The Simple Poppy

(Blasted!) Room Shoes

 

  Anyone who has ever made something has been there -it could be cooking, sewing, drawing, carpentry- that moment when you are pretty sure this...this THING, whatever it is, will not work out. And you sit back, heave a pained sigh, and wonder whether you should, indeed, soldier on and finish regardless of less than desirable results, or just chuck it and put it far, far away from yourself.

    I am having one of those moments. I have wanted to make "room shoes" for a long time. We don't wear shoes in the house at all, but sometimes I have a hankering for a little more structure and warmth than socks can give. Enter the Japanese "room shoe." This is a shoe worn inside, essentially a slipper, but less frumpy. There are many incredibly cute Japanese patterns for room shoes and now I've tried two of them. The first time I made a room shoe. Yes, singular. It was at the point where I had made one and tried it on that I knew I'd made a grave mistake. My foot, inside the room shoe, looked like a flattened, but giant, cloven hoof. It was shapeless. It was puffy. It was disgusting. It did not look anything like petite Japanese feet in shapely slippers. I was so disappointed. I was also resolved to try it again because I want these these shoes. 

    So, after last week's incredible colds, teething, night-waking, nap-boycotting, yelling, thrashing, de-cluttering upheaval, and sniveling to myself in bed while watching Fawlty Towers, I finally sat down to bang this out. And I got to almost the exact same point when I realized that this too was going to be a big old failure. Dang.

    I cannot even bear to post pictures. I had taken out some of the padding because last time they were so overly padded it looked like my foot was being swallowed by a pillow. Now they look deflated, sad, limp. And they don't fit. I know Japanese patterns run small because Japanese people run small, my aunt tops out at 4' 10, and I think she's pretty average. This pattern seems huge and it's a medium.  I might, might try to salvage this once my frustration is forgotten, but for right now, I'm on to other things.  I certainly hope others are having more success with their sewing than I am right now!

                                                                          

Denim Skirt - Reworked

  They're a  little out of focus - but great for an 8 year old wielding a dslr!

     I finished my skirt. I added four darts, two in front and in back, a narrow strip to the bottom to make it long enough, and took off the pockets. Now it's just a plain denim skirt rather than a fabulous, cargo- pocketed linen skirt. I'll be trying that again when the weather is warmer and I have some linen.
    I like the length because it is so warm. Then I started falling over every single baby gate in the house. Which is a big problem because I have to cross a baby gate approximately 1,623 times a day. I might end up having to pin my skirt up between my legs like a grape crusher from the days of yore and go around wearing a giant, balloon looking loincloth hiked up around my knees.

I put a lapped, hand pricked zipper in because these look so nice. They look even nicer when your hand sewing skills are better than mine.

 

    The skirt was certainly long enough unhemmed, but most emphatically too short when hemmed. And not cool dorky, with striped socks, cat eye glasses, and doc martens (am I totally dating myself here?) but  ill fitting Cat Lady dorky. With capitals. Because we all love lower case cat ladies. My esteemed sister has been and would like to be again a lower case cat lady. Anyway. I cut two strips, one matching the front, the other the back , plus seam allowance, sewed the sides together, turned them and attached them to the bottom of the skirt. Then I top-stitched it.

   

    I had to add fairly big darts to pull in all the extra fabric around the waist, and actually had to take them out and make them longer after the first time because there was still excess fabric. I think they could have been even longer, but at that point I was DONE.

    This is the first clothing pattern I've drafted from a Japanese sewing book and I'm really impressed with how well it came together. The actual paper patterns I've used have turned out well, but I was a bit worried about not having a pattern. I didn't need to; any problem I had was my fault, and the end product has really great lines. I will definitely be making more skirts from this book.

Denim isn't Linen. Sigh.

 

  I had originally wanted to make this skirt exactly how it is pictured in this gorgeous, Japanese pattern book for skirts. Then I just got antsy to make the skirt and pulled out some denim. I figured it would be warmer and I already had it on hand, both excellent points as it's in the 20's, and I'm not going out just to replenish my linen supply, as worthy a cause as it may be.

    So I'm happy drafting this skirt. There are no patterns in this book, just directions on how to draft the skirts using your own measurements. Then I get to the sewing part, which I'm less adept at, but everything is coming together; it's not a difficult pattern. I start on the pockets, which aren't necessarily easy, but I sew on one and  try on the skirt.  

      And wow,  I look like some weird, military, Eastern Bloc version of Mother Hubbard, who is trundling down a dusty road with, perhaps, a Kalashnikov rifle, as well as some doggie treats hiding in the enormous, storage pockets on the sides of her unfashionably colored denim skirt. Gah. Even The Simple Man, who is usually very diplomatic , nay, even encouraging, when it comes to my sewing, ventured some raised eyebrows and a tentative, "Aren't those pockets...a little big?" Ya think?

    And that wasn't the only problem with it! I drafted it to be low slung because I never draft anything to my waist. My waist is so high that if I actually wore anything on it, it would give new meaning to the term "mom jeans." I am the original empire waist. So the skirt is low riding, intended to be worn with a cool belt. But that won't be possible because my feeble sewing machine cannot sew through the multiple layers of denim needed to attach belt loops. So the waist is way too big and must be taken in and pulled up, which now means that the skirt hemmed, will be a high water and not an ankle skimmer. Dang.

 

    Friends, I'm ripping those pockets off. But not before taking some photos for posterity. I have no idea why the pockets look so cool and lend just that touch of edginess to the skirt, but on me they scream, "CAT LADY! CAT LADY!"  Maybe I'm too much of a gnome to pull off big pockets. Could be the denim. Could be those Eastern Bloc genes (kidding! I mean, it could be, but I think not) Could be I didn't draft it right because I missed something in Japanese, and I don't read Japanese.

    Whatever it is, I was going to throw in the towel I was so frustrated. Especially after doing all that work. But I'm not - I'm going to take in the waist, take off the pockets, and somehow find a way to make it longer even when hemmed. Dang again.

The Stash Busting Commences

Fabric toy bucket. I didn't use interfacing, just batting, so it's foldable when not in use. As if that will ever happen.

Little Red Chilli's toys were getting out of hand. I keep a small pile of them downstairs for immediate distraction purposes and they were all over the place. I considered a basket, but decided against that based on the destruction she wrought on a certain overpriced rattan chair. I'm also trying to not buy any unnecessary plastic, or else I would've fed my addiction to those plastic Rubbermaid totes that are on sale everywhere after Christmas. They beckon you with promises of organization until you have 15 of them in your basement, filled with junk (or fabric), and your husband is staging an intervention. Not that I know anything about that. Ahem. So I took the opportunity to dig around in those totes, er, and do a little stash busting at the same time. I have a Japanese craft book filled with home sewing ideas and I made a little fabric bucket out of their pattern.

Last year my mom brought Pumpkin some fabric to make doll bedding for her cradle. We never got around to it, so this weekend I did some frantic ravaging in the aforementioned totes and found it. We made a very simple quilt and pillow. It turned out well and she was happy. 

               

 

Now if I can keep up this level of productivity, those dang totes might be empty sooner rather than later and it would make The Simple Man very happy. Because, you know, there would be more room for tools. Which we need. We need a lot more room for tools in this house. Definitely. Lots and lots of tools.