What is the Work? - March Seven
"What is the Work?" is an ongoing series, a daily log of studio time. What I worked on, how it went, how I felt, what I drank, what I listened to, what the weather was like. A way to mark passing days, to notice how it feels, to figure out what the work is. You can find the whole series under the tag "What is the Work?"
Today, I...
made a pair of self-drafted pants.
I started from a pattern from Lotta Jansdotter's Everyday Style, but really it's a lot like cooking, adapting a recipe. You start somewhere, but what you end up is wholly your own. That's how these pants were. I did not follow the recipe. I started with the shape of the Owyn pant from Jansdotter's book, but then basted together the pieces and draped the garment on my body, tapering and re-tapering the side seam on the leg to get the perfect fit, and also reworking the waistline to match a vision I had in my mind. My main inspiration for the pants was Elizabeth Suzann's Clyde Work Pants (perfect, which someday, maybe, I'll be able to afford), with a little bit of State the Label's Origami Pants thrown in the mix. I don't think I could ever actually pull off the whimsical origami pants in my real wardrobe, but I'm intrigued by them. I wanted the waistline to be somewhere in between. sort of paper-bag-ish, with a simple tie closure, no elastic.
After basting and draping the pants, I took them apart and traced my pieces on oak tag so I can make the pants again and again.
Had a mishap where I found out the hard way that it's really difficult to make in-seam pockets with french seams. Decided to wait and finish the rest of the seams later when I have a serger (HOPEFULLY VERY SOON).
Polka dot pockets, pink thread. Adding hand-embroidery to the waistband tonight because I'm worth it.
It will never not be an amazing feeling to put on a handmade garment for the first time, to wear it and go, "wow, this is a real thing." It's so encouraging! I find myself often discouraged, but not when I'm actually sewing, making things. It's in the between times, the laying awake at night times. But when I'm actually in the middle of making a pair of pants, there's no space for discouragement. I'm doing what I set out to do! I'm carrying out my plans! I'm banishing self-doubt by continuing to do the work. That is a triumph. That is why sewing is changing my life. It's a chance to work. It's a chance to see what my hands have made and call it good.
These pants are good.
I have some secret dreams now of releasing clothing sewing patterns someday. I feel like it would take a considerable amount of learning. Maybe I could teach myself, find the right resources and go for it? (That's what Elizabeth Suzann did, but she's a prodigy.) I'll just keep thinking about it for a while, I'm sure. I love quilts, so that's the first goal, pdf quilt patterns, maybe patterns too for quilted objects. Clothing patterns are more of a long-term dream. The biggest hurdle is figuring out sizing, how to grade patterns accurately, to make things look good on more bodies than just my own. I'm good at tailoring things perfectly to myself, but what about other people! Maybe that would be part of it, empowering people to make tweaks to get the perfect fit? A crash-course in self-drafting? We will see. For now, it's magic enough to make clothes to wear in the world. For now it's magic enough to sit down and sew.
am listening to my newest playlist, called "the melt".
am drinking berry la croix.
am feeling sometimes frenzied, sometimes calm, trying to remind myself to enjoy the process, to not rush through it.
am reading Rebecca Solnit's A Field Guide to Getting Lost, still. It's wonderful. Two more essays in bed this morning.
