WiaW: Day 6

My final day of "Wardrobe in a Week"!

What I did today:

artistically repaired several small holes in a T-shirt

sewed a T-shirt from new fabric

overdyed a skirt that I sewed this week with brown dye; some of the previously printed portions took up the dye less than the rest, leaving it with a subtle pattern that I like

experimented with dabbing acrylic paint onto my solid black swimsuit; happy with the colors I chose, but not happy with the final result--but likely I can improve it with one more dabbed-on layer of the first color, just mixed with white to make it stand out a bit more


Next steps:

REST!

Put away the piles of fabric that are taking up half of the school room,

Get the house vacuumed,

And get on with my life.

WiaW: Day 5

Tomorrow will be my last working day of my "Wardrobe in a Week".  Today I:

put my homemade interfacing (painted fabric) into a collar--by basting it onto the top edge, and covering it with another layer of the shirt fabric (left over from when I made the shirt last year); the interfacing seems to have about the right amount of stiffness, and the collar looks much better

ironed (!) two skirts that are cut on the bias, which have a problem with the hem rolling up about three times over, making the skirts a bit too short; this needs a more permanent solution

made another working-around-home skirt from start to finish, after realizing that the one I started before (of coarse woven polyester) will be much too heavy and hot for summer wear; this one from cotton from a handed-down duvet cover

sewed up a small hole in a T-shirt

made a minor alteration to a homemade nursing bra

did an experiment with joining the legs of homemade tights (which had holes in the heels) to the feet of socks that I really didn't like that much as socks


I also had some accomplishments in deciding what not to do as I finish up this week:

not sewing the polyester skirt, as already mentioned

not sewing two blouses that I had planned on making; they can wait until fall

not sewing a full set of new underwear, only repairing what I already have

WiaW: Day 4

Today I:

did an experiment in making homemade interfacing by giving muslin a thin coat of acrylic paint

fixed a button that was about to fall off, including darning the fabric it was attached to

reclaimed the elastic from two old skirts, and...

...finished the "good" skirt:  waistband, pocket, and hem

cut fabric for a T-shirt

shortened two older T-shirts

WiaW: Day 3

More "Wardrobe in a Week" progress:

cut out fabric for two skirts--one for "good" and one for working around the house-- and sewed all the vertical seams; the one for working I made big (on purpose), and will have to take in some at the waist

finished the felt hat, including blanket stitching all the way around the brim (by hand); it looks goofy and a bit too floppy, but workable for being out in the yard

drew up a pajama pants pattern, and cut out and sewed up a pair; when in doubt, make them BIG

adjusted sewing plans, based on available fabric, to have one of the shirts that I am going to make be a T-shirt

WiaW: Day 2

Sewing was rather light today, as I was busy for much of the day dealing with laundry and yard work and such, but I did get several things done:

made over a much-too-large T-shirt, so that it fits; also replaced its designer logo with a reverse applique flower, in an Alabama Chanin sort of style, but with crochet cotton instead of buttonhole thread

adjusted the straps on my swimsuit; this turned out to only require untying the knots I had made in them before

shortened a tank top to be only a tank bra, which is replacing a nursing bra that was very worn out

shortened the sleeves on a long-sleeved T-shirt to make them three-quarter sleeves (which I find more practical for frequent handwashing)

sketched patterns for a long A-line skirt and for a baseball cap

cut out and started hand-sewing a felt hat (just out of synthetic craft felt) to wear while doing yard work, until I make a baseball cap to replace the one that fell apart in the wash last week

WiaW: Day 1

My first day of actual sewing, for my "Wardrobe in a Week" effort. Today I focused on getting a number of small repairs and alterations done, which moved seven items of clothing out of my to-do pile and back into my closet:

2 bras repaired; mended a rip and replaced a missing hook and (with needlenose pliers) bent one of the other hooks back to something like its original shape

replaced a button on a pajama top

did a line of simple embroidery around the neckline of a (previously homemade) T-shirt

repaired some embroidery on the neckline of a different (also homemade) T-shirt

made over a skirt to be shorter and narrower, to serve as an underskirt for my two wrap skirts

took out a goofy-looking side seam on another skirt, and sewed it back up


I also got a few other things done:

soaked an older T-shirt in Oxyclean (I am not an affiliate of anything) to see if it helped...it did, a little

washed and dried the quilting fabric I bought, to preshrink it before sewing

drew up a quick pattern for a camisole, and cut the fabric; started sewing, but doubt that it is going to go well with this particular fabric (very thin)

again looked over several of the remaining items of clothing to be dealt with, and decided what to do with them

WiaW: Final preparations

I did not get done all of the things that I wanted to, but I got enough done...I think.

I made a trip to the fabric store, and after much deliberation spent my $25 budget on enough quilting cotton to make a skirt, plus elastic for making underwear, and dye. (I have plenty of fabric at home, just in the wrong weaves, fibers, and colors...one of those attributes I can change, although I consider dyes to be too toxic for me to use more than occasionally.)

The cheaper fabrics for sale at the store make more sense if you realize that their true purpose is not to be sewn up and enjoyed, but to drive you to pay more to buy the fabrics that are tastefully designed and useful.

I also spent some time digging through my baskets of fabric just looking, and in making decisions about what I am going to sew this week--including making some more rectangle color sketches to see how various tops and skirts work together.

WiaW: Planning session 4

I went around the house and gathered all the fabric that is potentially available for sewing into clothes, into a couple of laundry baskets.

I also went back to my chart of needed outfits for various activities. I crossed out the clothing I am going to retire, and made note of the clothing that needed alteration, and came up with a fairly solid list of what new clothing I need to make, and in what colors and patterns to coordinate with the rest of my summer wardrobe.

All along I've been writing down ideas for modifying fabric and for making improvements to my clothing.

I made a tentative sewing schedule for next week, first the knit fabrics, and then the woven fabrics, along with a list of tasks under each category.

I still have to make some choices about which fabrics to actually use (or to buy), and I still have to draw up some patterns, before next week.

WiaW: Planning session 3

Planning for next week's "Wardrobe in a Week" continues....

I still haven't had a big-enough block of truly free time for trying on and evaluating the clothing that I already have. But I got the idea of just wearing some of the clothes that I don't wear as often, this week while I'm planning. Most of the rest, I wear frequently enough that I don't really need to try them on.

I set a budget of $25 for the week. I started with $5, but realized that this is an area where I should be spending a bit more than that, at this time in my life. Some of the clothes I am replacing are five--or even ten--years old and have been in regular use that whole time.

I have been keeping my eyes open around the house for potential materials. We have multiple fabric stashes in this house, along with a shelf in the linen closet that is jammed full of sheets. I have even been eying my bedroom curtains, but I know they are very faded in places.

I checked out a seamstress's book from the library (Anna Zapp's The Zapp Method of Couture Sewing, which seems quite good, although more oriented toward personalizing commercial patterns than toward drawing your own). I used her measuring scheme, which involves taking something like seventy measurements, for taking my own measurements. She recommends always rounding a measurement up, if in doubt--it's much easier to alter something in the direction of smaller rather than larger.

Another of her tips is to take garments that fit you well, and measure the ease (the extra room built into the garment so it's not skintight and you can move) at various points. I haven't done that yet, but I made a list of clothes to measure when I get a chance.

I also took a look at my fabric store coupons; I'm likely going to be buying at least some fabric and elastic.

WiaW: Planning Session 2

"Wardrobe in a Week" planning in my homemade blank book continues....

I made a clothing inventory, listed by Item, Condition, and Actions. So far, I've done this entirely from memory while the baby was napping in my bedroom; there are some things I need to actually look at and try on.

"Actions" includes the item's needed repairs, along with possible alterations and repurposing. Some things just need to be completely retired.

I also had some fun making drawings of possible color and pattern combinations, based on my actual and potential clothing. A few years ago, I made a set of little clothing silhouettes, like paper dolls' clothes, depicting basic shirt, blouse, skirt, pants, sweater, and jacket shapes. I got these out and traced around them in my planning booklet, then colored them in, in a variety of combinations.

After a while, though, I got tired of carefully tracing my little templates, and just started drawing rectangles, where the top third of a rectangle represents my neck-to-waist portion, and the bottom two-thirds represents my waist-to-ankles portion.  That is not so far from my actual shape, as seen from the front when I am wearing a long skirt.

WiaW: Planning Session 1

This is my week of planning before doing a "Wardrobe in a Week" sewing blitz next week (for my summer wardrobe only).

I started by making a blank book for this project by stapling several sheets of white paper together along the top, and then turning it sideways. (Using the paper sideways gives more room for ideas to spread out and blossom, I recently learned.)

I began my analysis by figuring out how many waking hours in a week I have--about 119 hours out of 168--and how I typically spend my time during the week...the idea being that I will need more outfits for the activities that I do most often.

I found that I spend 95% of my waking hours working at home (on various things), running errands, or on informal outings. The other 5% is mainly spent at church and church events, along with errands in less informal settings, such as going to the bank. There is also the possibility of having weddings and funerals to attend, or of having unusually messy work to do somewhere.

Next, I made a chart of how many outfits I estimate will need this summer, based on the above activities, and a laundry schedule of one laundry day per week. I temporarily filled this chart in with outfits consisting of clothing I already have; this is to expose some of the more obvious gaps in my wardrobe. More will appear as I choose to retire or repurpose some items.

I also started making a list of repairs and alterations and new sewing that I want to do next week. Since I will need to be very efficient with my time next to accomplish everything I want to do, I am thinking now about how to minimize sewing machine set-up time, such as time spent changing needles or thread, or winding bobbins. So I'm going to be sorting and batching these tasks by the needle and the thread that are required.

DIY microwave popcorn, and chocolate chunks (not together)

We've been doing some experiments with making different things at home.

I found a microwave popcorn recipe online that works well enough for a child of a certain age to prepare for themselves (although it doesn't scale up well for a family of our size; if it's all of us, we might as well make popcorn on the stove in the stockpot like we usually do).

Homemade microwave popcorn:

1/4 cup popcorn kernels
1/4 teaspoon vegetable oil
about 1/4 teaspoon or so of salt
a paper lunch bag

Mix the kernels, oil, and salt in a small bowl, and put in bag.  Fold the top of the bag over twice, firmly, and set the bag upright in the microwave.  Microwave for two minutes MAXIMUM, and stop sooner if fewer than two kernels per second are popping as the popping dies down.

We also experimented with making homemade chocolate chunks, as a substitute for chocolate chips. The two recipes I looked at used either coconut oil, or a mix of coconut oil and butter as a base. So I doubt these are cheaper than store-bought chocolate chips.

One of the recipes used a 1:1 ratio of oil to cocoa powder; the other a 2:1 ratio.  I tried 1:1, which seemed rather strong (bitter and possibly containing enough caffeine to interfere with sleep), and which needed a fair amount of additional sugar to make kid-palatable.

With the warm weather this week, the coconut oil is completely liquid, so I didn't bother heating it up before mixing. The chunks also tended to liquefy a few minutes after being removed from the freezer; the bar cookies that we used them in were somewhat marbled with melted chocolate.

I can't give an exact recipe for how we made the chunks, but I was aiming for a yield of about 1 cup, so it was something like:

Homemade chocolate chunks

3/4 cup coconut oil
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Heat coconut oil on low heat to melt, if solid. Mix in other ingredients. Add additional sugar to taste, if desired. Pour into a shallow pan and freeze. Cut into chunks before using; keep cool until baked or eaten.

I thought of adding in a little powdered milk to stabilize them a bit, but I thought it would be too grainy, unless I ground the powdered milk into a finer powder. I might try that next time.