This second week of me made may 2016 I’m experimenting with documenting the clothes I made or tailored or refashioned by drawing in coloured pencils. It’s really great to try something new.
Coloured pencils are so uncomplicated. In the best way possible. I mean, there are wonderful artists out there that do magical things with their ideas, ability and… coloured pencils, but most of us had a box of pencils when we were kids. It was okay to just scribble away all day and if I remember correctly, there was no other goal than having fun. And an inexplicable urge to draw.
Drawing and documenting what you make and what you actually wear have another advantage: zooming in on the details and cherishing the little things. The simple, beautiful things of everyday.
Monday and Tuesday
Drawing also helps us discover new things about the most common objects around us. Take this denim trench, that I recently thrifted and refashioned and now wear all the time. I couldn’t draw it from memory, I had to look at the shape and the position of the pockets, just to be sure. I had no idea it had that upper row of pockets!
The refashioned sweatshirt is the same one I was talking about here. It’s just comfy and great for rainy days.
Wednesday and Thursday
Two of the me made and me transformed tops I wore this week are both very old friends. The one on the left is a top I made many years ago, from a beautiful piece of white gauzy fabric that I bought at a flea market and I wanted to turn into curtains at that time. Alas, I had bought too little of it.
I first made a top using a Burda pattern that was a bit like an inverted tulip. It had looked lovely on the model, it looked really awkward on me. It stayed in my closet, marinating for a while, until I just cut of the bottom part and left the hem straight. And what do you know, the perfect woven fabric t-shirt was thus born.
I’ve worn this for a couple of years I think, until, one sunny day involving ice cream, or maybe vermut, or maybe both. The stains did not come out. So I dyed it grey. It came out even better than before. And here we are, many years after, still together 🙂
The second top was RTW and had a similar fate. The white and blue stripes gradually became off-white and blue stripes, and later strange-white and blue stripes. So off-in-the-same-bucket-of-dye it went and, like the previous shirt, it came out looking even better. It’s still one of my favourite t-shirts.
Friday
These jeans were waiting in my closet since last summer, when my sister gave them to me as a gift. She had also received them as a gift. I really wanted to wear them, but the fabric (really sturdy, 100% cotton) was a bit stiff and with their full-length bootcut, they felt… heavy (does that make sense)? And the fit… meh.
I kept thinking about things I could do to them and how I could tailor them to make them fit great (hey are a gift from my sister after all!) and decided to get the seam ripper and remove the back pockets. I also tailored them to fit as peg trousers and cut them off just above the ankle. Very trendy, you will say. Yet that perfect, just above the ankle crop, also cut away the little family of stubborn stains of mysterious origins.
The result: my new favourite pair!
Weekdays
As a bonus, I wanted to talk about my lunch and furosiki. Furoshiki is the Japanese way or wrapping goods, gifts, clothes that needed to be transported, in fabric. The fabric can be reused again and again. Any fabric napkin can be turned into a lunch bag, but for making this one, I used a beautiful pink and orange fabric I received as a gift. I wasn’t sure what to make of it, because I liked it a lot, but it didn’t inspire me to make any garments from it. But turning it into fabric napkins means it gets used and I get to see it every week.
We’ve had the two sets of eight for a few months now. They are super easy to wash and reuse. And they look pretty. Before, I had made white fabric napkins, but I noticed patterned fabric are more forgiving for everyday use.
What about you, how was MMM16 last week and what discoveries did you make?
What a fun way to combine two things! Your drawings are really sweet.
Thank you, Sonja, they were fun to draw 🙂