The Joy of S....ewing

Feels so good to be outside in the sunshine!

I confess that I haven’t really been in the mood to cook creatively lately, what with so much to do in the way of schoolwork, workwork, kids’ activities, personal crap, wanting to get outside in the warmer weather, etc. However, I've had several lucky free clothing finds in the past few weeks and that's what’s inspiring me to do a sewing post today. Anyone who is looking for recipes, please stop by again next month! At least by then there should be some spring veggies to excite me once more.

Free Find #1: My new Easter dress (wrap style, so no altering necessary, yay!)

To begin with, I should state the obvious fact as a middle-class 21st century American, I already have all that I actually need in the way of clothes; which is good because there isn’t any room in my budget for shopping anyway. But that doesn’t stop me from wanting new clothes; I have always been a clothes freak and one of my happiest times is when I get to look at interesting patterns and styles, and actually feel material in my hand. If I had more patience and any sort of artistic inclination I would have loved to become a clothing designer when I grew up. Well, there is still time yet. But for now, it’s all about altering.

About five years ago I did something I’ll always be glad for: I bought an inexpensive sewing machine and a how-to book and taught myself to sew. This hobby quickly became an enormous source of satisfaction, since it allowed me to continue making use of clothes I wore before, during, and after my pregnancies. I made cute little baby accessories and plenty of gifts for my friends' and siblings' babies and children, too. Sewing has also been great for keeping my oldest daughter’s hard-wearing pants in circulation with any number of patches, and I cannot even begin to estimate how many socks I’ve saved from the trash bin with just a few zigzag stitches (see this post for a simple technique).

Didn't think these pants would make it down to Ava!

I doubt that guys will get much out of the rest of today's blogpost since their clothes are generally worn much looser and ironically, are more accurately sized with neck, arm, waist, and inseam measurements. But ladies, I know you’ll get what I mean when I say that it can be challenging to find clothes that flatter in their design, and even more challenging when the only size options are often S, M, L – never mind the issues that crop up when we have a pear-shaped body, or boyish hips, a long torso, short arms, or anything else that’s not exactly what the fashion world would have us be! By adolescence, most of us have figured out what our “figure issue” is going to be for the rest of our lives. For me, it’s a small waist proportionate to my hips. There are worse problems to have, I'm sure, but it can be difficult to hide the two to four inch gap in the back of every pair of pants I have ever tried on. Trying to cinch them in with a belt is a joke (gap forms beneath the belt). However, now that I know what I can do with my trusty sewing machine, I don’t worry so much about this problem anymore.

Before I get to the sewing machine part, I should point out that there is a no-machine solution which I discovered by studying my daughters’ pants: inside the waistband, they all have a hidden elastic strip that hooks onto buttons on each side and makes the waist easily adjustable. It turned out to be very simple for me to seam rip a little slit into my own pants on the inside, insert a ribbed length of elastic with a series of slits cut into each end, sew a couple buttons onto the inside of the waistband, and voila! Instant smaller waistband, albeit with some gathering all the way around the back.

This was the first pair I ever tried this technique on.
Later I learned that extending the elastic all the way around the sides lessens "baggy butt syndrome."

For pants where I don’t want the elastic waistband look, I use the sewing machine to take in the sides, beginning just above the hip and gradually curving inward towards the top of the waistband. If I make the curve gentle enough, it turns out perfectly and you can’t even tell anything was altered. This is what I do with my work slacks and straight skirts where the waistband might show. I do the same thing for bottoms that are too large in general, only I start taking in the sides much lower down, often beginning from the hem and coming straight up all the way to the top. This is good for, say, turning a pair of size 10 wool slacks in to a size 6 – an inch or so off each side and you’re good to go. The only problem is sometimes you lose functional pockets, but it’s a small price to pay for being able to continue wearing your $100 work pants for many more years. And if you don’t cut away the excess fabric like I did below, you can let them out again if the weight comes back on. Remember to press the seams and they'll look just great.

Goodbye pockets, but hello pants, I can wear you to work again! As you can see, these I actually took in twice - the year after baby #2 was born and a few years later when I finally started exercising regularly.

For blouses and even knit shirts, I sometimes make a similar alteration where I begin taking in the sides somewhere just below the bust, making the smallest point where my natural waist hits, then gently curving back out again toward the hem. This has allowed me to keep wearing shirts I bought during those nursing days when DD was no longer a fantasy (ha!), taking them in to fit my normal dimensions after my youngest was weaned. I have also taken in the sides of a cheaply-made shirt for a more custom-made look. It’s amazing how much better clothing looks when it actually fits our bodies. And for me at least, knowing that my clothes look good on me is a big self-confidence booster that can help carry me through challenging or uncertain situations – perhaps it's the equivalent of a power suit for men?

Hey, guys: how come you get sleeve and trouser length suit alterations for free?

But that’s all just functional stuff – doing what it takes to better wear the clothes we already have. I’ve found it even more interesting to alter thrift, hand-me-down and give-away clothes to make new additions to my wardrobe. For example, a while back I wrote a blogpost about taking a 1960s muumuu and transforming it into matching mother and daughter dresses, which to my huge excitement, was featured on one of my favorite blogs earlier this year. I’ve re-done other muumuus, too, but they can be a lot of work because essentially you are taking what amounts to a tablecloth with a fun pattern and designing a new item from scratch. Like this gorgeous silk one below, which started out with buttons up the back of the neck and a cut-out triangle of front cleavage. I cut all that away and made a new neckline and shoulder straps, then removed about half the rest of the dress to make it into a simple above-the-knee shift. I enjoyed figuring out how to make this little flower around one of the original self-covered buttons, which became a new focal point to the neckline.

p.s. this pretty hanger is simply wrapped with fabric scraps - no more clothes slipping off!

Overall, I think it’s the simplest projects that are often the most rewarding – beginning with ordinary clothes that maybe look okay the way they are, and with one or two slight alterations can be made to look really great. If you’re roughly a size medium, it can be hard to work with an item that’s a size small, but if you have a size large you can alter, the world is your oyster. This dress was on the give-away table at our community center. I wasn't a huge fan of the wide, black collar, but I loved the colors and pattern, so I brought it home to try on. Unfortunately, it looked rather like a sack on me and the collar really did seem awfully 1970s. But five minutes, a few inches off and a favorite necklace later, and I had something I could maybe wear out to dinner in the summer.

It's really that easy...try on the garment, take a pinch of fabric here, a pinch of fabric there, pin it all together, take a big breath and sew, try it on again, modify if necessary, accessorize and then check out your genius! There’s nothing to lose if you got the item for free or just a few bucks. And I'm not going to post pictures of this, but you can even alter...drumroll, please...swimsuits. Really helpful if you're one size on top and another size on the bottom. And you can use whatever extra fabric is left over from your clothing alterations to cover a hanger or headband, make fabric beads or doll clothes, or whatever else your creative kids come up with.

t-shirt scraps = doll tube dress + booties. she could probably use some undies, though.

Speaking of getting creative, I'll end this long post with an example of how to make ordinary clothes that come your way into something truly special. I loved the coziness and nice quality of this thrifted Banana Republic wool sweater, but found it just a tad boring. Then the idea of elbow patches came to me, and why not in the shape of hearts?

What's not to love?

I hope I've inspired you to dust off the old sewing machine. And if you don’t sew already, I hope it made you think about why it could be useful to learn how. It's certainly saved me a lot of money over these past few years. I haven’t yet gotten up the courage to teach my oldest daughter to sew, but am thinking this might be the summer to begin. Given all the ways she has already “modified” her clothes with scotch tape, tied fringe into creative knots, made "thumb holes" in her sweater sleeves, used scarves as belts, cut off the bottom of dresses to make shirts (oh yes), I have a feeling this is a skill she’ll be glad to have over the course of her lifetime.

For all my Orthodox brethren out there, the time is finally here: Kalo Pascha! Christos Anesthi!

This is what happens when you leave your camera lying around
for little hands to pick up and experiment with... not that I really mind. :)