When you love something, set it free. If it stays or comes back you know it’s for real.
I set all my sewing and slow fashion related projects on pause for a while. I had other things to focus on, which I find as exciting as designing fancy upcycling dresses. But I couldn’t do it both at the same time.
At the beginning I didn’t really miss sewing. Here and there I caught glimpses of inspiration to sew by hand or upcycle here and there a little bit. But eventually all these activities diminished to occasionally unpicking a brand tag from a new piece of garment or backpack I bought on my way.
Am I about to lose my drive and inspiration for creating slow fashion?
It doesn’t look like it.
Because even if I set to side the creating part of my work, the ideas never ceased to flow.
Every country I visited in the last few months inspired me some new fashion ideas. Every busy street became my personal fashion show. Where I could observe peoples ways to dress. Different cultures, customs, backgrounds. There are so many beautiful ways in which we humans can wrap our bodies.
Since a few weeks I also got back into collecting things. Even if I am not really having any space for any more items in my bags.
Turkish fabric that I got in Alanya. A piece of silk, a gift from my aunt.
A linen dress from an Albanian secondhand shop.
And plenty of photos, garments behind the shop windows. Sketches of the people that passed me.
The ideas are buzzing around my head like a swarm of busy bees. Now I just need to figure out which one I should catch first.
Slowly I am making my way back, occasionally unpacking my needles and threads just to store them back in my bags, unused, a few moments or days later.
I didn’t loose my interest but I lost the habit of sewing.
It’s been at least three Monday’s now that I am playing with the thought of what to sew and what to write about. But I didn’t feel like I had anything to say or show for myself. Until I realized again, that all this is a process. There is no perfect result without the beginning of an idea, the brewing of a design and perpetual stitches all the way to the end.
I am finding my way back, slowly. Finding my muse to take self portraits. Letting the silk scarf run through my hands, listen to the inspiration the fabric whispers into my head. Unpack my needles and threads another time until I will dare again to use them.
Thank you all for stopping by once more, have a lovely Monday!
All photos and words are my own, taken and written by me.