Oh goodness – what a tricky question. I guess, in part, I
sew to create. I’ve always said that my true passion is making clothes, and
sewing is just a convenient way to get there. Growing up, I enjoyed textiles
classes at school if only because it was the only ‘arty’ sort of subject that I
was any good at. All my friends at school were very artistic, and I felt like
the dunce of the class whenever we were doing painting, drawing, or clay
modelling – but in textiles my work was passable. I was always overly ambitions
as well, our final textiles project was to make a piece of clothing from a
pattern – everyone else chose pyjama trousers (as our textiles teacher
recommended) and I chose a fitted shift dress, which I made in a lilac fabric
(I still remember it) and actually, I didn’t do too badly (although my
grandmother put the zip in when she came to visit!)
I didn’t really sew much once textiles stopped being a
compulsory subject, the occasional flag when we’d made a cool den and wanted to
put our mark on it, or some clothes for my dolls (yes, I’m talking about being
between the ages of 14-18 – I have delayed emotional development, so I act
quite a lot younger than I am) until I graduated from school, and decided on a
dress I wanted to wear to results day – which just so happened to be a dress
that existed only in my head – so I made it (badly, I hasten to add, but I made
it none-the-less)
That turned into a bit of a theme, wanting clothes that
didn’t exist, like the time I was in my first year at Uni, and wanted a denim
mini skirt with yellow ribbon edging to wear out (that evening) – I didn’t own
it… I did own a torn pair of jeans though… I hand stitched the entire thing,
because I didn’t have a machine with me!
By the time I’d reached my second year at uni, I’d stolen my
mum’s Toyota – which I mostly used to make kit for LRP events – which was all I
made throughout uni, until I started working, and needed a black skirt for
work, and I happened to have some black corduroy. The rest is history!
Mostly, I love being able to envisage something in my mind
and then create that thing. I’ve never been the sort of person who can imagine
a picture, or look at a landscape, and then transfer that to paper – but I can
envisage a dress, or see a skirt that I want to copy, and make it for myself!
Recently I’ve gotten more into hand sewing. The ladies over
at Simple Simon & Co wrote a wonderful post entitled ‘Heroes of Homemaking’ –
I won’t go into it now, pop over and read it, but the essence is that the dull
tasks are when we can let our mind be free. I’m terrible at setting aside time
to pray each day (I have a friend who prays in the shower, but oddly, I just
can’t pray to God when I’m naked… which is stupid…) but I pray whilst I’m
swimming lengths of the pool in the morning (which is a fantastic start to the
day!) and I pray whilst I sew – mostly I pray around the garment, either
thanking God for creating the amazing people who went into the pattern
designing, and the fabric making, or thanking Him for giving me such a
wonderful gift. If I’m making a gift, I often pray to Him to help me be a
better friend or relative to that person – at the moment, I’m doing a lot of
work on my wedding dress, which means I’m praying for His help to become the
wife that Mr P needs.
Handsewing has also become my portable hobby – I used to
read all the time (on trains, in cars, anywhere I had to be sat down but didn’t
have anything to do) but sadly, the M.E. has affected my concentration
sufficiently enough that I can’t do that anymore, but I can sew! Although
sewing requires concentration, for me, hand sewing is very repetitive, so good
for someone with a memory like a goldfish!
In short I sew because I love to create. I sew to keep my
hands from being idle. I sew for love, love of fabric, love of clothes, love of
God and love of the people I sew for.
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This is me at LRP with some of the people who I love dearly. I made the top and skirt
that I'm wearing (although not the corset) (I'm the one in the green skirt btw) |
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