I can’t say that I sew often, seeing as it’s difficult to take over a whole room of the house, which must be TV-adjacent — not that I actually end up doing more than listening — haul the machine upstairs, and open the ironing board the dog tries to BITE because of the horrible opening and closing noises it makes, noises which make me want to abort before I’ve even started, because, let’s face it, a large portion of sewing is IRONING, which isn’t exactly my jam, only that when I do get the urge to sew, and when I’ve gotten out all of the things, I binge like a run-on sentence,
like, last year, towards the end of April, when, inspired by my friend Nathalie, who came over to learn how to use a machine, which might have caught on fire, resulting in some overdue repairs on the old eighties Husqvarna and the motto, “make the repairs worth it,” I treated myself to the indie-famous Wiksten Haori pattern and some fabric from The Workroom, and, in the space of one weekend,
made a lovely reversible jacket of Robert Kaufman Essex Dyed Espresso and Chiemi Fujita for Cotton + Steel Kibori Ouji Coral, with the following two changes: 1) adding an additional set of pockets, cut on an angle and covering the whole front body on the Espresso side, and 2) swapping the fabric on the collar for contrast, a feat I followed up on, that same
April weekend, by laying out my favourite cross-back apron on the dining table and making a pattern from it on that kids’-craft-roll-paper they sell at Ikea, because I had extra Essex Dyed and I figured, hey, why not learn to copy the fit of something you absolutely love so you can have a friend over and burn things where they’re supposed to be burnt, in the oven, which fait accompli, led me to tidy up and be done with sewing, until this Winter,
when I signed up for a Spring Serger Essentials class at The Workroom, cancelled with the onslaught of quarantine, that had me swapping the course credit for some amazing fabrics delivered by post, including: one-and-a-half gorgeous metres of Rashida Coleman-Hale Akoma Tomato Duafe I cut tines-up (f-covid!) into this amazing Paper Theory Kabuki Tee,
the first pattern I ever downloaded off the internet, printed, and cut (aside from covid masks, which I’m not including in my sewing-for-pleasure tally, here), learning to turn sharp corners via the designer’s youtube videos, adding some length on the torso and bespoke patch pockets in line with the front seams; as well as three-and-a-half
metres of this quarantine-appropriate Kimberly Kight Homebody Navy Window Pane fabric I was able to make into both the Merchant Mills Gyo Top, the second-ever pattern I downloaded off the internet, this one cut in reverse of the pattern layout, so the thicker band went on my left shoulder, but whose British sizing I kind of forgot was British and perhaps cut too small, leading to some alterations under the side bust I’m pretty thrilled
about MacGuyvering, plus a second Wiksten Haori, “summerized” by sewing unlined, using french seams on the shoulders, arms and sides, halving the collar, adding my first ever tag in a garment made from the “happy recluse” printing on the edge of the fabric and a wee sewn loop for the purposes of hanging up when it gets hot, making sure the pattern on the pockets matched up with the fabric so it blended in just so, and wide-hemming the sleeves so it can be worn at three-quarters-length, or cuffed,
resulting in three new pieces in my 2020 wardrobe over the course of the “May two-four,” one-upping those two new pieces from 2019, and leaving me wondering if, instead of binge-sewing, I should just set up shop in a more comfortable place in the house and sew a whole lot more, perhaps with shorter but more frequent periods of rest?
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