Rain, and some more rain. This is the best way to describe this week. It started falling on early Monday and it has been raining since yesterday afternoon. We got 75L in 4 days and it’s just the beginning of the month. This amount means I won’t be able to get to the garden for at least 2 more days. It will just be too slippery to do any garden work so this will be a garden-free week.

So instead of gardening, I’ll spend this week sewing.

On my birthday last year, I got a sewing machine. Nothing special, just a starting machine, but it sure came at the right time.

Since I’ve been having sun/heat allergies I’m forced to wear very baggy clothes. At first, I had no idea what was wrong. I’ve always been sensitive to the heat with strong skin reactions. I’m blonde, with very light skin, some would say milk-colored skin. I’m so white my skin looks almost transparent and my veins are visible from a decent distance. I can’t get any color no matter how much time I spend sunbathing. Actually, I don’t sunbathe at all, I turn red as a crab, peel of in a couple of days and then I’m back to the same pale white color as I was. 

Sun has been my enemy for many years now. First, it started with very strong burn reactions. 30 minutes in the sun and I’d get burned so much I’d get a fever. I can get sunburns even sitting on the bus or in a car. I’ve had occasions where I’d get out of the bus with my hand and one side of the face burned. The last time I got bad sunburns was 2 years ago while I was pruning tomatoes. It took ages to heal.

After the sunburns, I’ve started having strong headaches as soon as I’d step into the afternoon sun. Punctual as a clock. I’d have devastating headaches every single day at the same time of the day, on one side of the head behind the eye. They lasted a couple of hours and would repeat as long as the heatwave last. 

Once I’ve noticed that the sun was causing my headache I started wearing sunglasses all the time and avoided noon sun, but as I got older the allergies have gotten worse. Now, as soon as I get too warm my body starts reacting. I break out in hives. I don’t have to be in direct sun, as long as the temperature is over 30°C and I get too hot hives start coming out. Also if I have narrow clothes on places where the clothes touch my skin I get a red rash that keeps on appearing as long as the heat is present. 

I’ve started getting used to this, I don’t go out between 10am and 4pm, I avoid the sun, trying to stay in airconditioned rooms, and I wear very baggy clothes and light materials. This way I’ve managed to reduce my symptoms almost to zero this year. I haven’t had any headaches, I didn’t get hive attacks, and my rash appeared only once on my feet, but it went away quickly.

Now, buying baggy clothes, especially in COVID conditions is very tricky. I’d have to try each piece of the clothes, and clothes trying is forbidden. Also, there aren’t many stores that sell baggy clothes. I could buy men’s clothes, but they usually have a very high neckline and I don’t like this. I don’t wear any clothes that are narrow around my neck.

So I started sewing my own clothes. I’ve been sewing my whole life, but mostly by hand. I’d make a few special pieces of clothes, but never too much. Just one or two pieces a year, or I did some simple repairs. Now I had to do much more, cause let’s face it we can’t spend the whole summer in the same shirt.

I had to make my small sewing desk and buy some more supplies. With the help of my hubby, we transformed my big laptop desk to a small sewing corner. We’ve moved the laptop to the other side, transforming one of the cabinets into a desk, and shortened the big desk to fit the sewing machine. Luckily, most of our furniture is made of wood and drywall(attic apartment we needed custom furniture), so changes can be made very easily. 

The small corner we created is just perfect, I’ll still need some cabinets for my fabrics, which I keep in the sewing machine box right now, but other than that it’s perfect. The shelf is big enough for all my sewing accessories, some are hidden in the boxes and the most used are outside on the shelf and in the white basket which is right next to the sewing machine. Everything is close, sorted and there is no unnecessary mess. 

So far I’ve made 4 sets of clothes(strap shirts and baggy shorts) that I’ve been wearing. I’ve planned to do more, but I’ve been sewing masks so I’ve been falling a bit behind, and right now with the summer almost ending I’ve been thinking that it’s time to start making autumn clothes.

The last piece of clothes I’ve been working on is a baggy cardigan. Something warm enough to wrap me during the colder days and baggy enough to stop me from overheating if the weather is warmer. I’ve found an online store that sells great fabrics and has big sales. I got a knitted fabric on a huge sale(less than 1€ for a meter) which will be perfect for this. 

The plan is to make a very long cardigan(150cm) with two sides that wrap like a bathrobe but can be worn open with two sides falling nicely. I’m planning to put the same material ribbon which I’ll use to tie the cardigan.

I suck at drawing 😂

I’ve already cut the material and started sewing the parts together but there is still lots of work to be done. There is still a huge piece of fabric left so I’ll probably make a tunic or a short dress that will be worn under the cardigan with some thin leggings.

So there is plenty of work to be done, even while I can’t do any gardening. Who knows maybe I’ll have some leftovers to make a nice patchwork garden bag or a tool belt.