Out of the darkness and into the craft.

So I've just had a bit of a sabbatical. Those of you reading this here blog for a long time will know that it happens about once a year. I don't even really know it's going to happen. I just can't write; I feel flat, have no motivation and no words. So I skip a post and then another. This one lasted two weeks.

Often this darkness of the spirit has to do with winter, cold days and a busy house, and me feeling a little overwhelmed by the ongoingness of life. I run out of ideas and feel like I have nothing at all to contribute. Nothing to say. And that there is no point to saying it. Things get a little melodramatic, dark and grim. And also tellingly I start feeling a little exposed. I get to feeling like I've shared to much, rambled to much, gone on about stuff too much. I simply feel like hiding.  

Counter-intuitively one of the signs things are heading this way is that I start engaging in a lot of off-piste, off-list craft. I begin lots of random craft based on how I feel in a given moment. Projects that are exciting, but involve lots of headspace as they are creativity-driven projects, not simply comfort craft.

While this sounds good in theory, with hindsight it's clear that I start mass-creating as a distraction to the flatness I'm feeling. However creating like this results in stress, as I start lots of hard things all at once, adding to the feelings of life-overwhelm.

For example a few weeks ago, I decided it was a good idea to create five frocks at once. A kind of upping-the-ante that means that I end up procrastinating due to overwhelm, and feeling stressed. At the same time within the space of a week, I also started an improvised sweater for me, a hat, a scarf, a sweater for my brother and another sweater for me. Sounding a little bit much, eh?

After years of doing this blogging gig though, I now know that the not-being-able-to-write will pass if I don't stress about it and just go with it. I've learnt that part of the solution is to watch the darkness start and then run with it. Don't fight it but actively seek to pull back. Find myself a metaphorical cave to hide in and get a little quiet.

So practically what to do? Well after finally figuring out I was "in" it, I turned off my email notifications, got off the internet and didn't really visit Instagram. I stopped listening to podcasts and started listening to music. I made sure I was exercising and took up a spot of drinking. I ate chocolate, sewed a little and I watched TV. I slowed down and got quiet. And intentionally decreased the number of obligations I had - to myself but also to others. I cut myself some slack.

This also was true of my craft. Once I start a project it begins to feel like an obligation to me - I feel obliged to get it done. So I intentionally I pulled back on my crafting.

I pared my knitting projects back by pulling out a couple of things I'd just started, to decrease the overwhelm of too many things on the go. I concentrated on getting the frocks made (four down, one to go), and I put all the harder projects to one side. I didn't mend. I also put aside the complicated, improvised head-based knitting (like the improvised colourwork sweater) and focused on comfort craft destined for other people.

The old trick of turning your darkness around by focusing on someone else, worked really well for me this time. I decided to really concentrate on two knitting projects - both for people I love, both stocking stitch, both other people's patterns. And it really worked. It was comforting and simple. Decreasing the overwhelm one stitch at a time, by thinking about the people I was making for, rather than my darkness. Yay.

And the cloud shifted in two weeks. Quicker than it has before which I feel has to do with the fact I went with it so willingly this time. I didn't try to force myself to post through it.

I found this Tim Ferris blog post - that talks about a deloading phase to get ready for the next big push - that I also found helpful. It feels a little like that is where I'm at.

As I sit here this morning I've actually written three posts in a row. Fingers clacking and out of nowhere. I feel like I have so much to share with you all. I am forgetting post ideas as fast as I'm coming up with them. Happy days.

Thanks for bearing with me and I'll see you tomorrow with a post about a cool social enterprise, and then later this week with some exciting TCS news.

I'd love to hear about how you use craft for your darkness.

Felicia x

PS. Last week I talked about a podcast with Paulo Coehlo but forgot to add the link. So here it is. Also on the Tim Ferris podcast - he gets great guests!

The progress of the wedding dress.

So there has been progress with the wedding dress. Not really visible progress as I'd have to show you photos of my half nude body covered in scraps of fabric pins, and we don't want to go there, do we. Instead I'll talk you through where I've got to.

I was (am) procrasinating. Plain and simple. I'm a little stuck in the old it-looks-beautiful-in-my-head-so-i-don't-want-to-make-it-in-case-it-doesn't-work story. I'm good this game and as I've done it many times before for projects that are important to me, I now recognise that it is just part of the process. It will shift.

My lovely friend Jenn put me on a making diet, restricting me from doing random stuff until I started but I got subconsciously got around her quite easily by talking up how the girls need winter dresses and so I started by cutting out five. Five. Talk about avoidance.

The avoidance is mainly because I haven't really settled on a design. It will depend on the fabrics and how they drape. So I need to do some investigation which I am doing.

So what have I actually done.

Firstly - I've been obsessed with Laure De Sagazan, a French wedding frock designer, and have spent a couple of (worthwhile) hours dissecting the shapes and lace of her frocks. If she had a stockist in Melbourne I would probably abandon the idea of homemade and trot on in with a smile on my face. Her frocks are just stunning and I would happily support her growing business. But she doesn't and I really do want to try to make it. I really do :).

Secondly - I wanted to sew up a few things to try to find a silhouette I liked.

So far I've made;

1. The Elisalex bodice - which is truly lovely but looks too formal
2. The Anna bodice - which is truly lovely but looks too bridesmaidy with the only exception being that I think this version with the low V back could be truly beautiful. Especially if it was made of lace.
3. The Esme from Lotta - which I adore and thought about using if I was to go with a sleeve. The shape of the neckline is beautiful and it is a great base which I could then alter by taking the back out ala-Laure.

Thirdly - I drafted a pattern from my favourite Gorman RTW skirt to use as a base. I adore how this thing drapes. I then sewed it up with some linen to get an idea of whether it works. It does and it's beautiful. The shape is perfect.

Fourth - Using my all-time favourite dress (mine is a different print) I've been trying to work out a pattern given all my mock ups. This frock makes me feel sensational and so I want to copy the waist band and the length of the bodice. It fits perfectly. I purchased from the super No.6 in New York - I've been trying to figure out a way to use the shape of the dress top and the waistband with the Gorman skirt to make my own Frankenpattern.

Favourite Gorman skirt. It's like the perfect a-line/circle mix.

Five - I purchased 5.5m of this beautiful Nani Iro from Miss Matatabi for the flowergirl frocks. The second photo on her website shows it better but doesn't really do it justice - and neither does my picture at the top. It is the palest perfect pink (from a non-pink lover) with silver sheen and white and fragile green flower outlines. Again this purchase is total procrastination that I feel really good about. I'm thinking little backless Geranium Dresses, maybe with a slightly longer bodice and a deep V back. The weather in Melbourne in December is rid-ic-u-lous. It could be 42 degrees or it could be 18. You never know.

Onwards and upwards. The procrastination will shift*.

My next step is to mock up an actual whole dress. I'm going to use some chambray and hope for the best. I'll be pattern making as I go. But first I need to finish those five half made kid frocks ;-).

Felicia x

* In this gorgeous podcast with Paul Coehlo he talks about how he procrastinates about 3/4 hours per day before he gets to the writing. And that it is just part of his process.

The Rainbow Connection.

The joy of rainbows.

I’m about to make a possibly shocking confession. And that is that I am not a fan of variegated yarn. I love a semi solid. But variegated? It makes my skin feel prickly and I feel stressed at the mere thought of it on the skein. Too many colours that I don't have enough control over. I freely acknowledge it is my colour/perfectionism issues at play.

That said, being the analytically minded human that I am, I also know that sometimes I love what I profess to hate, even if it makes me feel uncomfortable. For example sometimes I love variegated yarn knitted up. My friend Kellen recently made a hat out of variegated handspun that is truly beautiful. And I’ve found various examples of it on Ravelry over the years that have thrilled me.

I have the feeling that some of my disdain for it comes from my inability to see it translated from a raw material to a garment. I don’t “think” in variegated.

So that is why my recent agreement to buy, and subsequent purchase of, some variegated yarn has filled me with such glee. I love proving myself wrong. Makes me happy.

Now obviously such a big shift has to involve a big underlying emotional driver. Like many of my past decisions to use fabrics and yarn that make me shudder, this time it was all about a group of small people that love rainbows.

This year for birthday presents I’ve offered to make beanies for my lovely friend Martine’s small people. After a conversation around the kitchen table the other day, it was clear that my preference for tweedy yarns or plain yarns just wasn’t going to cut it. The joy her small girl felt while describing her love of multi-coloured purple just couldn’t be ignored. Note: She wasn’t just talking rainbows (read: variegated) but rather she was also talking “purple”. Another of my scary craft places. Purple just isn’t in my colour palette.

I thought of using scraps and knitting from stash but then the hope on her little face and the knowledge that she would feel loved every time she wore it (or even just glanced at it) made me realise that I was headed to the wool shop to buy some Noro.

And now that I’m knitting with Noro, I can’t stop. It is a yarn of joy. Watching the colours develop from the skein to the hat are filling me with total joy. It is addictive. Stopping knitting feels a bit like I’m trying to stop a magic from taking place. It feels wrong and stupid.

There is also a tactility to Noro that is truly delicious. Thick, thin, wool, cotton, soft, hard, colourful joy. It is always surprising, keeping me eyeballing the changes as the yarn runs through my fingers, becoming a stunning piece of fabric.

Now all that said, I have kind of screwed my lovely friend Martine over. Not only am I knitting her kids variegated hats that she will then have to watch them wear, I have introduced variegated yarn into a home full of small people who now know that it is a possibility. There “could” now be rainbow cardigans, rainbow blankets, rainbow vests. If only Martine would just say yes! Her kids are going to be trying hard and they are a persuasive bunch.

My own poor-neglected-sad kids have always had a blanket “NO” when they’ve asked for rainbow yarn*. What kind of a mean mum does that? Ha!

Do you have craft supplies that make your heart sing? I would love to hear...

Felicia x

* With the one exception of yarn for finger knitting.

Simple Sewing 101 - Creative Cutting

So it's been a while between Simple Sewing drinks. I haven't been sewing a lot and when that happens I don't end up thinking about things you lot might be interested in....until I do! Last week I started making five winter dresses for the small girls (breaking my normal rule of three at a time :)) and I ran into a few issues in terms of fabric, which lead me to today's post.

So creative cutting? By creative cutting I mean breaking some of the rules around how you "should" cut your patterns out. I do it often, but I know as a newbie it can be confusing so I thought I'd tell you which rules I break and why you might want to....

As always my disclaimer - Simple Sewing 101 techniques are not necessarily proper dressmaking techniques, and as such it is recommended that you use them for everyday sewing as opposed to special sewing using your most favourite fabric ever.

What are the rules?

One of the things that comes up a lot when I'm teaching people to sew is cutting out. And it makes sense. Lots of patterns talk about exactly what you need to do to sew the garment up, but not about what are the rules for cutting?

So first lets talk about the rules - they are pretty simple;

1. Cut out your pattern pieces making sure that the grainline on the pattern piece is parallel to the grainline of the fabric - which means that the grainline on the pattern piece is parallel to the selvedge of the fabric. The selvedge is the strip that runs along the edge of the fabric.
2. Don't cut out pattern pieces into the selvedge as it normally has a different stiffer weave to the actual fabric.
3. Make sure with directional patterns that you cut all your pieces out the right way up.
4. ....Um. Well. That's pretty much it.

Really you should just read these couple of great articles Colette about the grainline in order to understand grain and why it's important. Essentially it is simply that the direction of the grain in the fabric will affect the drape of your clothing.

Five dresses lined up ready to go.

 

Why would you want to break the rules?

The why is pretty simple. There are two reasons.
1. You have enough fabric, but you want to cut out as efficiently as you can to save fabric. OR
2. You don't have enough fabric and you are trying to get your garment out of what you have.

Saving fabric means you have leftovers. For example by doing some clever cutting of my Annie Dress I had .65m of beautiful linen left over at the end (I had purchased the exact amount specified by the pattern) which means that I now have a Lou Box Top cut out and ready to be sewn up. It will be my reward sewing for getting the five dresses done and dusted.

And the second reason - well for me that often comes down to the fact that I am trying to make dresses for the kids out of scraps or small amounts of fabric. For example girls needed winter dresses and I really wanted to stick with my Stash Less guidelines. My fabric purchasing over the last couple of years has slowed to an absolute trickle, which means that I can no longer just head to my cupboard and be sure there will be something suitable for the project. Exciting, and sometimes annoying.

That said, I still have a truckload of scraps to use. 1/2 a metre of one fabric and 1m of another. As the girls are now enormous (being 5 and 8) then 1m isn't enough to make girl frocks, and so creative cutting is what it's all about.

Don't let this scare you off Stash Less though. While Stash Less has made actual clothes sewing a little trickier, it does however create some wonderful outcomes as discussed in this post on limitations.

For example for one of my five frocks, I'm going to get a wonderful Ace and Jig style girl's dress (shown at the top of the post) because I only had 1.2m of this beautiful Nani Iro Flannel which meant I could get the whole dress cut out except for the front out of the bodice. This is actually one of the least weird places to use a different fabric as it looks like a feature and I think it's going to be even prettier than if I had made it all out of the same fabric.

There was not enough of a scrap to get a front out of this piece of fabric no matter which way I turned it. The solution I came up with is shown below.

 

What rules can you break?

Here are my recommendations about how to get creative when fabric is tight and you are trying to squeeze something out OR when you just don't want waste fabric;

1. Don't follow the pattern instruction guide on how to cut out.
These suck. Not because pattern makers don't know what they are doing. They do! But they are restricted in that they have to give a guide using the largest size of pattern while making it super simple to show in a diagram. This is tricky. And it ends up meaning that if you follow the instructions you normally waste a lot of fabric.

The recommendations for the amount of fabric given by a pattern are often a healthy estimate and so you should be able to save some fabric in most circumstances.

Ideally you want to end up with a useable piece of fabric at the end rather than a whole heap of oddly shaped scraps so what to do? I thought I would give you some general rules to try - they won't work everywhere but they are a great place to start.

1. First, have a go at laying out your pattern pieces so that they are as close to one another as possible. You don't need even a mm between them. Wiggle them around and try a couple of different configurations - making sure your grain line is following the grain. For pieces that are on the fold place them down and then flip them over to make sure you have room. These do not need to be cut from a fold in the middle of the fabric.
2. Once you have a configuration you are happy with then cut out anything that has to be cut out on the fold. Do this by folding the selvedge towards the other selvedge but only by the amount you need to cut that bit of the pattern out. For example if your pattern piece is 30cm wide from the fold line to the edge then fold the selvedge 33cm over. Measure from the selvedge line to the fold line in a couple of different places to check that your fold follows the grainline. You can see this demonstrated in this Colette post on cutting on the grainline.
3. Thirdly, cut out all your other pattern pieces, roughly biggest to smallest making sure that you consider smaller pieces as you go to see if they will fit in any oddly shaped offcuts.

A photo of me trying to get all the pattern pieces to fit onto my scraps to make a scrap dress. You can see what the front turned out like below. One sleeve of the frock will be the light pink and the other the dark pink.

2. Cut on the cross grain.  
I do this all the time. For big person garments as well as for kids. I often squeeze a piece of clothing out of scraps and when I do this there is often a tradeoff. In order to be able to use the piece of fabric I sometimes have to cut on the cross rather than the grain. This is not a problem at all for many wovens or even linens.

I was recently speaking to a pattern designer who stated that in her opinion this is totally valid. She pointed to a recently made frock hanging on her door handle where the whole dress was cut on the cross grain.

Sometimes I cut on the cross grain simply to save fabric. You can see this in the beautifully styled photo below.

Both of these pieces should be cut out with the fold line on the grain. This would mean that they were facing the other way.

Please note: Cutting on the cross grain is an issue if you have a directional pattern or a stripe, plaid etc. It is also an issue for knit fabrics as often the stretch runs in one direction more strongly than another. That said, facings and pocket linings can be cut out even if the pattern is directional.

3. Ignore the grainline rules where you need to.
Sometimes you need to take it a step further and cut out on a slight bias or on the cross with a directional fabric. This can be OK too. It's your call!

Just today I totally ignored the grainline of the Liberty cord to cut out the facings. This is not advisable by any stretch of the imagination but it worked fine. Yes, I could have used a different fabric for my facings, but I was up for the challenge of making the whole thing fit and the girls aren't going to care. On two facing pieces I cut them with the cord going horizontal and then for one very last piece I actually cut it slightly on the bias to get it to fit. Now this is NOT ideal as you really want your facings to be stable. That is the whole point of them. However as they were to have fusible interfacing on them and the biasing was slight I decided that I did not care one jot! Play on.

The piece on the left has been cut on a slight bias. The piece on the right has been cut on the cross grain even though it is cord and this is very wrong. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do.

Stash Less means my ironing board cover is now elephants :).

3. Use a different fabric for your facings.
I do this all the time. As long as you roll your facings inwards by a mm or so, then noone will ever know. Try to find a fabric that is a similar weight to the fabric you are using.

4. Ignore pattern recommendations about making bias.
Many patterns suggest you to take a big diagonal stripe/hunk out of your fabric for a piece of bias binding. Use a different colour, store bought bias or make some using a continuous bias binding tutorial. There is a good one online from Craftsy.

5. Create your own fabric from scraps.
I did this for the bodice in the picture below. I just didn't have a scrap big enough for the front so I sewed some pieces together (roughly thinking about where they would end up) using french seams and then cut the pattern piece out of the new fabric. Flat-felled seams also would work well if you didn't mind some top stitching. I think I'm going to love this dress.

6. Get dodgy in your seam allowances.
If you are missing a piece of your seam allowance no worries at all. Pin it so that the edges match as if the chunk of seam allowance you are missing was still there and play on.

Sometimes I will also cut a pattern piece with the seam allowance in the selvedge if I know it will sit inside the seam allowance. If it is distorting the fabric I would just trim it back.

You could also make all the seam allowances for your pattern smaller. This is especially helpful if they are 1/2".

I decided this was too far into the selvedge and so actually shuffled this piece around.

I moved this side further over the edge so there was a chunk out of the seam allowance.

7. Alter your pattern.
This last one is if you are desperate and works best for a pattern you have made in the past so you know how much flexibility you have to play around. Take half a cm out of the middle of the bodice or shorten the sleeves, or shorten the bodice. Make the leg of a trouser a little slimmer.... Do what you need to do.

I'm sure I'll think of a few more overnight but I thought I'd open the floor to you. How do you save on fabric when cutting out?

I can't wait to hear your tips and tricks.

Felicia x

The Myth of Patience In craft

It's the standard response to knitting in public or people hearing that you are a knitter. It happened to me only today. Someone heard that I had knit my sweater, and asked me how long it had taken me. Upon hearing that it had taken a couple of months they said "You must be soooo patient" and to that I say piffle!

The person was being lovely. She was lovely and simply making an observation and probably trying to pay me a compliment. She went on to say that most people aren't that patient. And maybe they aren't.

But the thing is I'm not patient. I need knitting because I'm not patient. I can't sit through a school concert, or hours of book reading to small people, or a two hour trip to the park, without knitting.

Can. Not. Do. It.

Without knitting all I can think is run away run away. Because I lack patience.

Now obviously this isn't always the case. Some days I love being at the park. But on days where this isn't the case then knitting keeps me where I need to be, and doing what I need to be doing.

Here is what I think is going on. I think that people say "patience" and see "patience" in knitting because they are looking at knitting as a product. You knit to create a thing, don't you? And looking at that thing - today it was my 5ply James sweater - then they think "Oh my, that would take sooo long".

But as we all know, the key part of knitting is the process. The product is simply one part of the process. Because even if we ourselves are product orientated as crafters, we can't get past the fact that we enjoy some part of the process. Otherwise we wouldn't be doing it. We would simply purchase that beanie/scarf/sweater, and go play a round of golf/game of bingo/read a magazine*!

That all said I need to point out that craft has helped me develop qualities that might confuse the issue, and sometimes may look like patience from the outside - stick-with-it-ness, and trust in the process, and a willingness to rip something out if I'm not happy with the result. But again, a lot of those qualities exist because I've learnt that craft is a process that sometimes results in a product. Craft as a practice has changed me - I just found this long forgotten blog post that describes this perfectly Practice and all is coming.

Knitting is not a product** and I am not patient**.

How about you? Do you get asked this?

Felicia x

P.S. To hear more about the process then go have a listen to me chat to Elizabeth in the Mornings on the Dock podcast. Elizabeth then talks some more about process in the following episode with Bristol Ivy.

P.P.S. Yay! The Winner of my Tessuti Alice in Nani Iro is Laura Darby - could you email me at admin@thecraftsessions.com and I will get it out to you.

* What is it that those non-crafters get up to in their spare time? Anyone?

** There are obviously exceptions.