Holly Chayes

Welcome! I'm Holly Chayes.

This online space has been around in one form or another since 2010, it focuses on making, creativity and living a curious life, plus a lot of clothing.

Some of the projects I've worked on in the past 10+ years include...

Talking About Clothes with Holly Chayes

An interview podcast that's all about clothing (and also, not *really* about clothing at all). Find all the details and listen to conversations about comfort, style, change and shopping here. Or search for Talking About Clothes with Holly Chayes wherever you listen to podcasts.

Who Wears Who?

The Self-Made Wardrobe Project

Predecessor to Who Wears Who, a year-long challenge in 2014/2015 where I only wore clothes I made. That year would have been a lot easier if the clothes had magically made themselves. Learn more about The Self-Made Wardrobe Project and explore the archives here.

The Shawl Geometry Book Series

Enough shawl shapes to keep you knitting for a lifetime. A multi-year exploration of math, shape and space in knitting, where I documented traditional shawl shaping, and iterated on those traditions to create new recipes of shawl shaping. Ultimately this lead to 75+ shapes, and 400+ pages of common and uncommon shawl shaping instructions. This project was inspired by a dozen individual shawl designs, each encapsulating a love of geometric lace design. You can find The Shawl Geometry Series here.

Thank you for being here with me. –Holly

A lining for my no-longer-really-an-Anna-Dress

17 Jun 2016

Flourishing Wardrobes, Terminology & Jargon

Choosing a lining Considering that my No Longer Really An Anna Dress is turning into The Dress of Many Rethinks – it may surprise no one that I chose a new lining. The fabric for the outer shell of the garment is a navy with white, small windowpane plaid, lightweight cotton fabric. I picked up a deep blue (not quite navy), medium weight cotton last week that I was planning on using to line my (no longer really an) Anna Dress, it was fine, and would have made a perfectly good lining, but I didn’t love it. It was a little bit stiffer than I would have liked as a lining for this dress. Then I was at work the other day, and happened upon a lovely lightweight, navy, poly lining with an excellent drape that is much more suitable, so I got it. I’ll use the medium weight cotton...

a week of crafting in 15 minute snippets

15 Jun 2016

what's in the works

Each Wednesday, I take stock of the projects I’m working on, and where my brain is at. Most of my crafting time has been in 15 minute snippets this week. That’s great news for my Lady Bat sweater project – less great news for my summer wardrobe infusion plans (most of which are sewing related). I finished up the front of my sweater, started on the back, and got about a repeat and a half into it. I also wanted to cut the skirt lining of my no-longer-really-an-Anna-Dress, but didn’t get around to it – which turned out to be perfect, because I changed my mind. (I swear, this is the project of never ending re-thinks.) But now I have a lining that’s a far better match to my fabric, and am going to try to wrangle an evening to cut it & sew it together. No related posts.

Making Time For Making: momentum in my knitting projects vs. my sewing projects

12 Jun 2016

thoughts & things

Lately, I’ve been playing around with the idea of “making time for making.” I’ve been doing this because I have a lot of projects vying for my attention at the moment – writing projects, and making projects, and website projects, and work projects, and personal projects. And I started noticing that one of the first things to go when my calendar gets full, is non-deadline “making” projects (aka my personal knitting & sewing projects). Hence, the desire to make time in my schedule for making, because when I go too long without knitting or sewing (without a deadline) I get crabby and then everything suffers. Not all making time is equal So I’ve been blocking out time to “make time for making.” Sometimes it’s 15 minutes in the morning, sometimes it’s an hour or two in the evening, sometimes (rarely) it’s a whole glorious evening. The time I block out...

Welcome! I'm Holly Chayes.