made my own cloth for pants!
We finally have enough money for my computer, barely, if they're not out of them yet. Bestbuy ran out but staples thinks they can get me one according to the website. I'll go in person to order in store. I have to let myself run out of hash to pay for the pc but if I'm careful I may not have too many dry days. Dan came home with some hash a co-worker gifted for me and that's helped a lot.
I made some pants this week. While sewing is not a common activity, it's how I got the fabric that makes it cool. I wove it! I can't say I gathered and spun the fibers but I did get a unique fabric because I wove it myself. It's got black and white stripes vertically but the weft is all rainbow colourway variegated yarn. So when you look close, it's a riot of colour. But from a distance, it's just a loud vertical striping. All in all, it's really cool and makes me remember favorite pants I've worn out long ago! One downside, because I'm not a tailor, it's a drawstring affair, a bit bulky, too big by a bit more than is comfy, and the drawstring just won't stay tied. I have tried a few things and nothing I have in the house works so I've got to pick something up to help me close these pants. Either that or learn some sewing skills to make them fit properly. Of course, that'd involve fancier sewing, and also ensure a short season of wear as my body's weight changes again. Maybe my weight will stay down when it gets down but it's not at a "settled" spot so far as I can see. Neither my heaviest or my goal size. So either way, I'm bound to stop fitting my clothes again!
I could take these pants to a tailor for refitting in the future if I like, they're generous enough to be easy to take in. If I get fatter, they'll still fit up to my fattest size since I used my cotton pj pants for a pattern and I've been wearing them all along. I took one apart and I'll save it for future patterns too. I can learn to reduce it here and there in future. I"m seriously wondering if I can make a nice wool pant set.
However, the amount of wool required is quite daunting. Over 3,000 yds of string at the coarse weave level! I haven't calculated based on the string I'd want, something fairly fine. I do know the cost of the fabric could run me well into the triple digits. Is it worth it? I know that custom woven designer clothes in boutiques run that high, but I'm used to wearing the factory crap built by 3rd world slaves for twenty bucks an article!
Of course, if the pants last my life time like some of my quality clothes then that's different too. But I'm easy enough on my textiles that cheap stuff lasts decades too.
What I really get a sense of is how expensive clothing really is. In terms of materials and labour put in. One pair of pants took fifty bucks of string and a week's steady labour, all my time outside of daily chores and required errands, was spent weaving. I did the sewing in one day, but each day counted as 12-14hrs of work!
People who aren't part of an organization with quitting times and break times generally don't stop work till it's done, unless they don't intend to finish, or simply can't expect to get it done in one day. Dan routinely stays at it for 12-14hrs on the job because there's no structure to make him quit.
I've some other fabric I'd like to make into a vest. Maybe I should see if I can pick up a vest pattern rather than winging it like the pants. Vests are pretty simple, but not as simple as pants. Plus I can't use one single piece for the back, I have to seam two together. I had to do that on the pants for just one little bit, the points on the back panels that reach under to form the crotch were just a bit too wide. Ironically, if I'd sized my pattern to fit my butt instead of matching my voluminous pj pants, I may not have needed the extra fabric, but nevermind. I found that by overlaying the selfedges to build it out, I could just stitch the seam flat with a couple lines of stitching and unless you looked close or felt for the ridge, you'd not know there was a seam. I lined up the stripes and it was perfect.
The wool won't be as easy. I'll have to full the fabric after weaving. That's a type of felting process. How much you felt depends on how stiff and sturdy you want the fabric. For wool pants I don't want them broadcloth stiff, but they can't be soft as a sweater either. The butt would wear out in no time! So when you full a fabric, it shrinks. Felting does that too. It's what happens to your lovely knitted sweater when an idiot shoves it into the wash and it goes through the same routine as your undies.
Oh, yeah, you don't know? You wash wool on a gentle cycle in cold water and dry it flat over a screen, bush, or stack of towels. If you use an old agitator style washer, you hand wash your woolens. Yep, that swishy post in the washer will do a fantastic job of fulling your wool even if you don't want it.
I don't have that type, I've got the front loader drum washer. Too gentle, in fact, to full my fabric. Oh I'll try it. I'll put the finished bolts in and set it for the "heavily soiled" cycle to get a good beating and see what I get. They used to beat the stuff under hammers the size of smart cars for up to four hours! Now, again, that's for broadcloth, the hard wearing, tight, weatherproof and smooth wool used in coats and such.
So my loom will create a cloth 12-14" wide (currently getting 13" bolts) and that'll shrink. In fact it's reasonable to assume wool will only give me 12" width and when it shrinks, I'll have 8" panels of fabric up to 90" long. The widest point on my body is 15". Or something like that. I'm just holding a tape measure up and grabbing a guess. But two 8" panels carefully joined edge to edge, if my selvedge is tidy enough, could make one very nice panel from whence to cut a pattern.
so get this, I need to calculate my wool based on 30% shrinkage. Double the panels needed for the cotton pants.
Oh the math, it's gonna take note making. So bye, I have a lot to do instead of obsessing about psychology or philosophy or self pity.
Oh my health... Yeah, I'm on the third good day in a row. I'm being so neglectful to my body it will probably fail again by monday. Not drinking enough fluid. Not eating slowly enough. Not keeping calm enough. Moving around using my energy too much. This is what's been my undoing. After a week of being off my feet I just feel so much better I ignore it and focus on doing things I couldn't do before. This would be something a caregiver would help with. They'd remind you, park things in front of you to help with the fluid intake, help get food prep done, and so forth.
We don't have those relationships anymore unless one is so very rich one can hire a butler. We used to do for each other and live in close quarters. But then those same close quarters also bred a ton of stress.
I just saw a video of two old babushkas duking it out in the street. They're older than the rocks that make up the scenery. Fat and dressed in worn and faded skirts and sweaters with kerchiefs tied around their toothless faces, they shouted at each other. They shouted, pumped fists, argued. One threw a stick, the other picked it up and waved it. More shouting. A final unsatisfied "my last word" moment, and then the stick was thrown and landed square on the crown of she who'd supplied it to the fight. She turned around quite surprised, rubbing the knot on her noggin, and scolded the other who just walked away with satisfaction.
What they said I don't know, it wasn't my language. But I watched and realized this was a village scene I'd have seen frequently in the old days when people were forced to put up with each other. Back when you couldn't isolate yourself and cry over your lonliness. In those "good old days" of always having someone around, it was as likely the relationship would be fractious and troubling as it would comforting or caregiving. I certainly can say it was so with my family. We're all fractured, as was the previous two or more generations on both sides of my family.
So okay, I have my glass of water. :-)
I made some pants this week. While sewing is not a common activity, it's how I got the fabric that makes it cool. I wove it! I can't say I gathered and spun the fibers but I did get a unique fabric because I wove it myself. It's got black and white stripes vertically but the weft is all rainbow colourway variegated yarn. So when you look close, it's a riot of colour. But from a distance, it's just a loud vertical striping. All in all, it's really cool and makes me remember favorite pants I've worn out long ago! One downside, because I'm not a tailor, it's a drawstring affair, a bit bulky, too big by a bit more than is comfy, and the drawstring just won't stay tied. I have tried a few things and nothing I have in the house works so I've got to pick something up to help me close these pants. Either that or learn some sewing skills to make them fit properly. Of course, that'd involve fancier sewing, and also ensure a short season of wear as my body's weight changes again. Maybe my weight will stay down when it gets down but it's not at a "settled" spot so far as I can see. Neither my heaviest or my goal size. So either way, I'm bound to stop fitting my clothes again!
I could take these pants to a tailor for refitting in the future if I like, they're generous enough to be easy to take in. If I get fatter, they'll still fit up to my fattest size since I used my cotton pj pants for a pattern and I've been wearing them all along. I took one apart and I'll save it for future patterns too. I can learn to reduce it here and there in future. I"m seriously wondering if I can make a nice wool pant set.
However, the amount of wool required is quite daunting. Over 3,000 yds of string at the coarse weave level! I haven't calculated based on the string I'd want, something fairly fine. I do know the cost of the fabric could run me well into the triple digits. Is it worth it? I know that custom woven designer clothes in boutiques run that high, but I'm used to wearing the factory crap built by 3rd world slaves for twenty bucks an article!
Of course, if the pants last my life time like some of my quality clothes then that's different too. But I'm easy enough on my textiles that cheap stuff lasts decades too.
What I really get a sense of is how expensive clothing really is. In terms of materials and labour put in. One pair of pants took fifty bucks of string and a week's steady labour, all my time outside of daily chores and required errands, was spent weaving. I did the sewing in one day, but each day counted as 12-14hrs of work!
People who aren't part of an organization with quitting times and break times generally don't stop work till it's done, unless they don't intend to finish, or simply can't expect to get it done in one day. Dan routinely stays at it for 12-14hrs on the job because there's no structure to make him quit.
I've some other fabric I'd like to make into a vest. Maybe I should see if I can pick up a vest pattern rather than winging it like the pants. Vests are pretty simple, but not as simple as pants. Plus I can't use one single piece for the back, I have to seam two together. I had to do that on the pants for just one little bit, the points on the back panels that reach under to form the crotch were just a bit too wide. Ironically, if I'd sized my pattern to fit my butt instead of matching my voluminous pj pants, I may not have needed the extra fabric, but nevermind. I found that by overlaying the selfedges to build it out, I could just stitch the seam flat with a couple lines of stitching and unless you looked close or felt for the ridge, you'd not know there was a seam. I lined up the stripes and it was perfect.
The wool won't be as easy. I'll have to full the fabric after weaving. That's a type of felting process. How much you felt depends on how stiff and sturdy you want the fabric. For wool pants I don't want them broadcloth stiff, but they can't be soft as a sweater either. The butt would wear out in no time! So when you full a fabric, it shrinks. Felting does that too. It's what happens to your lovely knitted sweater when an idiot shoves it into the wash and it goes through the same routine as your undies.
Oh, yeah, you don't know? You wash wool on a gentle cycle in cold water and dry it flat over a screen, bush, or stack of towels. If you use an old agitator style washer, you hand wash your woolens. Yep, that swishy post in the washer will do a fantastic job of fulling your wool even if you don't want it.
I don't have that type, I've got the front loader drum washer. Too gentle, in fact, to full my fabric. Oh I'll try it. I'll put the finished bolts in and set it for the "heavily soiled" cycle to get a good beating and see what I get. They used to beat the stuff under hammers the size of smart cars for up to four hours! Now, again, that's for broadcloth, the hard wearing, tight, weatherproof and smooth wool used in coats and such.
So my loom will create a cloth 12-14" wide (currently getting 13" bolts) and that'll shrink. In fact it's reasonable to assume wool will only give me 12" width and when it shrinks, I'll have 8" panels of fabric up to 90" long. The widest point on my body is 15". Or something like that. I'm just holding a tape measure up and grabbing a guess. But two 8" panels carefully joined edge to edge, if my selvedge is tidy enough, could make one very nice panel from whence to cut a pattern.
so get this, I need to calculate my wool based on 30% shrinkage. Double the panels needed for the cotton pants.
Oh the math, it's gonna take note making. So bye, I have a lot to do instead of obsessing about psychology or philosophy or self pity.
Oh my health... Yeah, I'm on the third good day in a row. I'm being so neglectful to my body it will probably fail again by monday. Not drinking enough fluid. Not eating slowly enough. Not keeping calm enough. Moving around using my energy too much. This is what's been my undoing. After a week of being off my feet I just feel so much better I ignore it and focus on doing things I couldn't do before. This would be something a caregiver would help with. They'd remind you, park things in front of you to help with the fluid intake, help get food prep done, and so forth.
We don't have those relationships anymore unless one is so very rich one can hire a butler. We used to do for each other and live in close quarters. But then those same close quarters also bred a ton of stress.
I just saw a video of two old babushkas duking it out in the street. They're older than the rocks that make up the scenery. Fat and dressed in worn and faded skirts and sweaters with kerchiefs tied around their toothless faces, they shouted at each other. They shouted, pumped fists, argued. One threw a stick, the other picked it up and waved it. More shouting. A final unsatisfied "my last word" moment, and then the stick was thrown and landed square on the crown of she who'd supplied it to the fight. She turned around quite surprised, rubbing the knot on her noggin, and scolded the other who just walked away with satisfaction.
What they said I don't know, it wasn't my language. But I watched and realized this was a village scene I'd have seen frequently in the old days when people were forced to put up with each other. Back when you couldn't isolate yourself and cry over your lonliness. In those "good old days" of always having someone around, it was as likely the relationship would be fractious and troubling as it would comforting or caregiving. I certainly can say it was so with my family. We're all fractured, as was the previous two or more generations on both sides of my family.
So okay, I have my glass of water. :-)