why sew (assuming you can sew)

There are three reasons why I sew.  Though late to blogging (if not to lurking) I have been sewing with some seriousness since 2007, and in a less intense manner since 4^th grade.  Which… was quite a while ago.   But I’ve really stepped up the pace in the past few years, since discovering online resources and buying ye Janome.  I haven’t bought new outerwear since May 2009.  It’s a rare day when I don’t wear at least one item made by me, & quite frequently I’m fully dressed by home.  I also make a lot of my daughter’s clothing.  (I do op shop btw, so it’s not always all my own work.)  

But all this doesn’t tell you why I sew.  A big part of it is certainly bound up in the creative process fueled by all of the above.  I write, I draw, I make – it’s a big part of how I see myself.  I’m very intolerant of the frustrations and time involved in the  process but addicted to the thrill of seeing something made real and 3D that once existed only in my head.  

But that’s not the only reason.   I like the fact that when I sew I know the conditions under which my garments are made – that the only sweated labour is my own.  It’s interesting to see the sweatshop point coming up on various blogs, with reviews of a book (which I haven’t read) called “Overdressed – the shockingly high cost of cheap fashion.” http://overdressedthebook.com/.  I have read a previous British book on the topic – “To Die For – is fashion killing the world?” & I can recommend it.  I imagine that the themes are remarkably similar -  if it’s all about sweatshops and the impact of cashmere on the Gobi desert, and I can’t imagine why it wouldn’t be.

As sewers we can avoid this to some degree but in a sense, we can only improve things by a few degrees, it’s not a perfect system. I buy new fabric, and much of the problem with clothing production is certainly mimicked in the mills which produce the cloth.  (I’m pretty sure it was the cloth mills that were first called “dark satanic”).  I suspect that we sewers are fooling ourselves if we take too high a moral ground over clothing provenance, because do we trouble our heads too frequently over fabric provenance when we click buy or take the roll to the counter?  And of course, don’t get me started on the shoes.  But it does cut down on the sweating.

Anyway abrupt transition from the high flown here, but the final reason I sew is illustrated by this waistband.  On a not inexpensive pair of fine woollen trousers bought eight years ago, when I went back to work post children.  Check out that puckering. It makes me look like a bag of wadding. I wasn’t sewing much then, nor particularly conscious of the deficiencies of ready to wear (snorts – I thought it was all my fault)  Only today when I tried them on again did I realise how lumpy this lumpy waistband makes ME look.  I can forgive a harassed sweated worker for not giving a shit how the puckered waistband of a pair of trousers will look on an overweight western woman.  But no-one else along the line gave a shit either.  Fashion doesn’t care if you look frumpy, just so long as you keep paying.  In fact quite the reverse, because if you never get it right. but keep hoping you will, you will keep paying.  The relationship basically exists until you put the money down, and then it’s over (unless you are a “brand ambassador” , but then you probably didn’t pay at all.)  I’m not going to pay snooty people to make me feel bad about myself because I can do it at home for free.  
 
Even that, I prefer to make for myself …

ps update on last post - all first world problems solved - new shoes now as follows:

Pixie boots and tan! ta, Wittner exchange.

 And D happily wearing slippers..!