Category Archives: The Handcrafted Wardrobe

Valentine’s Day

I made myself a dress.  After reading all of Jane Austen’s novels last year, an empire dress seemed inevitable and not made any the less likely by having binge watched Bridgerton.  I amused myself with full on Regency hair to boot, because it’s not like I was going anywhere and it kind of made me laugh.  There are worse things to be than a Jane Austen character for the day!  When I was young people used to swear that I looked just like Jennifer EhIe in Pride and Prejudice.  I’m not sure that the resemblance still stands, but if there was ever a time for it to show, I suppose it would be while I was dressed like this.

I made my littlest love a dress as well.  I haven’t really sewn in a year.  The last thing that I made was a dress for Mairi for a dance last Valentine’s Day.  There was a quickly thrown together Halloween costume fiasco, where Elijah practically propped me up at a machine and handed me everything I needed, while I just settled for trying to make sure that things stuck together, but that doesn’t really count.  I sewed Mairi two dresses last year and Seraphina none and this is a very sore spot.  The fact that Seraphina gets piles of hand-me-downs, both from Mairi and friends, and had at least ten new-to-her and perfectly lovely dresses last year and Mairi had zero hand-me-downs from anyone, means nothing to her.  All that matters is that I sewed Mairi dresses and not Seraphina.

I bought myself the fancy little French violet candies, in the charming little tin, which have been kicking around the back of my head for two decades.  And now I taste like violets.  I thought about getting roses, because it would be fabulous to have roses right now…maybe pale, pale apricot ones?  But decided that it would be wiser to invest in a new house plant to pad out my rather paltry indoor garden.  I spend a couple of weeks obsessing.  Did you know that Etsy offers tons and tons of house plants??  I did not.  Game.  Changer.  In the end I wanted so many that I couldn’t decide on just one, so I didn’t get any at all, which is so very like me.  As it turns out, a friend ended up in possession of a whole bunch of just past their prime flower bunches and she left one on our driveway.  So, there were flowers after-all.

I put little piles of pink foil covered chocolate hearts next to each of their plates because, as it turns out, candy is as welcome with my adult children as the six year old.  The kitties got heart shaped treats and catnip.  The home-made sugar hearts (and flowers and chicks) went out with the girls’ valentines.

Dress details:

Mine is the Folkwear Empire Dress pattern.  Hers is cerisier en fleurs on top, with just a simple skirt I whipped up on the bottom.  All of the fabric came from our old homeschooling co-op, where we maintained a community fabric stash.  It was two old duvet covers with coordinating fabric on front and back.  By the time I got to them, there had been some random head holes and things hacked into them in wild form, by children playing who-knows-what game.  Luckily there was still enough fabric left.  We over-dyed it and the yarn for Seraphina’s with avacado pits and peels because I look god-awful in white and, besides, nothing in this house stays white for long.

I resisted the temptation to add on the optional train, but oh, it was hard!  Highly impractical, I know, but gosh, it would have been so much fun!  Still making a dress from the late 1700′s/early 1800′s seemed eccentric enough.  I actually think I’ll be able to get away with it as regular wear, without too many people pointing and giggling.  Certainly without the ribbons in my hair.  And probably dropping the sash as well.

These days I try to live part time in a fantasy.  Balanced with as much time as I can endeavoring to be very, very present with my kids.   It’s easier to pretend myself a stricken fairy tale character than to fully face the very unromantic, though still somewhat tragic, medical and practical realities of my world.  I’m not really ready to look at everything head on.  Just a periphery glance will do, thank you very much.  Or maybe the modern day version…those gorgeous women on Instagram who swan around in dreamy dresses, putting pretty little touches around their homes, and writing their rose covered lives out like poetry.  Yes, I think I want to be her for a while.

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A Rainy Morning Walk and Talk Through My Kitchen Garden

Or, “Why My Shoes Look Like This”, because apparently I don’t have enough sense to go put on rain boots.

Also known as, “Why I Ended Up Serving My Kids Pickles in the Car for Breakfast on the way to Church”

It’s like Wild Kingdom around here.  I failed to mention that later in the same day of the believed mountain lion sighting, the bear that plagued us all through last summer made an appearance, much larger than before, but just as comfortable as ever in our front yard.

Also, Mairi’s friend is the sister of a band member, not the brother.  It’s just that I hit my head a lot and say silly things sometimes.

Matchy-matchy for Father’s Day dinner.  Hey look, I actually put on rain boots!  I made us these linen dresses sometime back in November.  The discolored dots are raindrops!

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On My Needles

My second set of videos are now live!  Yes, I said set, because it’s in two parts again.  It seems that my camera only likes to record for just over 20 minutes, but based on my first two attempts, I seem to like to talk for approximately 24 minutes.  So I’m either going to have to learn to talk faster or to say less!

A long-time blog reader told me that watching these videos is like imagining a character in a book and then meeting that character and being totally surprised.  The really funny thing is that it’s the same for me!  How I look, how I sound, my style of speech… all totally strange and interesting to me.  Really?  That’s me??  If didn’t have the experience of recording it, I don’t know that I would believe it!

Show notes down below….

My poor trashed garden….

Patterns:

The Mini Wrap by Fox & Folk

Isis Tailcoat (because I misspoke twice for goodness sake) by Kari-Helene Rane

The No Frills Cardigan by PetiteKnits

Thrysos Yoked Blouse by Teresa Gregorio

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Christmas 2017

Seraphina’s Christmas Wish List: Eggnog, jelly beans, chocolate cake, candy, bananas, oranges, clementines, grapefruits.  My mother asked, “don’t you want any baby dolls or toys or books?”  Nope. Just sweets.

Elijah watches old episodes of Bob Ross, Galen watches Elijah, I try to figure out which walls can still fit more paintings.  The northern lights one was my Christmas present from Elijah.  Galen is an extremely prolific painter, but I tend to get fewer pictures of his as he tends to paint at night.

Two books that are perfect for around the time of the Winter Solstice:

Little Snow Bear by Hazel Lincoln has been a family favorite for years.  I believe Elijah received it for his 4th Christmas.  The illustrations are divine and I think they were the inspiration for the painting in this post.  It’s a very sweet and gentle story in which little snow bear goes out in search of the missing sun.  Our copy is worn and battered and greatly beloved.

Lucia and the Light by Phyllis Root was a happenstance library find and entirely new to us this year.  The story is modeled off of Nordic lore, but more modern in tone and appearance.  It had me from the opening page, “Lucia and her mother and baby brother lived with a velvet brown cow and a milk-white cat in a little house at the foot of a mountain in the Far North.  The cow gave milk, the cat slept by the fire, and the baby cooed and grew fat by the hearth.”  When the sun disappears one day Lucia’s mother tells her that they will, “be each other’s sun until the real sun returns”.  The sweet story turns into an adventure when Lucia sneaks out to find the sun only to discover it’s been stolen by trolls!  The trolls, admittedly, were too much for sensitive, three-year-old Miss Seraphina, but I will keep this one in mind for next year.

Life with teens: I have one who walks about draped in home-made whips and another who randomly wears boxing gloves as some sort of bizarre fashion statement.

The baby doll Juliette has been in a somewhat horrifying state for about a year now.  She never really recovered from that time when Galen decided to give her “troll hair”.  And beyond which was getting rather grubby with two years of loving.  When two days before Christmas my neighbor dropped by with some brown mohair yarn I decided the time was ripe for an impromptu surprise makeover.  I do not adore the highlights.  They are what was salvageable of her original hair, plus the little bit of that yarn that I had leftover.  I was afraid that if I used an entirely new hair color she might be too different, so I tried to blend the two.  It’s ok-ish I guess.  I also cleaned her up, refreshed her rosy cheeks and donned her in her new Christmas nightie (of course) she made her grand reappearance on Christmas Eve.

Elijah helped with the Christmas pajamas again this year.  Thank goodness.  It’s too daunting for me alone.  It took 16 yards of fabric to cover those boys of mine!  Sixteen!  We hated the pattern (Simplicity 2771) so much that by the time we got to Galen’s we decided to switch to another pattern entirely (Kwik Sew K3945).  Elijah made that complete set on his own in probably a quarter of the time it would have taken us with the other pattern.  And probably half the size- the others were HUGE!

For the girls I used old standbys.  My favorite Kwik Sew 3423 and it’s bigger sister Kwik Sew 3105.  I used the latter for Mairi Rose’s first Christmas and have turned to them both regularly ever since.  I made them each a pair of pink organic cotton velour leggins for underneath.  And they are terribly sweet and soft and toasty and cuddly in them.

Oh, I almost forgot!  Seraphina’s romper….I was rushing out the door headed for a long car ride and trying to quickly pull together everything I needed for the day’s knitting.  I had every intention of sizing up the Lady from the North Cabled Romper, but something went amiss with my paypal and it decided to treat my payment as a check requiring three days to clear.  Are you kidding me??  So I grabbed a stitch dictionary instead and designed my own as I went along.  I was already well into it when the pattern arrived several days later.

And the chickadee!  I love him so.  It was a little project just for pleasure, started with some friends, mostly crafted on Christmas day, finished a day or two later.  I think I might have to make a tradition of it and make a new bird each year to add to the tree.

 

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Halloween

Two bundt cakes stack bottom to bottom sort of make for a pumpkin shaped pumpkin cake.  We used carrot juice to color the icing and matcha green tea to tint the marzipan.

They were adorable, carving a pumpkin together.  She sings happy birthday to the pumpkin every time we light a jack ‘o lantern.

Elijah has started making Halloween costumes for his friends as well.  This is Gandolf the Grey’s staff….

and Gimli’s helmet…

A motley crew…

Indiana Jones

The Dread Pirate Roberts, a.k.a. Wesley

And my darling Anne-girl.

It was really nice of our neighbor’s black cat to drop by on Halloween for ambience.

Anne of Green Gables dress details:

I started with the geranium dress pattern.  I used the bodice extension and sash straight from the expansion pack.  I took the straight sleeve from the expansion pack and modified it for the oh-so-important puffs using this tutorial.  I made the sleeves first and she came in to kiss her puffs several times each day.  I took the hem band from the pack and made it 1 1/2 times longer and used that to craft the ruffle at the bottom.  The collar is an actual hand-pieced, antique collar.  After some repairs I added a button and bound button loop so it could be worn, but still remain a separate piece.  The rest is just trim.

   It is brown of course.  Because Mathew bought Anne a brown dress with puffed sleeves.  Mairi Rose was so offended when he gave her a blue dress in the movie!  This was hands-down one of my all-time favorite costumes.  I couldn’t stop watching her in it.  She’s like a china doll.  And that she picked Anne?  Oh my, well this mama heart couldn’t be happier!

This littlest one was seriously too excited to stand still for a picture.  All of these rather poor ones were taken in rapid succession over the course of like 45 seconds, which was way, way longer than she wanted to spend on it.  Which explains why you can’t really tell what her dress looks like in any of the pictures.  I’ll have to get a better picture of it at some point.  She informed me that she plans on wearing it everywhere so I should have plenty of opportunities!

Ever since we were matryoshkas together two years ago, Seraphina is convinced that we require coordinating costumes, which is how I ended up as a Mama Kitty last year.  And really now, how long is this last baby of mine going to want her mama to wear a matching costume?  Not very long at all.  So I humor her.  This year I was informed that herself, myself, Unicorn, and her doll Milky were all to be princesses for Halloween.  Sometimes I humor her a lot.  I asked her if it wouldn’t make more sense for me to be the queen and she assured me it would not.  I was the mama princess and her, Milky and Unicorn where the baby princesses.  End of story.  Yes ma’am.

Seraphina’s dress is also a geranium, with the gathered sleeves from the expansion pack.  The only modification I made was to add three large, lace trimmed ruffles in tiers down the skirt.  I was also told that her dress must be pink.  I had other ideas in mind, but set myself the challenge of making it entirely from what I had around the house.  Adjustments were made and this is the result.  She seems happy with it!

My dress is a heavily, heavily modified Darling Ranges dress, altered to the point of no longer being recognizable as such.  Mine was a freebie sew as well.  I found the material at our local fabric swap.  Since I was taking the time to sew it, and I happen to really need clothing, I was trying to make something that she would consider a princess dress, but that I could get away with for everyday wear.  I’m not 100% sure that I’ve made a success of it, it’s awfully red for one thing, but I’m going to see how it works out.

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The Handcrafted Wardrobe: The Etta Dress

Funny story: As alluded to, two or three months ago I tried making a big deal of getting all purdied up for Steve’s birthday.  We were planning to go on a date, just the two of us. I quietly worked on a new dress to wear, in a style he would appreciate, as a surprise. I thought it was a sweet idea, but suspected he might be less thrilled when he found out that Seraphina has been telling everyone we know about daddy having a “secret dress”.

It turns out he just laughed.  Which I knew he would.  But the story is funnier the other way.

So, I do this thing sometimes….just because we are totally weird…where I randomly surprise Steve for special occasions by dressing up in the style of a different era, complete with hair, make-up, etc.  And I direct your attention to our ’50′s Valentine’s day (yikes.  Kind of wishing I hadn’t looked.  4 years and baby #5 had some serious impact!).  No idea where this started or why (actually, after re-reading that post, I think it started then!  The blog is educational!).  Like I said, we’re just kind of weird that way.  In honor of his birthday this year, I went with the decade in which he was born.  I was going for a Joan from Mad Men kind of thing, but Christina Hendricks I ain’t!  What I am is a middle aged mother of five, so you basically get what you get.

Sewing a fitted dress when you are nowhere near an average size and shape??  Holy moly.  I shortened the bodice, the skirt and the sleeves….brought in the waist, let out the high hip, brought in the low hip….did a full bust adjustment…a slight sway back adjustment (should have done more!)…made it narrower through the shoulders…lowered the neckline by two inches when one of my two muslins felt too choke-y* and correspondingly altered the collar.  And probably other things that I can’t think of because I’m blocking out the trauma.

*Just for clarification, I don’t think this is a flaw in the pattern, it’s just that people with a history of breathing problems (me) tend to get freaked out by anything too close to their throat.

My darts are all….I don’t know…awful.  Yup, that’s the word.  Terrible, atrocious and mortifying would all fit as well.  Even though I know how to sew darts properly and I swear I did them the “right” way.  Somehow they are still totally wrong.  I want to blame the fabric, but I’m not sure that’s fair.  And I don’t like where they hit.  I think I should have altered that, but I double checked pictures of the pattern and that is where they are supposed to be.  Side note: I seriously, seriously, seriously need a pressing ham if I’m going to insist on continuing to make women’s dresses.  Seriously.  An invisible zipper foot would be good too.

I felt the fabric would be just perfect.  I was wrong.  It’s a stretch sateen….which quite predictably shows and amplifies every little flaw, both in my figure and sewing ability.   The dress looks ok (and only ok) if I am standing still having just straightened it, but the moment I move at all it shifts and bunches and clumps-clings in funny and awkward ways.  This is probably evident from the photos above.

So much work for something so horribly disappointing!  I think I’ll be sticking with super simple sewing for a while now.

But yes, he liked it.  Though I suspect he wasn’t actually looking at the darts, so I’m not sure how much his opinion should really count for.  Just sayin’.

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The Handcrafted Wardrobe: Decluttering Craft Areas

A little update on the 2017 decluttering challenge: I’ve been at it for just about four weeks now and so far I’ve rid our home of 741 items.  I am serious about this.  Conversely in that same time I did come home with a couple of new things.  Circumstances considered, I was very well behaved.  The first series of temptations came during an outing to a rare and used bookstore where everything was being sold for next to nothing.  The second was a craft swap where everything was available for literally nothing.  Books and craft supplies.   My kryptonite.

A hundred and six year old first edition copy of a book that I thought might make a pleasant family read aloud, two children’s magazines from 1937 and 1944 respectively, that have the sweetest illustrations and which I intend to tuck into Mairi’s Easter basket and two old knitting magazines.  Including the six or so books that Mairi, Galen, and Seraphina picked out, we spent $12.

I came home with a few things from the sewing and knitting exchange as well.  There was an entire room full of free sewing and knitting supplies people!  I’m only human.  Still, I dropped off three boxes worth of donations and everything I came home with fit in my handbag.  Not such a bad exchange.

The two designs above are from Bear Brand Campus Knits Vol. 335, cira 1947.  The patterns have rather humorous names such as “Beau Catcher” (Steve checked it out and found the bait inferior).  These two above are “Art Appreciation” and “Collegiate” and I can’t decide which I’d rather grace my needles.

I started sifting through craft supplies before I was truly ready because of the swap.  It’s really an emotional process, much like sorting through sentimental items.  I’m afraid this is one area where I’m guilty of keeping every last thing, just in case.  It’s comforting to me to feel that in lean times I could make whatever might be needed.  But I want to live with more freedom now, not stockpiling for a future which may or may not come.  I’ve started looking at certain fabrics and telling myself that I’ve made my dress or blouse or whatever from it and now I can let what’s left move on to someone else.  It has already served it’s purpose for me.  I don’t have to use up every last scrap.  I’m trying to think less in terms of what I could use, as just about everything falls into that category, and more what I genuinely think I will use.  And perhaps more importantly, what I want to use.

What about you?  Do you have experience with decluttering craft supplies or trying to keep a more minimalist craft set up?

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The Handcrafted Wardrobe: take 2, a belated post

Trying again here!  And special thanks to Elijah for humoring me with more pictures.

Details: Cindersmoke Shawl in Cascade 220 from dear Corina.

I just finished reading Life Disrupted: Getting Real About Chronic Illness in Your Twenties and Thirties.  I found the last section, regarding relationships, the most useful.  Though what I could really use right now is resources on parenting chronically ill children.  So if anyone has suggestions there, please pass them along.

In her chapter about what she terms “Meltdown Mode”, she talks about how she could handle a seemingly endless barge of medical interventions, pain, and life threatening emergencies with grace and aplomb, only to break down, crying hysterically upon finding the wrong type of salad dressing in her take out bag.  On top of everything else to have some basic simple thing go wrong…you think, “I can’t even have this work out?!?”  It feels like a slap in the face.  I get it.  I’ve thought it.  I’ve done it.

And we all of us have our different break-down issues.  She goes on to say that her chronically ill father tends to lose it over waiting in lines or vague and confusing instruction manuals.  For me, I’ve come to see that clothing is a falling apart issue for me.  It’s hard enough to have the energy to get out the door, factor in corralling and organizing five children, and then to be faced with having nothing to wear that fits right or is comfortable or appropriate as well?  Too much.  I think that was kind of what I was trying to say with this post.  And why this project, which may seem frivolous and silly to some, is so important to me.

A very happy Thanksgiving to those of you in the US.  And I hope that all of you, everywhere, have a great many things to be happy for today. love, Melody

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The Handcrafted Wardrobe: all a blur

I had planned to share my new shawl today.  But the auto focus on my camera has been broken for months now, leaving me entirely dependent on others for pictures of myself.  Clearly, or not so clearly as the case may be, low-light, late in a very windy day, did not make for ideal conditions for an amateur photographer.  This was the very best of the three photos taken.  I’ll try again soon.

Last week I bought myself two new pairs of leggings.  I feel guilty about it, because I don’t think I should be spending the money right now, but also so relieved!  I’m covered, with bottoms anyway, and it just takes away a level of stress.  I now have the yoga pants, my grey luna’s (the blue linen ones are too light weight for our current season), the two new leggings- one grey and one black, and my olive velour leggings.  That feels like enough.  I can work with that.

Part of the idea behind having a capsule wardrobe isn’t just having a minimalist wardrobe, it’s also about having enough.  It’s a balancing act.  I think one of the keys to a handcrafted wardrobe is prioritizing.  Some day I would like to make all of my own clothing, but right now, that’s not practical.  Investing in a couple of basic pieces that I can easily find ready made, that fit and work exactly as I need them to, makes sense.  And it leaves me the freedom to concentrate on the sorts of things that are difficult to impossible to find or very expensive.  Which also happen to be the sorts of things that I derive more pleasure from making.  I can buy a pair of black leggings with ease.  A linen nursing dress or very specific style of wool sweater?  Not so much.

What are making versus buying priorities for you?

I’m not going to bother with the link up for a bit.  If people would like to share, feel free to leave links in the comments!

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The Handcrafted Wardrobe: Refashion 2

First off, I know I’ve fallen behind on answering comments lately.  I’ve tired to catch up over the last couple of days, so if you are waiting for a response from me, it may be there now!  Also, if there is something I’ve missed that you need or want an answer to, just let me know.  We are back in family health crisis mode, so I am not around as much as usual, but I’m happy to answer as I can. 

Remember this ill fitting sweater with multiple holes?

I did a bit of altering and reshaping…

Oh, for goodness sakes, stand up straight woman! Honestly!

I think it actually needs to be shorter to work right over that dress above.  I considered turning it into a cropped sweater for just that sort of purpose, but never did pull the trigger on that.  It works better with other outfits, like over this sleeveless dress with a more streamlined skirt…

But that’s the only picture I have of that combo, titled “blurry ghost picture” and taken in the bathroom at the kid’s dance studio between ballet and modern, when I realized I didn’t have anything to post about on Monday.  As it turns out it didn’t matter because I didn’t have any time to post anyway.

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