Tracky daks and other prosaic sewing

Elizabeth has asked me

Can I ask, do you sew to save money or just because you like to? I ask because I would always *think* about making things but will often cave and buy them, even though I know I could have made them better...

This question was provoked by the last post about jeans shorts, and fits very nicely into my current prosaic sewing, which is mainly polar fleece in anticipation of spending the next 2 weekends camping.

This is a complicated answer, so be warned, I will waffle on a bit.

I do not sew to save money, but I am very pleased to save money because I sew.

I like to make things. I like cooking, gardening, sewing, knitting, embroidery, all sorts of domestic hobbies. I spend a lot of money on these hobbies, but expect the hobbies to be productive. I also do not like shopping (and live a long way from a big shopping town).Badly made things - be it food, furniture or clothing, are very annoying to me, unless perhaps I made them myself :). I tend to do without things that I do not care to make, or run out of time to make, not always a good thing. As Robyn and Barbara have talked about recently, sewing can be part of a life choice.
My husband and I decided when we were first married that we wanted to use our leisure time making ourselves more skilled, more useful, more educated or more healthy. We try to be good stewards of our time and resources. This does not always mean saving time or money- cloth nappies, cycling tours, hand made pasta, sewing disasters! but it does mean thinking about things like spending several hours driving 150km to buy things I could make, or could learn to make, even if I don't entirely fancy making it right at that moment.

Initially, what drew me to sewing was the finished result - ie, clothes, verses the alternative, which was wearing the same thing, even if it had holes in it!. I was a student, my course work was engrossing and time consuming, and my income part time job was for important things like food and rent. I liked sewing but it had to be quick and easy. At the time, clothes in Australia were much more expensive to buy than to make, even t shirts.
I was without a sewing machine for about 2 years when we were first married, and did a lot of hand embroidery, buying very few clothes, as we were saving for a house. I borrowed my MIL's sewing machine to make curtains and cushion covers (definitely to save money, Home Dec is not something I enjoy). The embroidery was something completely frivolous that fulfilled my liking for making things. However, as soon as I was expecting a baby, I wanted to make baby clothes. I liked the baby clothes in the shops, but not the prices, although I could have purchased them (Frugal ancestors again?). I made a few things by hand, but after one or two pretty baby dresses took weeks, decided that I needed a machine. I sewed a few maternity dresses and nearly all of both my daughter's clothes. I think I started this because baby clothes and maternity clothes are much more expensive to buy than to make (still saving for that house), but soon became addicted to smocking, which of course has a terrible hourly rate, but is much more expensive to buy than to make if you don't count the labour. As I enjoy the labour, it gave me great delight to make one-of-a-kind dresses for my girls.It is not the same to buy them something nasty, made in China, and what everyone else has, now that they are beyond smocked dresses for everyday wear. Also, I have created shopping monsters, who say, "I like that one.Could you make me one the same, but shorter, pink, and with long sleeves, that fits me better across the back?"
We did look at Target for some denim shorts. We did not like what was available, and met the costume requirements, so I sewed them. I did not spend any money specifically for the shorts, the pattern was pre-used, the fabric was left over from another project, but I don't think they were really cheaper to make than to buy. Jeans are labour intensive, but I didn't have to drive anywhere to make them.
Here is something that maybe I made primarily because it was cheaper to make than to buy.


These are tracky daks, made for my husband in mimicry of his Mountain Design brass monkey pants, purchased for $70, on sale a few weeks ago whilst we were in Brisbane for work. I was not entirely happy with this purchase. He wanted 3 pairs, I admit, the Mountain Design pair are technical hiking pants, but really will be worn mostly lounging about reading the computer. I don't think they were worth $70. I have made the other 2 pairs for him from Polartech 100, making a rubbing of the original pants for the pattern, and incorporating the long welt zip, free bag pockets with the same shock cord tie and nifty little lycra insert across the top of the zipper as the original pants for a bit of a sewing challenge to myself. From the same fabric purchase (I hate that polar fleece taking up all my chiffon storage space), I also made my daughter a pair of tracky daks, but made a slightly different zipper and pocket construction. I don't think I have spent $70 yet, and I amused myself making them, a bargain!

Jalie Jean Shorts x 2

In July my daughters took part in a dance concert. Usually I do a lot of sewing for their concerts, but this year most costumes were purchased dance wear and t shirts, so all I needed to make were 2 pairs of denim shorts. (I also had to knit 3 green scarves from the nastiest itchy wool that ever came out of Spotlight, but fortunately have almost forgotten this experience)
I used Jalie 968. I made these last year for both daughters, and my older daughter is still wearing her size T jeans, so I started with this size for her shorts.
Unfortunately, although the jeans from 2008 remain well fitting, the shorts were too tight across the backside. I guess the denim in the jeans has stretched out!
Due to this unfortunate fitting problem, I put the first pair on my younger daughter, and was extremely pleased that they fit her nicely so that I did not have to do any adjusting to the completed pair of shorts. For my older daughter I made another pair. I again used size T, but added a wedge to the back and took in the waist a little at the centre back.They now fit nicely. I made a small cuff at the bottom of the shorts so that they would look different from her sister's shorts.

I had to keep the shorts fairly plain, as the costume requirements were plain denim with no embroidery except for plain white or brown topstitching, but I snuck in a little trim whilst keeping to the denim only rule. My older daughter has selvage trim across the back pockets, and my younger daughter has an asymmetrical white topstitching pattern. I was quite pleased with the shorts and they will be very useful as normal clothing this summer, which is not usually the case with dance costumes.

Burda 3098 Cargo Pants and getting rid of fabric I don't like

I cannot remember who asked on her blog a little while ago what people do with gifted fabrics and patterns, but I have a fairly generous assortment of these, and they are a bit of a burden to me, because often, they are not something I would choose (or anyone else would chose, which is why people throw them out to me!). I am getting better at removing the nasty polyesters before they hit the stash. However, mostly I keep them in my cupboard until I can take them to an op shop. I am unable to throw them out due to a frugal (parsimonious) Scottish ancestry (this does not affect my purchase of new fabric for some reason), but occasionally I can get them out into the real world in a useful fashion.



Here is the last of the June sewing other than some alterations, which do not count. I will try to catch up with my reporting, but don't hold your breath.
These are getting dirty pants. I made them for my daughter to wear to school camp, and they coped very well with abseiling, "high ropes", hiking etc etc. She has also been wearing them every weekend, and even to a sleepover party where the main event was 20 odd teenagers playing spotlight all over a farm. Fortunately she did not break her leg.

The pattern is deep stash. A friend of mine gave me a great pile of patterns and fabrics when she was moving house. These were not horrid polyesters like the gifts from my mother's quilting friends, they were a true treasure. I distinctly remember making this dress

from a gorgeous piece of velvet in the pile, and that would be, 5 years ago. I am sure the pattern was not new when she gave it to me, so we are just not stylish at our house, because I think these are just fine for going to camp cargo pants, and so does my daughter.



However, even I can see that the front pocket treatment is not current. It looks kind of 90's to me. If I made these pants again I would do something different with the front pockets. I have reviewed the pattern here. The fabric is more of the camoflauge cotton canvas that was a gift from a friend of my mother. You may remember it from the pants I made my son earlier in June. I really don't like this fabric but all 3 children think it is terrific. Eventually I will make shorts for daughter the second from the remainder, then it will be out of my cupboard. Maybe then I will have room for that silk chiffon for the August Burda......maybe I should throw out some of the rubbish I have been keeping in case someone needs a dress-up outfit or a costume.