Sew Your Kibbe Challenge and Life Update

Hi there,

I follow a number of sewing blogs and the Kibbe body types have been all over the blogosphere these days. The Kibbe system has 13 classifications each with a different balance of Yin (feminine) and Yang (masculine) influences. Based on the quiz and the pictures of the body types I have determined that I am a Theatrical Romantic. That is a very rounded Yin type with a slight Yang undercurrent.

The general recommendations for a body type like mine can be found at the beginning of this post by Doctor T Designs. At the beginning of this year Doctor T put out the Sew Your Kibbe Challenge. The basic gist of it is to sew garments that fit into your Kibbe type and start constructing a wardrobe based on that.

My main focus will be the following:

• Waist emphasis, dresses and blouses skim the natural waist curve
• Feminine details like ruffles, pleats and draping
• Pants and skirt come in at the bottom instead of flaring out
• Soft flowing fabrics that have good drape, like rayon challis or jersey
• Richly textured fabrics, like sweater knits, satin or velvet

I do some of these things already. I usually gravitate towards drapey fabrics over structured ones. I also am a fan of sweater knits. Waist emphasis will be tricky because of my protruding belly, I will have to figure out how to fit the side curve while still accommodating the tummy. I tend to sew flared pants and skirts so that will also be interesting.

So far I have already made one thing that meets some of these criteria. A blouse out of KnipMode which can be found here. The sleeves and the necktie are nice drapey elements and it is fitted around the waist.

This top also marked a victory in my weight loss journey. I sewed this in a size 46 which is the smallest size I have traced out of there, and it is a woven top as well so it is less forgiving. I seem to be losing most of my fat in the belly region so that is very encouraging.

Last I posted I was doing intermittent fasting (IF). I am no longer doing that after meeting with a dietician. Her advice was that this was probably not something I could sustain long-term and after thinking about it she is right. It was getting harder and harder each time. So instead I am not counting calories but watching portion sizes. In particular, only eating the portion size recommended by the recipe and cutting the portion on my rice and pasta in half. So far this has been doing well for me. I haven’t gained back the weight lost from the IF so that is definitely a plus.

I also had a long overdue doctors visit and some bloodwork. I was deficient in iron which could explain some low energy levels. I am now taking an iron supplement with a vitamin C supplement to help with absorption.

In that visit, I also had a recurring problem I was having explained better. I was getting bouts of vertigo, especially in connection to migraines. The vertigo was pretty disabling, I couldn’t even walk much around my 1 bedroom apartment when they happened and that was about once a week. I would feel like the world was spinning and I had a hard time keeping my balance. My doctor suggested I have Meniere’s Disease, which my mother told me runs in my family. Unfortunately, it is just something I have to live with for the rest of my life. There is a medication I am taking that will slow the progression of it significantly, but I might eventually lose my hearing, predominantly in one ear, and continue to have episodes of dizziness. The thought of losing my hearing is saddening, I love music so much and I have my music going through most of the day. I have to see an audiologist to get an opinion on if that’s the diagnosis, but the medication for treating Meniere’s is already working and the manoeuvre for clearing a crystal in my inner ear hasn’t made a difference. I did have one episode recently but I was doing a lot of standing and sitting and that can make it worse.

All that standing and sitting was for putting together my Christmas gift from my parents. A new table shelf combo for my sewing. It works wonderfully and my sewing/office is a lot more functional now. I need a second chair to have at the sewing machine now, my computer chair is a bit of a pain to get over there. I already sewed the aforementioned blouse and I am working on a T-shirt right now.

Whew, that was a lot.

TTYL