make good(s)

No New Clothes: Sewing the Vintage A-Line Skirt

[[This is part of my no new clothes in 2010 resolution.]]

Coming off the complexity of the orange dress, I was eager to find a simple and fast sewing project for some instant gratification.  I'd gotten a very simple printed polyester A-line skirt at the Alameda Antiques Fair a few months ago and I really love it, so I decided to try to make one like it.

I've been bidding on vintage fabric on Ebay and ended up winning a lot of 12 yards of a few different fabrics for $9 plus shipping, which came out to about $1.50 a yard.  There was a scrap of about one yard of printed polyester in the lot, 60" wide, which was perfect for a skirt.  For the pattern, I used the bottom portion of the orange dress pattern.  I figured the skirt portion of that pattern would give me the right A-line, and I'd just adjust it at the top to make the casing for the elastic waist.  Simple.

When I went to cut the fabric, I found that I had just enough for the skirt.  I'd been reading in my Better Homes and Gardens Sewing How-To book (thrifted for $5 in Boise, ID, copyright 1961) about the care you should take in cutting out printed fabric:

"Place the design so that it gives a pleasing effect of balance and color.  Be careful not to place flowers in embarrassing places.  This can happen easily and looks ludicrous."

Now, as soon as you read that you think, duh, that's obvious.  But I am pretty sure I just wouldn't have thought about it if I hadn't read that page and seen the awesome illustration.  Thanks BH&G!

   

So I took care in cutting, and then proceeded to sew the sides of the skirt together and then make the casing for the elastic waist.  I used elastic I'd thrifted from SCRAP and old thread I've had for years.   

After I'd threaded the elastic through the casing, I tried the skirt on to figure out where to cut off the elastic for the waistband.  As soon as I tried it on, I realized it was too wide and full, and it was hanging funny.  Comparing it to the skirt I was trying to copy, I saw that I needed to cut about two inches off from one of the sides, reducing the skirt by about four inches total in the width so it would lay smooth, but not tight, around my hips.

 

I know this sounds like a boring detail, but I'm sharing it because it's an example of the type of lesson that comes with every sewing project.  It's never fun to rip out seams and redo work. I was tempted to not make the cut, because I didn't want to redo the waist casing, but I took the extra steps because if I'm not happy with the way something fits, I won't wear it.  Doing a halfway job on a skirt that you never end up wearing defeats the purpose of reusing all these vintage materials.  The goal is to give the materials new life, not throw them back into a closet where they've already been languishing unused for years.

I made the cut, sewed up the side again, remade the elastic waist casing, threaded the elastic through again, stitched the waist casing closed (including a birdie tag in the back), and hemmed up the bottom. So much for my super-fast project! Here's the final product.

 

Help Little City Gardens

Little City Gardens is "a partnership of two women who love to garden and want to be immersed in the dirt of our food systems."  Currently, they grow salad greens and herbs in a tiny 1/16 of an acre plot in the Mission and sell them to restaurants and neighbors.

After running their project for a year, they're ready to expand to a 1/4 acre plot and they're asking for support via Kickstarter.  By raising this startup support, they hope to prove that two women can make a modest living as urban farmers.

Image from Little City Gardens' site.

I love that these two friends are following their dreams together, and asking for help to be able to do what they love for a living.  You can read their blog and donate through their Kickstarter page. 

No New Clothes: Ballad of the Orange Dress*

[[This is part of my no new clothes in 2010 resolution.]]

I've finished my first full, wear-outside-the-house garment: the orange dress.

The genesis of this dress was during another outing with my friend Mena.  We went to an estate sale that was pretty much a bust, but I did pick up one pattern for about 50 cents.  After the sale, we stopped by Stone Mountain & Daughter Fabrics and I bought 1 7/8 yards of orange stretch corduroy at $5.99 a yard.  I would later find out that my fabric choice was a mistake: the suggested fabrics included pinwale corduroy, which is much lighter and has more drape than regular corduroy.  Lesson learned: stick to the suggested fabrics.

I followed the sewing instructions slowly and methodically, and somehow got through sewing the yoke on the front without any mistakes.  I was very proud of myself!  I even got the front placket to lay flat and while the stand up collar is a bit wonky, I have long hair so no one will really see it.  I even sewed in a little birdie tag in the back.

   

I did buy new fabric for this dress, but that was before I discovered the joys of vintage fabric.  From now on I will only be sewing with vintage fabric and I am going to try to only sew with vintage or recycled notions when I can.  For this dress, I used vintage bias tape for the hem as you can see above, as well as thrifted elastic from SCRAP and vintage buttons.

 Despite a few seams I had to rip out and do over and some difficulty threading the elastic through the casing (thick from layers of corduroy), things went pretty well until it came time for the buttons and the buttonholes.  Currently I don't own my own sewing machine, so I'm borrowing an old one from Mena.  It doesn't have the buttonhole attachment, so I went over to Mena's house to get her help in making the buttonholes on her machine.  She's made dozens of buttonholes on all manner of fabric on her relatively new machine, but of course my orange corduroy threw the machine for a loop.  It kept getting stuck and wouldn't advance the fabric, causing an unsightly pileup of thread that was impossible to extract from the button placket. 

After we failed on three separate buttonhole attempts, leaving behind scars of thread front and center down my dress, I was ready to give up.  But then Mena remembered a post she'd read on another sewing blog that showed how you could fix a button fiasco by sewing buttons on the top placket and sewing in hidden snaps underneath.  Genius!  So here's the dirty little secret to my orange dress:

 

This is the true beauty of D.I.Y. - to borrow the sage words of Tim Gunn, you have to make it work.  Here's the finished dress, which I wore last weekend with these $10 thrifted cowboy boots.  Because the stiff corduroy doesn't drape well, it does feel a bit bunchy at the top.  I'm also on the lookout for a nice brown vintage belt to replace the tie belt I sewed from the pattern.

*I was going to title this post "The Saga of the Orange Dress" because making this dress was a bit of an ordeal, but something happened toward the end that put everything in perspective.  I was sewing and listening to Iron & Wine's Our Endless Numbered Days album on my record player, and the lyrics of the last song on the first side struck me:

"love is a dress that you made
long to hide your knees"

I thought about all the time I'd put into making this dress, all the concentration and the frustration in ripping out seams and starting over, and how I had to turn to my friend for help and reassurance to persevere.  And rather than focus on what went wrong, I realized that the only reason I ended up with something finished to wear was because of the love that went into making it.  

Here's a live performance of the song, fast forward to 1:40 to hear the lyrics.

No New Clothes: Sewing Some Basics

As part of my no new clothes in 2010 resolution, I've started sewing again.  I learned the basics of sewing in high school and completed several projects back then, none of which were very difficult.  I could easily put in a zipper, but I never got very good at hems and I never attempted buttonholes myself.

Now that I'm taking it up again so many years later, the basics are coming back to me quickly but I'm also realizing I have a lot left to learn.  That's why I'm glad that my first sewing project was something relatively simple and low-stakes: because I love to wear my fleece robe in cold weather, I decided I needed a warm weather robe as well.

 Over the holidays, I found an old robe and pajama pattern in a thrift store for ten cents.  A few weeks later my friend Mena and I were having a sewing day together and I decided to find fabric for the robe in a store in the Mission.  I was being indecisive over the small selection and I wanted to be frugal, so right before her parking meter ran out I grabbed the red fabric from a scrap pile and bought a few yards of the blue fabric. So I didn't set out to end up with the silky Hugh Hefner look on purpose, but it ended up all right.  I even had enough fabric left over to make some of the pajama pants.

   

By the way, how do all the sewing bloggers get such flattering photos of themselves wearing their creations?  All I've got is my cameraphone and my full length mirror.

Luckily, the pattern also had a version of short pajama pants, so I'm going to sew a few pair of them to replace the men's boxer shorts I sometimes sleep in.  One of the fabrics I made the short PJ pants from has a really cute bird in it.  I've decided I'll put the scraps of that fabric to good use by making the little bird my signature tag.

   

You'll be seeing more of the little birdie tag in future posts.

I'm really glad I started with simple projects because it gives me a low pressure way to rediscover my sewing skills.  After all, I won't be wearing any of this in public!

Low Impact Coffee

One of the first things I started looking for when I began antiquing last year was an old-fashioned coffee grinder.  I love the ritual of making great coffee, and because I value quality over quantity it's actually a good thing to add in an extra step or extra time into the process.  Plus, old-fashioned grinders are powered by gold old-fashioned human muscle - no electricity needed.  It's another small gesture toward a more sustainable life.

It's not uncommon to see old-fashioned grinders in a good antique store, but they are not cheap. Every time I found one, they were priced between $50-100 depending on the condition.  Many of them had a strange amalgam of dirt, dust, rust and old coffee grounds built up in and around them, and others were falling apart.

On my trip to the Alameda Antiques Fair in December, I finally found my grinder.  It was a nice reasonably small size, it was sturdy and functioned well, and it was very clean. When I saw that the price tag on it was $20, I couldn't believe it.  I bought it immediately and asked the vendor to hold on to it so I didn't have to tote it around while I completed my shopping. When I came back to pick it up from her, I confessed I felt I'd gotten a great deal and she could have charged a lot more for it.  "My husband and I are retired," she said.  "We do this for fun.  We're not out to make every last dime.  And I won't sell to people I don't like."  So, not only did I get a great bargain, I also got to walk away feeling like the chosen one!

Here she is.  Note the pretty floral design on the top.

Because I've been traveling and not drinking coffee as much the last few months, I just got around to using it for the first time today.  It was surprisingly easy.  You just put the whole beans in the top hatch and close the little door.

You take hold of the handle and turn it in circles, clockwise seemed right to me.  You can think of the coffee grinder breakdancing move as you grind.

As you turn the handle, the grounds fall into the little drawer in the bottom.

The grounds are an uneven mixture from coarse to fine, but if I was worried about making a prize-winning espresso, I would buy the $100 electric bean grinder.  This is all about the experience.

To brew the coffee, I used my porcelain drip filter holder that I bought from Blue Bottle which also requires no electricity.  I have used this drip filter holder countless times and I really like the results I get using it with a paper filter.  This time, I tried out a reusable Swiss Gold permanent filter. 

The Swiss Gold filter is not a good idea to use with the drip filter holder because it lets the water run out far too quickly resulting in a weak cup of coffee.  I'm going to go back to using paper filters, knowing that I can at least compost them.  Lesson learned.

Since I am drinking this cup of coffee late in the day, I am actually glad it's pretty weak.  Since I used Blue Bottle beans, it still tastes great.

I know I'm not going to save the world by not running my electric bean grinder and coffee maker for three minutes, but this still is a worthwhile exercise toward a more sustainable way of life. Certain routine tasks can be more fun when you do them by hand.  Besides, my old-fashioned coffee grinder is way prettier than any electric one you can buy, and my drip filter holder takes up way less space than a bulky coffee maker.

Volunteering with Friends of the SFPL

I love the public library so much.  I usually have three to six books checked out at a time, and I've always been able to find what I'm looking for.  The hold system is amazing.  So to show my appreciation for all the free reading I've been able to do, yesterday afternoon I spent some time volunteering with Friends of the San Francisco Public Library at their donation center in the Mission.

Friends of the SFPL is a member-supported nonprofit organization that advocates, fundraises, and provides critical support for the San Francisco Public Library and related literary and educational programs.  Their funding comes from several sources, including grants, membership dues and sales from donated books.  The Mission donation center is where they receive, sort, price and prepare the books before sending them out to their various sales, Book Bay stores and eBay auctions.  Of their annual budget of approximately $6 million, they make around a million dollars a year by selling books that people donate.

They make a million dollars a year from stuff people don't want anymore.  Now that's a great example of reuse.

My task as a volunteer was to take the illustrations from damaged books and cut a clean edge on them so they can be sold for a dollar or two each.

It was fun seeing just a glimpse of the variety of books they get there.  I loved browsing through a few Time Magazine covers from the 1920's. 

  

I used to like the idea of having a large library of books in my house, but in the past year I've changed my mind about it.  Books take up a lot of space, they're a pain in the back to move, and I think it's a tragedy to hold on to books that you're never going to (re)read.  My new policy is to only keep books that I am going to read or refer to again.  The rest I can check out from the library.

Another interesting thing I learned while volunteering yesterday is that a Blue Bottle Coffee outlet will be opening in the Book Bay at Fort Mason later this year.

Reduce Temptation: Unsubscribe

I'm not even a full month into my no new clothes in 2010 resolution, and so far it's been pretty easy to stick to.  I have had to take some steps to avoid temptation though.

One big change is that I've decided to unsubscribe from email lists from stores and shopping sites.  I didn't realize how many I was getting until after I'd made this resolution.  The big one I had to unsubscribe from was from Shop It To Me, which sends a daily or weekly email telling you what's been marked down from the brands that you like.  It's a handy site and in the past I've found a few bargains on it, notably some expensive jeans that were less than half price.  But this year there's just no reason to tempt myself.

I'm still receiving emails from Anthropologie, my favorite brand, and I've just been trashing them without opening them. I have no idea why I haven't had the heart to unsubscribe.  I risked it and opened one yesterday, worried I'd be heartbroken over something impossibly cute that I can't buy, but instead I was relieved.  Their latest inspiration has a 50's vintage vibe:

   

With the vintage patterns and fabric I've been collecting, I'll be able to make a shirt and a dress like that for a lot less than $88 and $118, respectively.

Sewing: DIY Wrist Pin Cushion

When I started sewing again several weeks ago, I needed a place to keep my pins handy.  Rather than buy one of those flimsy wrist pin cushions anchored by an uncomfortably tight plastic cuff, I grabbed what was handy.

I'd gotten this wristband as a free giveaway at a documentary screening, and never knew what to do with it.  I'll admit it takes a little more effort to push the pins in sideways here rather than to just stick them directly into a cushion, but this band is very soft and comfortable on my wrist.

And I love it that I've made good use of something that was previously useless to me.

Reuse & Refill: Laundry Detergent

I ran out of laundry detergent this week and decided to give Green 11 a try.  Located in San Francisco's Noe Valley neighborhood, Green 11 stocks many cleaning products in bulk so all you have to do is bring in your own container and fill it up. Green 11 carries shampoo and conditioner, shower gel, lotion, kitchen and bathroom cleaners, laundry detergent and more.

I brought in an empty container of Seventh Generation Natural 2x Concentrated Laundry Detergent.  Green 11 didn't have Seventh Generation, but I didn't mind since I don't have a particular allegiance to detergent brands.  I usually just buy the greenest option that's on sale.

 
I filled up with Ecos laundry detergent at $.15 per ounce, which came out to a total of $8.21 with tax for my 50 ounce bottle.  I went in expecting to save money by reusing my container, so I was surprised at the price. I actually spent a little more than if I'd bought a brand new container of the same detergent which retails for $6.79 on the Ecos website.  (I don't remember what I purchased the Seventh Generation detergent for, but it retails between $5.99 and $11.99 online.)

As much as I admire Green 11's mission, price also matters to me.  I still would like to save a bit of money by reusing my container. 

I called Rainbow Co-op and found out that not only do they have a larger selection of detergents, but they had more appealing prices. At Rainbow, Seventh Generation liquid laundry detergent costs $2.85 per pound (about $.18 per ounce) and for the Ecos brand they charge $1.65 a pound (about $.10 per ounce).  Next time I'm going to fill up my container with the Ecos brand at Rainbow, and I will pay about $3 less for the same product.

I fully support Green 11's mission and I hope that they are successful, and that more stores like this pop up across the country, but clearly Rainbow is beating them on price when it comes to laundry detergent.  I'm lucky to live in San Francisco where I can actually shop around for competitive pricing in bulk; in most cities throughout the country there are probably no bulk options available at all.

Whether you save a little money or pay a little more, it's worth it to reuse your containers and refill whatever you can from bulk.  I plan on never buying another plastic laundry detergent bottle again.  I better spruce this one up since it'll be with me for a long time.

Things I didn't know I could compost

Every morning, as soon as I wake up, I burn a little incense and have some quiet time before I start my day. This morning I looked at a little pile of burnt matches I've built up and wondered if I could compost them.

After a quick search online, I found out that I can compost my matches.  Planet Green's list of compostable items was very helpful in teaching me that I can compost items made of natural materials like wood, paper, cotton, etc.

Here are a few other things I was surprised to learn that I can compost:

• Cellophane bags (be sure it's really Cellophane and not just clear plastic—there's a difference.)
• Wine corks
• Paper egg cartons
• Toothpicks
• Bamboo skewers
• Hair from your hairbrush (or pet hair)
• Nail clippings
• 100% Cotton cotton balls
• Cotton swabs made from 100% cotton and cardboard (not plastic) sticks
• Dryer lint
• Old/stained cotton clothing—rip or cut it into smaller pieces
• Old wool clothing—rip or cut it into smaller pieces
• Bills and other documents you've shredded
• Envelopes (minus the plastic window)
• Latex balloons (or condoms)
• Sticky notes
• Business cards (as long as they're not glossy)
  Receipts
• Contents of your vacuum cleaner bag or canister
• Newspapers (shredded or torn into smaller pieces)
• Subscription cards from magazines

Small paper items will be a new category for me to start composting.  Previously, I've been recycling receipts and subscription cards from magazines, but it will be better to let nature turn them into useful compost than to send them off to a recycling facility that uses up time, energy and money to turn them into something useful.

Related: Read Planet Green's full list of 75 Things You Can Compost, But Thought You Couldn't