![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I've just subscribed to
which looks very gentle and possibly like something I might be able to keep up with even if it takes me more than the requisite month.
Speaking of snowflakes, it has been below freezing here for the past four days, and I have been contending with the fact that I have no pairs of winter trousers that do not require a tight belt to keep them up.
Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but this summer I discovered that I had a sliding hernia (where there's a hole in your diaphragm and sometimes your stomach gets pushed up to bulge through the hole, stomach acid and all.) One of the big culprits in this is being tightly cinched in around the waist. So I changed into wearing dresses and promptly forgot about the winter.
Winter arrives, I dig out my winter trousers and wear them for a while, only to find that I'm suffering from heartburn/fatigue and pain in the chest. It finally dawns on me last week that this is the result of going back to being strangled around the waist. So I dig out my one pair of dungarees, and then it gets really cold.
What to do? It's nearly Christmas and if I order another pair on line they might not arrive for a fortnight. Plus they're £60 a pair! And they're not even that warm.
Time to bring out the sewing machine! I cycled to the local fabric shop and examined their selection. Brushed cotton looked warm but almost certainly wouldn't be. I couldn't afford wool, and it would be scratchy anyway. The fleece was all primary colours, camouflage pattern or ladybird print.
Hm, it was time to adhere to the spirit of "When I am old, I will wear purple," and throw social convention out of the window. So I bought the ladybird print fleece and made myself an emergency pair of warm dungarees.
They came in very handy when my family and I went out to do the Wimpole Christmas Lights trail last night. With ski boots and a ski coat, I was perfectly warm and my legs were toasty out in the snow for three hours.
We had pizza and hot chocolate from a food van, then did half the walk, past the tree halos and fire garden. In the middle there were braziers set up and marshmallows for sale for toasting - I had a chocolate one :) Then through the lazers and the fields of shining white roses to the end of the trail, where there was a helter-skelter and a carousel.
It was a really lovely evening. The ladybird print dungarees received a mixed reception. One lady told me what a good idea it was to have come in my pajamas, but a chance-met friend was like "Ooh, I love your dungarees, where did you get them?" And I will take my friends' opinions over strangers any day :)
which looks very gentle and possibly like something I might be able to keep up with even if it takes me more than the requisite month.
Speaking of snowflakes, it has been below freezing here for the past four days, and I have been contending with the fact that I have no pairs of winter trousers that do not require a tight belt to keep them up.
Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but this summer I discovered that I had a sliding hernia (where there's a hole in your diaphragm and sometimes your stomach gets pushed up to bulge through the hole, stomach acid and all.) One of the big culprits in this is being tightly cinched in around the waist. So I changed into wearing dresses and promptly forgot about the winter.
Winter arrives, I dig out my winter trousers and wear them for a while, only to find that I'm suffering from heartburn/fatigue and pain in the chest. It finally dawns on me last week that this is the result of going back to being strangled around the waist. So I dig out my one pair of dungarees, and then it gets really cold.
What to do? It's nearly Christmas and if I order another pair on line they might not arrive for a fortnight. Plus they're £60 a pair! And they're not even that warm.
Time to bring out the sewing machine! I cycled to the local fabric shop and examined their selection. Brushed cotton looked warm but almost certainly wouldn't be. I couldn't afford wool, and it would be scratchy anyway. The fleece was all primary colours, camouflage pattern or ladybird print.
Hm, it was time to adhere to the spirit of "When I am old, I will wear purple," and throw social convention out of the window. So I bought the ladybird print fleece and made myself an emergency pair of warm dungarees.
They came in very handy when my family and I went out to do the Wimpole Christmas Lights trail last night. With ski boots and a ski coat, I was perfectly warm and my legs were toasty out in the snow for three hours.
We had pizza and hot chocolate from a food van, then did half the walk, past the tree halos and fire garden. In the middle there were braziers set up and marshmallows for sale for toasting - I had a chocolate one :) Then through the lazers and the fields of shining white roses to the end of the trail, where there was a helter-skelter and a carousel.
It was a really lovely evening. The ladybird print dungarees received a mixed reception. One lady told me what a good idea it was to have come in my pajamas, but a chance-met friend was like "Ooh, I love your dungarees, where did you get them?" And I will take my friends' opinions over strangers any day :)
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2022-12-19 10:17 am (UTC)From:There was some lovely flannel in the shop which I dithered over - a beautiful rusty, autumnal-red plaid. I think I will probably get some and make another set for use in slightly less cold weather than we've had recently.
Now that I have two sets, so I can put one in the wash while I'm wearing the other - and now that I've tried the pattern and know how it turns out - I've got a bit more time to think about things like whether to line them or not. Which I agree would be a good idea. The pattern recommends you line the bib anyway, so lining the trousers too would not be a lot more work :)
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2022-12-19 10:29 am (UTC)From:I've been doing Snowflake for years and it's really fun.
There are some other places that have blogging prompts, I listed some of them in my resources.
>>There was some lovely flannel in the shop which I dithered over - a beautiful rusty, autumnal-red plaid. I think I will probably get some and make another set for use in slightly less cold weather than we've had recently.<<
Go for it! That's a great choice. Do feel the flannel, though. Some are on the thin side while others are really heavy. That will give you an idea when to wear what. Flannels with autumn-winter colors like that one tend to be thicker than those with lighter spring-summer colors.
>> Now that I have two sets, so I can put one in the wash while I'm wearing the other - and now that I've tried the pattern and know how it turns out - I've got a bit more time to think about things like whether to line them or not. Which I agree would be a good idea. The pattern recommends you line the bib anyway, so lining the trousers too would not be a lot more work :)
Good plan.
Another thought for warmth: fabrics with texture hold air better than flat fabrics. Think like waffle-weave or cableknit.
If you're not allergic to wool, consider scavenging at a thrift store. There are usually sweaters or suits or something that can be reworked. Some places will even let you have damaged garments free or cheap for upcycling purposes. To avoid scratchiness, just line it with something softer or smoother, which is why skirts and jackets are often lined anyhow.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2022-12-19 04:11 pm (UTC)From:Oh, good thought! If I could find men's trousers that were big enough around the waist to tuck a big jumper into them, I wouldn't need to convert them, I could just wear them with suspenders. That would be a lot less work! But I'm getting the flannel anyway because it's only £6 a metre, and I will definitely use it.