dress looked terrible by the end of last summer and was at least a size too big to boot, so it got recycled sometime this past year.  The Bandana rayon dress which I actually did like a lot and wore a ton, had a liturgical accident at the very end of the summer.  While it is technically still wearable, it is tricky to wash now, so I think it just needs to have that part cut out and burned, and the rest recycled.  I suspect it might also be too big anyway.  I did make a small alteration to the Blueberry dress, as I was always annoyed by the inseam pockets--I installed them slightly too low for easy use.  I had intended to just move them up and call it good, but I discovered that I had clipped the seam allowance to make the pocket lie flat and it was going to be difficult to work around.  So I just trimmed them off and added a kangaroo pocket with some leftover fabric I had.  Hopefully it will be more functional!

I'm on the fence about a couple of pieces I did carry over, specifically the Paintbrush dress and the Liberty #3 dress.  I want to keep one of them for a Transfiguration dress (I decided that the Buttercup dress just really wasn't doing it for me) but can't make up my mind.  The Liberty dress is slightly worse for wear after last summer, but still plenty wearable.  The Paintbrush dress wears like iron, but it is a heavier fabric, so perhaps not ideal for an August liturgical holiday.  I dunno.  The coral linen dress was something I made last September out of some clearance rack fabric I found online and couldn't return after I'd received it and found the color rather alarming.  I'm still dubious about the color--it is rather creamsicle colored!--but I do need a dress for bumming around at the lake and the pool, and I think it will be a nice replacement for the Nike dress.

The red twill skirt needs some alterations to fit better, and it remains to be seen if I can do that easily.  The Bunny blouse is starting to show its age but I just can't seem to get rid of it.  I do need to put some darts in it to shape it as it is a little bit big on me this year.  So both of those are in my mending pile for now.

I'm also uncertain about two other makes--the Hebrides and Orkney dresses.  They are made from a very sheer voile that I interlined with rayon bemberg (talk about a headache and a half!) and I just don't know how they are going to hold up.  The voile is more fragile that I expected, but the dresses look a little dressier than every day wear, so I'll probably save them for Sundays and the few events we have to go to this season.

Another problem I have historically had with warm weather clothing is that I can't seem to make stuff that suits me well in the heat.  I don't actually like light-colored clothing all that much, and I don't think it does my complexion any favors, but I seem to buy light stuff every year.  I made a real effort this year to get away from that, and to get stuff that was bright instead of light.  I'm actually pretty eager to wear my summer clothes this year.  I have a lot of reds and navy blues and teals.  I'm particularly enthused about the "red" section of my closet.  :)

As I wrote yesterday, I'd like to make an Everyday Skirt out of some chambray I have in my bin, and possibly a navy linen Portrait blouse, but both of those can wait to later in the summer or even the fall.  There is always a month or more of high heat at the beginning of my fall rotation anyway.

So, a good start to the summer season, I think! 

Me Made May: Week Five and Spring Wrap

Last day of May, so last day of my spring rotation!  (And last day to run outside quick a minute and take an outfit photo--I am glad of that!)

I am feeling a bit better today that I have for a while.  The weekend was tough, though.  My husband took the boys to the monastery for the long weekend, so I was on my own with the girls without a lot of help.  And Ponchik spiked a bizarre and short-lived fever on Saturday that scared me a little because she looked so bad and it came on so fast.  

I am trying to eat more fat and protein and fewer carbs to see if that helps me feel better throughout the day.  So a Paleo-ish approach.  (Don't get me started on the oxymoron that is Paleo.  But it seems to be a sound dietary approach for the modern milieu)

But I digress (as usual).  My spring rotation didn't really change too much over time--I added several extra dresses, subtracted one or two things, but I wore everything and mostly felt good about what I wore.

Top left: Hobby Horse skirt, Zwei Leben denim skirt

Top right: Charcoal linen dress, Painted roses rayon dress, navy linen dress, Octopus dress

Middle left: Foxgloves dress, green knit eshakti dress, Liberty #1 dress, navy knit eshakti dress

Middle right: long line heavy cotton navy cardigan, long line purple cotton-wool cardigan, pink heavy cotton cardigan, wool Fair Isle cardigan

Bottom: navy blue undershirt, teal-blue undershirt, black undershirt

Top left: orange knit shirt, kelly green knit shirt, navy blue battenburg knit shirt, delft blue boatneck shirt

Middle left: navy lightweight cardigan, teal lightweight cardigan, black merino cardigan, coral lightweight cardigan, charcoal gray lightweight cardigan

Middle bottom: medium blue striped shirt, coral 3/4 sleeve shirt, light blue striped shirt, gray striped shirt

Right: First Light dress, Market Floral Zadie, Dandelion Zadie, Birch rayon

I mentioned that I wore my Zadies a LOT this spring.  The Market Floral one really looks pretty shabby.  The navy has faded quite a lot and it is starting to pill on the sides, especially under the arms.  I've already had to repair it in several places, and the seam stitching is starting to pull.  So I think it needs to be retired after this season.  The Dandelion one fared a bit better, but still looks slightly faded and just a little pill-y.  The color was kind of faded to start with, so it shows less.  I think I can wear it another season.  I am disappointed since the fabric was quite pricey for me.  I do wonder if these dresses look as nice as I think they do, since they seem to photograph very differently depending on the angle, but I'll keep the Dandelion one for now.  I have another knit dress pattern or two that I want to try for next winter/spring that may work better (and be less frustrating to put together).

I also wore my rayon dresses a lot.  So much that I made sure to include several rayon dresses in my summer rotation.  What I did not wear very much were my separates.  I like the Hobby Horse skirt a lot, but it took me a while to find a top that I really liked with it (and I did, but not until earlier this month).  So I think it will get more wear next spring.  I ended up wearing almost all the knit shirts as undershirts with my linen dresses.

Some fails: the Raindrops dress just doesn't look that good.  It faded a lot after being washed twice, and looks a bit worse for wear.  I also think the print doesn't "read" well at a distance.  I didn't like wearing the blue shirt that I found to match it because it had a lettuce hem that was annoying under the dress.  I never really did get the fit right on it, and it didn't look right with a lightweight cardigan.  I was kind of making myself wear it earlier this month just to make sure it got worn enough to justify the cost of making, but I ended up putting it to the side a few weeks ago.  

My summer sewing is mostly done, but I'm interested in trying a few new patterns for transitional apparel, so we'll see what I end up working on this summer.  The kids' school year is winding down, and with it, my mental space to try new things, so it might have to wait until later in the summer when they are in camp during the day.  I'm okay with that.  I do want to make the Everyday Skirt (or a similar Big4 pattern that I bought recently) so that is probably on deck for July.  I might make a linen blouse, but I might also save that for the fall.  We have a lot going on in June, and not a lot of extra help lined up, so I'm trying to not to have too much stacked up, creatively speaking.

I'll have my summer rotation tomorrow--stay tuned.

Me Made May: Week Four

What to say about this week except that it was kind of tough?  Not much, I guess.  Yesterday was the feast of the Ascension (and also the close of the Paschal season), so I pulled my Ascension dress out of my summer bin to wear.  It rained heavily all day yesterday and was chilly, so I had to wear long stockings with it.  I'm guessing by the time I wear it for Transfiguration in August, I won't need any accessories!

I did make matching Ascension dresses for the girls (that they can also wear for Transfiguration in August) and was happy with how cute they turned out.  I used a length of fabric I'd bought last summer but never got around to using.  It was more white before I prewashed it, but I made the mistake of prewashing it with some navy blue linen that really bled a lot, so the fabric now has a faint blue cast to it.  I guess it doesn't matter that much since the dresses "read" white at a distance.  

It's been a bit chilly all week; after the extreme heat of last week (Friday hit 97 degrees!), the temps dropped into the low 60s on Saturday and have more or less stayed there all week.  So stockings and cardigans again.  I'm not complaining one little bit!  It is quite damp and humid, though, so I've been avoiding boots.

I pulled out my trusty denim skirt on Tuesday with some misgiving.  Earlier this year, the skirt had become too big on me, and I was ready to remake it sometime in the fall when I decided to try a controlled shrink in the dryer.  I usually machine wash my clothes and line dry almost everything that I wear, but I thought perhaps a go through the dryer might fix the bagginess of the skirt.  It actually worked brilliantly, and I was pleased that I wouldn't have to make it again soon.  It was fine as long as I was wearing tights all the time, which kind of smooth everything out in my belly area, but I've noticed that when I wear it without tights, there are a lot of visible lumps and bumps.  And yes, I know I could just wear a girdle, but my tolerance for girdles is pretty low right now.  So I'm unsure what to do about it all.

I suppose I could just save the skirt for cold-weather wear and make the best of it.  I pretty much only wear it in cold weather anyway, but there are always a few weeks in the spring and fall when I like it without tights.  I did make a navy blue twill skirt for my summer that could work as a warm-weather stand-in, however.  We'll see.  In any case, the ready-to-wear knit shirt I wore with it is clearly too big on me.  I'll probably save it for an undershirt though.

I've been working on my summer rotation, sewing a little bit here and there, and making good progress on my stack.  I have two more dresses to cut out and one more to sew, so I'm in good shape as far as that goes.  My Pentecost dress is done, so at least I'm not on a deadline with anything.  I have a few nice things for a couple of events we have this summer, so I'm also feeling okay about that too.

I need to get myself back together on a lot of levels.  I feel like I've fallen apart this month.  My sleeping has been poor because of sick kids/husband, my husband has been gone a LOT, I've not been feeling well for a while, my eating and other good habits have really taken a beating.  I'm just drifting.  I have things piled up that I can't seem to get to because my energy levels are rotten and my focus is gone.  I'm frustrated about it, because it feels like I had something good in my grasp just a few weeks ago and I lost it.  And I don't know how to find it again.  I guess I just have to keep reaching for it and pray that God gives it back to me.

Talking Tuesday: Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking

I wrote a few weeks ago about Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking; I finished it shortly after I first wrote about it and wanted to share a passage or two from it.  Von Bremzen is a gifted writer and her book is a delight from start to finish.  It is equal parts social history and memoir, and she deftly weaves together the gastronomic and general history of the Soviet Union together with her personal history.  The thing I liked best about the book was the way that Ms. Von Bremzen paints a picture of the lives they led, particularly in the Brezhnev era.  The portrait is vivid and real, with only the faintest whiff of nostalgia.

She writes quite a bit about Mikoyan's famous book, The Book of Tasty and Healthy Food, or Kniga in common parlance.  It was a book that informed the cuisine of Soviets for generations and through which one can trace policy shifts over time and various editions.

"The wrenching discrepancy between the abundance on the pages and its absence in the shops made Kniga's myth of plenty especially poignant.  Long-suffering Homo sovieticus gobbled down the deception; long-suffering H. sovieticus had after all been weaned on socialist realism, an artistic doctrine that insisted on depicting reality "in its revolutionary development"--past and present swallowed up by a triumphant projection of a Radiant Future.  In socialist realist visions, kolkhoz maidens danced around cornucopic sheaves of wheat, mindless of famines; laboring weavers morphed into Party princesses through happy Stakhanovite toil.  Socialist realism encircled like an enchanted mirror: the exhausted and hunger-gnawed in real life peered in and saw only their rosy future--transformed reflections." (p.124)

I particularly liked her description of salat Olivier as a silent indicator of identity:

"With salat Olivier, identity issues boiled down mainly to the choice of protein.  Take for instance militant dissidents, the sort of folk who typed out samizdat and called Solzhenitzyn "Isayich" (note the extremely coded, Slavic vernacular use of the patronymic instead of first and last names).  Such people often expressed their culinary nihilism and their disdain for Brezhnev-era corruption and consumer goods worship by eschewing meat, fish, or fowl altogether in their Olivier.  At the other end of the spectrum, fancy boiled tongue signified access to Party shops; while Doctor's Kolbasa, so idolized during the seventies, denoted a solidly blue-collar worldview." (p.183)

I think there must be an American equivalent of the Olivier, where the ingredients indicate class and status, as well as personal identity.  Perhaps the lowly hot dog?  Would you like it all-beef, grass-fed, organic, kosher, or even vegan?

Ms. Von Bremzen's book is well worth a read, and contains a section of recipes that I hope to try out soon!

After finishing Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking, I dove into Sana Krasikov's novel, The Patriots, which is about several generations of a family who emigrate back and forth between Russia and America during the course of the 20th century.  It is extremely well-written and completely fascinating.  The author clearly did a ton of research and really nailed the period and place. I couldn't put it down.

After that, I read Despite The Falling Snow, the novel upon which a so-so movie is based.  The book is just okay.  It suffers a deplorable lack of real research (the author admitted as much in the acknowledgements and it shows, particularly in the period sections).  It sounds like she didn't crack a single historical book about the period she is writing about, and relies instead upon a few interviews with a small group of people old enough to remember the time and a single trip to Moscow.  Interviews are useful, and have their place in the research process, but there is much to read to really immerse oneself in a period as well as a place different from one's own, and it seems to me that the author didn't do it.  The modern sections of the book are much more interesting as a result.  (A complete flip from the movie version, where I felt the modern sections were just a distraction from the period piece).  It is a story that is almost there but not quite.

I started Amor Towles' A Gentleman In Moscow, but I couldn't get into it right away, so I've set it aside in favor of Colleen McCullough's Bittersweet.  The book is very good, but it took a bit for me to get into the story.  I adored The Thorn Birds (both the book and the mini-series) and Bittersweet has been reviewed as a worthy successor to that novel (even though it inhabits a different place and space in time).   I'm about half way through the novel.  I have Ruth Goodman's How to Be a Tudor next up on my stack.

Quotations from: Von Bremzen, Anya.  Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking.  New York: Crown Publishers, 2013.

Me Made May: Week 3

Happy Friday!  The weather has turned hot and gross this week, so I'm into the portion of my rotation that is decidedly warm-weather-only friendly.  The first half of the week was still cool and pleasant with highs in the 60s and low 70s, and I was still wearing stockings and boots, but things changed on Tuesday afternoon and it has been in the low 90s with high humidity since then.  

I've also come down with the crud that the kids have been passing around for several weeks, and my lungs are a mess.  It being the first lung infection of the season for me, and the sick season nearly done, I'd count that as pretty good.  (I spent most of the last school year battling one lung infection after another).  So almost everything is on hold until I feel better.  I have rosemary and eucalyptus oils going in the diffuser and that seems to help the sinus congestion a bit.  Plus it makes the kitchen smell nice.

I always struggle with transitional footwear, as I'm usually not ready to pull out open-toed sandals at this point in the year, but boots are impractical once it warms up a bit.  I do have some open-backed clogs I like, but I found this pair of ballet flats on ebay and they have been really nice to have.  They are very neutral, actually fit my impossible feet and aren't too bad to walk the city in.  (They are the Hush Puppies Chaste Ballet, for reference).  I have extremely high arches, bone spurs on my heels and bunions, and a wide square toe box, so ballet flats and me are usually a toxic mix, but these are good.

Some thoughts about the week.  I love the new Octopus dress (day 3).  It makes me happy every time I look at it.  It also renewed my love of Cotton+Steel's regular mid-weight cotton (not that I'd lost it, but I've been focusing on working more with garment weight fabrics).  I forgot to mention that I dropped the bust tucks another 1/2" on that dress and that seems to be a better fit with the bras I'm wearing now.  

I also realized that the Liberty #1 dress (day 6) needs some taking in.  I had noticed earlier in the spring that it was a little loose, but there is more than 3" of positive ease in the back and it makes the front hang a little weirdly.  I think if I just snug up the back elastic some more, that will help most of the issues.  I think I'm down maybe 10 pounds from last spring when I made it, and I guess the fit is different.  It is still a good dress, and I really like it.  I also get a ton of compliments on it every time I wear it, so I think that is another reason to fix the fit!  I have a couple more faux-Liberty dresses in the works for the summer, and I may end up putting one of them in the spring rotation for next year as well since I think having two lawn dresses in the spring might be a good idea.

I did have a period of questioning this spring about whether I should still do the Project.  My spring rotation ballooned a little in the middle, as I struggled to figure out the best combination of pieces and to settle into a spring uniform, but at the end of the day, I still think the Project helps me stay focused on a smaller and simpler wardrobe.  I realize that I get stressed if a drawer is too full or a closet has too many hangers in it.  I like having some emptiness in the house, just for the sake of emptiness, not for having a space to fill.

Now I'm going to take crummy self off to the couch and rewatch more of Nikita.

A Girl and her Octopus

Sometimes, you just need an octopus dress.  😊

(I was sorely tempted to make a James Bond reference in the post title, but I restrained myself).  

I wrote last week that this month has passed in a fog for me.

There are a lot of reasons for that, but some of them are related to sleep deprivation.  I know, I know. Sleep deprivation is a fact of life when you have small children, but in my case, sleep deprivation has been my constant companion for the past decade.  It has been significantly worse in the years since Birdie's birth, given all her health issues. I've been known to run for weeks on 2-3 hours of sleep a night. It takes a toll.

The kids have been passing around one virus after another since Pascha. Ponchik has been sick for more than a week (and consequently not sleeping well); Birdie caught it on Friday and hasn't slept since. Thus, I've not really slept since then either. I'm kind of running on fumes at this point.

The funny thing is, I've actually been sleeping better and for more hours at night this winter, as we've had an unusually light sick season this year.  Birdie started seeing a new specialist in the fall, and he changed some of her protocols; this has made a huge difference for her baseline health.  She's had a few very minor viruses (i.e. normal kid sicknesses) but that's it!  Her sleep has been better and therefore, my sleep has been better (well, for the most part; I'm still getting up with the other kids sometimes, and my husband's CPaP often wakes me up in the middle of the night, but the point is, I've been running on more sleep this school year).  I think some of my weight loss success this winter and spring has been due to just getting better sleep and being in a headspace to make better food decisions.

I realized recently that my eating habits are significantly worse when I'm more tired than usual. I go into survival mode and I do what I can just to stay awake and keep putting one foot in front of the other.  And usually, that means sugar and caffeine.  Generally not a good strategy for weight loss or healthy weight maintenance.  My headspace since Pascha has been very survivalist.  My husband is up to his eyes in work and he has been away a lot since February.  It doesn't look to let up any time soon.

I'm finding it quite difficult to get myself back together and embrace the basic asceticism of healthy eating habits.  We've had a lot of celebrations this month (two birthdays, our anniversary, end-of-year parties, a dinner party or two, plus general Pascha-tide food) and I've just not been that motivated to work on my poor habits.  I'm going to keep struggling though, and hope that sleep comes my way again soon.

But back to the dress(es).  Ponchik loves octopuses (weird, I know) and sometime earlier this spring, I remembered that Cotton+Steel had an octopus print in one of their collections from last year.  Sadly, the colorway I really wanted was out of stock everywhere, but I was able to find this lovely blue version in an etsy shop.  I quickly bought enough to make her a surprise birthday dress and then thought no more about it.

I tried to work on it during times when she was occupied with a sitter or out of the house, but I didn't actually get to sewing it until last week when she was home sick most of the week.  It was a fast project, and she was oblivious at the time.  While I was sewing it, I got the mad idea to make one for myself.  Because it seemed like a fun thing to do for her birthday today.  Plus I wanted some variety in my closet.  I'm trying to own my printy-utilitarianism.  (Me-Made-May is always so sartorially clarifying for me).

I know it is basically another blue dress, but it feels fun and fresh and I really like it!  I made it in a mad rush over the weekend so that we could match today.  Because I'm silly like that.  Plus the project gave me a mood boost on a day when I sorely needed it.  Let's just say that holidays are not my husband's strong suit.  Ponchik is really happy that we are matching today.  She is four!  I can't believe it.

Just the facts:

Octopus Mama and Me dresses: Simplicity 1080 (heavily redrafted), Simplicity 8101 (size four, with 1 1/2" added for length), Cotton+Steel fabric, Gutermann 251 thread, elastic, vintage cotton bias tape in Copen.
Sweater (on me): Banana Republic via ThredUp
Socks: Sock Dreams Novella Above-Knee stockings in black
Boots: KadiMaya
Earrings: etsy
Necklace: bought in Scotland twelve years ago

Me-Made-May: Week Two

My linen frocks saw a lot of action this week, and I decided they are best worn with layers underneath.  The navy linen seems to hold its shape better than the charcoal, but it is a heavier weight, so I think that is part of the reason why.  I just feel good when I wear it.  My two favorite outfits this week were the navy linen dress with the striped shirt (#3) and the charcoal dress with the blue shirt and sweater (#4).  I'm not in love with my Raindrops dress (#7), but I'm sort of forcing myself to wear it to justify its existence.

I will say, I'm a bit bored with my clothes right now.  Not with my dress pattern, just with the particular dresses in this rotation.  I hardly wear separates any more, so the 12 dresses in my closet are it, and 2 of them are ready-to-wear and thus out of the rotation for this month, so everything feels especially lean.  I actually bought some fabric yesterday (online) that I plan to make up to wear in these last few weeks of the rotation.  I'm still not done making my summer clothing, but realizing how few separates I wear made me reevaluate some of my sewing plans for the summer.  I have all the fabric I need, I just have to make it up!  I do confess that with temps hovering in the high 50s and low 60s, I've been pretty unmotivated to make thin lawn dresses.  It is supposed to start warming up again later next week, so perhaps I will feel more like warm weather sewing by then.

I tried a new dress pattern last week as a toile, and it was pretty much a disaster.  I spent most of this week fiddling with the finished dress to try and make it work for me.  The dress itself turned out decently and it is pretty.  It fits quite well, but the style is not mine any longer.  I suppose I should photograph it for posterity or something, but I don't really even like having it on.  I was hoping for a new dressier-dress, as I have several events coming up that could use something a little nicer than my usual potato-sack dresses.  

I need to remind myself that I am not what I enjoy looking at.  The problem is that I am drawn to styles with a very defined waist (i.e. fit and flare dresses and separates) but my waist fluctuates a lot during the day and thus that style makes me feel icky and fat.  It is either too loose and looks weirdly too big, or too constricting and I feel fat and bloated; I just can't win.  Because I'm also short-waisted, it is difficult to get the proportions right as well.  So I think I need to not make that style for the time being.  I'm quite happy with my Simplicity 1080, in large part because it fits me no matter what the state of my insides, and I can achieve quite different looks with it depending on the fabric and details.  My rayon dresses are quite nice, for example, and look quite dressy with the right accessories.

I am glad I tried the pattern (it was semi-self-drafted) because it has been on my mind for a long time, and I'm glad I used a fabric from my bin that I was no longer in love with since it didn't end up working out for me.  

I know posting has been light in the past little while; I'm still finding a rhythm to things as some household routines have shifted and I've not felt all that well since Pascha.  I've been in a bit of a fog;  I'm hoping it will lift soon.