Slow-clothing

I don't have any project updates, but want to share something I've been thinking about.

We are fortunate enough to live at a time when, if you don't want to get all of your food from the large-scale industrial/commercial farming system, there are alternatives.  It is possible for people to get fresh, local, organic vegetables and fruits from farmers' markets, locally baked breads and pastries, and even meat from animals that have been raised humanely/responsibly and without use of antibiotics, hormones, etc.  In other words, there are alternative food sources for people who don't want to participate in the agricultural-industrial complex.

There don't seem to be many alternative sources for people who want to "opt out" when it comes to clothing.  Sure, there are a few places that sell hippie organic cotton (or hemp, or bamboo) t-shirts and pants, and American Apparel and New Balance and a handful of other companies still manufacture in the U.S., but there isn't the widespread availability of alternative sources like you have for food.  The few sources that do exist don't exactly cover the fashion spectrum, especially for those of us who like to dress chic or fashionably.  And American Apparel and New Balance aren't exactly "local" or "community supported" in the same sense that a farmer's market or farming cooperative is.  The vast majority of ready-to-wear clothing bought in the U.S. is made in a factory overseas, where the cost of manufacturing is lower (and the working conditions are potentially sub-par).

The slow-food movement has a lot of devotees.  Alice Waters has her own cult following.  Michael Pollan's books have been national bestsellers.

Yet when it comes to clothing there isn't any movement out there of the same scale promoting the same kind of ideology.  

I did a quick Google search and found that in the spirit of slow-food, slow-clothing was founded in 2006, but it didn't seem to take off to the same extent as slow-food.

I think it is worthwhile to re-approach the idea of celebrating clothing made from environmentally sound materials, made in conditions that don't entail human suffering, and made to fit.

About that last bit.  Clothing is really best tailored to fit the wearer's body.  It's amazing how much of a difference it makes when clothes actually fit right.  Celebrities and the rich are well aware of this and have all of their clothing tailored.  

The ready-to-wear items that most people buy often don't fit that well, because people come in all sizes and shapes, and the clothing doesn't.  Ready-to-wear clothes are made based off of what the clothing industry thinks will fit the average person, but few of us can take something off the rack and have it fit perfectly.  Unless you happen to be the same size and shape as the fit model, there is likely going to be at least one area that doesn't fit right.  Maybe the waist is too roomy, but the hip and thigh area is tight, or you are too short and the pants/dress/skirt needs to be hemmed.  Maybe clothing companies don't even make clothes in your size (anybody who is super petite or on the taller/larger side can sympathize with this).

I started this blog to document my progress towards making my own clothes, with some of these thoughts in my mind.  

Not everyone who is frustrated with the modern clothing and fashion industry is similarly interested in making their own clothes.  Why aren't there alternatives for them?  Is it because it is not economically viable?  Am I mistaken in thinking that some people would happily pay more for "slow-clothing"?  And I don't mean Parisian couture-house prices (think Chanel, Christian Dior, Givenchy, Jean Paul Gaultier, etc.), I mean prices that regular people could afford to pay.

I'd like to explore this in tandem with my forays into clothing-making, but I'm not exactly sure how to approach it.

My husband thinks we should make machines that make perfectly tailored clothes.  You feed the machine your measurements (or better yet, the machine measures you) and the machine creates the clothes, removing the human labor component.  It seems like a pretty cool idea, but you might lose out on the special one-of-a-kind feeling you get from something handmade...

Gray scarf and gray tank top

Sorry for the long hiatus.  I went to Costa Rica with my husband for the first half of February (our honeymoon) and am just getting back into the swing of things now.


I wasn't completely negligent on our vacation though-- I finished the scarf I was knitting on our return flight.  *(^_^)*
Here is what it looks like:

You can't tell from the picture, but it a respectable length: 78 inches.

The width is 5 3/4 inches.

It was my first knitted project, so I stuck to one color and just focused on creating texture with knit and purl.

I made it with Loops and Threads True Gray (100% acrylic) and knitting needles size 8 (5mm)

Steps:

26 cast on.

3 rows of stockinette stitch (just for a little border like section at the ends-- it rolls a little).

Alternate sections of garter stitch (10 "stripes") and moss stitch (9 "stripes"):

For the garter stitch I knitted until I counted 15 of the bumpy s shaped lines. (Each of these bumpy lines was actually made up of two knitted rows, one on the right side, and one on the wrong side.)

For the moss stitch I did:

1st row: knit all in the row

2nd row: purl, knit, *repeat until end of row

3rd row: knit all in the row

4th row: knit, purl, *repeat until end of row

Repeat 1 through 4 seven times until you have 28 rows.

End with 3 rows of stockinette stitch and bind off.

With a little simple arithmetic, I calculated that there are are a total of 14,560 individual "stitches"!

I am proud of myself for sticking to the project and completing it.

I have also completed my first article of "everyday" clothing-- the racerback tank top from Simplicity 2317! I was close to finishing before we left for Costa Rica, but when I tried it on the armholes were too big and I had to snip off some more fabric, so I didn't actually finish it until today. Next time I make something I'll baste it and try it on before I proceed to the final sewing (it would have saved me a lot of time and prevented the frustration of seam ripping and pulling out tiny little pieces of thread).

It's not much to brag about, but I can wear it.

I just finished sewing this tank top.

This is the back.

I used the following settings on my Brother CS-6000i:
90/14 HG-4BR (Organ) ball point needle

For single layer unfinished edges, I used the standard overcast stitch (#06) with the overcast presser foot.
For all straight-line sewing, I used the stretch stitch (#02) with the standard presser foot, changing the stitch length to the maximum.
For the neckline, armholes, and bottom hem, I sewed a straight-line "guideline"stitch (distance from the edge = twice the seam allowance), pressed the cloth to the correct seam allowance, and then finished with the stretch overcast stitch (#08)-- standard presser foot.

For my birthday my husband got me a serger!  I am super super excited about this new piece of equipment.  I spent some time today playing with it (learning how to thread it and adjust it for stretchy knit fabrics) and from just a few hours I can tell it is going to cut down on construction time significantly.

Sewing machine fun and preparing to sew knits

Wednesday my sewing machine arrived!  I made sure to read the manual thoroughly before operating it, and am happy to say that it sews perfectly!

The first thing I did was fix a travel waist pouch that I had inadvertently screwed up (by cutting the strap too short).  When I bought the travel waist pouch, I assumed that it was meant to go around my waist, hence the name "travel waist pouch".  The strap seemed ridiculously long so I cut it short.  However, my husband soon pointed out that wearing it around my hips would be more advantageous, as the pouch would be better concealed and more comfortable.  Lo and behold, when I tried to affix it about my hips instead I discovered that I had cut the strap too short!  Luckily this was easily fixed by sewing the cut strap back on.

The exercise allowed me to make sure that I knew how to wind the bobbin, insert the bobbin, and thread the machine.  I also tested the regular straight stitch and the zigzag stitch in both forward and reverse.

I then proceeded to start on my first project, the tank top + shorts PJ set (knits).

I ironed the pattern pieces to get the creases out of them, using a clean cotton cheesecloth as a press cloth:

This is my little "press" station.

Then I pinned the pattern pieces to the fabric, taking care to do the corners of each pattern piece first.  I cut each piece out after I pinned all the pieces to the fabric.  I was SO glad that I purchased more than the yardage on the back of the pattern envelope, since the fabric definitely shrunk in the wash, and I had just about the right amount-- if I had purchased any less fabric I would have had to go to the store to buy more fabric.  (This experience proved to me the importance of following the advice in all the sewing books: you should prep the fabric before you cut it!  Otherwise you could invest a lot of time and energy into making a garment only to find that it shrinks to an unusable size after the first wash.)

A view of the pieces after pinning.  I saved the scraps for testing.

 After cutting the pieces out I transferred the markings on the pattern to the fabric using "tailor tacks".  Instead of cutting out the notches (used to match up edges later), I "marked" them by sewing a single stitch of contrasting color thread and leaving the tails out for easy removal later.  If you have more than one layer of fabric, take care not to sew them together by accident.

You can see a close-up of my "tailor tacks" here.  

Now my fabric is ready to go.  However, I'm a cautious person, so I am going to make sure I know exactly what stitch settings to use before I jump into sewing the actual garment.

Currently I am experimenting with the scraps of fabric left over from cutting the pieces out.

I changed the machine needle to a 90/14 HG-4BR (Organ) ball point needle (good for stretchy fabrics), keeping the presser foot as the standard zigzag presser foot.

So far I have found a good straight stitch to use with the super stretchy knit fabric-- stitch 02 on the Brother CS6000i, with the stitch length adjusted to 4, but I haven't had too much luck with overcasting, even with the overcasting stitch designated for stretch fabrics.  It just doesn't look clean.  More experimentation is in order...

Round crochet coaster

A few days ago I finished crocheting another coaster in the round.  This time I used stitch counters and what a difference it made!  The finished product is below:

This is the right-side up view.

This is the wrong-side up view.

I think the coaster turned out quite well for my second attempt at crocheting in the round.  (^_^)

Materials:

Patons Classic Wool Natural Mix
Crochet hook size 8

Stich counters if you have them

I followed some very simple steps:

(1) Chain 4 stitches, and join with a slip stitch to form the center loop.  Then chain 1-- this counts as the first SC (single crochet)-- mark this with a stitch counter if one is available, and do 7 SC (single crochet) through the center loop, for a total of 8 SC (counting the first chained stitch).  Join the last of the SC to the first chain with a slip stitch (the stitch counter comes in handy for letting you know which stitch to join to).

(2) Round two: chain one-- mark with a stitch counter, then SC twice in each of the stitches for a total of 16.

(3) On each round increase by 8 stitches in regular intervals.  (For example on round three SC twice in every other stitch, and on round four SC twice every third stitch.  This will lead to an increase of 8 stitches per round.)

(4) After finishing the 6th round, turn once you chain 1 to reach the 7th round.  This means that you will crochet back around on the part you just finished, instead of proceeding forward in the same direction.  This creates a slight change in texture (you can see it especially clearly in the wrong-side up view as the indentation).

(5) After the 7th round, chain two, marking the 2nd chain with the stitch counter, turn, and finish the coaster with a DC (double crochet) in each stitch.

In other news my husband just purchased a Brother CS6000i sewing machine for me as a belated Christmas present!  I am so excited.  It will arrive this coming Wednesday (only 2 days away).

Yesterday I spent some time cutting out patterns for my next couple of sewing projects.

I think I briefly mentioned in my previous post that I had purchased some patterns.  I have the "Very Easy Vogue" pattern V8634 in Xsm-Sml-Med (a close-fitting pullover top with a cowlneck), meant for two-way stretch knits.  I also picked up Simplicity 2317 Size(s) A 8-18 (multiple patterns in this pack, all variations on sleepwear).  The dress pattern that I picked out before, Vogue Options V8648, seems more challenging so I am putting it on the back burner until I acquire some more experience.

It took awhile to cut out all 22 pieces of the Simplicity pattern, but I did it!

For now I want to focus on just making the simple tank top and shorts PJ set, but eventually I want to make the Tshirt + long sleeve shirt/pants PJ set in flannel too, so I figured I might as well cut out all the pieces.

I made some adjustments to the patterns (cowlneck and PJ set(s)) before cutting them out.  After measuring myself with a measuring tape, I realized that I am relatively thick-waisted (less than 9" of difference between my waist measurement and my hip measurement), but in other measurements I am pretty standard (my numbers: 32-26-34 1/2) so I adjusted the patterns by drawing natural looking lines to the next size up only for my waist area.  Fortunately this was easy to do thanks to modern day multi-size patterns!  I also lengthened the inseam on the pants leg pattern to end up at around 31" once fully made (seam allowance and all that accounted for), and made some simple adjustments to the shorts pattern to make them a tad bit longer (I am too old to be showing off my booty to that extent...).

Today I purchased some simple knit fabric (navy blue for the cowlneck top, and heather gray for the tank top and shorts PJ set), matching thread (Gütermann) and elastic for the waistband of the shorts.

I just finished washing and drying the fabric.  We'll see if it shrank or not in the wash!

The beginning

I have decided to start blogging about my adventures on the way to making my own clothes.

Previous Experience:
I learned some basic sewing in Home Economics.  We made items such as a locker organizer, a plastic bag holder, a pillow, scrunchies, and a quillo.  I also made a couple of costumes for myself back in High School when I was into Cosplay.  The costumes were fairly simple ones, but I did learn how to adapt patterns and make a waist band casing for elastic (for pants/shorts).

Current Progress:
About a month ago I taught myself the basics of knitting (long-tail cast on, knit stitch & purl stitch, and bind-off).
Over the Christmas holidays my sister-in-law Akiko showed me the basics of crochet (slipstitch, single crochet, half double crochet, and double crochet), which I remembered and have followed up on with some more practice (especially on how to count stitches and turn when creating square shaped projects).  I have created 4 coasters.  3 of them were square shaped, and 1 of them round (a little lopsided looking though).  I have also made a pot-holder (with a little loop to hang it up).

Current Projects:
Knitting a scarf for my husband.  It alternates between garter stitch and a modified moss stitch pattern.

Planned Projects:
Make a short sleeve shirt with a cowlneck using a medium knit.  (Pattern already bought).
Make a dress (Pattern already bought).
Knit two potholders for my mother-in-law using wool yarn.

Let's see where we can go with this!  (^_^)
Starting with my next finished project I will take pictures and post them.  (The few items I crocheted I have already given away...)