Just Hemming and Hawing

Artwork by Nicole Dextras

Hmmm, I've been altering another kimono top.  Started putting it back together again in a new way after some serious seam ripping.  Luckily I also found scraps of the same fabric I'd saved (I'm sooo organized)!

It fits and looks better.  Just hemming-and-hawing (what a phrase!) about fasteners for it now...so I've taken a break.

The Zen of Seam Ripping

Sculpture by Carolyne King

So many days have slipped by, but not to worry, I've still been putting my time in!  Lots of seam-ripping action going on.  Don't even know if I can count all the things I've been working on.  Removing lots of snaps from my kimono tops, and darts, fasteners of all sorts, ties, pockets that "don't work," side seams, etc.  Anyway, it's been very satisfying as things gradually become wearable again.  Ripping out seams has become a regular night-time ritual.

Art of the Kimono

Sculpture by Janet Pines Bender

Decided to move the few items of summer clothing that actually fit (and that I like) to their own area so I can readily find them. They had been interspersed with everything else, yikes! There's just a handful of items, but that's cool.

Anyway, I found an old kimono-type outfit I had made awhile ago and tried it on to figure how I might alter it. Turned out that if I just let it fall naturally without wrapping and tying it, it looked really lovely. So I just took off the ties and sewed on some snaps, and voila. I was on a kimono-esque kick for a long time, so hopefully the others I made will be amenable to adjustment too.  We'll see.

Easy Does It

Painting by Hollis Sigler

Today, took it easy and just sorted through the off-white pile of pants/shorts/skirts and found 2 pair of capri pants (pedal pushers?) that fit as is.  yea, since it's nearly 100 in Chicago today!

Yesterday I also sorted through my sewing embellishments to see what I had available for altering stuff - again it's mostly white, black and navy, with a few colors in-between.  But it was exciting to think about the possibilities.

Enough Already!

Indian Miniature, Faqirullah Khan, artist
Freer & Sackler Galleries

I dove into the depths of my closet this morning to retrieve some baskets of unidentified objects.  Spent a little too long at it - have to learn to stop sooner, than later.  omg!  Emptied 2 laundry baskets full of pants, mostly jeans, of every size and style imaginable.  How embarrassing if nothing else.  There's still one more basket to go and then the closet will be completed excavated (except for the shoes which I will deal with at a much later date).

So at this moment, I can barely get into my dressing room for all the stacks of clothes sorted in different places.  I even brought up a rolling clothes rack that now holds all the t-shirts I've found.  Seems I have many, many white and black ones with a smaller variety of colors.  Looks like the same color scenario holds true for all the rest of the clothes I have.