It’s really warm and dry today so I guess it’s scarf washing and lace reblocking day.
Here’s why it’s a good idea to always gently re-block your lace shawls after washing:
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Lace loses its definition after some time, the stitches pull close and the whole shawl basically shrinks a bit and distorts. Washing and blocking will open up the stitches again and you can pull them back into the shape they’re supposed to have. I found that washing my lace about once a year is enough, as the shawls don’t really get dirty with wear, and fewer washes are better when it comes to handspun yarn.
I’ve got this ramie dress that doesn’t really suit me. It fits, but the shouldersare too wide and the skirtpart looks weird on me. I usually wear skirts with a lot of volume because skirts without it look wonky because of my scoliosis.
The fabric’s lovely though, so I decided to rework it into a shirt.
The project:
The dress is made out of a woven fabric. It has no closures and is meant to slip over your head. The short sleevesand rounded collarhave been shaped with pleats. It came with a sashto be worn around the hips, which I forgot to photograph.
[ID: a light brown ramie dress hanging from a wooden hanger in front of a white background. The dress has short sleeves and a round pleated collar.]
I indicated my waistandhipson the dress with a chalk line, then drew a third line about 5cm below the hips to serve as seam allowance.
Icut off the bottom of the dress at the third line.
[ID: a light brown dress lying on a black and white chequered floor. Three horizontal pink lines have been drawn on it with chalk: one at the waist, one at the hips, and one 5cm below the hips.]
Theshoulderswere slightly too wide for me, so I used a small pleatsimilar to the ones used at the neckline and sleeves to make them smaller. This made the top much more flattering on me. I also hemmed the bottom edge.
[ID: a light brown dress lying on a black and white chequered floor. The skirt part has been cut off right below the hips.]
I put the project aside for a while to think about embellishmentsas the top was rather plain, and ended up settling for a lace trim at the neckline.
I recently received a parcel of leftover lace from a fellow sewist who was clearing out their stash, and found the perfect beige lace trim. The colourwas lighter than the original fabric, but complimentedit well. I had just the right amount for this project.
If you’re looking for cheap/free notions, do as I do and look around in buy-nothing groups and on second-hand sites. You’d be surprised what you’d find. This particular parcel cost me €15 and contained almost a kilo of high quality lace. It’s a win-win situation: the seller got some of their money back, I have enough lace to last me ages, and these trims actually get used instead of thrown away.
[ID: a light brown shirt lying on a wooden floor. The bottom edge has been hemmed, and beige pointy lace has been sewn around the rounded collar.]
I still had the original sash from the dress. I was considering sewing it onto the top at fist, but I decided to keep it separate. That way, I can both cinch the top at the waist or keep it loose and tuck it into high-waisted pants or a skirt.
[ID: a light brown shirt lying on a wooden floor. The bottom edge has been hemmed, and beige pointy lace has been sewn around the rounded collar. A sash lies on top of the waist of the top and has been tucked underneath the top.]
All done! All it needs now is a good washto get rid of the chalk lines.
Theexcess fabric is now in my sewing stash: it’s great quality, so I’m sure I’ll find some use for it.
Conclusion:
There was nothing wrong with the original dress, but I just didn’t wear it because I didn’t like how it looked on me. Instead, I now have a topthat flatters me and goes well with the rest of my wardrobe. It’ll get much more use this way.
Looking for a nice way to hem sheer,slippery fabrics like silk or chiffon? A rolled hem makes for a neat finish. It looks neatand is surprisingly easyto do!
(Image source) [ID: close-up of a white thin fabric. The raw upper edge is in progress of being hemmed with a rolled hem, sewn by hand. Text: “Sewing. Rolled Hem Tutorial. Retro Claude.”]
Fibre crafts are very labour-intensive. This is why crocheted/hand-knitted items by indie designers are priced the way they are: you’re notjust paying forthe materials. You’re also paying for the hours that were needed to design and make the item. Even if the designer were to price those hours at minimum wage, they still add up.
Fast fashion strives to manufacture items as cheaply as possible. A lot of different things make up the final priceyou pay at a shop, such as design, materials, shipping, packaging, marketing,… Labouris only a fraction of that price, and garment workers rarely get paid a living wage as to keep the prices down.
Take this seven part TikTok breakdown of a crocheted Target bikini top by Drea’s Hook, for example. After replicating part of the top, she estimates it would take about 3 hours to crochet the full item by hand (and it was crocheted by hand). That doesn’t even account for the materials, the labour needed to sew the lining and the tag, the design, shipping, stock photos,… Yet it only costs $22. If the person who crocheted the top was paidat all, it can hardly have been more than a few cents.
Stolen designs:
On top of labour exploitation, there’s been multiple scandals regarding fast fashion brands stealing designs by independent crochet artists such as Knots & VibesorLoupystudio, among others.
Design theft not only profits off the work done by the original designer withoutany form of compensation in return, it also devaluesthe work needed to make an item.
Theaverage person doesn’t know how much work goes into making clothes. When fast fashion brands knock off original designs and sell them for a fraction of the price, it propagates the idea that the original item was priced unfairly. After all, why would someone charge €250 for a sweater when you can buy a similar one for €15 at H&M? This way, the industrykeeps getting away with exploitingits workers while indie designers struggle to get by.
Caneveryoneafford to pay that €250? No, of course not. Even that €15 sweater can be a big financial hit if you’re on a budget, and we all need clothes to keep us warm in winter. But practical issues aside, I think we can all agree that everyone deserves fair compensation for their work.
Conclusion:
People often assumetheir clothes have been made by machines. This is a logical assumption given the average fast fashion price tag, but unfortunately it’s a wrongone.
Sure, we’ve got sewing and knitting machines and all other kinds of mechanical helps, but someone still has to work those machines. When an item has to be made by hand, like crochet, it will take longer. If the price tag doesn’t reflect this extra labour, then neither will the worker’s wage.
This blog will never shame anyone for buying fast fashion. Even if you’re aware of the problems within the industry, there’s plenty of valid reasons why quitting just isn’t an option for most of us. We’re stuck in a broken system that we cannot change overnight, and not everyone has access to alternatives.
That doesn’t mean we can’t chip away at it.Educating yourself about these issues is a big first step. It makes us more conscious about the clothes we wear and the labour and resources that went into making them, which in turn motivates us to take action. If more people were aware of these problems, the industry would be much less likely to get away with them.
Remember when I asked for good crochet resources for beginners a while ago? You’ve all been amazing! I found a lot of good tutorials thanks to all of your replies.
I’ve been slowly working my way through the basic crochet stitches. I had a hard time turning off my knitter’s brain at first, but I think I’ve finally gotten around to how crochet works and am now making steady progress.
Neurodiversity and new skills:
Neurodiversitycan make picking up skills like these a difficultprogress for me. I’ll get hyperfixated on learning something new thanks to my ADHD, but when my dyspraxiamakes things difficult I’ll drop it like a brick. I’ll then feel like a failure for having dropped it, but can’t get myself to try again because my executive functioning regarding the skill I was trying to learn just gets worse the longer I wait.
I wanted to share these difficulties because I know how isolatingit can be when you’re trying to learn something new and your experiences don’t match up with those of others. This can be a huge barrier to picking up new skills, and deserves more attention. If any of this sounds familiar, know that you’re not alone.
After years of repeating this cycle, I know how to recognise it and how to deal with it when it happens. I take things slow and put my project asidewhen it gets frustrating, but make sure to pick it up again later once I’ve calmed down. I try to learn from my mistakes, but also celebrate my successesno matter how small. I switch learning methods when something doesn’t work for me, make sure to use sensory-friendly materials, and keep remindersaround of how far I’ve come for when I feel down about my progress. I also constantly remind myself of the fact that being able to see the mistakes I’ve made is not a sign of failure but one of progress. Spotting mistakes used to drain my motivation but has become something that makes me feel good about myself over time, because being able to identify them means my skills have improved.
Most of my practice samples up until recently were tangled messes. I froggedthem so I could reuse the yarn to try again. I’ve now gotten to a point where I can take some pride in the fact that I’ve got the bare basics of crochet down. I’ve kept my most recent samples instead of frogging them: they’re far from perfect, but that’s exactly why I want to keep them. I will store them in a box so I can look at them in the future, cringe a little, feel pride over the fact that I stuck with it, and appreciate the progress I’ve made since.
[ID: seven wonky crochet samples made in red yarn. Four samples were made in single crochet, half double crochet, double crochet, and treble crochet. The other samples are a flower, a granny square, and a square consisting of filet stitches.]
Here’s a fun little stash buster while you’re waiting for your next Dracula Daily mail: a crocheted bat appliqué, designed by Damnit Janet, let’s crochet.
Smallappliqués like these are a neat way to cover holes in knitwear, to make accessories, or to decorate clotheswith.
(Image source) [ID: two small crocheted bats lying on a gray background. One bat is black and has black wings while the other bat is brown with black wings. Both have large, cartoony eyes made of white felt. Text: “Damn it Janet, let’s crochet! http://damnitjanetletscrochet.blogspot.com/”.]
Knowing how to knit buttonholes always comes in handy.
This article by Lovecrafts will show you five different ways to knit a buttonhole, including the yarn-over buttonhole, the double yarn-over buttonhole, the single row buttonhole, the no-buttonhole buttonhole, and the afterthought buttonhole.
“I’ve got a tip for your readers! If you must purchase new fabric to mend something, a cheap way to get it is to look at the remnants bin in the local fabric store! Both chain and independent stores tend to have them. Remnants are the last bit of the bolt that’s left over after other fabric is cut. It’s usually not enough to make a whole garment, but plenty for patches and panels to add pizazz to your mending! (Just mind the fiber content, and always pre-wash new fabric before using.)”
I try to thrift my fabric whenever possible, but whenever I do buy new fabric I always check the remnants pile at my local fabric store. Remnants are usually sold at a discount, so they’re a great source of cheap fabric if you only need small amounts.
I’ve written my bachelors thesis on an unknown technique and now I’m going to make it everyone’s problem!
Sprang!
Sprang is an ancient braiding technique that’s been used since at least 5000 years ago in Egypt. It’s known to have been used in North and South America, Europe, Africa and Asia.
It produces an elastic fabric that can be both lace patterned and solid. In my field of expertise (Swedish rural dress) it’s most used as garters, because of the elasticity.
It was “rediscovered” in Europe in the 1880’s, in oak coffins in Denmark, but researchers soon found it in living tradition all over Europe.
Today it is mostly forgotten except to the nerds (textile-, lace-, medieval-, folklore-). But it deserves to be remembered!
This is a warning to ALL fiber sellers online, especially those who sell via sites like Facebook.
In recent months there has been some drama that a seller named Sherry Tenney has been taking money and not sending product or sending the wrong product. She’s been doing this for years, and to the scope of thousands of dollars USD. People who had been scammed by her connected and started comparing stories, and then discovering just how long it’s been going on and that she’s still doing it.
At first, that’s all it was. She would send out some fleece/fiber, but maybe not all, and then, in the past few years, frequently none at all. She would claim all sorts of reasons, like the post office lost hundreds of packages in a year, and other vague hand wavy excuses. The main issue is that she was violently aggressive toward people who inquired about where their product was. As in death threats aggressive. Long, ranting threats about shooting them in fields and feeding them to her pigs threats. There are videos. They are disturbing.
Well, a group called ‘Demon Trolls’ on Ravelry was discussing this and encouraging her to refund or send out the purchased product. The group ‘Demon Trolls’ keeps track of problematic sellers in the fiber community so that people can be warned. Sellers that take money and don’t send product, sellers that are falling months behind in shipping, and sellers that are not sending the product that was purchased. The group keeps tabs, they don’t actively pursue action of any sort, but they let customers share complaints and stories and keep track of the unfolding situations.
Well, Sherry Tenney has been… unique. Instead of offering fake apologies (something that is frequently done), or cleaning up her act and running her business professionally (something that genuinely does happen at times as well, sometimes sellers just underestimate how hard it is to run a business at times), she doubled down on the aggression. There are hour long videos threatening to shoot and kill people from the group, and former customers simply for complaining about not receiving purchased goods. There has been bizarre stories about ‘microburst tornadoes’ killing her sheep and her leaving them in the field to rot for days on end, her having bears coming to kill her sheep because she leaves them out all night long, her having birthing season go on for months because she just keeps rams in the herd and doesn’t keep track of breeding.
I could go on. The woman is… unhinged is the only polite way to put it.
It also came out within the past few days that it’s more than just her scamming people. It turns out what her and a group of about 25 others would do is go to sellers pages on FB, black the mods and admins, and then tell the others that she sold fleece for cheaper and better quality than them. She would poach the customers from small farms, and her and others would purposefully repeatedly report the small farm and their page to get it taken down so they couldn’t sell at all.
Then, when the farm was desperate, some of these small sellers have reported more than a 50% drop in income when she has done this, she would buy the fleeces at cheaper prices from them, mark them up, and then ‘resell’ them, frequently to the customers she lured away. Given that she would frequently sell the same fleece to multiple people and never ship it, it was a way for her to get a ton of sales with little to no overhead herself.
She, working in tandem with another woman, would keep passing emails back and forth with customers until the window to file a chargeback would close, and then she would send disgusting messages to the customer and block them.
If you have a Ravelry account, this has all been compiled for viewing here. I do warn you, the videos are unnerving and I could barely stomach just reading the transcripts.
The discussion about what is going on with Sherry Tenney is here. I am warning you, it is currently at 300 pages of discussion. A lot has happened in just the past few months. It is insane.
Please reblog this so other fiber sellers know to watch out for her, and to be warned about what she is doing. She is purposefully destroying businesses for her own profit.
Hello! After a long absence during which I have been busy staring into space waiting for either a patient or a clinician to turn up in the university’s hospital, I am now back! This is because my finals are next week, and this shop is at its heart a procrastination enterprise. It’s good to be back!
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