Confession

This is a summer of almost non-stop travel.  Iowa June 11-25, Boston July 11-23, Sunday school teacher training in Napa Aug. 11-18.  It's a total coincidence all of the departure dates are the 11th.  I actually didn't even notice it until I typed it out just now.

So, what with one thing and another and this and that and the other thing...I fell off the wagon.

Forgive me Father, for I have sinned.  I bought cheap clothes.

I have been trying to be more environmentally and ethically conscious when buying clothes.  But, well, we were leaving for Iowa in a couple of days and it gets beastly hot and humid there in the summer (95+ degrees F with 70-90% humidity) and I didn't have any shorts and I had very few t-shirts.  I had looked and looked and tried on shorts to no avail--nothing fit and time was running out.  Sooooo, I went to Kohl's and bought two pairs of Lee* jeans.  Since none of the capris and shorts were of the same cut, I bought the full length jeans and hacked one pair off at the knees for shorts and the other off a little below the knees for capris.  Aaaannd, since I was at Kohl's, I bought 2 t-shirts.  And a purse.

Then, while in Iowa, I went to Eddie Bauer and bought 1 t-shirt, 1 tank top, and 2 rather sheer blouses (looks like maybe made of a cotton voile) to wear over tank tops.  I feel slightly better about this because 1) I am still wearing Eddie Bauer clothes I bought 5 years ago and 2) the clothes were made in China where the factory conditions are much better than, say, Bangladesh (although, it should be said that in many factories the workers are still not paid a fair wage and the factories have no respect for the environment).

Then, today, I bought a pair of Dansko sandals that were regretably made in China.  Have you tried to find shoes that aren't made in China?  I'm having a hard time finding them in stores.  I have found some to order online but I have such a hard time finding comfortable shoes to begin with that I prefer not to order shoes online for fear I will end up in an endless cycle of ordering and returning shoes.

They say that you find out how strong your convictions are when your back is against the wall.  I guess mine are not as strong as I would like them to be regarding where my clothes/shoes are made.  I feel pretty good about trying to buy clothes/shoes that will last, though.  I have hopes of wearing my Dansko sandals for a number of years and having them repaired when necessary.  I am handwashing my lightweight shirts from EB because I think that will make the delicate fabric last longer.

I'm still working on making my own clothes, too.  It's just taking me much longer than I anticipated.  Last night, I finished another Renfrew t-shirt (this time made from a ribbed knit cotton/spandex blend from Joanns).  I have enough fabric for two more t-shirts and I'm hoping to make a simple Renfrew dress by extending the hemline.  And, I want to make another Ginger and a Miette (this would require some pattern grading, unfortunately, but it's so cute I'm willing to give it a try!).  I'd love to make a Cambie, too.  But, I fear it may take me all summer to get through that list (especially with all of the traveling planned).  Fortunately, I think I am set for the summer and the t-shirts and skirts should carry me through most of the fall and on into December (local climate being what it is).  So, I have time to continue to work on my wardrobe.  And, perhaps I need to revise my expectations and realize it's going to take awhile to put together an ethical wardrobe and that there's no point in beating myself up in the meantime.

*Lee classic fit jeans fit me.  I have tried others--all kinds of "curvy" fit jeans at Gap and many, many types of Levis (515, 529, I've tried them all).  They do not fit.  I hope one day I will be able to make my own jeans but until that blessed day, I have decided that I will be buying Lee jeans and not feel guilty about it.  I did try finding a pair 2nd hand, but I could not find any.  :(

Kid's Clothes Week Challenge Spring 2013

Next week is the KCW Challenge for spring and I've decided to participate!  I did the challenge last fall and I found it really productive.  The challenge is to spend an hour a day on anything related to sewing kid's clothes (tracing patterns, cutting fabric, etc. as well as actual sewing).

Since I'm swearing off cheap fashion, I'm trying to be a little more thoughtful about Cate's wardrobe and make sure the things I add to it are actually things she needs.  So, while I'd love to sew a few more cute dresses for her, I don't think that's in the cards for awhile.  What she really needs are pants, capris, and shorts.  It seems like every day I'm struggling to find a pair of bottoms that: fit, match her outfit, and are weather appropriate. 

While it's gotten quite warm in the Bay Area, the mornings and late afternoons/early evenings can be chilly (as they are most of the summer), so even if I'm putting a dress on her because it's going to be 80 degrees (as it was today), she still needs some pants to wear under the dress in the morning.  And, as we are still cloth diapering, it seems like the smartest thing to do is to make a bunch of variations of the Big Butt Baby Pants pattern--a pattern that is specifically designed for cloth-diapered babies. 

In total, Cate should have at least 7 pairs of pants or capris, because:

1. She's wearing a pair for at least part of every day
2. Her current eating habits preclude wearing the same pair of pants more than once before washing them
3. We don't have a washer/dryer in our apt. or even in our building so we only do laundry once a week (as God as my witness, we will never live in another place without a washer/dryer EVER AGAIN).

The next step is to inventory Cate's clothes to find out how many pants she currently has and what color of pants she needs to go with her shirts and dresses.   (And then do the same to my wardrobe!)

Book: Overdressed

Recently, I jumped on the bandwagon, and read the book Overdressed:  The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion (My review on Goodreads is here).  Overdressed focuses on the consequences of cheap/fast fashion, namely, that:

• Cheap/fast fashion clothing is often ill-fitting, poorly made, and constructed from low quality materials.
• Because it is impossible to make cheap/fast fashion within the US (due to labor laws and health and safety requirements as well as environmental laws) we import the vast majority of our clothing from places like China and Bangladesh where:
• Workers are not paid a living wage.
• The environment around the factories is heavily polluted making it difficult to breathe.
• Workers are sometimes working in unsafe conditions.
• Importing all of that clothing means that:
• There are fewer jobs for skilled laborers in the US.
• We often have no idea if our clothing was made in an ethical manner,
• The cost in fossil fuels is higher due to transporting the clothing to the US.
• Poor quality clothing leads to huge amounts of waste--we throw away or donate more clothes than can be recycled or sold secondhand or even sent to third-world countries.
• People are less inclined to buy clothing that is made in an ethical manner because the cost is double, triple, or quadruple the cost you pay for cheap fashion.
• People no longer recognize good quality clothing, that is, even if they wanted to buy better quality clothing, they no longer know what to look for.

The book has been much discussed on the sewing blogosphere, as you might imagine.  Many people sew their own clothing in order to address some of the problems listed above, particularly the issues related to construction and fit.  Certainly, having better-fitting, better quality clothing was the reason I got into garment sewing.  I think the real statement the book makes is about the ethics of disposable clothing.  I admit I pretty much chose to ignore the idea that anything bought from H&M or Old Navy was likely made by someone who didn't make a living wage in a factory that was polluting the environment.  It's really impossible to ignore those issues after having read the book.  Truly, it's now difficult for me to imagine going out and buying t-shirts at $7 a piece from Target.  On the other hand, it's still difficult for me to contemplate spending, say, $40 on a t-shirt.

Despite the sticker shock, it's my intention to buy more high quality clothing.  I'm also going to work on controlling impulse purchases, which is apparently the real take-home message from Overdressed.  From a Fashionista piece about Overdressed,

“Overdressed is about reigning in out-of-control consumption,” Cline said. “It’s not trying to make people feel bad for buying clothes that they can afford.” In other words, the book is really about finding solutions to our shopping addictions. “And luckily,” Cline said. “There’s not just one solution.”

The Fashionista article goes on to give Cline's tips on how to afford ethical fashion.  It's no surprise that one of the tips is learning to sew, not just so that you can make your own clothing but also so that you can upcycle and refashion things from your wardrobe to give them longer life or tweak and refashion things bought secondhand.

I was so inspired by the book that, when contemplating buying a dress for Easter, I went to my local Goodwill store instead of the mall and tried on a bunch of dresses.  I looked for clothes that said they were made in the US (because they were more likely to be of better quality), that I thought would be great with a few tweaks (most common issue, the skirt would be too long, but that can be easily fixed).  Ultimately, I decided to either wear the dress I wore for Christmas (what?  wear the same dress to two holidays in a row?  craziness!) or make myself a new skirt, but going to Goodwill was a good experience in looking at clothing with an eye toward tweaking and refashioning.  I already have some ideas for things in my wardrobe that I rarely wear.

Ultimately, I think the greatest personal benefit in reading Overdressed was making me think before I buy clothes and aligning my clothing choices with my personal ethics.  I cloth diaper my baby in part because of the huge environmental cost in using non-compostable disposable diapers.  Therefore, it make no sense to buy clothes that, because they are likely to fall apart, are destined for a landfill.   Being more thoughtful about my clothing purchases will also likely lead to owning more clothes that I love which will solve my current problem of having a closet full of clothes and "nothing to wear."