That’s an incredible outfit

That took a long time to crochet.  Talk about your unique outfits.  Wonder if he has more like that??  What do you suppose he’s working on next? (via Charchaa)

Slow Sundays & Stashes

I’m never sure what to do with Sundays - they seem to have so much potential and possibility.  I always want to put so much into them, and it’s pretty much always an exercise in overachievement.  Sometimes, it works out.  I think today almost worked out.  I just needed an extra 5 hours and it would all be perfect.

(The whole stash on the dining room table.  I found it amusing that the striped fabric to the far left was marked “remnant.”  I love search for and buy discount remnants also.)

One of today’s tasks was to sort through and wash a stash of fabrics from the seventies and eighties I got from my mom - a couple of bags from her old fabric stash.  My mom once had a lot of fabric, and this is only a small part.  Today, as always, as I looked at the pile, I am amazed at the skill with a sewing machine she had.  I’m not really sure what my mom thinks of her sewing skill, but I’ve always been impressed.

(Fabric with matching buttons, thread and zipper from a project never completed)

My mom’s the sort of seamstress who can make a lined, tailored suit.  If you’re not a sewer, know that dealing with two layers of fabric, including one of slippery acetate, is not a piece of cake.  Neither is tailoring, which generally means the garment needs to be fitted. Tailoring also means that all the seaming details are perfectly finished - tailored garments often look nearly as pretty on the inside as they do on the outside.

(Brown fabric:  the piece on the left was actually a remnant from something else and sports about 7 feet of a hand slip-stitched border.  The striped fabric had matching acetate lining, probably for an unfinished suit.)

I don’t have my mom’s skill - nowhere near it.  I’ve never had to sew clothes for myself.  Although I’ve sewn clothing, I am still intimidated by it.  I’ve only done the simplest sort of handmade clothing.  Kinda seems silly that I’ve made two quilts, but I remain intimidated by sewing clothing, but there you go.  I guess at some point I noticed the billionth article about how hard fitting sleeves is, and I became unsure whether I was up to the task.

(I suspect these violently colored pieces of jersey - yes, they’re actually this bright! - were from the 80s.  I seem to remember these colors.)

My mom thinks I’ve really become pretty crafty, and I suppose over time I have, but still sometimes the things my parents can do well are the very things I shy away from.  I guess I always had to do the things my parents didn’t do so I wouldn’t be so unsure about how well I might be able to do them.  My parents are both scarily intelligent, skilled people, so trying to follow them in their skills seems like an impossibility.

(Some great blue pieces in here.  The starts are actually more recent from her teaching profession.  I wish there was more of that blue floral.  Great scraps!)

I’m not even sure my mom knows I’m in awe of her sewing ability, but I am.  If I knew half of what she knows about sewing, I would have quit my job and would be able to do this for a living!

(These are two pieces for which I remember the outcomes.  The blue on the left is from a pair of dresses she made when she and my dad lived in Germany and my dad was in the Army.  One dress for someone else, one for her.  However, she told me she made a short dress for herself - but it was actually long with a deep v-neckline.  I tried it on when I was in high school!  Beautiful! 

The white piece on the right is from my flower girl dress I wore when I was seven for my aunt Miriam’s wedding.  I thought that was the most awesome dress I’d ever worn.  I bragged my mom had made it - who else could say that?  It was long, made of this lovely white eyelet, and had a wide blue ribbon for a sash.  Wonderful!)

Craft Brunch

Happy October!!

Yesterday I had the happy fortune of having brunch at a cafe here in Austin with a friend.  After noshing, I provided what I hope was a relatively decent explanation of crochet for a friend who wants to learn the art.  Sunday Brunch is my favorite meal - husband and I often had brunch on Sundays at a cafe down the street when we lived in Manhattan, and I’ve continued to love the idea.  And sharing crafting is one of my favorite things to do.  It was a *great* Sunday afternoon.

Yesterday’s get-together was occasioned by my friend Paula’s receipt of a crocheting kit. Paula would like to make a blanket eventually, but when she wrote me last week all she had was yarn , a hook and completely confusing directions for making a granny square scarf.  It is true that providing directions for crochet is hard:  crocheting is essentially the art of making various types of knots into a piece of cloth using a single hook. And at the moment, Paula is in that really interesting stage of trying to get the feel of manipulating the hook and yarn together while not having the whole thing fall apart.  I remember that stage well, and in fact Paula’s beginning efforts yesterday were a great deal more effective than my own a couple of years ago.  I know she doesn’t think so, but she’s never seen how I started out. Although she now knows my little “secret” that I only manage to create a “real” slip stitch about a quarter of the time, I did hopefully manage to show her how to do a chain stitch and a single crochet.

Jean Railla, in Volume 4 of Craft, talks about how one of the important aspects of today’s crafting movement is how many crafters & artisans are intent on spreading the love of DIY around.  So many of us post tutorials, tips & tricks on our websites to share what knowledge we’ve gleaned about our crafts.  Even on Etsy, in a lot of cases you can not only buy a crocheted object but the pattern as well.

Crafters are usually not a jealous bunch - the point is not knowing but doing: making stuff & creating something, not keeping our proprietary knowledge squirreled away.  When it comes right down to it, someone else’s version of my craft isn’t going to be the same anyway - I’m sure that they will add their own unique elements to it, their own style, their own sense of self.  They won’t choose the same yarn or color, and they’ll probably tweak it, improve it.  I like that, and I do that myself to others’ patterns.  If I provide a pattern for something, I don’t even care if someone else makes it to sell - if it works for them, great!
Crafting is a skill:  something to learn and to get better at, something that provides a medium for expression, something to take pride in.  Crafting is also a pasttime:  something to do when you’re bored, something to spend time doing when you read or watch a movie.  Crafting is friendly:  passing on skills, connecting at craft fairs, reading and writing blogs online.  And hopefully, it’s enjoyable most of all.