May 2023 Round-Up: Me-Made

rebbiejaye

May 31

This month, Instagram has offered a sort of order to my life that has really helped. Yeah, it's a little neurotic, a little fictional in the relationship department. But I think, for this season, it has helped.

Me Made May

Me made may is an Instagram hashtag, a chance for makers to practice wearing the things they've made. I think the core audience of the hashtag is sewists (the new gender-neutral term for seamstresses), but there's definitely knitting in there too. I was inspired by Wool n' Spinning member Tazhi of the Stitches and Starlight podcast, who every day posted amazing pictures of herself in the clothing she had sewn.

I have very few clothes that I sewed myself, but it's something that has been growing steadily in my mind for some time. This was the first year I participated in Me-Made-May, and I knew I would mostly be posting outfits of boughten clothes with me-made accessories, but I decided to own it. And, I set myself the goal to sew myself at least a couple wearable things by the end of the month.

So, I started. I put together an outfit, every day, that had at least something I had made in it. I learned a LOT over the course of this month.

Taking full-length pictures of oneself is for sure uncomfortable for me. But I kinda got used to it, just by doing it. My pictures are not flashy. My camera is old. Getting the lighting right in my living room is pretty strange. And, of course, I don't always feel super-comfortable in my body. But making sure I was wearing an outfit that I liked really helped with that.
It also just feels incredibly strange posting this many pictures of myself on the internet. I am not and have never been an "influencer" by any definition. This blog is more about my creative processing than about shouting into the void, LOOK AT ME!!! Especially as I posted through Insta to facebook, where all you in person people know me, I felt really weird about it. But you folks were really kind and supportive in your comments, which slowly made it less and less weird. So, thank you. Thanks for letting me publicly explore caring for myself in this way, and encouraging me in it.

2. Almost my entire wardrobe is thrifted/upcycled. A lot of times the only things me-made were a sweater and my socks. But thrifting is its own kind of making, saving things from being discarded in our fast-fashion world. Now, in a different culture, they wouldn't need to be donated in the first place. But I'll make treasure from someone else's trash, and call good enough good enough.

I had been running on the same few pairs of thrifted jeans for a while, and was down to two pairs thoroughly patched and on their last, ahem, legs. I have been researching for ages on some really high-quality justice-tastic new jeans to buy, but the time for new jeans was NOW, and the budget was not there for fancy new ones. I went to the trusty local thrift store and found a pile of jeans for almost nothing, tried them on at home, and a bunch of them fit me. They might not be the cut I would choose for myself, but they're almost new, and I know how to treat them right. Here's hoping they last a while!

3. I did sew a couple pieces for myself. Above you see my shirt, made from a tablecloth found at the thrift store. It's really not my colour, but I made it as a wearable muslin to try a new pattern. The shirt works, and I'll be keeping my eye out for the right fabric to make a nicer one.

While I was at the thrift store, I also saw a polyester bedsheet covered with weird-looking bug-eyed dinosaurs. I snapped it up and made it into a dress for Dooner, to continue cutting my teeth on this whole garment making thing.

One day that I needed some energy, I dressed myself up in one of my new aprons. I haven't used them much; they mostly decorate the playroom wall. But this was a cheery pick-me up that day.

The big feat was the burnside bibs - a pair of overalls from a Sew House Seven pattern. It was seeing Tazhi in these bibs that pushed me over the edge to do Me Made May. I found a pair of curtains at the thrift store in a green houndstooth, made from the perfect light cotton canvas. I bought the pattern that day. It took some time to work myself up to actually making them; my sewing machine needed some dusting off. But we got there.

What I loved about this pattern was that it was so achievable. No faffing about with a fly, or a waistband that has to perfectly support the fit on my hips. The straps go through belt loops on the back and cinch tight for a perfect high-wasted fit, without any fanciness. All the techniques were things I could do. The hardest part was getting my machine to do zig-zag.

*A look at the fit in the back. I might skip the pockets on the next one; they tend to bag out a bit, and the front pockets are gorgeous and spacious.*

3. As the month went on, I got bolder with my outfit choices. I dressed to the 9s for Pentecost, and discovered that if you wear enough of one colour family, it starts acting like a neutral. See also my bibs outfit with the green sweater.

4. It's also OK to just have a uniform. There are a couple of things that I need to not put on unless I'm sick, because they feel like giving up. But the usual diet of jeans + shirt is really OK. I can change things up by swapping out leggings (yes, boughten from Costco; I'm going to make them last forever), or a knitted top or pullover. Sometimes adding a pair of earrings is all it takes to feel put-together. Oh, and brushing my hair.

5. And, finally, I'd kind of underestimated the importance of undershirts. My most consistently used me-made was my upcycled camisoles I made a couple years ago. Made from mens' t-shirts I found at the thrift store, the fabric is way more durable than the stupid camis I used to buy at Old Navy. I made them super-long to suit my long torso, and all my midriff problems are just solved. I feel naked without one, even in short sleeves. So, even though it isn't really visible, there was absolutely something sewn by me in every me-made-May photo.

For today, the last day of May, I picked all my favourites. My favourite-coloured handspun socks. My favourite sewn garment. My favourite handspun cardigan. My favourite long-sleeved thrifted tee. And of course, an upcycled cami under all that.

I've ordered some Rit dye to overdye the second curtain and make myself another pair of bibs. I'll be eyeing the stores for canvas with pretty prints - it shows up sometimes at the hardware store. And next time I'm somewhere like Maiwa, I'll buy some of that beautiful indigo-dyed cotton I was eyeing, because I'll know I'm capable of making myself some tops. This feels really exciting - a celebration of the fact that most of my wardrobe is pretty usable and sustainable, and excitement that I can slowly move towards making a pieces myself that are more expressive.

15-a-day

The other way I've been using Instagram is as a place to keep myself accountable to work 15 minutes a day on the few long-term projects that are closest to my heart, that feed my soul, and that will take a long time to complete.

Weaving

I've had this twill weave on the loom for quite a while. Honestly, working on it 15 minutes a day, it still took quite a long time. 15 minutes got me about three inches. But three inches is a lot more than zero inches. Finally, a couple weeks ago, I got it off the loom.

The warp is a destash from my friend Jonica, many years back; I think it's most if not all silk. The weft was an impulse buy on a yarn crawl probably twelve years ago. I've held onto these yarns all this time, sure they wanted to become something together. Using them in this fabric was a perfect way to use them up in a learning experience.

Making twill on a rigid heddle is a bit of a thing. There are different ways to do it, but I went with the method of using three heddles to replicate three shafts, the fourth shaft being the neutral threads that go through slots in all three heddles. That probably means nothing to you. It's so interesting that I'd like to do a video on it, and show the flow I got into changing sheds. It was super-satisfying, and I enjoyed the 15 minutes I snuck in.

Now that it's off the loom, I'm not sure what it wants to be. I'm so close to shelling out for a Sarah Howard pattern; her youtube videos are just the most sweet and encouraging thing. It would be a bit of a crop top in this short of a piece, but I could maybe live with that... I'll put the fabric in stash and think about it some more.

I took a break from weaving to do some of the sewing detailed above, but I'm queued up and off to the races with my next project. I loved the twill, but I wanted to do something super-simple next.

One of the warps I wound ages ago was this handspun gradient. I had made two skeins of the gradient in the end, one with slightly more yardage, so I wound that up as warp. I put it on my second-narrowest reed, so I could actually use a normal threading hook on it. Yesterday I wound up the second skein onto bobbins:

And today I tied on, spread the weft, wove the first inch, and hemstitched. Definitely more than 15 minutes, but now I'm ready to zone out and enjoy myself, doing tabby weave 15 minutes a day!

English Paper Piecing

My second 15-a-day was the EPP project. I genuinely enjoy EPP, but it's so completely for fun and not work that I had a lot of trouble getting it to the top of the queue. But it's also one area where 15 minutes a day will really get you somewhere. I can usually get one unit or subunit done per day, and there are usually six of each type of unit in the pattern I'm doing. That means I get to do a different one every week. Pretty fun.

It's just pure fun, done for love. Jared and I will celebrate our 15th anniversary this summer, and if this is hanging over our bed before our 20th, I'll be very pleased.

Supported Spindle Spinning

My 3rd 15-a-day is that I've still been spinning on my supported spindles every day.

I recently passed 50 days in a row of supported spindling, and I love how quickly my hands have learned what to do. I'm not overthinking this spin. Even though this was definitely a precious fiber, I feel like I'm giving it all the love it deserves just by spinning it this way, and I'm not worried about it being perfect. I'm feeling like this is going to be a lot of yarn when I'm done though.

I should be through this spin in another couple of weeks. These pretties will come with me on our travels this summer, which coincide perfectly with Tour de Fleece and Tour de Femme, but I'll have to come up with a shorter spin on the interim to keep my streak going. I'm quite proud of that streak, and I want to see how long I can go for!

Journaling and Trauma Work

My last 15-a-day is a very strange thing to put on Instagram, but honestly, I do it because it helps me. My coach Pam suggested I journal for a little bit every day, just to get back in the habit, and I recently bought this workbook to do with a friend who is also exploring these issues. I'll do one or the other for a little bit, which is often about as much as I can stand. Just a small dose, with one worksheet, one chart, maybe a few words in my journal, and that's really all I can absorb for the day.

I'm learning so much. I've learned a ton about trauma, enough to know that there's so much that I don't know, but enough to realize I really want to learn more. I've also learned about ADHD, enough to discern that I probably don't have it as a genetic neurodivergence, but also enough to realize that the language of neurodivergence carries a completely different weight in regards to being a victim and being able to change. Juggling those things around and having those different sets of terms to work with is super helpful when it comes to taking ownership of this journey and not being re-traumatized by it.

There is so much here, but I am still such a beginner, I don't even know how I would talk about it. Suffice it to say, it's helping.

Other stuff

What about all the other stuff, that I'm not posting on Instagram every day?

Well, there's the secret knitting. That's humming along. I have some intrepid test knitters making headway (hello out there! You're doing great!), and I'm noodling along on my own samples, slow but sure as the tortoise. There's not much time for other knitting. But there are a few things.

We've had some beautiful weather, and I received a couple of very fresh muskox hides that I've been working on every beautiful afternoon. Switching from a fork to a dog-dehairing brush has been a game changer.

Is there anything more glorious than sitting in the fresh air and sunshine, on a super-thick natural carpet, harvesting the warmest fibre in the world? I submit that there is not. I'm getting so much from this one hide that it might do me for my entire blanket sampler project. And there's another hide drying on the rail behind me that I haven't even started on yet.

There has been other spinning, but it's mostly for the Wool Circle episodes, so I can't show you that yet either.

There's the rug-braiding project, which is still at the cabin, much to my 10-yo's annoyance. But I've also started a little project with my 8-yo.

My 8-yo is much like me in that she loves fantasizing about knitting more than knitting. I got a Harry Potter knitting book for Christmas, and she loves to pore over it and imagine knitting all the things therein. She showed enough interest that I went out on a limb and ordered some cheap yarn for us to do the easiest project in the book.

We're making Hogwarts house mug-warmers for everyone in the family. To be honest, I think MiniMighty did cumulatively about one row of the first one. But I'm not pushing. I'm just asking her to do a few stitches here and there. She still enjoys looking at the books and dreaming more than knitting. But I was the same way as a kid with all my mom's knitting magazines. I'll just keep it positive, and keep doing most of the knitting for her.

Is that all for now? It's certainly enough for now. We're feeling a little better each day. Friday Jared leaves for two weeks in Iqaluit for volunteer fire fighter training. Monday is the kids' last day of school. The weather is beautiful. The stress comes and goes, but we're learning more awareness of all the things. We're looking forward to vacation and fall, and feeling lonesome sometimes, but also just enjoying the quietness. Today I feel blessed.

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