Ciao dearest sewing-knitting-weaving friends!

I took some big sewing jobs this week, and am kiiiiinnnnnnddd of pleased with the results.... At least, they are all done: four dresses and a massive double curtain have come out from under my two sewing machines, at least I'm finishing the details of a couple of pieces, but mostly have completed them as requested. They were uniformly super-challenging; almost all synthetic materials, complexly embroidered and very heavy, or slippy and extremely difficult to sew a straight line upon. Pending payment on them all, as well as for two recently 'sold' garments, I feel over-stretched: I've poured immense amounts of work and energy, imagination and concentration into each piece, and am in the space that exists between gifting my work to the world, and being rewarded for it.

I also had a wonderful and inspiring trip to the 50c stall today: the most glorious sunny morning, up at the crack of dawn, and tootling down to the valley floor in my not-entirely-legal Suzuki WagonR, with my two sweet friends from the Faroe Islands. Such lovely company, wandering around stalls in brightest sunlight and the first seriously heavy heat of the summer... looking at threads and beads and buttons, treating myself to a proper, light hat - one which will keep me shaded from the impending scorchio but not make my head boil inside it (and look beautiful!) - and trundling back up the winding roads to Guardia for a limoncello spritze. Divine.

enjoying my aperitivo with my epic haul of 50c treasures at my side!

It took at least a couple of hours to 'process' the fabrics that I've indulged in; all of it soaking, piece by yummy piece, in basins - then rinsing in a bucket, carried through to the balcony washing line, and then moving my solar panels out of the way so as I can pin them up. This is always such a blessed ritual, and I realised today that it is all the more beautiful a routine, without using an electrical washing machine. Many folks might have done little hand-washing in these days of seeing domestic chores as an unnecessary and unattractive labour. But I love it. It felt like this would be the biggest hurdle of giving up the mains electric, but it has turned out to be a great blessing.

Putting my new garments into water, and cold water at that, with my lovely eco soap, is an extension of the scrumptious practise of sorting through fabrics on the stall. It is beautiful to feel their textures and weight changing, as they are immersed, sloshed around, squeezed out. And then hanging them up in the roasting sunshine - so different from the great dilemma of How To Dry Clothes in Scotland, which is a particular toil and strain of life further north. I get intimate with each item, feel its edges, check its buttons, feel into its robustness (or lack thereof), and as I leave them to drip on the line, I'm satisfied in a wholly new way than when I emptied the washing machine. The absence of the mechanical aspect frees me up; the natural exercise - instead of making me tired or fed up - makes me feel enlivened. It allows me the right, natural space and time, attention and energy, to muse over what I have bought: to really own it and be present with it. This helps me recognise its value in a way that a 'labour-saving' device perhaps does less. A machine 'frees' us to do other things, but it makes us feel like we are part of a mechanical, machinery-rhythmed reality. Which is not conducive to being present.

reaching the end of the very-large-curtains job!

Instead, this time that I take to hand-wash and process every in a natural rhythm... it brings me the peace of knowing what matters, and what doesn't. Quietly and methodically, like all hand-work, I'm reminded of the eons passed before this moment, with folks hand-washing in cold water with natural soap. Of the domestic alchemy of such work. Of where I am in the world, and how my hands can make things happen. Plus, I get to know the items in far more detail than if they were on a spin cycle: I feel and see all of them. And this helps me to imagine, slowly and spaciously, what they will be turned into. How they will be worn. How bodies might move in them, how they might hang on a body, or be paired with some other item.

cutting the piping off of one dress, removing its zip, and cutting the sleeves off of another - to add to the green one

This is an important time, and these are most vital rituals. As I wind down late at night, having risen with the sunrise, I feel very tired, quite worn out from the activity, socialising, and labour of washing clothing. And it is a gorgeous weight to feel, of that heaviness of muscle and bones which comes from having done what we love, and having been rewarded for it with treasure of wellbeing, calm and alignment. I can wait a bit longer for my reciprocal gifts being returned for garments sold, and for my sewing jobs rinumeration, because I am calmed down to a slower pace than my mental mind would be racing at, if I were working with machinery today. I feel gratified at my results, by the time well utilised. The rewards come multiple-fold, and certainly not only in fiat currency!

my friend wanted the sleeves of the black lace dress added as a border to the bottom of this one

like this, above...

I adjusted the cut-off sleeves into these nice sort of half-sleeves that she requested, but then she told me that she had wanted the lace of this black dress completely cut out and added to the green one! I spent a lot of time making sure I was taking every detail of what she wanted, but she has a habit of speaking to fast, jumbling things and mixing up her messages!! Now I have an additional job!

dress number three, which she wanted the belt taken off of and added to the waist, to make it longer, and to not have a belt pulling in at the waist. This is a super-delicate and slippery fabric, really horrible to sewing on my primitive Brother machine - the needle kept pulling the threads of the fabric out of synch!

...but in the end it worked out: I serger'd the seams, to reinforce it as best as I could

This marks a better stage in my containing-the-creative-chaos too: I'm very slowly learning to put things in order as they come into the house, whilst simultaneously energetically shifting myself downstairs, towards my lower rooms (which will one day soon be my main abode) for summer pop-up shop preparations... It still feels insurmountable, BUT I can at least recognise that I surmounted just a wee bit today, and already every thing feels that much less overwhelming.

This final dress, I had to add a button, strap and criss-cross to the V of the back-neck, as well as the similar mini-sleeves like the other dresses...