Sew Chaotically!! ~ Polka dot binding personally produced ~ Possible inspo #SEWFROSTING ~ and Profound Ponderings

Phew!!!  Persistence pays when a entire week is brought to you by the letter 'P'!!!

PATIENCE AND JOY in small things ~

I've enjoyed making my own bias binding in the past, doing it all by hand.  It's a great way to use scraps of fabric and add cuteness to a garment.  I'd seen tutorials using this little device, but I wasn't sure that it was as nifty as advertised.  NEWS FLASH!!!!  It is!!!

You thread your strip of bias cut fabric through, pull back, pressing as you go...

...and you have your very own bias binding perfection, without even testing your patience!!!!

Preference????  Cake vs Frosting

For those of you who aren't sewists who hang around the IG feeds and blogs of other sewists - here's some inside scoop!  For a while now, some in our community have referred to sewing wardrobe basics (skirts, tops, pants, work/play dresses made for "regular" life) as cake.  While working with fancy fabrics, wild prints, making ball gowns, or any "out of the norm", frivolous though wearable "art", is thought of as sewing frosting.  Discussions have been had about the merits of both for years...but now there's a contest!  There are three categories.  Simply submit your fabulous, unique, frosting garment during the months of October and November by posting them with the hashtag.  Here's a post that has the deets:  Let's Sew Some Frosting, by Heather Lou at Closet Case Patterns

FYI!!!!  I am NOT attempting to make this incredible Alaia gown, from their 2019 Spring collection!  But, what a fantabulous, frosting inspiration for SOMEBODY!!!!

However, I did confer with someone who has long valued frosting over cake!!!  In this family, a big part of your birthday is that you get to have any birthday cake you like, made to your specifications!  When she was little, Rosie LONG requested a "cake" made ONLY of FROSTING!!!!  {Yes, I finally made her one!!!  Though to be fair it was more of a multi-tiered ice cream cake of various flavors layered with LOTS of frosting!!!  I mean how does one make a "cake" solely of frosting???}  Anyhow, when told of the contest she had a great idea immediately.  So....if my energy and time hold out...we may have a surprise #SEWFROSTING item of our own!!!

PROFOUND PONDERINGS

I've been pondering many things lately.  Looking at the lovely garments in the 2019 Alaia collection, I was reminded of this quote from the founder:

          The past is clear, the future is obscure. ~ Azzedine Alaia

Now, before you exclaim, "Well, duh!" or "No sh*! Sherlock!"  Of course!  When we think about it, we realize that while we KNOW what has already happened, we do NOT know what will come.  BUT!  That's not how we act - most of the time.  Rather, we expect all sorts of things WILL happen in our lives!  We plan families sometimes before we have partners.  We attend school with the understanding that once finished we will find a job that corresponds to our training, attain rent for the perfect home, save for this particular car.  We anticipate wardrobe changes, vacations, and finally getting around to painting the kitchen.   Babies will be born and grow.  We will share sweet times with lovers and friends.  Most of the time, ALL of that is true!  Further, I see no harm in these plans and daydreams.  Rather, as I wrote in this piece from 2010 Looking forward...,

"...for someone who always loved planning the trip and looking forward to the wonders the upcoming phase of life might hold, almost as much as the trip itself....it is odd to find that looking forward has become uncomfortable." 

More than once, serious health events have snuffed not only specific plans I've had in place, but perhaps more devastatingly, threatened my desire to continue to develop ideas and dreams for my future.  In 2010 I worked hard to regain my equilibrium and ability to dream.  It was hard, but bit by bit, I allowed myself to look forward again.  To plan trips and fun and family time.  To enjoy planning my garden, my menus, my time with friends, my sewing. 

Flash forward eight years.  Eight years more than Stage IV melanoma patients in 2010 were told they could expect.  And even though I thought I had learned not to "get my hopes too high" - before August 30th I really thought I was going to be free.  Free from scans.  Free from melanoma.  Free to vacation, play with B, travel, work to help others in all sorts of imagined roles.  Instead, two surgeries, adenocarcinoma ex-goblet cell and a three week hospital stay gave me I pretty good preview of what one's demise from colon cancer might be like.  Embarking on a noxious treatment that nobody REALLY knows the value of is incredibly hard to psych ones self up for the first time!!!  To do it again, has been tough indeed.

But, here I am.  Making bias binding.  Sprucing up Roo's wardrobe with patterns and fabrics we picked over the summer.  Exercising as best I can.  Making plans to deal with the next round of chemo.  Working to be as helpful as I can to peeps I love.  Making the effort to enjoy the beauty in small things.  Looking forward, while recognizing that, yes ~ "the future is obscure". 

Live and sew chaotically. - les