My Pocket

handmade for you

Ooh, I just signed up for something that is making me happy... Anne Marie at Life in Yonder invited three people to take part in a pay-it-forward exchange that she originally signed up for on Woollie Wanderings. This is what was said there and what I will do in turn for you:

"I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week… LOL… but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog."

I would be delighted to make you something special and wrap it up, so if any of you are interested I will send something in the post for the first three to leave a comment. Signing up means you will do the same as me and have three people to send handmade things to.

What you need to do is paste the promise above into your blog and pay it forward. I like that idea :). I'm not sure what I will make yet and it will take me a little while but it makes me happy to think about!

i made that

I made something this weekend, I actually made something! I have been wanting to sew my own clothes for so long now, but never had the courage to just go ahead and dive in. Yesterday I found some remnant navy blue linen in the fabric shop and thought of this top in one of my Japanese craft books.

So I bought some seagreen lace trim to go with it, all the time thinking it will end up like the other projects I've got the materials for that are still lying on the shelf, and then to my surprise went home and promptly sewed it together. I made mistakes in every stage of the game but I enjoyed it. It turned out not quite like the picture and I skipped the ribbon and bow altogether, but I like it, wonky seams and all.

It's the third garment I have ever sewn, the first two were in school - a white cotton vest and a navy silky ballgown type dress for the 'prom' age 16 (both plain as can be, didn't like frills then either. boy was I fidgety in that dress - this just ain't me). I've been thinking about sewing my own clothes for the last year or two, because I rarely find what I am looking for in the shops, I don't like the fabrics they use and I feel bad about the working conditions of the people putting them together. If I could have it my way I would have mainly woven fabrics in my clothes, instead of jersey which wears out and loses shape so quickly. (Knitted things are the exception of course.) Linen and woven cotton just become more beautiful the more wear they get, softening, getting worn and fading colour with grace.

My choice of clothes has changed dramatically over the last two or three years, along with me feeling much better in myself. The better I felt, the more I felt I deserved to wear clothes that make me feel good, and the more clothes I wore that made me feel beautiful and comfortable, the happier I became. I've been a tomboy most of my life, I never was a dress-and-ponytail-girl, and it took me months to gradually stop feeling like an impostor wearing skirts and eventually dresses. Now that's about all I wear! I suppose it's a romantic/bohemian style - long swoshy skirts, feminine dresses, layers of this and that and a hodge-podge of stripes, flowers and dots. I like it simple though - plain muted colours and natural materials, classically cut mostly. Still, sometimes I glimpse myself in the mirror before going out in the morning and think "Caroline, I don't think anyone else would ever wear that combination of clothes."

Except a gypsy maybe. I like gypsies.