My Hand-Crafting Past

Back in the day when I was more impoverished and desperate, when $1.50 represented a whole day of sitting in coffeehouse to avail myself of their delightful modern conveniences, such as a dry, environmentally regulated space and indoor plumbing, I thought nothing of spending long hours making things with my hands. This was a kind of Golden Age of craft and creativity for me, because all I really had was time, and a dogged perseverance that was often mistaken for patience.

At one point I was in Philadelphia, experiencing a full four seasons for the first time in my life. I'm Northern Californian, which means I'm somewhat akin to a duck. My home town gets more rain a year than Seattle, and it never really gets too cold, or too hot. The East Coast was a completely different animal, and adrift as I was out there, and practically penniless, I started taking measures.

I found some red corduroy in a Free Box at a local community center and lined a heavy gray wool cardigan with it. I had never done this before, and I quickly discovered why linings in coats and such are generally silky - every time I put the sweater on, whatever shirt or sweater I was wearing would cling to the corduroy and get bunched up horribly. I had to fight with it every time - even when I was taking it off. But it did cut the wind a bit.

The house I was living in had inadequate heat. (We even had one of our radiators explode!) I got an old wool Army blanket  from the Free Box (that Free Box certainly was a friend of mine!), and since it was unreasonably itchy, I made it into a quilt. I simply grabbed all the clothing I could  from the Free Box that I thought might suit, cut them into pieces, and sewed them into the blanket.

 

This is my favorite side of the quilt. The blue patches are a rayon dress; the orange is an old '70's style clown suit; the light blue is yet another dress. The burgundy patches are bits of broadcloth polyester fabric, and the remaining pieces are from a hippy-ish patchwork overall.

The less favored side. There is still plenty of clown suit and blue rayon dress, but I also added a Superman sheet of questionable thread count, an orange Hawaiian shirt, the leftovers from the light blue flowery dress, a cotton shirt with clouds, and some random bits of stray fabric (plaid). I still have this quilt - it's about to go up on my wall. I actually had a quilt commissioned because of this beast. I probably made about $.05 and hour, but back then that was good money.

When summer rolled around, with it's foreign humidity, I thought I was going to have a heat stroke. I became very put-out that public nudity wasn't legal. I once again raided the Free Box and came up with some lightweight material that I then hand-sewed into summer dresses.

The first dress was originally a batik skirt. The fabric was very gauzy, and dyed a navy blue and white pattern. I removed the waistband and trimmed it down to make a halter-top dress, making the straps from the waste fabric. It didn't know how to deal with the excess fabric at the back where I had another tie, so I just let it be.

The second dress was a pale, greenish aqua sheet in it's first incarnation. As such, it had very little stretch, and was possibly a polyester blend. I made another halter dress out of this, but since I was a bit more experienced, I added hook-and-eye closures in the back. Where I went wrong with this dress was in the ease; there wasn't enough of it! It was tight. I should have cut on the bias or something.

After that, winter rolled around again and I discovered knitting. I went into knitting the same way I entered into hand sewing - almost completely ad hoc. I got a book on traditional Fair Isle knitting from the library, bought some shish kabobs, sanded them into double pointed needles, varnished them, and grabbed an old burgundy acrylic sweater from the Free Box and unraveled it. I was going to make socks. And I did. I wish I still had them - they wore out several years ago - because I don't recall having a knitting pattern for socks. I only knew how to decrease, increase, cast on and cast off, so I was making it all up as I went. But the socks were wearable. (I came across a hat I knit the person I was seeing at the time from an old black cotton cardigan, and blew my own mind. Apparently I was working at a very small gauge and had a very interesting approach to shaping.)

So you see, I am not completely unfamiliar with taking what most people might consider extremes to accomplish crafting goals. This exploration of hand making clothing should be an adventure, and I hope you enjoy the ride!