The Self-Made Wardrobe Week 6 – I just want a pair of damn pants
The Self-Made Wardrobe is a project where I only wear garments I’ve made, for one year.
You can read more about the project here.
It’s the end of Week 6 of the Self-Made Wardrobe!
Most of this week was spent working from my couch in my pajamas, which has made me realize that I have very few run-out-to-the-corner-store pieces in my wardrobe…
Which has added some fuel to the made-some-damn-jeans-already fire.
So. Some much needed jeans hardware is on the list to pick up this week. And some time has been set aside to futz with the first sample, and fiddle with the pattern. And I hope to hell I’ll have a pair of jeans soon.
Because as someone who lived in jeans before this project, a month an a half of nothing but skirts is quite enough, thank-you-very-much.
I just want a pair of damn pants!
(Also, I’ll try and remember to shoot in daylight from now on, so there’s no more crazy yellow photos.)
an almost finished sweater, and an experiment in sewing jeans
Each Wednesday I post little snippets about the projects I’m working on.
You can see all of the Wednesday posts here.
I finished the body and sleeves of my Versio sweater the other day, and started on the hood last night. Maybe I can finish the hood in a day or two?
My first experiment sewing jeans happened last Thursday.
The conclusion: it could have gone (a lot) worse.
And that’s what I’ve been working on knitting & sewing wise.
There’s been some writing – about sweaters that morph as you’re knitting them, and asking what mistakes you can live with.
Some editing – The Self-Made Wardrobe Project page got an update, and so did the about page.
Some thinking – I’m working on a wrap up post for the first month of the self-made wardrobe, but the words that say what I’m trying to say are proving somewhat elusive.
But mostly, I’m hoping to finish up the hood of my sweater so I can come back to knitting my lace shawl, and some of my old sweater works in progress.
(I’m still amazed that I have 5 sweaters in progress… how the hell did that happen?)
The Self-Made Wardrobe Week 5
The Self-Made Wardrobe is a project where I only wear garments I’ve made, for one year.
You can read more about the project here.
It was a mostly straight forward week, some sewing and some knitting, when I wasn’t melting. It would seem that August decided to throw us a swelter-y farewell party, which made for some really gross knitting weather.
And wrote some reminders to myself about what I like wearing and what I don’t.
But in much more exciting news, I spent yesterday conducting my first experiment at sewing jeans.
I took a rub off of a pair of jeans I have that fit pretty well (not perfect) but well enough, worked up a basic pattern, and sewed up a pair of long shorts.
I don’t have photos, I was too much in the head-space of figuring things out to remember to grab the camera. Next time I’ll try to remember the camera.
They didn’t have pockets, or belt loops, or bottom hems, or even a button when it came down to it.
Mostly I just wanted to check the fit and see if I could figure out the steps for putting them together.
I think I figured out a sewing order that I like:
Back legs to yokes. Front legs to back along the side seam. Back legs together. Fly. Front crotch. Inseam. Waistband.
Next time I’m going to try sewing the front of the crotch seam together, then inserting the fly, then top-stitching the front crotch seam.
The fit is sort of ok. I can get them on, walk around, and sit down in them, but really, no one needs to see that much panty-line detail.
Plus the fly is a little bit funky. Totally functional. But funky.
I think though, if I add a bit of ease, back pockets, and switch up the order I sew the fly/front crotch in, the next pair will be wearable.
Overall it could have gone worse. (A lot worse.)
I need to make a trip to the garment district to pick up metal zippers, some more pattern paper, some hardware, and top stitching thread.
But I’m a little bit thrilled about the prospect of wearing jeans again!
