Home Decor Sewing: Boring or Relief?

I am standing in the middle of my sewing room that overflows with fabric, patterns, notions. You name it. I am at a loss. It is that idea of the big project that I will sew furiously on that stops me. There hidden under a pile of fabric and unfinished projects a guilt inducing project is peeking out at me with a forlorn look.

I started making a duvet for my son's bed an embarrassingly long time ago. He won a bedroom set at the Brewer's fan appreciation night. This is an ultimate experience for a kid that lives for baseball. This is no small set. Think triple dresser with mirror, queen size sleigh bed with mattress and box springs. (Insert guilty mother sigh here.) I think my son has abandoned the idea of the cover for his bed.

I have always been a dedicated apparel sewist. Home Decor sewing was just a necessity. It isn't something I really enjoy... or might I? I decided this would be a really good place to start because I can just start sewing. No fitting and getting lost in all the possible combination of fabric, patterns, and design details. Sewing without problems is appealing.

Once I get started sewing a project I "sew a lot in my head" before the next session. Those problems that kept me from progressing on this project resolved themselves during that problem solving "head sewing." I mastered the top band. I accommodated the idiosyncrasies of the sleigh bed's design. I even completed the large coordinating pillow during all the Super Bowl commercials. It is nice to have that feeling of a project completed also.

Kathy E Memorial Textile Collection

I decided a long time ago that one of my hobbies is collecting fabric. My stash has a name, "The Kathy E Memorial Textile Collection." It has been a joke in my family since I read about a lady that died and left her fabric collection to the university I attended. I told my husband that now he knows what to do with it when I am gone. I am a guilt free collector.

Reunited in the Twilight Zone!

Memorial Day weekend - Be productive or not productive? That is the question. I chose both. I read a good book then dived right into the Twilight Zone, more commonly known as the sewing room. It has been a long winter with a lot of life happening and the Twilight Zone descended upon my room. This weekend I created havoc, similar to the remains of a bomb detonation, in an effort to start organizing the fabric - not a task for the weak of heart.

Out of sight, out of mind, reigns supreme in my brain. I have found plastic bins in the basement do not work for me, despite my diligent inventory system that catalogs the fabric. So I "blew up" the whole fabric collection and started over. I have compiled all of my fabric by color, knit, sweator knits, wool, and silk. I have invaded a larger closet where it can all be seen in a glance and put as much in there as I possibly could, with the wools stored for the winter and the high loft items in what my family refers to as the "coffins." The coffins are plastic storage bins, to end all storage bins, that are large enough that children up to the age of 10 can lay in. They fit well under the ping pong table much to my husband's frustration. I figure even I can remember what is stored in them and they are easily accessible for "visitation."

I usually hate cleaning, organizing, and related domesticity. However, surrounded by my fabric, I have to admit I felt like I was at a reunion with old friends I hadn't seen in a long time. There were those I had forgotten and of course those friends that no matter how long it has been - you pick up right where you left off. It was fun to see and touch it again, to visit old plans and form new ones. I am really looking forward to my new creations. Being able to locate everything easily is a great motivator for me to begin. After two days, I had most of it stored appropriately by 12:30 AM - the end of Memorial Day. Did I mention we fondly call it, "The Kathy Memorial Textile Collection?"


My family fears my fabric collection will consume our home. Their comments and jokes about my fabric collection are an endless source of amusement for both of them. My son claims it is all going to attack him someday, so he thought it would be amusing to dramatically act out his fears amongst the chaos . I affectionately call this photo:

Revenge of the Fabric.

Modiste, Muses and Meandering

• mo·diste n. One that produces, designs, or deals in women's fashions. [French, from mode, fashion; see mode.]
• muse v. mused, mus·ing, mus·es v.intr. To be absorbed in one's thoughts; engage in meditation.
• me·an·der (m-ndr) intr.v. me·an·dered, me·an·der·ing, me·an·ders 1. To follow a winding and turning course

I love the initial creative end of the sewing process best. So much that I often muse away the time there meandering through ideas. It is a wonderful playground for the creative process. Endless combinations of fabrics and patterns, buttons and design details. I love the change and possibilities so much that it makes it hard to pluck them out of my head and turn it into something that can be seen with more than my mind's eye. What an obsessed lot modistes are.

Posted by Modiste Madness at 8:24 PM