Simple Crafts

I tend to get very intense about thinking up crafts for my kids. I usually intensively research a craft, analyzing all the ways that other people have approached a specific project and then synthesizing them. Most of the projects I've done with my kids involve a link to a specific artist or theme for inspiration and the introduction of a new technique.

(Some of you may recall the three cool but complicated crafts I presented at my daughter's Egyptian-themed 4th-birthday party--an amulet, a hieroglyphic name plate, and a clay scarab beetle. Yikes; I was a nut!)

But sometimes I forget that the simpler the materials, the greater potential there is for creative freedom--and fun.

I started out this morning wanting to create a snow globe with my toddler. However, he preferred this project:



Step 1: Pour beads through funnel into jar.

Step 2: Pour beads out of jar.

Step 3: Repeat steps 1 and 2 until bored.





Step 4: Discover a shoelace with handmade beads strung on it.

Step 5: Strip off beads.

Step 6: Put beads back on shoelace.

Step 7: Repeat steps 5 and 6 until bored.







This past weekend we went to a maple festival in Vermont, and we checked out the Kids' Corner in the elementary-school art room. The kids and I sat for about an hour making small carvings out of Ivory soap. I remember carving Snoopy out of a bar of soap when I was in 4th grade, and I think that this is one of those vintage '70s crafts that needs to be revived. It's relaxing and easy, and the cleanup is simple! Plus, you end up smelling like you've just bathed, a plus when you're slogging through rural Vermont during mud season.

How to Make a Knitting "Ned"

My son came home from school today and said, "You know how to make a Knitting Nancy, don't you?" I was touched that he considered me an expert in knitting after my three months of knitting on the same scarf.

But since I didn't even know what a Knitting Nancy was, he explained that one of his classmates had shared with the class that she was going to make one out of a toilet paper tube and popsicle sticks. "It's like a knitting mushroom," he explained further. His sister has a knitting mushroom, a wooden spool with metal loops at the top that you use to produce a knitted cord, aka I-cord, without knitting needles.

Intrigued, I did a quick search online and found a charming site by an engineer who has become an expert in Knitting Nancies of all kinds. He seems to have tested all of the mechanical knitting machines in existence. His site includes a picture of the popsicle-stick Knitting Nancy, which is easy to make. We're calling ours the Knitting Ned, just in case my son's masculinity is challenged by the Nancy label.

Here's what you need to make a Knitting Nancy or Knitting Ned:

--an empty toilet paper roll

--four popsicle sticks

--two thick rubber bands

--pencil (optional)

--ruler (optional)

--6 x 6 sheet of decorative paper (optional)

--glue stick (optional)

--scissors

--yarn

--crochet hook

--tapestry needle or other big-eyed needle

Step 1 Decorate Knitting Ned/Nancy
(This step is optional, but we felt that it would set Ned apart from Nancy.)

Apply glue to the back of the decorative paper. Wrap around the toilet paper roll, overlapping the edges. Tuck the ends down securely into the tube.

Step 2 Attach the Popsicle Sticks
You will be placing the popsicle sticks an equal distance vertically around the outside of the toilet paper roll. The popsicle sticks should stick up above the edge of the tube by about one inch. You can eyeball this or make a mark on each popsicle stick one inch from the top.

Attaching the sticks is a two-person job. Have one person hold the sticks in position, while the other person wraps the rubber bands around them. Place one rubber band near the top of the sticks and one near the bottom.

Your Knitting Ned is now ready to knit. Of course, you may want to use a stencil to spell out "Ned" on the tube, as my son decided to do.

Step 3 Knit the Cord
Learning how to thread and stitch on the Knitting Ned is a bit difficult at first, and it's easiest to do while referring to a diagram. This site has an excellent diagram of how to thread and make the stitches.

But I'll attempt to explain how we did it.

To thread the Knitting Ned, take the end of the yarn and drop a short length of it down the hole in the top of the tube.

Now wrap the yarn from the skein around the popsicle stick in the 12 o'clock position in a clockwise direction. Next wrap the yarn around the adjoining popsicle stick (the one in the 9 o'clock position) around the bottom edge first in a clockwise motion. Continue with the final two popsicle sticks in the same way. When you have wrapped the yarn around all four popsicle sticks, take the yarn and place it on the outside of and above the yarn on the popsicle stick you started on.

Holding the Knitting Ned and the yarn in one hand, take the crochet hook in the other hand and pick up the bottom loop of the first popsicle stick and pull it over the top yarn and over the top of the popsicle stick to the inside of the tube. My son says that this step is like doing Cat's Cradle.

Pull on the end of the yarn at the bottom of the tube to tighten this first stitch. You will want to pull on the yarn end after every other stitch to keep the stitches tight.

Turn the Knitting Ned to the next popsicle stick, holding the yarn from the skein above the loop of yarn on the popsicle stick. Pull the bottom loop over the top yarn and over the top of the popsicle stick to the inside of the tube. Repeat this step.

You will soon have what looks like a spider web in the middle of the tube.

A knitted cord will soon appear at the bottom of the tube, and it grows pretty fast. This tube can be used to make necklaces, bracelets, potholders, frames, etc.

Update: Bellaluna, a very helpful reader who tried out this activity, requested that I explain how to tie off the cords. Thanks, Bellaluna!

When the cord is as long as you like it, cut off the end of the yarn so that it's about six inches long.

Thread the yarn through a tapestry needle or other big-eyed needle. (Plastic needles for mesh canvas work really well.)
 Pull the needle and yarn through each loop in turn, which will remove each loop from the popsicle stick.

After the needle goes through the last loop, the cord will drop down through the tube. Tighten the end of the yarn, and you're done!

March Snow

Earlier this month I wrote a hopeful poem about the coming of spring:

A March Walk

Early March, the sun is shining through the lightly frosted trees.
I take a walk and hear
A symphony of incipient spring sounds.
The trees send down tiny shards of melting ice,
A tinkling of ice-edged rain.
The cardinals are busy in the evergreens,
Calling out to each other a hopeful morning song.
Melting snow rushes through the slate-lined creeks
And hurls itself into small waterfalls;
The rushing away of winter, I hope.

This morning we woke up to about six inches of heavy, slushy snow, which is typical for early spring in this neck of the Northeast.

Happy spring, indeed!

Mini Travel Journal Tutorial

For an upcoming trip, my son made a mini travel journal to keep track of interesting sights and fun adventures. I hope he'll fill it with notes, drawings, and later photos of our trip.

I presented this book-making activity at a school book fair last year, and it was a big hit. I pre-cut the paper (I used scrapbook paper for the book cover), cardboard, and ribbon, and the children assembled the books themselves. Some of the kindergarten-aged kids needed a little bit of adult help with the project, but most kids found it very doable--and inspiring.

What you'll need:

--12 x 7 piece of paper for the book cover*

--8.5 x 5.5 piece of paper for the inside of the book cover*

--approx. 5.75 x 8.75 piece of light cardboard, folded in half**

--3 sheets of plain printer paper, cut in half so that you have six 8.5 x 5.5 sheets

--14-inch ribbon (optional)

--electrical tape for book binding (optional)

--glue stick

--extra-long stapler (I can't resist office supplies, so I splurged and bought one of these.)

*I used pages from an old atlas to reflect the travel theme for the outside and inside covers.

**I cut an old manila folder into quarters for the cardboard.

Step 1

Apply glue liberally to one side of the cardboard. Glue the cardboard to the 12 x 7 sheet of paper, making sure that the pattern or image you want will show on the outside. The cardboard should be roughly centered on the paper.

Step 2
Apply glue to the outside edges of the "wrong" side of the book cover paper.

Fold long edges of the book cover paper down over the cardboard, and then fold the shorter edges down. Be sure to press down to make sure the paper and cardboard adhere. 

Step 3 (Optional)

Lay the ribbon in the middle of the cardboard so that about five inches of ribbon hang off the left and right side of the book cover. Glue the ribbon onto the cardboard. The ribbon will keep the journal closed for extra privacy!

Step 4
Apply glue liberally to the smaller piece of paper and glue down onto inside of the cardboard cover and over the ribbon.

Step 5

Stack six pieces of the printer paper and fold in half. Staple into the middle of the book along the fold. (I had to do the stapling for my son, and it's tricky getting the staples right into the fold.)

Optional: To reinforce the ribbon closure, staple the ribbon near the book edge. You may want to cover the staple with a sticker.
Step 6

Apply a length of electrical tape to simulate a book binding--and to cover up the staples. Give the book a title, and start writing!

Contest Winners

Stanley Krippner is the winner of the unannounced contest for the first person to leave a comment on my blog. Stanley, you'll receive something in the mail soon from me. Thanks for your funny comment--it's nice to know that someone out there is reading the blog!

Maya is the winner of my first official contest, to pick the fabric for the pinafore bottom. She did have an edge over you others--she stays up as late as I do web surfing and sewing, and she's seen my stash of recycled fabrics! Thanks, Maya, for the constant inspiration!

Don't despair, there will be more contests to come!

New Sewing Machine Fun

Lest you think I have gone completely off the deep(green) end and eschewed consumerism of all kinds, behold my new Pfaff sewing machine. Aint it purty?

I just bought it this morning and had to try a new method called "inserted strip blocks." It involves making a diagonal cut in the base fabric to get two trapezoid-shaped pieces. Then a thin strip is sewn to connect these two pieces. Follow the same method to sew in two additional pieces and then trim around the edges to make the base square again. You can find a more detailed tutorial here (with pictures). Here's what I came up with:

What will it become? A pillow? A wall hanging? Tune in and find out!

Learning a New Technique

My niece is my new design muse, and she is unfortunately the recipient of my sewing experiments. The latest experiment is a pinafore sewn from a pattern I got in the Spring 2008 edition of Ottobre Design, a Finnish sewing magazine.

Here's the pinafore I made:

I purchased the fabric from the Sew Green studio, which now has recycled fabrics and notions for sewing inspiration.

It took me a while to work up the courage to start the pinafore because it involved a new pattern method for me. I had to trace the pattern for the pinafore from a poster tucked in the middle of the magazine. I was very intimidated when I looked at the confusing mass of intersecting lines and colors for the patterns, but in the end it was a simple matter of tracing out three simple shapes, adding seam allowances all around, and cutting out the fabric.





*****CONTEST*******
The pinafore still needs a bottom to go with it. The first person to post a suggestion for a suitable matching fabric for a pair of shorts or pants will receive a handmade item in the mail. Special consideration goes to the person who suggests a vintage or reused fabric!

The Owl in the Moon

My Target owl perched on a branch in a tin moon. The outside painting is courtesy of an artisan in Mexico, and I covered up the original image inside the hinged glass door with a collage.

Another T-shirt Mashup

I attempted another t-shirt mashup, this time for myself. I went for something totally out of character for me--a very rock'n roll red T with a black racing stripe and a winged skull that spouts fire. As you can see, my toddler was a little scared of it at first, but as he discovered the fine craftsmanship, he warmed up to it.

This shirt took some crazy twists and turns, and I'm still not completely happy with it. I cut a men's XL t-shirt up the sides and sewed in black cashmere arms and side stripes from an old sweater of mine. The gray caps to the sleeves are from some leggings that didn't fit my daughter. Originally I intended the shirt to be long-sleeved, but I accidentally made the sleeves too tight (I wanted them fitted but not so fitted that they ripped when I put them on!). Also, the long gray on black sleeves looked surprisingly like armor and gave the shirt a very Medieval feel. I should have just gone with the look and made a cowl neck and declared myself a Medieval biker chick.

(Anybody out there remember--or ever see--the movie Knightriders (1981) by George Romero and starring Ed Harris? This was a late-night cable favorite of mine when I was in high school, and I'm still in love with that mix of bikes and Ren. Faire. Odd but unexpectedly appealing.)

The neckline is still a work in progress. I cut way too much t-shirt off the front neckline, so something needs to be added.

And then I'll need to figure out where to wear the darn thing. I don't think there are any biker Faires coming up soon, so I guess I should just go ahead and join a gym and wear it there. I think the fitness buffs would give me a wide berth so I'd have all the machines I wanted to myself.

Keep rippin!

Easter Remains

We had a low-key Easter yesterday, with just me, my husband, and the kids. The "rabbit of Easter" hid candy-filled eggs for the children, as well as leaving them each an Easter bucket--crafts for my son, chocolate for my daughter, and stickers and crayons for my toddler (the crayons look like Weebles and are easy to grip and draw with). The kids hunted eggs inside before breakfast.

I guess our rabbit of Easter preferred being toasty and warm to braving the 20-degree a.m. temps outside.

This early Easter snuck up on me, so I didn't have anything crafty and Easter-related finished. The best I could do was a bouquet of tissue flowers for the dining table.

Luckily, the kids received an Easter package from their grandmother, so their handmade Easter needs were fulfilled by beautifully crafted pajamas. The boys wore theirs most of the day.

Happy Spring!

Mass-Production Sewing

In the last two weeks I have gotten a crash course in mass-production sewing. As I've mentioned already, I have been sewing reusable Caroline Bags for SewGreen. The bags are relatively easy to make and involve all straight stitching. The side seams are sewn up with a French seam so that there are no inside seams that will ravel, and the top edges are double-folded and top-stitched. The only slightly tricky part involves sewing an "X" pattern to fasten the handles securely to the bag.

To promote sustainable sewing in this project, SewGreen requires that all Caroline Bags be made from fabric that was not bought new. Luckily I had a large stash of fabric remnants that I got for free from a request on an email list in which you can give away or request items. I had a large supply of corduroy that I thought would be sturdy and nice looking for a bag, so that's what I made my first Caroline Bag from. It sure did look nice, but I found out very quickly that sewing through several layers of corduroy (for the handles and top seams) was next to impossible--very slow going and hard on the hands.

Lesson learned, I chose a nice, thin cotton for my next bag. It looked so thin that I decided to make it sturdier by layering two fabric pieces together and folding the top edges to the outside of the bag rather than folding them to the inside. What you get is a lined bag with a contrasting trim at the top (see gingham bag below). I was very happy with how these looked, but the SewGreen director thought they were TOO nice. Since we need to make 1200 bags by the end of March--at last count we were a little over a third of the way to that goal--the strategy is to sew as quickly as possible and whip out as many as we can.

To do so, SewGreen organized a Community Sew-In to make the Caroline Bags last weekend. As I mentioned, my daughter and I helped out at the Sew-In. We cut, we sewed, we ironed, we even played with fire when we burned the edges of plastic webbing used for handles. I learned several things about how to produce sewn items as quickly as possible.

While it's very satisfying for one person to sit down and make a bag from choosing the fabric through the cutting and sewing, it's not the quick way to do it. Wendy Skinner, the SewGreen coordinator, had attended a Production Sewing class and learned how to set up an assembly line. There was an ironing station to iron the handles, a cutting station with an electric rotary cutter, a group of sewers who stitched the top seams and passed them on to the next group, who sewed on the handles. Then the final group stitched up the side seams.

Breaking down the tasks allowed each person to get really good at completing each step quickly. I learned that in sewing what slows people down the most is having to stop to end a seam and clip threads and to take out pins. To minimize stopping, we tried to avoid using pins and we sewed around three edges of the top folded-down edge rather than sewing two separate seams. An even more efficient way to avoid stopping would be to sew a seam on one bag and then start sewing the next bag without cutting the thread. You would end up with a long "banner" of bags, which would then be clipped apart. Quilters use this method to sew together lots of squares. It's called chain piecing.

I took home several pre-cut kits to make more Caroline Bags at home this past week. I incorporated a few of the assembly-line ideas. To start off, I ironed all of the top seams and handles for the five bags I had while my daughter started sewing. Working with two people made the work go very quickly; we finished five bags in about an hour or so. We sewed up the handles using the no-stopping stitch method, and that sped things up as well. The other good tip we heard from another sewer was a little maxim that her sewing teacher had taught her: "A fast seam is a straight seam." And it's true, the faster that pedal goes without stopping and starting to take out pins, the straighter the seam turns out. I think I strained my sewing machine to its limit, though, because it has developed a little squeak after its mass production. You can see from the photos below that mass production can produce a big mess!

(I've moved my sewing room out of the basement and into our second-floor sitting room. My dear friend Kate helped me set it up, though you can tell I need to get her to come back for another organizational makeover. I'm hoping to get back down to the basement once we get some better lighting installed down there and some finishing work done. These shots make me realize that one of my next posts should be about creativity and organization.)

So, what, you may ask, does mass production have to do with creativity? Doesn't it kill the creative impulse by taking creativity out of the act of creating?

I have to say that it's quite tiring doing the same task over and over, and there were times this week when my enthusiasm for sewing yet another bag waned. It makes me think about William Morris, the Wiener Werkstatte (whose motto was "Better to work 10 days on one product than to manufacture 10 products in one day."), and others involved in the Arts and Crafts movement of the late 1800s and early 1900s. These artists, architects, and designers rebelled against factory-made furniture and textiles and called for a return to individual craftsmanship. They felt that something got lost when machines and assembly-line processes took over the actual act of creating.

On a practical level, though, artists and crafters mass produce some items to sell in order to support themselves (or at the very least to make some extra cash to buy more supplies to continue creating). And these craftspeople have sites like Etsy, where artists can market their designs to people all over the world. Etsy and the revival of the handcrafted tradition seems to have sprung up in part as a reaction against the big box stores and from the renewed interest in sustainable living. According to buyhandmade.org, which asked people to pledge to buy only handmade gifts during the holidays:

Buying Handmade makes for better gift-giving.

The giver of a handmade gift has avoided the parking lots and long lines of the big chain stores in favor of something more meaningful. If the giver has purchased the gift, s/he feels the satisfaction of supporting an artist or crafter directly. The recipient of the handmade gift receives something that is one-of-a-kind, and made with care and attention that can be seen and touched. It is the result of skill and craftsmanship that is absent in the world of large-scale manufacturing.

Buying handmade is better for people.

The ascendancy of chain store culture and global manufacturing has left us dressing, furnishing, and decorating alike. We are encouraged to be consumers, not producers, of our own culture. Our ties to the local and human sources of our goods have been lost. Buying handmade helps us reconnect.

Buying handmade is better for the environment.

The accumulating environmental effects of mass production are a major cause of global warming and the poisoning of our air, water and soil. Every item you make or purchase from a small-scale independent artist or crafter strikes a small blow to the forces of mass production.

And certainly there are designers who produce their own creations in assembly-line fashion without losing their creative impulses. I'll mention only a few. Lori Marie, a textile artist who's been featured on Martha Stewart Living, has a beautiful post about her mass-production sewing sessions. She mass produces these beautifully designed and meticulously sewn treasures. And her tiny studio looks like a joy to work in. Beata, a mother and crafter, has a neat display of her assembly line (shown at right) for her babushka ornaments. Even though both artists are producing more than one of their creations, each reflects meticulous craftsmanship and a unique vision.

Our Introduction to Franken Sewing

Take several t-shirts or other pieces of clothing in coordinating colors, cut them up, and then combine them to form a new wearable object. Those are the main steps involved in what the kids and I have been calling Franken Sewing, otherwise known as t-shirt mashups, refashioning, or ecofashion. The idea is to create something new and wearable from something that otherwise would have been thrown away. It's fun and it makes sense on a whole lot of levels. It extends the idea of reduce/reuse/recycle/rebuy to fashion, an industry that traditionally isn't a "green" one. And as an exercise in creativity, it fires up all those right-brain cylinders because it's like creating a wearable collage.

My introduction to refashioning came a few years ago when my daughter and I saw notices for a SewGreen contest to create a new design out of old articles of clothing. We were all heavily into Project Runway at the time, so the little instigator urged me to enter the contest. (She thinks I'm the Sewing Queen because I've made Halloween costumes for her off and on since she was 2.) This year we actually entered the contest. The challenge was to use old cotton t-shirts and/or denim to create a new item. My daughter and I conceived of and sewed (mostly I sewed) a hoodie, a shirt to layer under the hoodie, and a last-minute jean skirt. Inconceivably, the two shirts won first and second place in the teen category.

It was pretty much a fluke how the hoodie came together. While browsing the men's t-shirt section at the Salvation Army, my young ecofashionista and I found a strange orange t-shirt with "Ask A Bug" in bold black letters on the front and a huge stink bug screen printed on the back. We both thought it was funny, so into the cart it went.

It took me a while to work up the courage to actually attack it with scissors, but I finally did so. Two things were a given: my daughter wanted a hoodie, and we knew we wanted the bug to be on the front rather than the back. With no other plan in mind, we cut the sides open, took a big chunk off the bottom, cut off the neck ribbing, and then trimmed the sides for a closer fit. My model patiently stood there while I draped the very sorry remnants of the once robust t-shirt around her. We played around with some color combinations of the t-shirts we had, but nothing seemed to work well. We were a little discouraged by our initial experiment.

A week or so later I had to drop off my mom at the airport in the city, and on the way home my toddler and I headed over to the Salvation Army to check out their supply of wool sweaters for a felting project.

Just as I was heading to the cash register because my son was ready to melt down--a combination of fatigue, hunger, general terrible-twoness, and his failure to appreciate the valuable life lesson I was teaching him by exposing him early on to sustainable fashion--we walked down the women's shirt aisle, and a black-and-white striped t-shirt caught my eye. I grabbed it and two other orange shirts nearby.

That incredibly fortuitous last-minute purchase became the hoodie's side stripe (a solution for having trimmed too much off the sides!), sleeves, hood, and bottom edge (a solution for having trimmed too much off the bottom!) So, it all came together from some happy accidents.

My daughter also wanted a fitted tank-style shirt to layer under the hoodie. We took a men's XL shirt and cut off the sleeves and neck and cut the side seams open. This time I was a little more strategic and cut a little less off the sides than I thought was necessary. I sewed up the side seams, and the shirt was initially too loose, but luckily that's an easier problem to fix than having it too tight. The sleeve openings were too big and gappy, so I took sleeves off an old t-shirt of mine and they became the sleeves for her new shirt. The whole process felt like two steps forward, three steps back and was very discouraging, but eventually it came together nicely.

The jean skirt that completed the ensemble was a very last-minute project. I started it the morning of the contest deadline. Having never made a skirt before, I had no idea what I was doing. I ended up cutting the legs off two pairs of jeans, opening them up at the seams, and then sewing them together into a tube. I made a waistband and, after studying a pair of old jeans, attached it the same way. The thick denim was really hard to sew, especially when four layers came together at the waistband. So my stitching was really rough looking, and my zipper was shoddily attached. But I made a skirt with no pattern, out of almost nothing, and in almost no time (OK, wait, that doesn't sound like something to be proud of).

While my daughter was keeping me company down in the basement when I was sewing away on the denim skirt, she told me that she would never have the courage to just jump in without a pattern and start cutting and sewing as I had done. She made it sound as if I was awfully brave. In fact, I think I was pretty foolhardy to attempt the project with almost no skills, and I was unsure of myself at each step and made many mistakes. But what I was proud of was that I kept at it and found solutions for the problems that I created from inexperience. It was very frustrating thinking of an idea, implementing it, and then having the three-dimensional structure not translate into what I intended. But figuring things out as I go along and making lots of mistakes seems to be my creative path right now, though I hope that will change as I get more experienced and adept at sewing techniques.

And surely all of this sewing will eventually rewire the parts of my brain dealing with spatial relationships so that the translation of flat fabric to wearable design comes more easily. Please?

There are lots of web sites related to ecofashion, and my co-designer and I consulted a few of them before we attempted to create the hoodie. The SewGreen site has a page with a few sites that are great introductions to creating t-shirt mashups. This site in particular provided lots of inspiration.

And thank you to my friend and fellow blogaholic Maya, who was the well-deserving SewGreen contest grand-prize winner for her denim baby kimono set with booties and stuffed elephant (see photo at right) (and whose kids' tea table and chairs set was a top 20 semifinalist in the Design Sponge DIY contest), for telling me about the following cool ecofashion links:

http://www.alabamachanin.com/Home/Home.htm

Organic cotton, sustainable style, fair labor, and civil rights, what a great combo! And the reverse applique tutorial would be fun to try: http://www.alabamachanin.com/Journal/Projects/ProjectsBlock6.htm

http://hautenature.blogspot.com/search/label/eco%20fashion

Green fashions to buy, and for inspiration

http://dollyrocker.de/

*THE MOST* adorable refashioned kids' clothes. I must make ALL of these!!

And, just for fun:

T-shirts into undies, anyone?

make your own menstrual pads (woohoo!)

(I know, I shouldn't make fun, and the good4girls project is very much worth supporting.)

Keep creating!

Crafty Moms

In this blog I'd like to explore creativity and how to incorporate it into a busy life. Last fall I began what feels like a very satisfying phase of sewing and crafting. I've passed through stages like this in the past (cross-stitching, beading, etc.), and I'm hoping that this time I'll be able to sustain this creativity for longer by blogging about it. My plan is to do something creative every day and have something concrete to show for it. I'm also trying to document my projects on a flickr page.

I haven't known how to start this blog, but, after a very satisfying talk about sewing with my mother-in-law tonight, I finally had an epiphany about how my creativity has been influenced by my moms (mom, stepmom, and mother-in-law). Since my latest obssession with being creative was inspired by my own kids (making their Halloween costumes and trying to encourage my son to improve his fine-motor skills through sewing), I think it's appropriate to start off by exploring how inspired I've been by the important women in my life.

I am fortunate that all of my moms are skilled sewers and/or knitters. I have learned so much from each of them recently and have received a lot of encouragement during my recent phase of manic creativity.

My mom is an expert seamstress and used to sew like crazy when I was younger. (She was a Home Ec major in college, so she really has the skills.) She made clothes for me until I was in middle school, when I became too designer-label conscious to wear anything handmade. I was so very picky about clothes, and in retrospect I realize that it must have been extrememly hard to sew for me. I couldn't stand anything itchy or tight, and I hated trying things on with pins in them. But I remember my all-time favorite outfit that she made for me. I must have worn it to school at least a few times a week. The pants were blue denim-weight cotton and had a very thin waistband so were very comfy. The shirt was a knit, white with orange flowers and had an elastic waistband. I think the shirt had a Peter Pan collar with a keyhole and button. I'm sure my friends must have thought I was strange, but I thought it was the coolest thing. My mom also went through an embroidery phase and made denim shirts with 60's/70's-era-cool icons--flowers, red and white mushroom, butterflies, strawberries. I wish we had kept those! (The shirt shown at right is an example from ebay, though it's nowhere near as elaborate and cool as the ones my mom made.)

And I wish that I hadn't been so ornery and hard to teach when I was younger. I just found it impossible to sit down and learn to sew the correct way that my mom did. I think I absorbed a little bit just by watching her sew, and I fooled around with her sewing machine when I could, and I made a pencil holder of my own design. Without realizing it I absorbed a lot of sewing basics that way (clip your threads after sewing a seam, reverse at the beginning and end of a stitch to reinforce, etc.), though I still have so much to learn.

My mom has recently gotten back to sewing now that she is retired from teaching and has more time. She's making a quilt for my youngest, who is blanket-obssessed. I admire how absolutely precise she is with her stitching and am trying to learn to focus, be patient, and concentrate on cutting more precisely, creating the straightest seams I can, and ironing and clipping seams. (Oh, and lots of seam ripping is involved!) I have the tendency to be so impatient to finish things that I rush through a project and get sloppy. I've been sewing reuseable shopping bags for SewGreen, a local sustainable-sewing group, and am practicing this new approach to getting things right. It's a lot less stressful--and much more fulfilling--to take a little bit more time and see a bag come together so nicely, with straight seams (mostly) and aligned edges (often). It's hard to explain the sense of satisfaction that I feel at the moment when I turn a bag right side out and see how these flat, straight seams that I've just sewn have morphed into this 3-D object. (Since our area media will cover anything, you can follow this link to see me and my daughter sewing at SewGreen's Community Sew-In this past weekend.)

My mom spent a few weeks visiting us in January, and we spent some time getting our craft on. She gave me the biggest compliment by saying how much she appreciated how I just jump in and unleash my creativity on a project and let it all flow together. (This works great when I'm making purses out of felted wool sweaters, which come in myriad colors, textures, patterns, weights, and shapes. You kind of have to let the sweater tell you what it will become!) So if I can only learn to combine that intuitive, free-form approach of mine with her precision skills, I'll be in good shape.

My stepmom is a long-time knitter who taught herself to knit when her kids were babies. She's a math teacher and has those miraculous (to me) mathematical and spatial skills that must make knitting and reading patterns come easily for her. I'm amazed at the fact that the first thing she ever knitted was a baby sweater for her daughter with all sorts of complicated patterns (it may have involved cables), something an experienced knitter would probably have trouble tackling.

My stepmom taught my daughter to knit a few years ago, and I was intrigued but too intimidated to try it myself. But last fall I started felting wool sweaters to sew into bags and wanted to learn to knit purses to felt. So, over Christmas she taught me how to cast on and do the knit and purl stitches. In the last few months that I've been trying, with intermittent success, to learn to knit, I've learned a lot. Patience and perseverence play a huge part in knitting, at least for me. (Is knitting character building, or what?) As a novice, I've made some bone-headed errors that I didn't initially know how to correct. I'm also really slow, and my current project is taking a long time to complete. Precision and attention to each stitch are also absolutely crucial when you're knitting. (Is there any research that knitting is good for brain development--it must be!) That said, there's also this amazing feeling of "flow" when you get comfortable with the mechanics of holding the needles and yarn and get the tension just right and the stitches just seem to slip effortlessly off the needles. (I see a PhD thesis in there somewhere about the psychology of knitting.)

I'm currently knitting a scarf with wool yarn in a seed stitch, and it probably deserves a blog entry all its own to illustrate the creative challenges involved in even a simple project. The pattern is from The Purl Bee.

So I really have to thank my stepmom for opening up this whole new avenue of creativity for me. Just like with sewing, knitting can be taken in so many different directions and to an almost infinite level of complexity. I'm so excited to work more with combining colors and patterns and to felt what I've created (for example, these felted nesting bowls ). And my hairdresser just told me about a cool method for creating a double-sided scarf with different colors on both sides. (Here's a tutorial for how to do double knitting.) Now, after I figure out how to clone myself, I'll create "Knitting Me," who will spend all her time exploring the endless possibilities of knitting.

My mother-in-law is also an expert seamstress, knitter, and needlepointer (is that a word?), whose own mother and mother-in-law were also experts in the needle arts. It would probably make this already overly long blog too long to list all of the projects that my mother-in-law has made that have heavily influenced me, but I'll try to touch on the major ones. When her own kids were young, she began a tradition of making knit Christmas stockings for them. With her grandkids and her son- and daughter-in-law, she has continued this tradition. Her creations inspire me every day because we have quite a few around the house--clothes, play blankets, and pajamas that she has made for her grandkids that are so creative and whimsical. We also have a needlepoint wall hanging in our dining room that she made when her kids were younger. And a chair cover she made for her babyhood rocking chair in her house also blows me away with its beauty and craftsmanship. The handmade quilts made by her mother in her house and on our bed also inspire me.

My mother-in-law has also recently entered a very creative sewing phase, so it's lots of fun to talk about fabrics, methods, and machines with her. She just gave me gorgeous fat quarters of batik fabrics she found in Hawaii, and that's a whole new direction to go in. (One of our local quilting stores has some great patterns to quilt with this type of fabric.) She's very encouraging and has given me great tools (my first sewing machine, for example, and my first sewing box, which I love) and advice. After our conversation tonight, I've got to begin my search for a new sewing machine, in part to benefit from the free sewing classes that go along with them, which she has done.

There are several other women who have sustained me creatively over the years--my aunt, my sister, my grandmother, my sister-in-law, and several friends--but I'll have to save them for a later post. (Do I hear a big sigh of relief from those readers who have made it this far?)

Keep creating!