Self- Stitched September 2010: A summary

For SSS my pledge looked like this:

“I, Sølvi of delfinelise, sign up as a participant of Self-Stitched-September. I endeavor to wear only handmade and refashioned of clothing, except underwear, sportswear, shoes and rainwear, every day for the duration of September 2010.”

Did I succeed in keeping my pledge? Well, more or less I did, with one exception that I will come back to later. I managed to wear only self-stitched and refashioned items for most of the month.

Did you keep your pledge, or did you have to modify it?

What I found to be the hardest part of all of this was to keep warm. I counted on finishing a jacket for September that I actually didn´t have time to complete. Some nights got quite chilly, especially in the first part of September. Luckily the weather changed, and the temperatures rose a bit, giving us a warmer September than average.  I spent the last few days of September in Greece, and the problem solved itself. What did you all think was the hardest part?

The wind jacket that wasn’t.

Inspired by Tasia I made some collages of all my outfits of the month. There are a couple of days missing, day 22 and 24, I think, but I did wear self- stitched those days to, but I didn´t have any time at all to take pics. But if I´m not completely wrong, I wore my new Beignet in Blue, the corduroy jacket (now missing) and some of the tops seen a million times…

The first thing that happened when we arrived to the airport in Athens, Greece, was that I lost my jacket (seen on days 15 and 11)!  The same jacket that I so desperately clung to throughout September! It´s like like my subconsciousness told me that,” It´s Greece, it´s hot, and when you come back home it´ll be too cold for that thing”. I forgot it in the ladies room, and when I went back to get it, it was gone, and it wasn’t at the lost and found department either. Oh, well. I really loved that jacket, but what can I do? Other than make a new one, I mean?

So, the one exception I told you about also happened in Greece. I must stress that the week before we went was REALLY hectic, and I hadn´t got much sleep in a couple of days, so my brain didn´t really keep up. So, when we went grocery shopping one afternoon I wore a thrifted vintage skirt. The crazy thing is that I didn´t really realize that I actually had not made that skirt myself until a couple of days later… A tad distracted, perhaps? But, other than that little mistake, I did pretty well, I think.

I did panic during the first part of the month realizing (again) that I din´t have enough self- stitched tops, but luckily I did have quite a lot of knits in my stash, and I managed to whip up the tops you see me wear on days 2, 17, 19, 23 and 30. I am saving up for a serger, so I actually didn´t finish all the edges, in an optimistic attempt of  motivating myself to save as much as possible, so that I can make beautiful finishes on my new machine. Don´t know yet if this motivation really works…

I am still in Greece, and I didn’t bring my sewing machine. I really miss it! But I am going fabric shopping one of these days,  hoping to find something fantastic, off course. And I did bring my Audrey in Unst to knit, so I can get some work done on the Hepburn/Hepburn Project. Other than knitting, is this stay here all about getting some (real) work done that I normally don´t have time to do when I´m home.

So what projects are you all up to next? Please share!

The harbour in Kavala.