still chipping away

I am still working on Christmas.  Pajama bottoms are still being made.  One step at a time.

I need to bake for my best friend.  She is a shortbread fan but I just told her about the bread I have been making recently.  I know that I talked about the toasted oat bread I have been making but it is now a toasted oat and rye bread.  I took the loaf the boyos like the best and amped it up for more flavor.  That loaf has recently had an egg added to it for the protein content.  I am sneaking nutrition in where I can because food is not on anyone's list of what they are currently interested in.  I think it is just too much rich food through the holidays.

I am still picking away at piles.  I hope to get another one under control today.  I crashed yesterday and I have a feeling it may have been due to the yuck I got cleaned out.  Sometimes the process is harder on my body then leaving it alone.  And that also means there is a lot of pain today.  There has been constant change for the last five weeks so I know that is part of it too.

Back to my sewing machine.  Maybe after I deal with a pile.  And possibly creating more storage.  That is life

more twirling

There was surf yesterday and I really thought I was going to go surfing.  But between my hip and being told to slow down, I did not go.  It was probably for the best but it still does not mean it is not a bummer that I do not have all the energy I want back or that I tweaked my hip a week ago today.  There will be more surf and hopefully I will be healed.

Part of this weekend was doing a few things for me.  I liked my twirly skirt so much that I found another piece of fabric in my stash large enough to make another.  I did have to use the grey linen as a waistband but it works.  I have two more pieces of linen that I am looking at and thinking it is possible for more skirts.

I like the twirl.  I like the length.  I like the pockets.  I look at them though and can see how they will transform as they age.  Not a when will it wear out and I will be sad but when will it wear out in such a way that I can dye you.  That I can add a cool patch or a bit of embroidery to the skirt.  Maybe another pocket to hide a mend.  

I have a Christmas present in mind for my best friend that will be similar but different.  Adding a bodice to the skirt to make a dress.  I am calling it a witchy dress because she can always send it back to me and I can mend it.  It could become more and more her. 

My Dad talks about when people only had two outfits, work and good.  Good was for church, weddings, and funerals.  I will never have that because I sew and I made myself so many things I really like that sit in my closet.  But the idea that I can take something I really like and make it become even more as the years go on is really a cool idea.  

I have been mending sweaters again.  Cardigans.  They have just had too much wear and some have been attacked by moths.  But I would rather spend the time mending them then going shopping.  It is much more restful, even online.  Though there is a backpack on eBay that I am covetting.  Absolutely no current need for it but it is the one I want.  Oh well.  That is life.

All the twirls

I know.  I said I would write out how to print with plants.  I will get there.  Right now I have three things I printed in the washing machine.  I kind of want to see how they printed before I started that post.  It is still very much an exploration.

Of all the sites that are considered social media, Instagram is my favorite.  It gives me more ideas.  Which I truly do not need.  I went down a rabbit hole recently and found shapes of clothes I really liked.  Actually, shapes on some of those things were shapes I have worn a lot in the past.  I have pulled those dresses out for printing before I ever went down that rabbit hole.  Koda Bear and the longer skirts did not mesh very well.  I have to keep up.  

Back to shapes.  There was full circle skirt in linen with pockets that I really liked.  It was longer but not too long.  Just short enough?  I looked at my stash and I had some grey linen that was of length that would work.  I had given a friend all the makings for dyeing linen for a costume she was making and sent off a piece of linen with it.  I had this beautiful grey piece to play with.

With a bit of pondering.  A bit of measuring.  Sewing a lot because the seams and hems are just that long, I created a skirt.

A skirt that twirls!

I am now of the opinion that every person, no matter what, should have a skirt that twirls!  It is so much fun!  I get laughed at.  

Is there anything I would change?  I think I would raise the side pockets by an inch.  Another thing I really like about this skirt is that it lends itself to mending.  I can mend with patches or patches and pockets.  Get to five pockets in a skirt that certain wise woman suggests.  I would feel very witchy! 

I am also very aware that this is a light grey and I could easily stain it.  I have multiple solutions for that.  There is dye.  There is printing.  By the end, this skirt may be very one of a kind.  I have a feeling that it will be a tatter skirt in the end.  I actually have a skirt that is in tatters that wanders around photoshoots currently.  Though the Kitten would say it is her's and not mine now.  

This is a soft linen and it works for me.  I have a stiffer black linen that I may make up into something similar.  I am also thinking about dyeing and printing some fabric to make some of the other shapes I saw.  And I a cardigan shape I liked.  My best friend and I were chatting last night about how we need a month someplace off grid, off reception and just get a chance to work with yarn.  

My life!  Too many ideas.  Too many projects.  Just the right amount of happy!

A not exciting Saturday night

I had such a not exciting Saturday night but so much me!  I have been drooling over a crochet artist on Instagram, Isa Catepillan.  I think her work is lovely and she makes me wish to up my crochet game.  I have some yarns of a lace weight that I thought:  shawl.  I am now playing with granny squares and am going to learn cables so I up my game.  Maybe make a dress?  

I am doing this by not going by any pattern.  I am going to use my favorite dress pattern as a go by and work within those constraints.  I like Isa's cable accents and I can see where they add a lot of structure.  Again, something new to learn.  Cables in crochet.  Something I have wished to learn for awhile but this is letting me take the jump.  I may have a wedding to go to next summer and if this dress is wearable I might just wear it.  It is truly about learning skills though.

Koda Bear learned a new skill this weekend.  He has been helping me sew since he was interested.  That was before he was a year old.  But on my treadle sewing machine, you have to be tall enough and strong enough to work the treadle.  When we moved the stool closer to the machine, he was big enough.  

We started off simply with him guiding fabric through the machine.  Can he make the stitching go where he wishes it to?  Can he control his hands and feet at the same time?  He did a very good job.  Then my Beloved said he needed a sleeve for his paint ball marker hoses.  The two of them found fabric, measured, and cut.  I pinned the sleeve together and Koda Bear sewed.  Koda Bear still has problems with the initial pinning.  It is a dexterity thing.

Then the sleeve was done.  Koda Bear did not realize that it was actually going to be used on the paint ball marker.  He was so excited and proud that something he made on my sewing machine was actually going to be used!

I am still threading the machine.  And filling the bobbins.  But the filling of the bobbins will happen soon.  Threading will get there.  So proud of Koda Bear.

making my own yoga wear

My favorite yoga top was made by Blue Canoe.  It was an organic cotton underwear and yoga clothing company much before its time.  I had a half cami top style I loved for doing yoga at home and wearing under my clothes as a bra.  They stopped making the style years ago. 

It tells you a lot about good the quality of their cotton jersy was that I am just now needing to figure out how to make more.  But part of it has been I have tried other brands and other styles.  Honestly, I should have just figured out how to make these years ago for myself.  It is my favorite style.  It is my got to style.  When I am skating or doing yoga, it is what I want as the bottom layer.  Hiking too.

I had purchased lycra jersey slips or under layers from a couple different shops.  Again, trying to find a slip that worked.  Again, I should have just continued to make my slips.  But I am not about to throw these slips away or give them away.  I cut them to be half camis.  

I went through my embroidery threads and found threads I wanted to use.  I had help.

Then it was just a task of hand stitching the hem with a stretch stitch.  What I have learned from working on Alabama Chanin clothes helped.  A lot.  My treadle sewing machine only does a straight stitch so it would not have worked on this hem on a piece of fabric with that much stretch.

I now have three new half cami tops.  Two in black and one in cream.  I have the bottom half of all the slips which I am making into half cami tops.  In all, I will have six new tops.  The last three take longer because I need to create the straps too.  The hem is a bit longer.  

I feel like I should go to the thrift store and find more of this type of slip.  I think it was originally about $30 at Free People.  I got two cami tops out of each.  I am now looking at $15 per cami top made from something I was not happy with.  If I go to the thrift store and find a similar slip for less then $5 then my cost is $2.50.  Or, there is the option to make my own from the scraps of organic cotton jersey I have from t-shirt, skirt, and dress making.  Less to the landfill.  Any way you look at it, I am happier being able to wear what I wish to wear and there will be less waste.  

I just deleted a whole paragraph on waste.  Trash.  I will not get on that soap box today.