Wednesday 8 May 2013

Tulip colour and making clothes




 I saw these unusual tulips on the way home from the shop yesterday.

We were talking about dresses in HH. For some time I have wanted to sell a range of womens' clothing. Handmade from natural fabrics. Even now the cotton clothes Tricot Too in Petersfield used to stock are among the most looked at pictures on this blog. That tells me the demand is still there.

Upcycling clothing is great in theory. But when you Google upcycled clothes most of them look too scruffy and weird to be taken seriously. Does recycling/ upcycling have to mean making clothes look worse than they were originally? Using fabric cut from old clothes to re-fashion into other clothes can surely be done in a clean, neat, fashionable way? Maybe it's already happening and I just haven't noticed. 

It makes sense to turn unwanted clothing made of good fabrics into something wearable, or cushions or aprons or soft toys. It takes time and most people haven't got the time. A comment I'm always hearing in my shop is: 'I wish I had time to be creative like this.'  To some extent I think it's a question of priorities. If you prioritise sewing over say, watching something on television you are making time to be creative. But when you're tired in the evening after working all day it's not as simple as that. 

Maybe breaking  down being creative into fun, bite size chunks is the answer. Like using the train journey to work to knit or jot ideas down into a Design notebook or checking out pinterest during your tea break for ideas of what to make. But most of all believing that you can design your life to suit you. It isn't selfish to want a bit of 'me time' occasionally. It's good for you and for everyone to please yourself sometimes. And whether your idea of heaven is to lie down for half an hour in a darkened room or to cut out and sew a dress from fabrics that were once curtains, mens' shirts or outgrown kids' clothes - you choose your own bliss.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Jenny,

You are so right! I love sewing and knitting, and a few months ago was inspired to finally get round to teaching myself to crochet (using a Youtube video) by the picture of the granny square cushion on your side bar and am really enjoying discovering that too. But sometimes it's hard to feel that I can justify the time to do it when I should be doing a million other (very boring) things... Thanks for your inspiring words! Nicky from Haslemere

jenny said...

Thanks for commenting Nicky. You might like to know I used Noro yarn for that Granny square cushion. One of the many things on my To Do list is to make granny square bags ... but right now the housework is nagging at me to be done...!