Tag Archives: Year Of Handmade

above are just a small selection of some of my favourite outfits for the last month, the entire collection for the year so far can be viewed in my Year of Handmade flickr album, here

Oh, running behind my blogging schedule… oh well, it’s a self-imposed folly anyway, right?! 57 days to go!

This last month has been pretty intense, not so much in the wearing handmade clothes and shoes side of things, which to be honest has been just about the easiest thing going on my life!  but just in the ordinary life side of things.

Obviously losing our dear Sienna has been a huge blow to the family.

In other “things”, we finally sold our old beach house, which is a good thing because it has been on the market for a LONG time… not such a good thing was the three day window in the week before Christmas; in which we had to go down, pack the house, move it, clean and clear out.  Man.  It was pretty crazy, but did come at just the right time when we needed some hard physical work to distract us from our sadness.  We just worked our butts off for three days straight and flopped into bed late each night, exhausted, sleeping like babies.

All plonk in the middle of the pre-Christmas work/social scene, my “real” work, and of course my own Christmas present making period too… and I’l be the first to admit that I sometimes set making-goals for myself that can sometimes be quite ambitious.  Basically, every spare minute has been very full and a bit stressful.

I’m not writing any of this to whinge or whine, but just stating the facts for the month.  I think it’s good sometimes to acknowledge stuff, you know, not make like everything is easy-peasy, no sweat.  You know how sometimes Christmas Day can be more of a relief than anything else?  it was actually rather nice just to merely have practically nothing left to do, just chill with our lovely family.

Anyway, the last few days since Christmas has brought some peace and quiet and the feeling of more optimism.  The last few months of my handmade challenge are going to be pretty breezy, I’m sure.

I’m actually even a little enthusiastic about making something for myself, soon…  Can’t even believe I’m saying that! but … yeah!

I’m now 8 months into my year of handmade! two thirds of the way through…  Above is a small selection of some of my favourite outfits from over the past month, the entire collection so far can be viewed in my Year of Handmade Flickr album for the challenge, here

What to say, what to say… well, I’m still chooffing along, one foot in front of the other, which is an excruciatingly apt analogy since my one big Challenge out of the thing continues to be my shoes!  Clothes have presented no problems whatsoever, I’ve been wearing all my own me-made clothes for many years now so zero dramas there.  I guess doing this challenge while I was still learning how to make shoes as opposed to feeling comfortably accomplished at it; well that has been the kicker.  I still consider myself an advanced beginner, or maybe a low/intermediate shoemaker and am under no illusions as to my abilities.  Or lack, thereof, ahem.  There have been times I’ve positively longed, longed, I tell you! to just slip on a pair of old sneakers, or a pair of chic high-heeled pumps or pretty stilettos, none of which I am capable of making myself.

So, I guess as a natural follow on from that, I now have a HUGE appreciation for well-made rtw shoes.  So far, I’ve mostly avoided going into shoe stores; it’s just been better for my own self esteem not to! because my own shoes do not compare.  Anyway, just recently I did; Cassie and I went into Zomp because she wanted a new pair of shoes for herself.  Well, I don’t know what I looked like…  I think I managed to keep my cool on the outside, but on the inside I was positively drooling.   Seriously!  Picking up, handling all those lovely shoes, inspecting them all over with hushed and awed reverence, like I was holding my newborn baby for the first time or something… ok I’m exaggerating but honestly, not by much.  Possibly it was inevitable that RTW shoes would get set upon a mental pedestal for me right about now.  It’s like, in my current new state of awareness, a pair of well made shoes is like the most amazingly beautiful little work of art.  Seriously.  It’s not easy to make a shoe, let alone a matching pair; and with my newfound appreciation from having struggled to make my own, I’m blown away by how amazingly, perfectly constructed most rtw shoes are.

I know that sounds rather dramatic, yes? well I expect only those of us who have ever gone this far will ever understand what I mean here.  I’m wondering what it’s going to even feel like, going back to rtw shoes… will it be amazing? a relief? nothing special? a letdown?  Hmm, I can hardy wait for that day to find out  😉

above is a small selection of my outfits for the past month, the whole lot so far can be seen in my Year of Handmade flickr album, here…

So I’m halfway through my year, wooooot!  I’m feeling so pleased with myself and how it’s all going; with the end of winter on the horizon I truly believe the most difficult bit is nearly over now and I’m REALLY looking forward to shedding some layers, getting into some warmer weather gear.  I’m pretty bored with all my winter wardrobe – standard procedure for this time of year! even though I think the last month saw me getting more “interesting” in my wardrobe choices,discovering new combinations, and mixing and matching things up a bit.  Anything to generate some excitement into the winter blahs.

Something funny; I’m still pretty shy about telling people in my real life about this project.  Hardly anyone even knows that I’m doing this thing.  It feels like a huge thing I’m doing in my life right now and for some reason I just don’t ever bring it up in conversation…  like, on the weekend I met up with a bunch of old school friends and while everyone was talking about their kids and their lives and their own current activities etc, I just didn’t even mention the fact that I make all my own clothes.  Not sure if it’s that I worry that people are going to think I’m crazy, or not normal, or a raving loony;  generally I have always marched to the beat of my own drum anyway.  Also, I’m often a cripplingly introverted person.  This probably sounds counterintuitive, since maybe I don’t come across that way on my blog here… it’s different when you’re just tapping away on a keyboard all by yourself and it’s easy to imagine no one ever looks at it.  Like, I talk about myself and my stuff here, but not really in real life.  Weird, huh. Maybe I just feel like I get it all out here thus obviating the need to mention it for real.  Ha!

Ello ello ello!

Another month, another roundup.  Five months… done!  Above are just some of my favourite outfits for over the past month, the whole lot can be seen in my Year of Handmade Flickr album, here.

Hmmm, what to say, what to say.   OK, what I would really like to say is this; thank you so much to everyone who is showing an interest in my challenge here, and taking the time to leave the occasional comment saying so!  I really do appreciate each and every comment.  I’m really excited by the number of people saying they would like to do the same thing one day  🙂

There’s not really much that’s new to say about my challenge per se, which is chuffing along just fine.  I really do have plenty of clothes and now shoes too, to be able to go all me-made for the entire year.  I don’t have much doubts anymore that I’m going to be able to do it, not anymore  🙂

What else… maybe I could say something fluffy here about dressing for winter…

So; winter, my least favourite season.  I loathe being cold and wet, and pine for warmer weather.  However, I do like dressing for winter.  It’s probably the only thing that makes cold weather tolerable to me!  joking, but only a little.  I mean, I love dressing for hot weather too, of course, mostly because I love everything about hot weather… but dressing for cold weather IS a lot more fun I think.  Reason being; you have so many more options for mixing and matching colours and styles and so you can be far more creative.  In summer you can just toss on a little dress and boom! done; you’re ready to go.  This is easy and fun, but I do find I get really bored with all my summer dresses by the end of it.  During winter, with loads more components and therefore combinations in an outfit; it’s more interesting and you’re not so likely to get bored with your things.  I reckon I could probably go all winter mixing and matching stuff and possibly not repeat an outfit*  Ergo, it’s a much more exciting time of year in which to get dressed.

To take a couple of examples… in my compilation above; I’m wearing each my purple Jade skirt and my charcoal twist top twice, in different outfits each time.  Oh, and my ivory sweater.  And the raspberry scarf.  They’re all such great basics in my winter wardrobe this year, my most worn pieces! and all are getting mixed and matched a TONNE.  In fact, it was impossible for me to find six outfits in which I was not wearing at least a few things twice, in the six outfits.  Not counting my gloves, my winter boots and black tights of course, which are doing constant duty!  Point being; my winter wardrobe is not huge and things get repeated all the time BUT each and every outfit will still be a different combination of things.  Mixing and matching my clothes is just one little shred of winter that I find to be fun and enjoyable.  Yeah  🙂

Hey, you take what you can get!  Roll on, spring!

*Does that mean I have too many clothes?  Hmmm, probably; but then I love fashion and I love to sew so that is possibly always going to be a problem.  If you can call it a problem!