Thoughts from day 366 of a 365 day project.
The Self-Made Wardrobe is a project where I only wear garments I’ve made.
It’s a year long experiment in getting dressed without clothing labels –
it’s a year about noticing patterns, trying things, and observing what happens.
A string of semi-connected, sort of jumbled thoughts from day 366 of a 365 day long self-made wardrobe project.
1. Intentionally breaking a 365 day long habit feels strange as hell.
2. I spent my entire shower trying to figure out what the hell to wear, and then I was running late – so I ended up throwing on my black maxi skirt, and a tank top.
3. Unpacking my wardrobe has turned into something of an inowanna-iguana.
4. Apart from a few specific pieces that I miss like hell, I can only vaguely remember what clothes I had – though it seems there were piles of them.
5. I didn’t quite realize how much brain space this project was taking up.
Not in a big-huge-thing-all-the-time way, but in a lots-of-little-things-to-continually-keep-track-of sort of way. It feels like a whole chunk of brain space has been freed up (and is now tired).
6. Getting out the door is surprisingly much faster. Even though taking a daily photo took less than five minutes. Not sure how this works.
7. 365 days is a lot of days. I mean, I knew that. But this project drove home something about the potential of cumulative effort.
Focused energy + many days = wicked powerful.
8. Play & games are important. Very important.
365 days is pretty daunting.
But 1 day isn’t. And if I can do 1 day, I can probably do 2 days.
And 2 days can become 4 days. And 4 days is basically 5.
And 5 days isn’t terribly hard to turn into 10 days.
Which you can turn into 20 days with a bit of effort.
And if you’re done 20 days, you might as well do a whole month.
One month becomes two, becomes three. You’re a quarter of the way there.
And then day 100 feels pretty damn good. So three months becomes six.
And 200 days feel pretty good too. So 200 becomes 250, becomes 275.
And then day 300, and after 300 days, the last 65 feel like a walk in the park.
9. Systems make everything easier.
10. So does permission to change those systems.
11. And permission to say fuck it.
12. I’m really, really glad I’m not someone who accidentally leaves clothing places. Like, really, really, really, really, really, glad. That would have made this project practically impossible.
The final garment I made for the self-made wardrobe – 2nd Archer Button Up Shirt
I don’t have a whole hell of a lot to say about this piece other than that this is the final garment I made for the self-made wardrobe project, and I’m sure it’ll get plenty of wear now that the project is complete. One of the upsides to making your own clothing, is that you get to make clothing that lasts for lots and lots of wears, so I’m looking forward to having this shirt in my closet for a damn long time.
Now lets get into the details:
MATERIALS
3 yards plaid cotton twill
13 half inch buttons
Black thread
Starch (lots)
PATTERN
The Archer Button Up Shirt from Grainline Studios – just like for my first shirt, I cut a straight size 4 & made view A. Then I added length and worked an inverted box pleat (instead of the regular box pleat the pattern calls for).
PATTERN MODIFICATIONS
I kept the pattern modifications from my first Archer which were to add 5 inches (12.7cm) of length to the body and 1 inch (2.5cm) of length to the sleeves. Since I added so much length I also added more buttons.
WHAT WORKED
Starch. Lots of starch. I don’t often use starch when I’m sewing, but this fabric is a cotton twill that ended up being very woodgey-wibbly-wobbly once I washed it, so after an age & a half of fighting to get the pockets to behave, I began applying starch liberally, and after that everything was smooth sailing.
The fabric is a nice medium weight cotton twill that I think will wear really nicely, and is a nice wardrobe complement to my first archer which is a very light weight cotton.
And as weird as it is, I love the brown/orange/white colorway of this plaid!
WHAT DIDN’T WORK SO WELL
The fabric was a total pain to work with at first, but after a good starching it started to behaving itself. Unfortunately I started with the starch at the front pocket stage – so the cutting was a total nightmare. The only good thing about the cutting stage, was I got the plaids to match (unlike my first Archer).
But it would seem that I cannot make an archer without screwing something up, so this time it was the button placement.
It turns out that 2.5” + 2.5” =/= 4.5” and that I should not math before coffee.
But at least that’s the only major thing that went wrong, and it does make the shirt really hard to mis-button.
I do plan on making more button up shirts, so maybe the third Archer is the charm? Maybe if I make it in a solid color?
The End – 365 days of 100% handmade clothing – The Self-Made Wardrobe Week 52
The Self-Made Wardrobe is a project where I only wear garments I’ve made.
It’s a year long experiment in getting dressed without clothing labels –
it’s a year about noticing patterns, trying things, and observing what happens.
Day 358 – Friday, July 24th
2nd Archer button up // black tank top // black maxi skirt
robot clock necklace // bracelets // rings // flip flops
Day 359 – Saturday, July 25th
black tank top // grey maxi skirt
princess necklace // bracelets // rings // flip flops
Day 360 – Sunday, July 26th
black tank top // vine flowers skirt
princess necklace // rings // wedges
Day 361 – Monday, July 27th
black tank top // jeans
princess necklace // bracelets // rings // black flats
Day 362 – Tuesday, July 28th
black tank top // black maxi skirt
princess necklace // bracelets // rings // flip flops
Day 363 – Wednesday, July 29th
black tank top // grey maxi skirt
princess necklace // bracelets // rings // flip flops
Day 364 – Thursday, July 30th
black tank top // black maxi skirt
princess necklace // bracelets // rings // flip flops
Day 365 – Friday, July 31st
black tank top // pirate skirt
princess necklace // bracelets // rings // wedges
Holy shit! You guys!! It’s done!!!
365 days of handmade clothing is a lot of days…
But we made it, and there’s no way in hell I would have finished this project without you guys, so big huge THANK YOUs all around!
I have some wrap up type information that I think might be interesting – specifically how many times I wore each piece of clothing, & the cost to make divided by how often the piece got worn. I’ll blog about that stuffs next week.
If there’s any other information you’d like to see, or any questions you have about the project, just leave them in comments and I’ll try to answer as best as I can.
In the meantime, I’m going to have a super low key birthday celebration, and unpack the rest of my wardrobe.
Thanks again for all the support for this project!! Hugs all around.
