Dearest Needlework Lovers!
It has been a week of wood-harvesting, so less energy for the intricacies of the sewing room - but today I finished a two-day job and felt more connected again - having crumbled under some overwhelm from the white vintage nightshirt that I'm trying to transform into a beautiful dress!
I didn't document the job until I had already attached the new strip of denim to the lower leg of the original trousers! Then I saw they were mega-too-long, and here am cutting the excess off of the bottoms...
So I really love the intimacy of changing a garment significantly: making it take the form of my own body, or take on a new character rather than the one which the label dictated, whenever it was created. I love finding a spontaneous connection with, colour and size of scraps that I have; finding a new direction for something - and for myself - when the way that the garment was previously programmed to demand. I really enjoy cutting off labels, not just for ease of wearing (I find them SUPER scratchy, like having a mosquito perpetually biting me!) but for the fact that I do not align with having the brand, the corporation, and general vibes of 'fashion' resonating in my aura.
These are a pair of (what were) very odd-lengthed short trousers which I loved the feel of when I was rummaging deep on the 50c stall: I gravitate towards blue and white, and the top of the trouser looked like a good fit, as well as being stretchy - yuum! However, once I put them on, they were totally 'off': they seemed like they'd be unflattering to anyone... I immediately decided to try and transform them by adding a whole other length.
As ever, I didn't measure anything, but went ahead and roughly eyed the width of the legs at the bottom... Then found one of the old pairs of Sergio's jeans, and thought that I could use the thigh width of them to elongate the legs: I didn't want to make them any more flared, nor to have them taper, so the width was important.
Just by holding them up together, it was clear that either the trousers would have to be taken in, or the thigh section would have to be widened: I opted for the latter, and cut another strip from the already-too-long extension denim, and formed a new circular strip for the bottom of these trews.
It was nice work, adding a horizontal strip vertically, and thinking how this will give the trousers character, and it all fitted really nicely together, with not much overlap to cut or resew. I simply unpicked the hem of the blue and white trousers, unpicked the hems of the new, composite jeans' section, and then fitted them all together. Jeans's seams can be heck of a thick, so the needle of the machine had to be coaxed to navigate that!
I hand-sewed the second layer of stitching where the denim meets the other fabric: this gives it better form and finishing, and will strengthen the new garment for a longer life. It was nice to fiddle with some fiddley bits and get a feeling of being that wee bit more proficient than before - of quickly honing in on an imperfect bit and neatening it up sufficiently that I'm not caught out later by it, when it is being worn!
And I fixed a quite visible hole in the lower leg (detailed above): I think this was a 'fashion hole' rather than a truly worn injury to the original jeans: Sergio was a passionate buyer of trendy clothing, and had many many pairs of 'fake worn' jeans. This was always a point of titillation for me, coming from a culture of actually wearing clothes, and wearing them down through use, rather than sitting around 'looking cool' and pretending that the marks on one's clothing were made by our own activity!
I love the humour in these new trousers too! I like when clothing goes just that wee bit 'over' or beyond the norm. It is really nice to keep humour in clothes, so that they don't wear us, but express our fullness of spirit and character. It is a lot more fun to dress in clothing that might make others smile - even if it might make many folks in this part of the world frown ;-D Heheh!
It is glorious sunny but cool afternoon in Guardia Sanframondi: I am going out to celebrate the fact that I managed to get all the wood cut, up the steep hill stairs, and into my cantina to dry... Soooo looking forward to the first big roaring stove fire, and the oven sizzling with roasting veggies and chicken... Such a good atmosphere to sew by!
A presto - big warm hugs to you today!
www.claregaiasophia.com
