Another reason I want to blog about my sewing progress has to do with body acceptance. In my head I'm fine with my body, and I'm mostly okay with how I look day-to-day. But I find that when I'm making an effort to look good, suddenly all that self-acceptance is gone, and all I can see is flaws (that, of course, being things that deviate from the socially-accepted norms for women). I've been particularly aware of this after a trip to the beach led to me daydreaming about making my own swimwear (someday!): all the plans I have involve more body coverage than I used to prefer. And it's not just that I'm not so comfortable with showing skin by nature: 30 pounds ago, I was pleased to wear a bikini. So I may tell myself in my head that I'm okay with my body, but I'm not entirely.
That relates to this blogging project in that I completed my current sewing project this afternoon, and when I saw the pictures I'd taken of me wearing it, I thought about deleting the blog - I couldn't show those to the world! Part of this is that I'm not particularly skilled with photography, especially since I don't want to press the Boyfriend into service taking pictures of everything I make, so I'm taking them of myself and that's tough. But the main thing is that my proportions looked grotesque to me. All the more evidence that my body acceptance is not complete.
So I'll post pics, whether I think they're "flattering" or not. The world could use more pics of curvier folk, anyway. (I'm on the lookout for sewing blogs by sewers who are curvier - I know I'm going to need to be making modifications to some of the popular indie patterns to make them fit me, and I'm sure somebody out there has already gone through that!)
Anyway, without further ado, my scoopneck tee from the Craftsy Sewing with Knits class by Meg McElwee, out of a rayon knit.
It's not perfect - the stitching makes the fabric want to pucker somewhat along the side seams, and I probably should have added more to the bust, knit or no, but it looks like a real t-shirt. Considering the haphazard way I used to sew, impatient and barrelling forward without bothering to figure out the right way to do something, this one's a win! And I'll actually wear it, for sure - I can't have too many fitted t-shirts.
P.S. on "curvy" vs. "fat": I'm fine with the term "fat" and agree with the thinking that we should make the term acceptable, a descriptor no more fraught than calling someone tall or brunette. But since I'm not big enough to get a lot of the hassles associated with being a fat woman, I'm reluctant to self-identify that way lest it be appropriative.
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