Another Reason to Make My Clothes

I have been aware of unfair wages and poor working conditions among factory workers overseas for a while.  However, the most recent fire in Bangladesh really brings the point home.  The average worker in Bangladesh makes $37 for about 400 hours of work per month.  That works out to 9 1/4 cents per hour and working about 14 hours a day 6 days a week.  So, the clothing that we see at all those big box stores are coming on the backs of these poor souls working in these horrid conditions.  I am as guilty as the next person of wanting a good deal.  And, I admit that mainly I started sewing because I couldn't find clothes that fit me well and the ones that I loved were outrageously expensive.  I figured I could sew them to fit me and with better quality fabric than what I could buy.  I also have to say, I am less likely to give something up that I have labored over and sewn myself.  I am more likely to hold on to it and revamp it.

A friend mentioned the other day that it is funny that so many of us worry about where our food comes from and that we should buy local and organic, but many of these same people have never thought about where their clothing comes from.  Another trend I heard about lately is Haul videos up on Youtube.  These are videos made mostly by teenage girls that describe all the clothing that they have bought in their latest shopping hauls.  There are now over 700,000 of these videos on Youtube now, and some of these girls are now getting paid to make videos as a job for retailers.  When these girls should be out exploring all kinds of things in their high school years such as art, music, sports, and craft.  They are out buying as a hobby.  I do love to shop also, but I hope to instill the idea of how to make your own in my children and to have them think about where the item comes from and how it was made.  

Here is a photo from our recent trip.  In this photo, my daughter is wearing a skirt that I made from fabric that I bought a few years ago.  (There must have been a bit of wind, because it fluffed out like a bell!)  I am wearing my $4 goodwill jeans.  I often purchase jeans from goodwill, looking for jeans that fit.  I then bring them home and modify them.  These pants had bell bottoms which I detest.  I cut them down and installed jean zippers, and for $8 I had skinny leg jeans that I love.  

Here is to ingenuity and a little elbow grease!

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"New" skirt

We went to Spain last week for our children's spring break.  It was a lovely trip through the northwest countryside of Spain.  We decided to give our son a special trip for his 12th birthday.  He will only be at home a few more years, and my husband decided that while the kids still enjoy our company and before the teenage years we would give him the trip of his dreams.  He loves soccer, so we went to see his favorite soccer team,  Real Madrid, play in their home stadium.

I find it really difficult not to want something new to wear when taking a trip.  However, I had my pledge of buying no new clothing.  So, I dumped out my basket of knit fabrics and found two old t-shirts that my son has long outgrown and decided to make myself a skirt, a la Alabama Chanin.  I don't really know why we had two of his t-shirts of the same color, but lucky for me we did.  I used the short skirt pattern from her new book Alabama Studio Sewing and Design.  I didn't have quite the amount of fabric I needed, so it was shorter than I really wanted it, but I think it turned out well.  I used the grey t-shirt fabric for the top layer, and some white t-shirts that we were got free at a soccer game in DC from Geico.  I figured no one is going to know look at the lining fabric and see any of the print on the shirts.
Although I did not buy any clothing in Spain (although my husband bought me a locally woven scarf), I did buy some shoes.  Here are a pair of Visalis, which are incredibly comfortable.  Excuse the photo and my severe expression, my son, the budding fashion photographer is at school, so I took the best one I could using the timer.  The shirt I am wearing is one that I bought last year, again just before a trip, from a used clothing store here.  I am not so enamored of the color, I bought it mainly for the design which I thought I could copy.  I have yet to copy it, but...

I know that a few people have complained about the hems curling a bit on these skirts, so to stop that, I embroidered and beaded a border at the hem to give it a bit of interest.  I did most of the embroidery work in the plane on the way over, and in the car while we were there.

I love the designs from Nathalie Chanin.  They are comfortable, easy to wear, and really travel well.   They are easy to pack and look great.   Here I am on a street in Barcelona with my daughter.  We are both sporting our Alabama Chanin skirts that I made just before our trip.  

Flower Necklace Finished

I stumbled across a beading book in the library not long ago called Diane Fitzgerald's Favorite Beading Projects.  My nine year old daughter has gotten into jewelry making and I sometimes look at these books to see if she would be interested.  So far, she has not been interested in any of the books that I have shown her.  She goes her own way, which is probably best anyway.  However, I fell in love with many of the projects in the book.  I thought I would never get into beading, and probably still really will never do more than a couple of projects, but I fell in love with one of the necklaces and decided I had to have it.  It is called the Sea Urchin necklace, although I find the results look more like flowers than sea urchins.  It uses Czech dagger beads, which are not easy to come by, as I soon found out.  I went to the local bead store and they said they rarely carried them.  I then turned to the internet and finally found them at York Novelty Imports in New York City.  They mainly import Czech glass beads, and what lovely beads they are.

Anyway, I made the flowers and tried to make the necklace as outlined in the book, but found the weight of the flowers too heavy for the cord that was suggested.  The cord suggested was black braid,which I didn't like with the beautiful green beads.  Instead, I went to the fabric store and bought some velvet ribbon and thick cording.  I covered the cord in the ribbon, and mounted the flowers onto the ribbon.

To fasten the necklace, I made a loop and used a button that I had in my stash.

I bought some blue dagger beads also.  I am trying to decide whether or not to make a blue version of this necklace or try something different.  But, I am pleased with this result of my first foray into beading.  It is not something I will do much of, but it is nice to be able to make something so unique for yourself, and out of beads that come from my husband's father's country.

Trenchcoat: Finished except for lining!

I finally finished the main part of my trench coat yesterday.  It has been a bit of a long slog, and a couple of times I almost gave up.  But, I persevered and I am pleased with the result.  I have a few little details to finish, but I will show those in a minute.  Just so you can see, here is what I started with, the original trench coat, a large shapeless coat with raglan sleeves.

Here is the front of the almost finished coat.  It is a 3/4 length coat now, with a more fitted bodice, but with enough ease for me to wear a sweater underneath.

I did not have enough fabric from the old coat for the complete redo, so I used some fabric from a pair of my father's old wool pants.  I took all the good wool pants and jackets from my parents' house when we cleaned out after they passed away.  I have it all stashed back.  I put piping in the princess seams front and back as a border between the different fabrics, and I also put fancy braid behind the collars and pockets. 

I had three buttons which were handmade that I used.  I have had these in my stash for years and I am glad I found the place for them.  

I embroidered the lapels on the jacket using Mokuba embroidery ribbon.  Unfortunately, I ran out of ribbon, so I am trying to find more so I can finish the coat.  I have the back collar to finish and the cuffs.  There is very little fabric left from the original coat.  I am really pleased with the result.

Today I hope to finish the jacket lining.

Progress on the Trench Coat

I have made progress on my trench coat finally.  However, I am finding it hard to post every Friday.  My life is full of lots of things:  children who need to go to school, ballet, riding, basketball practice, soccer practice, basketball games, and dogs who go to the vet, and horses who need regular care.  However, I know that we all have full lives.  My husband often points out all the time I spend caring for animals.  But, I love the animals, as do the kids.  We get fresh eggs daily from our hens, and are serenaded morning and evening by our little diva donkey.  So, if I don't make much progress on my sewing, weaving or knitting, so be it.  There will be plenty of time once the children leave home and I am too old to clean stalls and care for large animals when I can spend my day weaving.  So, now, I just squeeze things in when I can.

Enough of that, just to show you what I have:

I finished my muslin and cut out my pieces.  I got my bodice made and put one sleeve in.  I finished the sleeve yesterday.  It took me all day to get the darn thing in.  I hate setting in sleeves.  The main problem was that the original coat had raglan sleeves and I tried to use the sleeve  cap preserving the length of the sleeve.   However, the sleeve cap was too deep, so I had to sacrifice the length which I will deal with later.  So, I got one sleeve in.  As you can see, I have two types of fabric in the bodice.  I ran out of enough fabric for the back and the collar piece, so I used some wool from one of the many pairs of pants that I have from my dad's old wardrobe.  

I saved the collar, and it went on easily, and I am in the midst of pinning and sewing back in the old facing which has buttonholes in it for the lining.  I will reuse the wool lining so that I can wear it 3+ seasons.  

I pinned the back skirt on as you can see above, but I am not sure I like it.  I may cut the pieces so they fit around the bodice, but flare out at the bottom, but we'll see.  I doubt I will get much more time to work on it this week, but hopefully can see some progress next week.  

My goal is to finish the coat before we go to Spain in April.  I need a raincoat for the trip.

Trenchcoat progress (or lack thereof)

I did finally squeeze in a little bit of time today to work on my trench coat.  My daughter was home three days this week with a bad cold and mild fever.  She likes to make jewelry, something I thought I would never get into, but it is something we can do together.  So, I sat with her one day and did make some sea urchins out of beads for a necklace.  I got the design out of a book by Diane Fitzgerald.  These are made of fabulous Czech glass dagger beads.  Once the necklace is done I will photograph and post it.

One day this week I spent running my son to the orthodontist and dentist, and today we had a surprise snow and school cancellation.

My son built a snow fort, and my daughter and a friend made cookies.  Unfortunately, the cookies went so fast I didn't get a photo of them!

Here is our cute "puppy" now all grown up hanging out in the fort.

I did receive my ribbons this week and some interesting Czech buttons I will use on the coat.

Finally, I did a bit of work on the bodice and draped the back of the skirt.