the traveling sewing machine

For many years, my sewing machine lived in it's original box in my tiny closet underneath all of my clothes.  Every time I wanted to sew, I needed to go dig it out of the bottom of the closet, which usually took a lot of effort and heavy breathing.  When I finished graduate school, I repurposed my desk into a sewing table.  It was tiny, but a lot better than excavating my sewing machine out of my closet every few weeks.

During school, my desk lived in the living room.  Meanwhile, I had a room full of dying plants all to themselves.  It was called the Dying Plant Room.  I desperately want to be a gardener, but I'm just not good at it.  The dying plants lived on, but always looking desperate for even a single drop of water.  When I finished school I didn't water the plants more, I just used my newly-acquired wisdom to know that I should give them away.  So I gifted every half-dead plant to a friend.  How nice of me.  With those plants gone, I moved my sewing machine desk into the Dying Plant Room and rebranded it as the Craft Room.

But I had one problem with the new Craft Room.  It was full of windows, which makes it incredibly hot in the summer and very cold in the winter.  Uh, and I usually sew in my skivvies.  I can't be bothered to take on and off my clothes every time I need to try on an article of clothing.  That is really too much to ask.  So the window-ful Craft Room wasn't going to cut it.

So me and my sewing machine are on the move again.  We've decided to invade the Man Cave. This time, we're leaving behind the desk, and making plans to build an L-shaped desk that spans two full walls of the (former Man Cave) now Studio.  This weekend, we plan to commence the epic endeavor of hand-crafting this monster desk, so my sewing will be on hold for a few days.

This hot Man Cave mess will soon be transformed into a sexy Studio!

Wish me luck!

(As a side note, every other room in my house is called the normal name:  the Bedroom, the Bathroom, the Kitchen.)

blue dotted shirt

A few weeks ago I found this:

I loved the bold blue polka-dottedness and the vast amount of fabric.  I imagined a little large old lady wearing this dress to church on Sundays and to dinner with her family.  Her favorite Sunday dinner was chicken dumplings and she always went to see her cousin Maybel, who was also very fashionable.  It was her best dress and she treasured it.  And she never once stained it with communion wine or chicken dumplings.  As I was ripping the seams, I even discovered that she probably sewed it herself.  She loved this dress.  Now I love this dress, but I decided it needs to be a shirt.  And probably a skirt too, but all in good time.

To start with, I ripped the seams to separate the sleeves from the bodice and the bodice from the skirt, so I get the individual puzzle pieces.  I ripped the seams because, surprisingly, as tall and large as the previous woman was (I'm imagining her living in the Amazon), the top piece is actually pretty small.  I needed to save every millimeter of fabric.

Then I put it on inside out and pinned the sides to take it in.  I sewed a straight stitch along the pins and a zigzag stitch for extra security, and chopped off the extra fabric with my pinking shears.  Lastly, I carefully folded and sewed the smallest hem I could manage on the bottom of the shirt and for the sleeves.

And that's it.  I wore it the next day with my awesome, recently-thrifted green blazer.  My husband said, "You look like someone who means business, but wants to have fun doing it."  Score one for the polka dots.

And then I changed into my jammies, but couldn't take the top off.  When I get proud of making something, I need to wear it a lot!  It matched the blue dotted pajama pants that I also just found at the thrift store.  I just had to show you.

ladylike lace skirt

I found this lacy shirt at my local Goodwill Clearance Center on half-off day--that's $0.65 per pound.  I love finding lightweight pieces like this and dropping them into my bin thinking, "This probably only costs $0.10!"

I liked it as a shirt, but I am queen of lacy shirts, and I wanted the challenge, so I decided it needed to become a skirt.  The only problem is that it is totally see-through and I've never made a lining before.

Enter these satin pajamas.  They felt delicious.  And again, I was certain they would only be $0.10 since it was half-off day.  At the time I threw them into my bin I had no idea what they would be, but today they were reincarnated into the lining.

I started by ripping all of the seams out of the pajamas to separate and open up the legs.  Then I hacked off the bottom portion of the shirt right under the armpits.  (I will definitely be making that top into something soon!).

I turned the bottom half of the shirt inside out and sandwiched it with the fabric from a pajama pant leg on either side, with the right sides facing together.  Then I pinned down the sides to fit my curves.  This is when I had a stroke of logic, unpinned the pieces and hemmed the bottom of the satin fabric (the bottom of my lace was already hemmed because it was the bottom piece of the shirt).  Then I repinned, tried it on, adjusted my pins, and sewed a seam up the sides.

 Just to be extra safe, I sewed an extra zigzag stitch outside my straight seam, then cut the extra fabric with my pinking shears.  I did the same thing with the extra fabric at the top of the skirt.

I needed to add a waistband to my skirt, but this was all I had left from my pajama pants.  I had to cut and sew three strips together to make a piece of bias tape for the waistband.

Next I pinned and sewed the satin pajama bias tape over the top of the skirt, leaving a small opening in the back.  I took some elastic from another skirt I fixed up and threaded it through the tube I created with the bias tape.  The last step is to sew the elastic together and the open pieces of the bias tape together.  And VOILA!

i'm boycotting new clothes!

For one year, my goal is to not buy any new clothes.  Instead, I'm going to build my wardrobe entirely on thrifted or handmade pieces.  And I'm going to look hot doing it.

Here's why:

1.  I want the challenge of working hard for my clothes, feeling the pride in how I dress myself.  I've been stuck in the same boring jeans and tshirt forever.  I wear boring, safe colors and very few patterns.  It's time to find fun new clothes, take chances, and get out of the boring box.  I want them to represent who I am.  And I don't want people to think I came from the boring box.

2.  I want to reduce the clothing waste in the landfills.  Do you ever think about what happens to the clothes that no one buys from your thrift store?  They get squished into a huge clothing cube on a pallet, shipped to my clearance center, dumped in big rolly bins for people to sort through, and sold for $1.29/pound.  And when no one buys the clothes at the bottom of those bins, they get sent to the landfill.  Why buy new clothes when there are so many awesome pieces that can be bought for $1.29 a pound?

3.  I want to improve my sewing skills.  I'm starting this project with a basic understanding of my sewing machine.  And by basic understanding, I mean I can basically only sew straight lines.  Hems and curtains.  Through refashioning my thrifted finds, I want to learn how to sew, so I can eventually sew new pieces from scratch (from recycled materials, of course!).

I'm doing all of this with my sweet little sidekick, Olive Ant.  She's the cutest cat, even if she is anti-helpful with sewing.