Braving Me-Made at Work

I realized I needed to get a new job when my manager sneered at my Me-Made coat.

This was three winters ago, and my antennae already were frizzing with lots of hostile vibes from her. But her reaction was the strongest signal yet that I needed to find something else. 

I’m Diane from the blog Distaff, and I’d like to share my journey of fitting Me-Made clothing into the working world.

I hadn’t sewn apparel for years, but I decided to try after I could not find a RTW long dress coat that I liked. I painstakingly made the kind of coat I really wanted, Vogue 1276. While the coat has some flaws (that hem is unfortunate and the belt is a bit short) I was proud of my coat and eagerly showed it off. I got lots of compliments. But not from my manager.

Vogue 1276 in double-faced wool coating

Lining is silk twill

“I see,” she said, looking my coat up and down. “And how do you have time for that?”

“Oh, I squeeze time in here and there,” I said. The coat had taken me four months of nights and weekends to make, but I wasn’t going to tell her that.

I tried to change the subject. “What do you like to do in your spare time?” I asked my manager — a workaholic type who’d send me emails at 2 a.m. on Saturdays.

“Oh,” she said, fingering her ever-present strand of pearls, “I like to read.”

“Oh really? Me too. Do you recommend anything?”

She rattled off the titles of several business books. Oy.

I seldom wore that coat or other me-made things to the office after that. Instead, I went on a Me-Made binge, sewing a half-dozen projects from the Japanese sewing book  “Happy Homemade Sew Chic” by Yoshiko Tsukiori and blogging about it — just for fun — and they were all intentionally casual looks that wouldn’t work for the office anyway.

Tunic Dress with Lace

Tunic with Roll-up Sleeves

Dress with Front Tuck

Double-Cuff Bermuda Shorts

These clothes were simple and fun and I could enjoy them, judgement-free. Sewing saved my sanity at a time when I’d cry myself to sleep over my stressful job situation.

I started an excellent new job a few months later, in a much more formal office. My first week coincided with a weekend dressmaking class at Workroom Social in Brooklyn. I was reluctant to tell co-workers about it, for fear I’d get branded a freak, one week on the job. I decided to make a work-appropriate dress, just to see if I could make something that looked RTW. Do you think I succeeded?

McCalls 6968 in a black linen blend, with a belt made from recycled sari fabric in copper silk, embroidered with little mirrors.

I got compliments on it and wore it to work often, but I didn’t spill my secret. I kept my Me-Made items mostly for telecommuting days and weekends.

Fast-forward a year, and comfortable in the new job, I took the plunge. I had heard about Me-Made May and wanted to participate, but I knew I wouldn’t get far without some work clothes. I sewed up a small capsule wardrobe (pants, skirt, two tops, a jacket, and a cardigan) and hit my goal of wearing Me-Made at least three days per week in May.

Sewaholic Thurlow trousers, Maria Denmark Day-to-Night Drape Top, and New Look 6330 cardigan

Simplicity 1202 blouse and Grainline Studios’ Morris blazer

Maria Denmark Yasmin Yoke Skirt

The last day of May, the zipper on the pants broke while I was at work, and I got through the rest of the day with a strategically placed safety pin, but I did it.

What’s more, I owned it. A coworker complimented me on an outfit and asked if I’d been on a shopping spree.

“Nope,” I said, “a sewing spree. I sewed all these clothes.”

“No! Way!”

I held my breath.

Then, an amazing thing happened.

Instead of being ridiculed for my hobby, people sought me out because of it:

• I fixed a co-worker’s fallen dress hem at my desk, while she waited in a bathroom stall.
• A co-worker asked for advice on where to find tulle and other decorations for her wedding.
• I helped a co-worker refashion a cheap dress into something suitable for a black-tie event.
• A co-worker sought advice on whether a RTW dress could be altered to fit better.
• A co-worker and I went fabric shopping in India.
• I tutored a co-worker on how to hem her daughter’s jeans.
• I helped at an office volunteer event where we sewed “surgi-dolls” for sick children.
• I gave a speech before my office Toastmasters club on the ills of fast-fashion and how to recognize a quality RTW garment.

What’s more, I connected with some new friends at work — including women who are immigrants or first-generation Americans — who come from places where home sewing is a much more common and valued skill.

This year, I’m going all the way in May, wearing a Me-Made item daily, fearlessly. Here’s a picture in my office bathroom mirror from April — in Me-Made from head to toe!

Skirt: Burda 6895, blouse: Camicia 10 from La Mia Boutique magazine, the Drop-Pocket Cardigan from Jalie and my old Vogue 1276 coat

Do you wear your Me-Made garments to work? Do your coworkers know the secret to your style? I’d love to hear your story!