What I'm Wearing to Teach Today: Understated

Dress:  Merchant & Mills Trapeze dress sewn by yours truly
Sweater: Silver Leaf Cardi knit by yours truly in Green Mountain Spinnery's Cotton Comfort
Tights: Hue
Boots: Aquaitalia

Some Reflections After a Year of Not Buying New Clothing

It started around Christmas 2015.  I really didn't want any clothing for the holidays.  I'd done the Life Changing Magic purge in October and was well aware of how much clothing I still had.  On this day, last year, I decided to go public with my make/mend/thrift pledge for the year, and here are some of the things I discovered.

1.  It wasn't that hard. 

This bare fact really hits home how my approach to fashion and style has developed over the past few years.  I had two moments (here and here) where there were dresses I coveted.  These moments happened early on, and I'd say they were more a knee-jerk reaction to associating liking something with owning it.

 

2.  It's not about you.  

It wasn't as though I were parading about, making a statement, but if buying clothes or fashion came up in conversation, I'd tell people that I wasn't buying any new clothes.  Some people responded as though I were judging them by my actions.  Others wanted to question my guidelines - for example, trying to undermine my pledge by saying that thrifting was buying something new.  Listen up, buttercup, these are my guidelines.  You can make your own if you want.

 

3.  I can make it if I try.

Okay, that sounds a bit more serious than it was.  I made the mustard sweater as well as the Brooklyn skirt in a gorgeous purple.  I have the pattern and fabric for the culottes (although it's not khaki), and I have patterns and fabric for all kinds of other projects.  That mustard sweater has become a staple in my wardrobe, as I'd imagined it might be.  The beautiful thing is that it goes with a lot of things in my wardrobe.  This year, I'm making jeans.

 

4.  Make what I like; like what I make.

Yep.  That seems like it should be "duh," but in previous years, I'd find that I'd make something and not be that happy with it.  I'd buy fabric, because it was cute, but then find it maybe too cute for me.   I also ripped out more than one sweater that had been knit years ago (one that I probably knit in the late '90s!).  I've already reworked the yarn from one of those sweaters (originally a Rowan pattern) into a cardigan from the first issue of Making (oh, be still my crafty heart!).  I freakin' love that cardigan.  Even the fact that I had to get more yarn (gasp - how would it ever match?) wasn't a total disaster.  I simply alternated rows of the old with the new, on the back (crafty, crafty, crafty) where I don't see it (hah!).  No one's the wiser!

5.  My personal style is emerging.

I know - it seems like my style is pretty finessed already.  But what I'm learning, still, is where my making and my investment in style and fashion are intersecting.  This is still under development, for sure, (currently working on an essay about it), but in a very deep way, I'm grappling with how my identity intersects with my style.  Yes, I'm asking existential questions around fashion - hey, why not?  I'm trying to get to a place where who I am is the identity communicated by my style.  Stay tuned for that one.

I haven't felt the need to make a similar pledge for 2017, but that's only because I'm really not into shopping like that anymore, and that's probably one of the best outcomes of last year's pledge.

Happy New Year!

Oh Summer! You Wacky Girl!

Clearly I've been spirited off by the siren of summer, but that wasn't before my father and I finished the roof (front of house we started in May).

The roof is great now, having undone the fraudulent work of the previous roofers.  We still have a shed to do, but it's not an emergency.  After that one, I think I might retire from the roofing business.

The ladyfriend and I are now in Nova Scotia, enjoying our new cottage and making it our own slowly but surely.  I've got three knitting projects on my needles at the moment.  My new guideline for my WIPs is as follow - three is the magic number (if you can, please sing De La Soul here), one has to be a TV/car knit (aka no need to look at or keep track of much), one should be more technical/interesting, and one should be for the upcoming season (I'd like to be ahead of the game every once in awhile).  Of course one project might meet two guidelines, like the John Galliano sweater that was published by British Elle in 1986 (back in the day when they had knitting patterns - oh the glory days!) is for fall/winter and has a traveling cable and unique construction.

I'm using some vintage yarn that came with matching tweed fabric (!) that I bought on eBay a hundred years ago.  There were supposed to be patterns with it, but they were not included.  I'm playing a little yarn chicken as I don't know how many yards I have of the stuff, but I'll be okay with 3/4 length sleeves should it come to that.

The other sweaters I'm working on are a simple, in-the-round, sweater for my mother (per her instructions and choice of yarn) and Pasture, by Annie Rowden, which I'm absolutely loving.

It's not only the easy shape that is appealing; it's the yarn from Woolen Rabbit - a blend of merino, silk, and cashmere.  I've got the body almost finished; just waiting for the needle I forgot to bring to arrive in the post.  Such is life!

I have plans to unravel a cardigan I made years ago but have never been happy with the fit of to make a pattern from the most recent (and first) issue of Making.

Additional crafty ambitions I have while at the cottage are to work on Shake-n-Make's English paper piecing project for our Hand of Craft show next year and the Gallery tunic.  I also have the pieces for the Alabama Chanin sampler quilt (from the first book) here, which I consider an ongoing cottage-based project.

I'm looking to the time here as an opportunity for making in all its forms.  I'll be working on stories as well and canning and cooking and living the life I'm constantly crafting for myself.  It's a luxury to have this time and space, and I plan to enjoy every moment of it.

Happy summer!  Happy creating!