Snowy Sunday Unstitch

Deep Breath. This is the first post I am creating On My Own. So Far, So Good.

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I’ve been unpicking seams in garments for a while. Some clothes are so well made, it’s a Job to vanish the stitches + seams. What I am fascinated by currently is the reveal of the unfaded fabric which lay within the seams, pre-excavation. The marks + contrast can be Beauty-Full. Hitherto hidden + invisible meets well-worn + worldly, at a shoreline of sorts.

All manner of clothes are on my unpick menu – I’m quietly creating a palette. Deconstructing previous forms, making mulch, ready for new form creation. I enjoy the worn-ness, the softening that has come with time and wear.

Strangely, this activity feels like an old handcraft. Just sitting unpicking, hand-work without much thought, without a pattern to follow, or a definite product in mind. Just finding what happens when I take the thread out. Pottering along with it, seam-ripper in hand, feeling purposeful and intentional, while simultaneously soft-focus + unclear of destination. I like this, for now. It’s all peppered with the gentle excitement brought by glimpses of possibilities, ideas for what I will do with the new fabric I am creating, once I’m done following the unpick impulse.

The process that originally created the clothes becomes apparent as I go on with undoing that creation, preparing for a new one. Who knew how much goes into making a suit jacket? An astonishing array of constructed ingredients revealed themselves as I picked away at Italian tailoring.

Fabrics from all over the world, in my hands. Since I go for natural fabrics, the original ingredients of these things came directly from Earth, Once upon a Time.

So very many processes in our cloth. So many places, travels, inbetween where it came from and where it is – and most will remain Mysterious. I buy from unknown people, who likely also bought from unknown people. Something in that is talking to me as I unravel. The craziness of the enormous geography + choreography involved in an Indian cotton shirt, which came to me via someplace in the UK.

I’m quite late to the repurposing table – but I’m here now, and glad to be using these materials which already have had a Life. Choosing with care. What feels right, always the guide for what I do next.

And it’s good Mercury Retro activity – the breath in before the next outbreath. Re-creating, reforming, reworking.

Sunday morning Snow is coming down outside, it’s the start of what is forecast to be a good long Proper Snowing session. It’s one of my weather-joys, to watch Snow fall.

Unstitching on a Snowy Sunday. On We Go!

Keep Well, Dears. x x x