Even the backpack needs alterations
My sewing journey began with making my doll's clothes with remnants from the table at Pacific Iron as a 7 year old. My first work on human clothes was hemming pants. I am 5'2" and all pants are too long.
I did some garment sewing in elementary and middle school (I sewed my first pants suit for 5th grade when they let us wear pants to school, I made a couple A-line dresses: all of this from double knit polyester)
There has been more, but in-between all those projects has been a lot of altering. Letting it out, taking it in, making it longer, so much making it shorter.
Lately I have been rehemming all my tshirts so they can either hang out and look acceptable to me, or tuck in and not have an extra roll around my extra roll.
Oh, and I have gotten bigger, for emotional and old lady issues.
The sewing activities that fascinate me now are remodels. I enjoy going back into old work and finding ways to make it more wearable. Hemming the tshirts has been one activity, moving tags from the itchy places is another. Replacing zippers in coats (why was I installing 28 inch zippers when a 24 was reachable for my stubby little arms?). I still put pockets into things that didn't start out with pockets, but I have redone pockets in items to reflect the knowledge I have now about how to hang a pocket, or to totally change out an altered pocket that hasn't aged well.
Stitching down loose facing in shirt that has made it not as easy to grab and wear. There's been a lot of this in my closet, so much I haven't bothered to photograph it. The shirt will still need a press, but it won't need a hour of pressing.
All of these take a lot more time and unpicking than they used to. Sometimes it's helpful that I saved fabric leftovers so that I can use new pieces rather than trying to find extra fabric in the garment itself. One of my projects for last summer was going to be making the wooden ruler sundress fit me again. I do have extra pieces, all cut into a long role of bias tape. I just lost heart.
I have not tossed it out though.
