Handiwork

Recently, Meg at Livin' The Life was talking about sewing. Now, I don't do a lot of sewing, but I enjoy it when I do tackle a project. This has not always been the case. It took me a long time to figure out that if I was ever going to enjoy sewing, an art and craft I wanted to be able to pursue, I needed to start very simply. Continuing to hurl myself at patterns that, as best I could tell were written in Klingon, might get me trip to the ER but wouldn't buy me any satisfaction. I needed to start with something very simple, something where I could actually envision all the pieces and how they go together before I started. I made a cube. Seriously. I made it as a toy for my nephew who was an infant at the time. It wasn't fancy, but it stayed together and looked like a cube. Success! I doubt I will ever tackle any sewing project of great complexity, in part because I sew strictly by hand. The machines... they confuse me. But this is okay. I am at one with my method. We work well together.

These days, my sewing projects run strictly toward the utilitarian. I get a real kick out of making useful items with fabrics I really love. It makes the daily routines easier to swallow to use items lovingly made by hand. So, with Meg as my inspiration and necessity as the impetus, I set out to build myself a shopping bag. And here is the result...

Tomorrow, if my heart rate is back to normal, I'll tell you the story of The Bad Dogs In The Garden.