#the stitchery

I had a vision

Casting on is fiddly af, and new knitters ALWAYS cast on too tight. Giving them a needle with a few inches of stitches on it, in order to let them learn to see the loops and get the muscle memory started for the stitches leaves them better equipped for lesson 2: starting the project. They’ll have a BIT more grasp of yarn tension and control, a bit more idea as to WHY the loops need to be loose enough to get your needle into, etc.

Same for crochet. Many crocheters, even high intermediate ones, will use a larger hook for their starting chain because it’s SO EASY to begin with chains that are too tight. Even if you do a foundation row (which is ALWAYS my preference, fuck a starting chain) your bottom chain is often too tight. Plus, with crochet, there are SO MANY loops to be aware of. Step one: find the V and make a single crochet (repeat for 5 rows) is MUCH less intimidating than starting by going into a chain.

So I am going back to school and my semester just ended, so I'm finally feeling a little motivated. I'm going to be participating in The Stitchery's community project where she's asking people to send embroidered patches for a patchwork project. I wanted to send her a square of my lotus trim. She needs 2" or 4" squares so I wanted to make a 2" square of the lotus pattern and applique it to some of the 50% brocade, this means I have to be kind of have to be pretty precise about the size. To accomplish this, I did a basting stitch. I have found in the past that fabric pencils/chalk vanish immediately on this fabric, so I decided to try something different.

This worked really well. I'm glad I tried this because I think this might be the way to keep from having wonky petals like I had on the last lotus.

I was so pleased with how it turned out that I went ahead and drafted a new petal pattern.

The centers of the petals are 30° apart. I'm planning to baste the center lines and maybe also the petal outlines which would mean that I would know ahead of time where the ends will be, meaning that I can put the "back" petals on first. I'll probably do that tomorrow. I am also going to dye the silk (and some overalls I bought recently) sometime this week. I have officially started summer break, so hopefully that will mean I can focus more on making. I do also have a therapist so hopefully my mental health will start improving as well.

I was introduced to this by the youtube channel, The Stitchery. In fact, if I had to credit any single thing with my interest in taking historical inspiration for how we should dress in the future, it would be this video.

The Quiet History of Adjustable Clothing [from a non-historian]

This video begins by talking about the Coquelicot Skirt by Wildflower Designs, the sewing pattern that brought both the general idea (petticoat style adjustable waistbands) and several modern additions (like the integrated pockets and the lace-up design) into the spotlight a few years ago.

[A model showing the ties for a view A sewn coquelicot skirt in wool suiting, taken from the pattern page]

The rest of the video goes through an amateur exploration of historical and traditional adjustable clothing, with a special focus on lower body garments that are tied on.

The Stitchery then followed that with two tutorial-ish explorations of all the various design decisions you can make in skirts that share the adjustable waist and the large, sturdy pockets.

The first part is here, which also acts as a really good exploration of many of the design aspects of skirts in general. The second part is here.

Less DIY Options

But those tutorial-ish guide videos lead you through drafting the pattern yourself, essentially. It's a lot of work.

If you're looking for a pre-made modern sewing pattern with these ties for a modern skirt, it's basically just the one I linked to above. However, there are a lot of sew-alongs for this specific pattern available, and the Wildflower Design blog has a few blog posts featuring FAQs, modifications, and hacks of the original pattern.

You could look back into the Butterick 5261a which was a major inspiration for the coquelicot, but it's a vintage commercial pattern. Hard to find and probably expects a lot of pre-existing knowledge. But there are listings for it, like this one, at times.

But if you don't want to sew... this seems like it would be a great skirt to buy from someone else. As long as the skirt is designed to be rather full, you only need to make sure that the waistband is vaguely the correct size.

The unfortunate thing is that there really isn't a single name people are using for the two-panel-separately-secured design feature that's so special about this skirt.

But I'll share what I've found.

This etsy shop, CaitsHandmadeClothes, seems to have several listings, like this one for a miniskirt version of a split side skirt, and this one for a midi.

[Two images showing listed skirts from CaitsHandmadeClothes. The left one is a mini skirt, seemingly without pockets, in a lighter autumnal patterned fabric. The right is a darker midi skirt with pockets. Both are positions to show off the adjustable fastenings]

I Spent 18 Months Learning Sashiko Embroidery

“I Regret Posting Shorts” by The Stitchery