Do you remember these pieces that I mentioned in last week’s post? A pair of fluffy wool-like trousers, and a blue real-wool vintage handmade skirt? They were beginning to come together in my mind slowly but surely... and this week I got them together in real life: here are the new mega-kecks, the two-that-became-one!

These are such nice materials to work with; I often struggle with lighter fabrics, getting them to behave under the machine needle in particular is a fiddle-faff…. But these beautiful heavier fabrics are a joy to work with; they mostly do precisely what I ask them to, and rarely leap unexpectedly in another direction, like a silk can do!

They are comforting materials too (sitting sewing with them on my lap like a warm blankie) so this has been a nice, gentle, methodical project to ease me into working yet again in a new house and pop-up atelier…. A few conversations this week, with my Beloved @vincentnijman and new friends in this (new) area, are helping me to recognise how deeply my nervous system has been wound up – and how much quiet, calm, slow, nourishment and peace it needs, to get it back in aligment.

As with my painting life as an artist for all those decades, this sewing journey is always transformative, allowing me the time and the space to be fully immersed, and so to empty my mind somewhat of detritus and tensions.

I'm loving making a new rhythm and outline for structures in my life, now that we have our landscape and our freedom, stretched out in front of us, ad infinitum… We can begin to put things in order not just in the physical landscape that we’re investing in (rather overwhelming knowing what to prioritise!!) but in our lives, in financial areas, in our health, our business, our recreation, too.

Making structure(d garments) even helps me see that I can make any kind of structure – the right structure for the right place – in other areas that currently greatly lack the correct structures.

Making progress on my mastery of sewing, helps me to see where I can master other arts and skills. This is hugely helpful, in the midst of this crazy adventure with Vincent, where we are so immersed in everything that we cannot see much sense!
So reinventing life doesn’t seem so impossible, because I am reinventing these trousers.

• The trouser was first cut down the side seams, to open up the sides for a new fabric to widen them.
  Then I took the blue woolen skirt apart, so that it could be fitted into the side of the original brown trousers.

• Following this, I shaped the new legs carefully, making sure that the wool was not distorting as it was being sewn into place.

• I also took the opportunity at that point, to add side pockets: the original brown trews had a lining (which obviously didn’t stretch to its new width!), and I kept some of the artificial lining fabric, so that I could make these pockets; made a cardboard shape to keep them the same size, then sewed the pocket shape, and added it to the side seams at the front-side of the new trouser. I used the lining from the bottom of the legs, so that the hem of the lining could function as the edging – so to save a wee bit of time.

• I machine-sewed the long lines of stitching that held the new legs together, then hand-stitched the edges of the pockets in place, making sure that extra stitching reinforced the tops and bottoms of the pockets where they will receive most strain from use...

• I put some thick elastic - salvaged from another, older garment - along the blue segments at the top of the legs, so that a zip would not be necessary. This became a little messy: too ruffle-y. So I had to hand-stitch along the elastic sections, to make it less bulky. (This may make it necessary to add a zip – depending on who is the final owner of the trousers.)

• And I added the second set of pockets at the back of the trousers, by cutting out a paper shape and placing it onto the last pieces of the blue skirt that I had still.

• The finishing up of these mega-kecks involved hemming at the bottom of the legs – with two different thread colours, for the brown sections, and then the blue sections.

There’s another level of finishing, which I need to do some investigation around: I found multiple holes and small worn-out places on the brown material, which I need to think of how to repair – either with a very visible, contrasting colour, or with an invisible(ish!) patching-up.

What do you think? Do you have any suggestions around this kind of mending?

It was exciting to also be able to iron these finished trousers: we have electricity in our beautiful rental bothy, and so the iron can be used, woohoo! It is a long time since I used an iron, and many of my garments do need it!

I’d love your feedback on this project – your comments and support is always so very stimulating and nourishing, as I plod along in my steep learning pathway…. Thank you in anticipation!

With Love!

www.claregaiasophia.com