I’m doing things differently in 2023 “for the process” (my mentor’s mantra is “do it for the process”) of creativity. These are projects that I don’t intend to use to meet deadlines. This process work is for me, just for me. And I find it fascinating, so I want to talk more about it.
I grew up in 4H, not for livestock or gardening, but for sewing. We met in the upstairs classroom above the gym at my church and a few of us (you could count the attendees on one hand) middle schoolers learned our first basic sewing techniques.
The first thing I sewed was a skirt for myself and I wore said skirt in a 4H statewide fashion show and I did not win the blue ribbon. I think I might have won participant or something. It was an elastic skirt, made of some sort of stiff and very difficult to work with cotton. It had an elastic waist and was a dusky blue (very popular 1980s colorway; popular again now!) and I only remember how nervous I was and that they mispronounced my name. Instead of Tricia, they said Tray-cia. It’s funny how I remember it as if it were yesterday. I was 11 or 12, so it was sometime in 1985. I did pass a skill level after that show, however, which gives me great satisfaction.
I returned to sewing in my late teens and got really good at it. I was sewing most of my own clothes in my early to mid-twenties and then suddenly, I stopped. I had inadvertently saved the fabric and pattern of a skirt I had cut out in 1998 (when I suddenly stopped sewing). The emerging situation may have something to do with finally making an excess income from my freelance business that I started in 1995 and being able to afford shopping at stores for my clothes and also not having as much time to sew any longer because of said freelance business.
A few years ago, my old Kenmore sewing machine died and instead of paying to repair it, I bought a new one, and a serger machine. And then once again, life got very busy, and I piled things on top of the sewing table in my guest room.
Fast forward to 2023, in the past week, I dug out my guest room after returning from my trip to Europe (Iceland), which often happens after I travel. I get inspired to get back to something I have been neglecting. This time, I had been neglecting organization in my house, and I started in my guest room.
It’s now clutter free and ready to be used as an actual guest room again (my first guest arrives within the month) and as a craft room.
One other thing: in a fit of inspiration at the close of 2021, I signed up for online drafting classes and for most of 2022 have had an doll-sized mannequin sitting on my drafting table in my guest room (I named her Gertrude) waiting for me to sew her some clothes. She’s half-size, so all the work I do for Gertrude, I can then convert to full-size for my own clothing later on. I have cut out the slopers for Gertrude, but then stopped when 2022 got a bit overwhelming. Again, the freelance business has been quite busy. But I worked too much in the second half of 2022 and I’m going to not do that in 2023. I’m going to take the time I need to “do it for the process” so that I can 1. Not just work and 2. Be interested in all the things I love. Once again, it’s doing it for my self, and no one else.
I was very sure I’d forgotten everything I ever knew about sewing. And then I went to thread the sewing machine and it came back, in a flood. All the little details, all the endless redoing of seams, the pressing of seams, the pinning, the fitting, the addition of pockets, the zippers, the buttonholes!
It’s fun to be back doing it for the process. It’s nice to have something that no one will see until I decide to wear it. It’s fun to plot the linen tops and dresses I intend to sew this year. And it’s fun that finally in late 2022, I was able to fly to New York for the first time since 2019. I didn’t get to Mood and the garment district in December, but I’ll be there in 2023. I cannot wait. I’ve missed it. The button shop, the trim shop, the rooms of fabric rolls. It’s going to be a great year for the process.
Trish standing in Mood fabrics in September 2019.
Why sewing, you ask? I think it’s the fabric store. The ritual of flipping through the latest pattern books, finding a pattern and look that I love and want to recreate, and then finding the fabric for it. Or going about it the other way, finding a fabric that makes my knees weak, and buying up a large enough cut of it so that when I find the right pattern, I’m set. Either way makes me so happy.
I think my love for it stems from one time I went to the fabric store with my late grandmother. She would see that I was bored, and she asked if I wanted to go with her (I shrugged and said okay). I was always broke, however, and had less than 10 bucks at any given moment. But after wandering around, I found a remnant in the clearance bin (I’m very good at shopping and even better at shopping sales) and the yardage I needed required that I borrow twenty bucks. Grandma Bee handed it over and I got to buy my fabric.
I paid her back. But I never forgot that moment. I can still picture myself perched over the remnant table calculating how much I needed and how much I could afford. I remember how happy Grandma Bee was that I found something I loved so much. I miss her.
I have two cupboards full of fabric right now. I don’t need any more!
I love texture and get caught up in how garments feel on the rack at clothing stores. I was just in Iceland and felt every single sweater and thus only was attracted to sweaters that met my exacting textural requirements (aka soft enough). Same thing with the knitting store in Reykjavik and their wall full of yarn. I couldn’t stop touching the merino silk yarns. Their softness won me over. I found the one sweater that I loved and of course, it was too much money for my budget.
Reyjavik, Handknitting Association of Iceland
We had a great trip to Iceland, cold and snowy as it was. A few more shots of the ice and snow, but also of love and color and joy!
Geothermal-warmed street in Reykjavik on New Year’s Eve, 2022.
Fireworks, New Year’s Eve, Reykjavik, Iceland, December 31, 2022
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