Dearest Needleworking Friends!
This project finally got me to MEASURE a hem, rather than just guessing how long it is, as I have always done: it was 7.5 metres!! I would never have estimated that much, and had made all the effort to walk up to the local haberdashery and invest in FOUR metres of grey bias binding. Ooopah!
By the time I'd attempted to improvise other shades of grey and black and suchlike, to make-do-and-mend a finished border with the differently-shaded bias binding, I was beginning to lose interest in the skirt altogether!
But I had this other pair of trousers with a lovely alternating diagonal black-white pinstripe type of material; I held back for a short moment, thinking it was a shame to 'destroy' the form of a good pair of trousers (they were tiny and would've needed major adjustments, either way) - also when I didn't know if I could even get the required metres out of it! - but I dove in with my big kitchen/ sewing-room scissors, and here is the result:
Though I just found out that my powerbank does not power an iron, so it doesn't look its very best, PLUS the skirt won't quite close on my mannequin (or on me!), nevertheless I am very pleased and proud of this creation.
It came out of the joining together of one grey linen pencil skirt - I sewed up the front split in it - and the lower part of a white cotton skirt that I had cut the waistband off of. I like this combination, and how it creates a new, kind of 'fishtail', longer skirt... and have set aside some other short pencil skirts and some flared contrasting-coloured ones, to see if I can amalgamate them too. It is very satisfying working with colour-blocking and contrasting fabrics like this! I love the playfulness of making one relatively boring item, into a rather interesting one!
The new skirt was already quite dramatic, but I wanted to weigh down the hem a little, with this additional border of the black-and-white zigzaggery: I cut as many strips as I could from the older trousers, and pinned them one by one into the new fishtail skirt. They JUST made it - the last strips being less than the full leg-length of the trouser. I think that they sit well enough, even though there are many joinings which had to be hand-sewn down.
Oh, and after the initial joining of the border, the whole length had to be handsewn: I joined all the different strips first to the front side of the hem, then realised that it was going to be too clunky to run it through the machine a second time. I was thinking again about it, but eventually sat down with a strong black thread and a long-ish needle, and got sewing....
It surprised me how quickly I ran along the whole 7.5 metres! In fact, I did it all in just two sessions; one documentary and one or two podcasts' worth - I often have something on in the background when I sew - and just when I was getting tired on the second session, and went to check how many more metres of pins I had to go.... I was only ONE CENTIMETRE from the finish line!! Isn't it the best when that happens!! I say it is, anyway.
This again teaches me that patience brings great rewards. I had a VERY stress-full day yesterday, because my (genuinely more-than-slightly psychotic) neighbour instigated yet-another confronting harassment event, and as much as I am convinced that she gets a great emotional release from aggravating me and raising her voice, etc, I was left with this very horrible energetic residue which took a day and a half to transform into creative work. The sewing helped immensely. As did painting the walls of my lower cellar, which is my pop-up gallery-boutique room for the summer festivities period. I hurt my back a little overstraining to paint, and trying to disperse some of the tension caused by my neighbour. But the long sewing sessions helped - perhaps more.
Sewing has always had a great therapeutic effect for me. I grew up in a lot of chaos and drama, and have spent all my adult life trying to avoid negative people and patterns - not easy when it is deeply ingrained and one subconsciously magnetises folks who eat energy. As much as I relish growing, learning, evolving spiritually - I relish more, just being in a calm and peace-full environment; having slow gentle days working on domestic alchemy things, and building new things out of old things, like with the clothing I make. I find that aggressive people and antagonistic behaviours bring me great anxiety that takes a long time to dissipate.
Unless I am sewing: sewing really long lines of stitches is one of the best calming techniques that I have - apart from power-napping, but I often cannot relax into a nap if I am so upset from the feeling of another human trying to tyrannise me. Sewing and cake, and a big mug of tea: these things help a lot to bring me back to a safe homely feeling in my house. Although today I have been a bit on-edge still, the new projects - and finishing details on the fishtail skirt - have helped enormously to bring me back to the right atmosphere and pace of beingness.
Yesterday I sat for another hour, to finish the joins in the hem edging; simple but fiddly work, and the final skirt is quite fabulous: perhaps, if I am being critical (as I am of my own work) it is not sitting down enough, the frill of the skirt may be a bit too flouncy. And it is too small for me, but that isn't a failure, as most of these projects are for my summer boutique, rather than my own wardrobe.
Do you also find that sewing can help you calm down in a high-stress situation? If you haven't tried it, I highly recommend: it's a good excuse to sit and focus on a very long hem: maybe I will end up specialising in this kind of bordered flared skirt, to keep me Zen calm!
Much love to you in your creative week,
Blessings!!
