OK, so I’m clearly a bit behind on posting my creations – these photos were taken when I still had hair! After the success of my Tessuti Fave Top, I promptly cut out a Mandy Boat Tee. The fabric was one I bought to create a contrast neck binding on my Aeolian Tee, but I liked the colour so much I figured I may as well buy a couple of metres and make a top too.
Lately, I’ve been all about the tees. Sewing with knits is fun and easy – there’s nothing like an instant gratification project! Most of the projects I’ve been sharing with you are a result of a huge knit fabric order from The Remnant Warehouse, whose fabrics I adore. There are more projects to come and I haven’t even used up all the fabric yet!
Warning: contains GIFs
Three years ago, I was at the peak of my health with ME/CFS. I was able to drive myself out every day, go for walks, go out for dinner with my friends and even be taken on short trips out of town. I handed out how-to-vote cards at the state election, was volunteering one day a week at my local Lifeline op shop, and was doing so well I was looking at paid work for another day a week. Continue reading “Relapses: Fear and Loathing in Chronic Illness”
This outfit was a near miss – one of those projects that you mess up so frustratingly that you want to chuck in the bin and forget about. Lucky me that I chose to persevere!
Grace Jones. Sinéad O’Connor. Sigourney Weaver. Miley Cyrus. Lupita Nyong’o. Demi Moore. What do these names bring to mind? Power. Strength. Beauty. And of course, they are all women who have shaved their heads.
Just a heads up that The Mighty have published another of my pieces, “Why I Think ‘Chronic Fatigue Syndrome’ Needs a Name Change”. It is a summarised form of a section from my Beginner’s Guide to ME/CFS. Of course, the first comment on The Mighty’s post on their Facebook page was a derogatory insult regarding my authorship which delegitimised my experience with this illness. We still have a long ways to go, folks.
This post was brought to you by my friendly local Vinnie’s. You’ll know by now my love for op shopping, and a few weeks ago I stumbled across some fabric about which I was totally undecided. I love me some crazy prints, but felt this particular fabric might stray from the “so ugly I love it” category to “so ugly I actually hate it”. As it was a mere $2 for 4m, I bought it anyway, and decided it would make economic muslins if anything. I’m glad I did, as this is possibly my most hilarious dress yet.
Warning: contains GIFs
A lovely reader (Hi, Naomi!) suggested I conclude my Beginner’s Guide to ME/CFS with a “day in the life”, to illustrate what it is like to live with this illness. I won’t lie to you: this piece is long, mundane and tedious, but so is living with chronic illness. It is boring. There are no breaks. And the little things that you wouldn’t even think about, like showering, watching TV and leaving the house, form the greatest challenges of my day.
Unfortunately, my health has deteriorated significantly since writing this piece, so it isn’t an accurate reflection of how I live now. Rather, it stands as a record of what was probably one of the most “well” and functional periods I have had in the last 6 years, and serves as a goal for me to aspire to. I’ll update with more on my relapse when my health has stabilised some. (EDIT: you can read more on my relapse in my post, Relapses: Fear and Loathing in Chronic Illness.)
G’day! Today I’ve got a particularly frothy creation to share with you. The pattern is Vogue 8789, a vintage reprint. Vogues are expensive in Australia, but V8789 is one of those patterns where both variations are so lovely and unique, that it seems better value for money than shelling out the same amount for one basic design. I sewed variation A, which has a bias-cut bodice and v-neckline.
From a young age, women are taught to suppress their voices. Women who offer opinions in the public sphere or voice dissent risk being labelled “shrill”, “nagging”, or “bitchy”. It is disappointing, but not surprising, when men try to silence women with dated stereotypes. What is truly upsetting is when women join in, and become complicit in their own oppression. Yet I believe this is what is happening in some pockets of the online sewing community.
We have internalised misogynist stereotypes about women, to our downfall. Some women in the online sewing community feel unable to criticise or be honest about their experiences with patterns, lest they be perceived as damaging friendships or being “mean girls”. These stereotypes are perpetuated with faux feminist campaigns that are so anti-women they would make 70s Germaine Greer weep.* Continue reading “Mean Girlzzz: How dissenting women are silenced in the online sewing community”
Chronically Siobhan 