Make an Entrance

After sorting out my wardrobe a few weeks ago, I kept some clothes I don't wear to see whether I can alter them. I had two shirts, both of them not-wearable because of the color: white and a light yellow. Unfortunately, I am not blessed with a permanent bronze tan: I can only make that work in late summer. Throughout the other 11 months, I'm just a bit pale.


When you need color, dyeing is the way to go. I had set the goal for myself not to stay on the safe side this time, so it had to be a color other than black, grey or blue. Red, orange and yellow do not look good on me and I don't like pink, which means I had no choice but to go with 'Windsor Purple', and 'Emerald Green'. Exciting and scary, dyeing clothes! I managed to spill both purple and green on my sweater, too.


I am new to this, but color variations are apparently not all alike: the red stripes stayed red, while the grey dogs turned dark green. I quite like the effect of red on purple, I'm just glad I did not dye that one green. After the first bath the dog shirt turned fluorescent green. Not really what I was aiming for, so I had to dye it again. Adding more salt seemed to do the trick.


I also took in the side seams on the purple shirt, and replaced the white buttons for some beautiful bronze ones. Together with the purple they give this shirt a whole different look. Less summer, more chique.

I'm very happy with the results on both shirts! I'm not sure whether these colors make me less pale, but at least I'm sure to be noticed when entering a room!

Make it fake

Last weekend was our big Sinterklaas swap. We each held a sales-pitch, explaining what we had brought and why. Remarkably, the most common reason was: "It's a nice shirt/dress/vest, there's nothing wrong with it, but I just don't wear it". Which goes to show, again, that you really need to think before you buy something. Luckily, I could pass on most of my items to my friends.

I have a 'Things to sew'-list, and on it was a blue (fake) leather jacket. Much to my delight, one of my friends brought exactly such a jacket for the swap. Hurray! It gives this jacket a second life, and moreover, saves me a lot of work. I also swapped a blue vest, which matches my formerly-XL shirt. Anyway, the eye-catcher in these pics should be my new bag! I made this simply because my other big bag was worn out. I had a mental image of this new bag since I accidently made a nice combination of fabrics while rummaging about in my fabric suitcase. The tough brownish wool makes a nice contrast with the little beige flowers. All I had to add was the fake leather. It closes with a magnet. My other bag had no closing at all, so I felt no reason to make an elaborate one on this bag. The inside holds a pocket for small things such as pens and my phone.

But the most handy feature is the special key pocket. Anytime you go out, no matter where you go, at some point you need your keys. I guess we've all had that moment when you're back home, a bag full of stuff and your keys are always somewhere at the bottom of your bag (or to make matters worse, you also really need to go to the bathroom). I could use the pen-pocket for my keys, but the most convenient place would be in the corner, where I can reach them anytime. I guess you could make a pocket on the front, but I don't like the idea of my keys being on the outside.


I love how much I learn with each thing I make. It was the first time I made a big bag like this, and the first time I used fake leather. It's not as fancy as real leather, but it works just as well. I think I'll be using it a whole lot more!

Improvements

Whilst working on a few bigger projects, I made some small improvements on earlier creations. The benefit of making things yourself, is that you can keep adjusting until they are exactly the way you want them to be. On the other hand, if you have enough time on your hands you won't get sloppy and there'll be no need for after-adjusting.

This little bag was the first thing I made since the start of this challenge. I added some D-rings to the straps, just for look of it. I've been using it on several occcasions. It can hold the essentials, plus lots of business cards.

Now for this purple bolero, I already wrote in the post I wasn't too happy with that big black button. I considered several options such as different buttons and ribbons, to give it a more playful look. In the end I went for classy and made an invisible closing.

Even this shirt wasn't quite perfect yet. Apart from some crooked seams, the buttons were not equally divided along the back. This kept annoying me everytime I looked at it, so I took them off and added an extra button.

Sew your own, grow your own

Making my own clothes is one challenge, but it's only a part of a bigger plan. As you can read here, I'm trying to be more self-sustainable in all kinds of ways. This week we got news, meaning we can take the next step. We were on a waiting list for a small plot to grow our own food, and now it's our turn! We went to check it out this morning. Beautiful in winter, hopefully even more beautiful in summer!


It's 50 m2, too small to be completely independent, but big enough to start with. I bought some books in New York this summer, The Backyard Homestead and Organic Kitchen Garden. The first one lays out plans for different sizes of gardens: what to grow and when to grow it, supported with all kinds of helpful drawings. It states that you need only a quarter of an acre (1 ha) to provide for a small family. Well we'll see how far we get with our one hundredth part of an acre :). What I like about this book is that it's very elaborate on every kind of vegetable and fruit, from all kinds of growing tips to storing and recipes. It even gives methods on how to grow and make your own beer and wine.


I bought Organic Kitchen Garden along with it because it's an English book, and is thus more suited for our climate. It's very different from the American book; more stylish, a more serious tone in writing, and with lots of beautiful pictures. It's also very helpful, with a year round calender with inside and outside tasks on what to sow or harvest, and how to treat your soil. And, also very helpful, organic ways to prevent or treat diseases and pests.


It's still a few months 'till the actual growing season, but according to the calendar we can start as early as January, tending our soil with some fresh manure and planting garlic! Can't wait :)

Imagine This

Finally, finally I was able to make something new this week. I was so excited to get this project out of my head and into reality. I walked around with this idea for weeks, and I'm so glad it turned out exactly as I imagined it!



I was inspired by Rensz' T-shirt. She's working on digitalising the pattern, but I just couldn't wait! On top of that, a friend had borrowed all my sewing magazines. I had to take apart an old shirt to use as a pattern, but it worked just as well. Maybe even better: you can predict much better how it will fit.

I used the idea of no shoulder seams, but only on one shoulder. It wouldn't work for the flower-side. The flower was easy to make: take a piece of cloth, pull it up and wrap a thread around it. To make neat folds, pin them down as they've shaped themselves. Then cut it into the right shape, and sew it into the whole.


The goal was to add some details to the whole, but keep it simple at the same time. I think I've accomplished that by using the same fabric for all the details. That's why I made the buttons on the back invisible, and added fake buttons, made from the same fabric. I agree with what Rensz says about the back: you might not be able to see it, but other people see it just as often as your face. This part was actually quite hard: my sewing machine did not agree on sewing a straight line close to the invisible buttons...



But it turned out very nice on the whole, and I'm very proud to show you this! If I don't get that job, it won't be because of this shirt...