A Yellow Peasant Blouse

This project is from at least a month ago but I had some pictures of it on my camera and figured I'd post about it, even if it is late. Man, it's almost the end of June and I think I've sewn absolutely nothing this month. Dang.

The kiddos and Judah and I celebrated the first day of summer
with a great walk through the woods, where we found lots of wildflowers, feathers,
and even saw a fawn looking at us from the brush!

The past few weeks I've been sick-ish, starting with a feeling of just general unwellness and tiredness and then turning into terrible back pain that turned out to be another kidney infection, probably caused by kidney stones. Not fun! I just finished my course of antibiotics and am feeling so much better. I've also made some changes to my way of eating the past month that, hopefully, will prevent me from getting sick like this again.

I've been following the ketogenic way of eating the past almost three years and it's been fantastic for me, at least until recently. But the past few months, well, I guess since the beginning of the year or thereabouts, I have been increasingly tired and feel foggy more and more. Every time I ate, I'd dread it since my stomach hurt so bad and I felt uncomfortably full after just a few bites. I was swollen and bloated and felt horrible. Mowing the lawn wiped me out. My workouts became more difficult and left me so exhausted. This isn't me. What the hell. And then, to top it off, I felt like I was in a constant state of PMS. (tmi sorry!) Everything hurt. Especially my boobs, which is one reason why I have pretty much given up wearing bras except for when social decency is absolutely required. 😂

After a lot of reading and evaluating what exactly I was doing or eating differently than usual I discovered that sometimes stevia can affect your hormone production and all the symptoms that were described fit me exactly. And I was using stevia A LOT. I decided to ditch it and now, a month or so out, all my symptoms are gone. I also decided that the super-low-carb-super-high-fat-moderate-protein way of eating may be causing my stomach pain every time I ate. I was craving fruits and vegetables and, above all, oddly, plain oatmeal. So, I decided to alter my macros a little so I'm having a little more carbs, a lot less fat and about the same amount of protein. And wow, I feel better. I feel like I can do more for a longer period of time. This is weird since when I started keto, I felt tons better. Maybe after awhile keto loses its affect? Or maybe my body just needed a few more good, natural carbs. I'm not eating bags of sugar (although I'm letting myself have a little in my coffee instead of using stevia!) but it's nice to have some fruit and more veggies that would otherwise be considered "bad". And to not be worried if I don't get enough fat.

Anyway, hopefully July will bring with it a little time to sew. I cleaned out my closet a month or so ago and got rid of almost everything I had that was not me-made. It surprised me to see how much I have that I have made myself and, compared to last year, surprised me to see how much I actually did accomplish over this last year. It is a good feeling and I am happy with what I have. I don't really need to make anything more but if I do, I can carefully make exactly what I want and not rely on whatever is on sale at Goodwill or at garage sales. It's a great feeling!

I've been researching tons about early period clothing and made a set of tablets to try tablet weaving whenever I get some time to do it. I'm super excited about it and although it will probably be awhile before I can make a historically accurate early period ensemble I want to hone my skills a little and get as much practice in as I can. From past experience, I know the first of anything is rarely great, so my first attempts will be for simple things I can use in modern day life instead of proper historical recreations. But it's so nice to feel a bit passionate about something sewing related again.

This post has almost absolutely nothing to do with the project pictures I've included 😂 but that's ok - the yellow blouse is the free pattern from Melly Sews and fits exactly right, which thrilled me. No altering necessary! I made it in a lightweight mystery fabric from Wal Mart that works well for summer, with an exterior facing trimmed in vintage lace. I love this blouse and wear it very often as it goes with almost everything I have in my closet.

This week summer has definitely arrived and the heat and high humidity require cool clothing!

Much love,

Sarah