Making pants

An example of my misguided use of time. We have had a few days to do a big clean up and I am preparing for a residency at Harvest Textiles. At about three o'clock on a sunday afternoon I decide to make a new pair of pants, no two.

I start off my residency in the print studio tomorrow, you see, so I decided I needed printing clothes. Make a project of it. A uniform for working. Half way through I decided maybe I didn't want either of them to be printing pants, if I like them? I thought it'd be nice to ruin something brand new, but now I think maybe not? This is Karen Walker blue printed denim. Can you tell I sew with a toy sewing machine?



For printing then, the spotty trousers I made late last year will have to do. They were crappy printed denim from spotlight, the spots wore off pretty quickly, at least on my bum. I have worn them almost to death. Now I can wear them to the studio everyday for two weeks, see what becomes of them. Maybe they'll get new spots.

Hopefully by tomorrow evening I'll have two new pairs of denim trousers to replace them for day to day wear. Neither are spotty though, so that's a bit sad. I went to find a picture of them, and sadly, there's not one. Seems I don't take photos of most of the things I make. That is kind of weird, considering. Anyway, the ankles of my spotty pants, with my NEW! gingham boots. <3 Patternzzzzzz.

sack dress

I finally set up my sewing machines in the corner of our bedroom. Sounds grim, but our bedroom is large and there is a good spot in an alcove under the window. AND I have actually finished three dresses in three days, in between other things... ohmegod new clothes...

One is pretty strawberry fabric, on which I worked out the pattern, a pattern that is basically a sack... Two is a dress I may just wear to a wedding, made from black linen I bleach dyed while in Holland making flags for a little wooden boat. Now I am glad I carried it home with me. It was a tough decision in the final days, what to leave behind in Paris, heavy fabric, worn-out but loved jeans (soft and good) worn-out but loved t-shirts, perfectly fitting op-shop dress in a style I feel vaguely uncomfortable with. HMMM... what to push the weight restrictions with? The jeans went, so did the t-shirt and dress. I've had pangs of regret (perfectly fitting op-shop dress!) but I'm happier about it now as I have a new dress, a new sack dress. Thirdly a plain black linen bats wing sleeve dress.

The last version of this sack will be sewn up from the woodplanks fabric I printed today. On raw silk. Hopefully it'll be as good in reality as it is in my head.

On that note, woodplanks fabric is very good in reality. I have been wanting to print it for years, so it made me VERY happy to see 20 metres of it laid out on the table today. Like a VERY long log cabin. Ooh it's beautiful.

On that note, I'd like to publicly thank ms durston for the overlocker. Its SO good to be able to make new clothes after living in a suitcase for a year (I even hand-stitched a top in Berlin, that sort of effort from me defines desperate) Pene I love you!