Nettles, Treadles and Love

So for the first step in creating and acquiring a mostly handmade wardrobe, I decided to start at the bottom, literally, with panties – made out of recycled knit fabrics from old turtle necks and t-shirts and stuff.

I found some great tutorials online with different ideas and techniques, like this and this and this, but I mostly just used an old pair of my own undies to use as a pattern.  I went out and bought some stretchy elastic lace and some needles for sewing knit fabric.

Using my electric Singer sewing machine I followed the instructions in the manual for sewing stretchy knit fabrics, but this was not an easy task.  The only time I could make the zig-zag stitch come out the way it is supposed to was when I was sewing on the elastic lace, but just on the knit fabric was a mess.  Lots of missed stitches and inconsistencies.  I didn’t realize it would be so hard.  I guess this is why people get sergers.  So this has motivated me to get my serger up and running.  I just need to find a treadle table.

Part of my motivation for wanting a handmade wardrobe is the desire to not give my support  to the large corporate industrial paradigm.  For many reasons going to Target to get some new underwear is an assumption I am beginning to question and want to find alternatives to.  I have come to see that the corporate industrial model is destructive and that to move away from this model is to move toward health and wholeness and connection with what really matters.  Another part of my motivation is wanting to reuse things as much as possible, and to avoid having disposable things as much as possible.

So I haven’t just stopped with panties, no, no.

I have also begun to make my own menstrual pads.  This is not a new idea.  There are actually a few companies out there already producing lovely cloth pads.  Glad Rags, Luna Pads, Sckoon, New Moon pads, and Comfy Cloth pads.  Etsy also has quite a bunch of lovely items.

This is a pic of my own personal collection of these pads I have bought.

And this is my messy first attempt to make my own:

Again, using zig zag on the Singer vs. a serger for the edges was a mess.  But these will be functional, if not lovely.  Made out of one of Sean’s old flannels, a corduroy shirt and an old flannel sheet.

Why do this?  Many good reasons:  comfy, creative, washable (re-useable), personal, produces less waste, saves money.

“If you menstruate for 33 years (age 12-45) and you use about 20-25 pads per cycle, you will throw away 8,000-10,000 pads! That’s a lot of trash – and a lot of money and resources in the landfills. ” – Comfy Cloth pads website.

It comes down to recognizing that every decision we make, no matter how small, has ripple effects.  I am learning how to become more and more aware of the ripples.  I like this process.