Years ago I used to make all my own soap. I’m not exactly sure why- it wasn’t cheaper than store bought. I think I might have just gotten sucked into some kind of almond mom blog rabbitthole that convinced me that homemade soap was “better” than what CVS had to offer. At the time, I was also making my own natural deodorant, my own shea butter lotions and face creams, and my own sunscreen (zinc-heavy mineral sunscreen was the only kind available in the US market back then, leaving me with an awful ghostly white cast; the recipe I used, while zinc-based, was more forgiving). Since I was making so many of my other bath and beauty products, adding soap to the list seemed like a forgone conclusion.
Anyways, the bath and beauty market has done a great job of offering a much wider variety of efficient products in the past decade, like efficient sunscreens with no white cast, and I’ve (sheepishly) learned that there is in fact no danger in using deodorant products with aluminum in them either (thank god- natural deodorants did fuck all for my hyper-hydrosis). I’ve since gone back to moisturizing with Nivea (rumored by many to be a pretty solid dupe for celebrity-fav La Mer) and cleansing with Dove beauty bars, both of which I grew up using as a teenager, and I haven’t had my skin fall off my face and body (yet). Since I still have so many pretty soap molds in my DIY bath and beauty kit, I had the bright idea a couple years ago to start saving those pesky little slivers of soap that usually get thrown out when they are too small to hold onto anymore. I figured I could melt them all down, pour them into a couple of my soap molds, and end up with some practically brand new bars of soap without the waste.
Reader, don’t do this.
I tried to melt my used soaps in a double broiler the way you are instructed to when using melt and pour soap base, but after twenty minutes simmering over high heat, they had not disintegrated at all. I then removed the soaps from their initial container and poured them directly into my sauce pan over low heat. After several minutes they had just barely started to melt, which was when I smelled the most pungent odor flooding my kitchen and I started coughing uncontrollably. Just as soon as the soaps had started melting, smoke began rising from the pot because they were burning. This was nothing like my experience with scentless melt and pour soaps in the past. My guess is that in addition to the strong fragrances, there are some additional ingredients in commercial soaps that cannot withstand melting over direct heat, and the result leaves you with a bubbling brown awfully stinky mess at the bottom of your sauce pot. I poured the globby muck into a trash bag and let it cool on the back steps while I aired out my kitchen.
Good to know.
Fortunately my other make of the week was a big win!
This time last year I embarked on a two week trip to Paris, my first solo vacation, thanks to reward miles and a Parisian friend of a friend house-swapping with me. The trip was a part of my (ongoing) healing process after some very big and unexpected shifts in my personal life, and it was an incredibly memorable experience, with all the good and bad that incredible can entail. Halfway through the trip I blew my entire fabric budget on two pieces of silk (no regrets!), and as soon as I got home I sewed up one of the pieces into a gorgeous robe that I plan on sharing here as soon as I take pics. I wanted to make sure that I sewed up my other silk yardage before the anniversary of that trip came up because I really adored the fabric and am feeling way less interested these days in letting beautiful fabric languish in my stash.
For this project I used a vintage dress pattern (Simplicity 9222) that I actually sewed up for the first time earlier this year. It’s a simple but fun design, a faux wrap dress with an elasticized waistband, fabric belt, and buttons up the side opening of the skirt. My first version from a couple months ago was in a sturdy black sandwashed viscose that feels a lot like cupro.
Because I made it with long sleeves and the fabric is heavy of center (but still appropriate for a dress), it’s a very wintery dress, which I’m not mad at since I often complain about not having many solidly cold-weather dresses in my arsenal. But the minute that dress was done, I knew I wanted to make another in a lighter, more warm-weather fabric. My second cut of silk was perfect for the job.
I love the abstract print of the fabric and the easy wearability of the design -it looks much more chic and put together than it’s elastic waist would have you believe. I lengthened this version from the design but it’s still not as long as my winter version, and I also gave it short sleeves. I kept the hemline shape of this second version as per the original design, whereas on my black dress I curved the hemline where the side opens. It’s a very pretty detail but isn’t as impactful as I imagined it would be, especially compared to all the work I had to do to make it so. The casing for the elastic waistband on the inside is not instructed to be sewn down onto the skirt of the dress which was causing the waistline to look puffy and weird, so I sewed the casing down on both dresses and it looks much cleaner now. Lastly, I took out a smidge of length from the bodice to get a better fit- wish I had known to do this on my black version, but ah well!
I am so pleased with how well this slightly adjusted version fits, and though I love my original black version, I know I nailed the fabric and fit on this silk printed one. It’s about to be hot in LA for the foreseeable future and I’m excited to have some newer pieces in rotation!
If you recall from last week, I have been on a mission to perfect a tortoise shell manicure based on some nail art youtube tutorials I found, and I think I got closer to the look I’m going for on this last set, although there is still room for improvement. I think I still have too much negative space in between the spots, and I want to try using a golden jelly polish as my base instead of a solid yellow as the tutorials suggest. Tortoise shell has a uniquely translucent kind of quality to it which is what sets it apart from other animal print, and that translucence is what I am drawn to. Gonna give this style a break and come back to it later.
Still working on some nail art-centric writing, figuring out exactly what it is I want to say. I started a piece that focuses on my relationship to nail art via…you guessed it, my mother, lol, who has been getting her acrylic nails painted in a nail salon for as long as I can remember. Like, way before it became the trend that it is today. Growing up, I thought (my mom’s) long nails and nail art was gaudy and flashy, essentially beneath me and my pure, wholesome tastes. I know, I know- this is what being raised in the patriarchal, white supremacist south looks like! Now all these years later, not only do I have a deep and sincere appreciation for self expression through the aesthetics of fashion (just like my mom has embodied for decades, but I have actually dedicated much of my life to exploring and creating these aesthetics for myself. As they say, the medicine is next to the wound.
I also am thinking of doing some kind of generalized but hopefully helpful DIY manicure tutorial, since I mostly find nail art information in videos but rarely in blog format. I have always preferred reading instructional steps over watching them, so I guess I gotta be the change I want to see in the world, or something. Any ideas or suggestions for what you might be interested in learning about DIY manicures, please send them my way in the comments!
Quick question for my crocheters and knitters: I’m looking for a dupe pattern of this handmade sweater dress (the maker is one of those profoundly talented needleworkers who just creates pieces from scratch but is not a patternmaker). I bookmarked one ravelry pattern I saw that can definitely be adjusted to this look if I make a larger size and lengthen it, but wanted to throw my query out in case there was anything even closer to this look.
Last maker news of this entry: I finished this bikini yesterday just in time to go visit family in Florida, which happens to be having the reverse of the heat wave weather we are experiencing in LA, with temps in the 50s/60s. No idea if I will actually get around to wearing it or not, but my in-laws have a heated pool, so maybe! The top is the Closet Core Fiona bathing suit and the bottoms are the Cowrie Bikini by Paradise Patterns, and I made this suit in a forest green ribbed spandex from Moonlight Fabrics. For 45 years I have been a full coverage bathing suit girlie because my buxom booty has caused me shame (white supremacy, always unmatched). But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve started to examine the stories that have floated around in my head for decades with much more scrutiny. Sewing myself a slightly higher cut, more cheek-baring bikini bottom might not seem like an act of rebellion, but I can promise you that 15 year old Jasika’s mouth will be hanging wide open when I wear it. Bless her heart. Bless mine, too. The bottoms might be smaller but there’s room for all the mes inside of them.
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