Every project is born in one first glimpse of an idea.
A thought. A problem. An encounter.
Most times the idea my sewing projects are born in, is a need or want; The basic and rather self-centred wish to wear a certain garment, that I do not own.
One morning I get up, look at my closet and nothing appeals to be worn. In the same moment a desire for a particular piece, fabric or colour is growing in my head. The idea is coming in stories. Random stories about places or moments that I want to fill in by sort of designing the costume for this specific scene.
Which results in me going through my fabric supplies and starting to sew that thing I want to wear.
That’s how it goes most of the times.
But what do you do if you reach the point of satisfaction?
If you have enough?
Enough clothes, enough to wear, enough colours. No more need and no more gaps to fill.
Maybe you want to start focussing rather on the method than on the result?
Those where my recent thoughts and that’s where this new project was born.
More specifically in the question:
Which sewing related technique is the most complicated, time consuming but requiring minimal equipment?
While I am letting my gaze wander around, my head full of thoughts and questions I must have encountered the unmissable pile of silk shirts I accumulated over the last year or so.
The question and the pile of silk merged and resulted in a long, quilted silk dress.
The pattern of the dress is very simple. It is basically two squares joined together.
Making the squares should be the challenge.
About quilting, I have no experience, no clue. All I know is a few results of experienced quilters I have seen of thousands of fabric pieces joined together, creating a new pattern.
Leaving me with an impression of huge admiration for the patience, but not really with the desire to try myself.
But that was exactly what I was looking for. A process so slow and time consuming that I could never make it through in a rush.
Maybe some sort of self-inflicted meditation exercise?
Cutting apart all the shirts was very satisfying.
The first shirt I cut into even stripes.
Got rid of all the seams and buttons and tags, until I had only plain fabric left.
What time was this when H&M sold silk shirts, I wonder?
Then a quiet and endless procedure started.
Cutting stripes.
Cutting edges.
Pinning.
Twenty-four times, because that’s how many squares I was intending to make.
Sewing the squares together.
Ironing.
Sewing again.
This time with silk thread, of course.
And back to the beginning again.
I lost count of how many times I repeated this circle.
I did listen to an audiobook all the way. And this is how I can tell you how much actual time I have invested in this project, so far.
22 hours.
…and I am nowhere near finished.
Even though the objective was to focus on the process and not the outcome, I can’t wait to run through a birch forest in this dress.
Imagine the white long dress floating around the white bark of the trees. Occasional sprouting green, the plants, that wake up from their winter sleep. Feet running on dark green moos and the brown fern, a remaining of the last year.
Then I am thinking a kimono might be another appropriate shape for all those squares?
But can you run through birch trees in a kimono?
Thank you all for stopping by, have a wonderful week!
All photos and words are mine, taken and written by me.