RSS

day sixty-two

one of my sister's greatest talents is her sewing. she is a sewing machine. okay, not an actual sewing machine, but rather a machine when it comes to sewing. forget a silver spoon - she was surely born with a silver sewing needle in her mouth. she puts her pedal to the metal as though she's jockeying for the lead spot in a nascar race. material is a blur as it whizzes through her machine. as she transforms lengths of jersey and silk and cotton into wearable garments in mere minutes.

and patterns? why would she even bother with those? she just drapes some material on her judy, makes a few snips here, a few adjustments there, stitches up a few seams, and voila! a halloween costume, some home accessories, or a new outfit ready just like that. she takes unwearable, outdated outfits from the depths of people's closets and transforms them into funky hats and accessories. there really is no stopping her.

her stash is incomparable. her sewing room is stacked with boxes full of patterns ranging from vintage to modern. a rainbow of threads in every colour hangs on the wall. stacks of fabric just wait to be unfolded and draped and made into new objects of desire.

and so i knew exactly who to turn to when at the eleventh hour i decided i needed two brown dresses made for this project. literally within an hour, she had chosen a basic pattern, modified it (of course), whipped a couple of yards of material into two dresses, done some alterations and sent me on my way.

after all, she had many other things to make that day, i'm sure.

*****

today's look while wishing i could sew like that:

brown shirt under dress: secondhand (free)
green tank top over dress: can't remember name of shop, but bought about ten months ago ($30)
wooden pendant: donated by my friend maike for this project - thanks! (free)
jeans: value village, about seven months old ($20)
green crocheted hat: value village, ten months old ($4)
brooch on hat: jacob, about four years old ($15)
winter boots: aldo from last year (about $75)

grand total:
about $144.08

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

ok! wow, this is weird, all these compliments. you are too funny. you also forgot about the original brown dress, while wearable, looked very potato sack like, and there are still many projects which will never see the light and which will remain forever in the garbage piles -well, not the actual garbage, you know what i mean...

Unknown said...

you deserve all the compliments! it wasn't anything to do with your sewing skills that the original dress looked potato-sack-like...i think it's more due to the fact that my body is not quite shaped like a potato. also, knowing you, you will just transform the "garbage pile" items into more funky hats!