The mundane and ridiculous!
A few weeks ago, in an effort to let the sun shine in, I removed thick draperies, broomed cobwebs, washed windows, and thought new draperies were in order. I found a fabric that was miraculously unable to wrinkle, a small almost ditsy print that would flow and let the air through. Ditsy is not like me but I felt that teeny rosebuds from afar would appear to be an overall textural repeat pattern and,close up, the three colors would work for the rest of the room.
And then...
I spent an entire Saturday from morning to night hand sewing these draperies.
At least I was listening to an audiobook at the same time.
Audiobooks I increasingly embrace because I get to free my eyes and hands from reading while I Create!
This is the "mood" I've been in.
Back in teenage days I had a friend who was a naturally talented seamstress on top of many other talents and skills. While I sewed a zipper in the wrong way more than once on the same pair of summer shorts and didn't get it that corduroy is generally not a fabric to be worn in the heat and humidity, she fashioned a long wool grey coat with a fur collar and silky lining and impeccable buttons that fit her perfectly and kept her warm in the freezing weather. That coat looked like something on sale at Saks Fifth Avenue for a thousand bucks. Wearing it made her sachay.
It seemed that although I was a failure at sewing, most summers I would get a hankering for something new and sew something. It seemed the sewing machine my mom had always had problems with the tension and was in the shop repeatedly. When people saw me wearing one of my creations they would not say, "You look great!" or "How pretty that blouse is!" They would say...
"Did you make that?"
To be fair to myself: I had another friend who never threw out a single item of clothing she ever bought. She had sweaters that looked new for years. She said this was due to a trick her mom taught her. Something like throwing in vinegar into the wash water. If there was anyone on earth worse at sewing than me, it was her. Because I knew when to give up. One day she walked into a store where I was working at the time, a store that sold 100% cotton clothes that included summer dresses with elaborate ruffly collars. She walked in wearing her version of one of these summer dresses which she might have even made in order to look like one of us girls on staff. There were visible, erratic. and large stitches - the kind one would use to baste - all over the ruffly area, which she had not attached to the body of the dress. I was embarrassed for her.
But back to the new draperies I hand stitched.
Around ten at night I finally had them finished and decided to hang them. In the evening light it was clear to me that they looked terrible.
The next day I watched the draperies as the day sun progressed through the windows. These draperies look great only when the full light of the sun is coming through them but terrible the rest of the day and look particularly bad in the evening.
Well, there they are... until I find some better fabric and more time.
Back in the day I got sewing out of my system with my most recent failure.
It's my hope that this latest fail will also work to get sewing out of my system.
C 2023 Christine Trzyna
