Purge Pile

It's that time again where I have to discard some of my old projects that no longer serve me. It's the responsible thing to do when they're just lying around gathering dust, but I won't sent them off without a proper goodbye. Part of being purposeful with my handmade wardrobe is assessing why things do or don't work for me, or why things that once worked for me don't anymore. The discarding process does unfortunately produce some net waste overall, but that's just the nature of creating. You're going to make some duds or outright fails no matter how good you get at your skill. Or you just outgrow things, in all senses of the word. And so, what am I getting rid of today?

First up, this rose print, jersey gathered-waist dress. To summarize, I made it as a teenager and upon scrutiny, you would probably be able to tell. The gathering and stitching on the skirt are atrocious; there are parts where the stitching doesn't catch both layers of fabric and the raw edge peeks through the seam.

The pockets are barely functional because the stretchy jersey isn't stable enough to hold a heavy smartphone. Above all, it's finally time for it to go because it's just not my style anymore. My plan is to re-sew some of the sloppier seams so it might be good enough to donate, although the sad reality is that it's most likely going to end up in a landfill regardless. I figure I should give it a fighting chance, however.

Next, my animal print viscose shirt. Among all of my self-drafted shirts, this one was one of my favorites. I'm sad to see it go. I didn't care that I cut out one of the sleeves slightly off, because the drape of the viscose was great for disguising anything wonky or uneven. Unfortunately, it's exactly the material that's preventing me from keeping it. It was my fault that I wasn't more diligent about pre-shrinking the fabric. I only washed it once before cutting. The finished shirt kept shrinking, and after a point it very obviously did not fit me anymore. The thing is, rayon/viscose shrinks in a way that isn't totally permanent; you can carefully stretch the garment back to size while wet, which is what I've done several times in order to keep wearing the shirt. But I've since run out of patience. I just have to give up and hope someone smaller can enjoy it.

Alright, this is where I admit I'm a victim to my own sentimentality, because when I wrote the original post, I already knew I was never going to wear this varsity-style jacket ever in my life. I admitted that I was basically incapable of wearing it and was only keeping it because I was too attached to the jacket as memento of what I had learned while making it. I'm no longer emotional about it and I just want it gone. 

 

 

The faux leather sleeves gained a whole lot of cracks all over them. The quality of the material must have been poor, to have that much damage when the jacket has been exposed to NO elements at all. It's never even been in the sunlight. I don't think it's worth donating so my plan is to save some of the parts. I'm keeping the cuffs and hem because the rib knit was the hardest notion to source. There's very little I can realistically do with the rest, so it might just go in the trash. Consider my losses cut, then.

 

I made this denim miniskirt to replace a similar RTW skirt that I loved to death but outgrew. I wore it a few times before I realized that I actually hate denim skirts now, which is a feeling I most likely adopted mid-pandemic when I stopped tolerating uncomfortable bottoms. There's something about rigid denim ending mid-thigh that strikes some sensory uncanny valley within me. To put it indelicately, I don't like the discrepancy of a hot (and potentially swampy) butt and crotch and cool, bare legs in the summer. Jorts are even worse, which is why I tossed all of mine. If the weather is hot enough to wear shorts outdoors in the first place, I prefer light and flowy fabrics, especially since it has to be actually deathly hot for me to forgo long pants. I don't know if it's incredible heat tolerance or just plain stubbornness, but the point is that all of these things contribute to me knowing that I'll never wear or make a skirt like this again. Too bad, because I still think the style is cute.

I'm purging four bags, because nobody needs this many tiny bags doing nothing but taking up space. I went through a small bag-making phase some years ago because I wasn't that skilled at sewing and bags are easier to make than garments, as they require no fitting. I've always liked installing hardware, like that wooden closure for the polka dot purse, that I bought and just needed to use at some point. I'm less careful with sewing things like zippers, for instance, in bags than in clothes. It's freeing to be sloppy.

 

I said in a previous post that none of my homemade bags are adequately stiff enough and they easily lose their shape, and this is true about all of these projects. The polka dot purse and this silver one have foam as interfacing and maintain their shape until it they have to hold something heavy. I've worn the red one out only a few times because of the stiffness issue. In retrospect it was never really my style to begin with; I thought it was cute to own but not necessarily wear. I might give both away as makeup or pencil bags or something. They're still functional for small, light things but I don't want to keep them for myself.

I found this black rhinestone purse in a thrift store during the same shopping trip that I got the silver one. It was sheer and had no inner bag or lining, so I added one. I unscrewed the metal frame from the material, made a box-corner bag to serve as the lining, hand-sewed the lining to the shell, and screwed the frame back on. It was a simple enough upcycling job, but again, that same shape/stiffness issue. I feel a little bad that I tried to "fix" something and then I didn't really do a satisfactory job in the end, but... the original purse had the same problem and at least I didn't make it worse. I'm sure it's still perfectly good for someone else out there. For me, it's just slightly too small. It could fit my old smartphone just fine but can only fit my newer, bigger phone if I force it in at an angle. And then it's hard to take the phone out again when it's really wedged in there. Too cumbersome, I have to bid it farewell.

This fanny pack is lined but has no interfacing, and the shell is some leftover stretch pleather. So, yeah, it's not very sturdy which makes for a lumpy bag. Worst of all, the slide buckle can't grip the webbing well enough so the belt is constantly loosening and I have to tighten it periodically while wearing. It lasted a single week-long vacation before I gave up on it. If the whole point is to be hands-free the bag is mostly useless, right? I think this one is going in the trash for real. I'm not going to force myself to be overly scrupulous about using up the waste. At this point it's just gotta go.

I'm trying to adopt a similar attitude for the fabric remnants I've accumulated over the years. Meaning, I'm looking at all these scraps I've tried and failed to repurpose and I'm giving up. I have no desire to make a pouf or big (ugly) patchwork curtain and I cannot make myself want these things. Most of my leftovers are too small or irregularly shaped to be eligible for donation at the nearest collection site, and it looks like the only option left is textile recycling. Which is shockingly hard to find despite me living in a major metropolitan area, where I expect many of the stylish young people to be producing a good amount of textile waste. Where we are absolutely lousy with consignment stores with offensively high prices that make it glaringly clear they don't want your garbage (and evidently some garbage is allowed, just not yours. $30 for secondhand H&M my ass). Everybody here carries a stupidly large steel water bottle to reduce plastic waste and also bludgeon each other to death, but I guess even we aren't too good for landfills. It sure makes my goal of trying to let shit go (responsibly) just that much harder.