Fashion or Fashioning

Red Doll by Sea Dean 

I gave up sewing my own clothes about 20 years ago. Although I didn't know it at the time, that was probably when my spinal arthritis began and the radiating pain just became too much for me. I used to love designing my own clothes and watching a sketch turn into a three dimensional piece of wearable art, my sister still does. It’s sort of a family thing; my grandmother wasn’t a dressmaker, she was a trained tailor and my niece studied fashion design at Uni. Perhaps that is part of my fascination for manikins.

BlueDoll by Sea Dean

However, when my mum went into care all of her clothing had to be marked. We were told that ‘most places’ accepted written labels but they didn't like them because they faded, so we chose professionally printed labels and started sewing them in. My sister did most of the first batch. Every sock, every quilt, every scarf, every glove, every pillow etc., all had to be marked. I think we ordered 200 printed labels at first thinking it was waaay too many, but now we are half way through our second order. So thats how I came to be sitting at my desk sewing.

Art Lover in process SOLD

I mostly use a machine to do this, but some of Mums pants needed shortening and the stretch fabric wasn't co-operating so I grabbed a needle and thread and started hem stitching. The sunshine was streaming through the window, the squirrels were chasing each other in the trees and the creek was glistening. I was about half way around the second pant leg when I realized I was really enjoying the experience. 

CoVid19 has put me and many others into isolation and brought all kinds of other stresses, but there are some benefits, like actually having time to enjoy a bit of sewing.

Stay home - Stay safe