/missive/20/sewing

i have a sewing machine now and i thought i would somehow save money but i am very much not

Hi Everyone,

One of the things I always complain about in my head is how non-cost effective knitting is. Especially with nice or interesting yarns (there are some very not-nice “interesting” yarns), the materials cost alone can vastly outpace the cost of a similar garment, to say nothing of the labor. Of course, you can’t compete with the near-total customization, and the love or whatever that goes into making gifts for friends and family. (Also our modern garment industry is predicated off of incredible abuses of labor and so much of the true “cost” of a garment is hidden in stolen wages. So it’s more ethical or whatever, although Jesus Christ I am not going to lecture to you about buying handmade socks that’s absurd. This guy K. Marx has more to say on the subject.)

I don’t have a picture of the socks I worked on so hard for my Mom for Hannukah. She’s worn them for like a week straight without washing them because she likes them so much, (don’t worry they’re not smelly or anything it’s just for that work from home life) but they’re pretty dusty and dirty and unclean. I told her to just throw them in the wash in a delicates bag on a cold cycle and hang them up to dry. That’ll take like 2 days because there’s just something about wool, but she hasn’t yet and I get it. They’re an unbleached wool, because the unbleached yarn was cheaper than the white, so picture an eggshell or cream - a slight yellow tint - with a decorative braided cable element running down the heel and over the toe. Very cottagecore. I’d covet a pair for myself, only there’s nothing worse than making the same design four times, bad enough doing it twice for the pair of socks.

Okay so anyway, yarn expensive, etc. Still it’s a hobby, it’s a hobby, it’s for me, I’m not trying to make all this twisted economic productivity math about it, some people just listen to records and that’s totally legitimate too and they don’t even get a scarf out of it.

But I always thought that the math behind sewing made more sense. Nice clothes can get pretty expensive. Also, yet again, I wanted to try it as a hobby, not as some twisted hustle grind mindset nonsense. But I have a budget, let’s be practical.

First off, the start-up costs are much higher. Knitting needles can be found for under $10, although obviously a sewing machine is more versatile than a single pair of needles. But eeesh this machine is $$$. I guess it will last me my whole lifetime, though, and for some reason second-hand machines are difficult to get right now. Everyone is after them. Frankly it’s hard to get a new machine, there have been uhhh supply chain issues. Not actually a joke there, they closed factories in the Spring and then demand outpaced supply because of all of our quarantine crafting, so there’s been a bit of a backlog to catch up with.

It’s a cool machine! A Janome model. It has a mechanical needle threader, which is extremely silly but also neat (I’ve never really struggled to thread needles so it seems a little superfluous, but I’ll take it.) The design of every part of it feels so clever.

So far I have repaired a pillowcase that wore out on the seams and I’m feeling accomplished. This sounds dumb, but I didn’t quite realize how hard it would be to sew a straight line. Haha I can’t do anything straight. Also wow, how many steps there are in constructing a garment before you even reach the machine. The machine is like second-to-last!

You have to find a pattern, select your fabric, prepare your pattern and then pin or weigh it or whatever to cut your fabric. Then you pin the fabric together and try it on and adjust or sew some of it and then so on a couple times before you cut all the loose threads and flip it right side out and voila you’re done. It’s truly like a puzzle.

As a start I wanted to try making a pleated skirt. I mean, I still want to do that, I haven’t done it yet.

Let me just show you the fabric I’ve ordered and also my inspiration. Neither of my two planned first projects involve a real pattern, like one of those tissue paper origami booklets, which is probably a mistake on my part.

This is what I plan on using to make my fun, festive, knee-length-ish pleated plaid skirt. It’s going to be box pleated and I have just enough fabric because you need three times your waist measurement for the body of the skirt plus seam allowance, since box pleats eat up your fabric by three. The fabric is 56” in width, which goes well past the distance from my waist to my knees, even including seam allowances, so I’ll be able to use what I trim off for a waistband and other stuff.

The fabric is so much thinner than I thought it would be when I ordered it, but that’s my bad because they list the weight (4.9 oz/yd^2) and describe it as lightweight. I think when its bunched up three layers thick, it’ll be fine.

This is a nice linen-cotton blend! I’m going to make a cute pinafore. I have been very inspired by all the historical cottagecore TikTokers. Pinafores don’t have sleeves, which makes this a more approachable project. The fabric is brighter yellow than I expected - I wanted more of a goldenrod, but they were sold out of the darker yellows and this color is literally called Sunshine. I should’ve known what was up. It’s still cute. I also was pleasently surprised that it didn’t wrinkly horribly after I washed it, which is my big fear with linens.

I talk a big game for someone who has only ever handstitched a stuffed animal previously.

Here is a picture of my knitting as a treat. I’m working on a sweater sleeve.

Ttyl,

//gabriella