Time to Sew the Good Stuff

Is everyone else as tired of the recession as I am? It has taken the fun out of everything. My favorite Sunday morning activity is reading the New York Times, but lately the paper has shown a certain lack of ambition. All of the bad financial news must have broken their spirit. Today they suggested vacations in the United States. Whatever happened to trekking in Bhutan? To staying at the ever popular Tuscan villas? It was fun to imagine that we might do those things. It was aspirational, for Pete's sake! Don't take that away from us and start getting all practical!
In the book section there was discussion of making your own bacon (!). What's next, articles on Urban Deer Hunting? (Make Your Own Venison Bacon, shot right in your own backyard!) Will articles on weaving our own cloth be far behind? (I read that vegetable gardening and canning are hot now. Who could have predicted THAT a year ago? Although I am all in favor of growing vegetables and making jam. I do these things myself.) But I am worn out with being worried. I've had enough of that. It's been long enough and I've decided that it's time now to cheer up now. No more panic. No more gloom and doom.
Radical steps are necessary. I decide that it's time to break in to stash. It's time to sew the Good Stuff. After all, don't I deserve it? After making three shirts in a row for Mr. Hunting Creek, all with the dreaded buttonholes -which all came out perfectly after all the procrastinating - what was I afraid of? I decide to make a silk blouse. It's not practical, it's not frugal, it's not recycled or any current thifty-chic trend. And it's not for anyone but ME.
Isn't this pretty? So sweet and girly, so old fashioned, so not like anything else in my entire closet.
This silk chiffon is as impractical as it gets. I bought it from Gorgeous Fabrics a year ago and it's been waiting for its close up ever since. I think it wants to be something floaty and feminine. I'll have to search through the patterns and Burdas to find a worthy pattern.
So go ahead. Break into your stash. If you're a sewista, I know you probably have one. If you don't, then you have my encouragement to get yourself something pretty to sew for summer. It will help the economy and make you happy, which will in return make others happy and then - like magic! the recession will disappear. That's right - it's your patriotic duty!
What lovely thing will you sew for summer?

What WON'T you Recycle?

Wow, we have lots of different responses to the whole "refashioning" issue. Some people are totally for it, saying "anything that gets people back into needle arts is a GOOD THING" and others say it reminds them of the bad old days, "unfortunate memories is of my grandmother fashioning clothes from flour sacks".

So what won't you recycle? People have strong feelings about this. It surprised me, but I suppose it shouldn't have. It is a very personal issue. We had a lively discussion at the dinner table last night. My daughter was against refashioning pillowcases, but said she had happily turned sheets into curtains for her apartment when she was in college. They were already hemmed!
Mr. Hunting Creek helpfully suggested making nighties out of used dryer sheets. I don't know about that idea. He reminded us that Scarlett O'Hara successfully made a gown out of her mother's draperies; an early example of successful refashioning.
Crazy quilts and scrap quilts were our grandmothers' methods for dealing with small pieces of fabric, old clothes and scraps.
As mentioned below, I won't refashion a pillowcase. I was strongly against cutting up old embroidered things - why? It really bothered me. The ones I inherited from my grandmother remind me of her. I can't cut them up; and they are too fragile now to even use as pillowcases. I still have them, too fragile to use(we used them for over 20 years) but I keep them with sweet smelling soap in the linen closet. They scent the other pillowcases and I think of my grandmother whenever I put the laundry away.
I would not re-use old underwear or pajamas. Old t shirts make great cleaning rags. Old sheets I use as dustclothes once their sheet days are done. When towels get raggedy they get assigned to car wash and dog bath duty. Old cloth diapers are famous for streak free window washing.
Old clothes get donated to the Salvation Army. I very seldom cut them up and turn them into anything else because I think someone else might enjoy them in one piece. I have a bunch of old suits that I never wear any more (I work at home now); a friend suggested Dress for Success or a battered women's shelter as a good home for these.
I have recovered pillows and I recovered my dining room chairs.
I have bought clothes from the second hand store for their buttons, and used the fabric from a old prom dress for Christmas angel dresses when I was in high school.
And like any mom, I have made Halloween costumes out of materials on hand. Not just to save money, but to make something unique. The kids still talk about the time we made a Darth Maul costume out of black lining fabric and an old turtleneck and some makeup. And won the Best costume prize!

So where do you draw the line? What WON'T you recycle?

Riches to Rags

Has it come to this? Are we now down to making our clothes out of pillowcases?
In the flyer sent to me (they want me to sell this book): In this unique book there are 28 projects to create from pillowcases just waiting to be given a fabulous new look. Is it a pillowcase or …a darling sundress? …a retro-chic, eco-friendly lunchbox? That's up to you, super-crafty sewer!
I don't know about you, fellow sewistas, but I draw the line right here. There will be no darling sundresses made out of pillowcases from the Little Hunting Creek Sewing cave.

Add this to The List of what I am Not Sewing this spring. Is this book a sign of the End Times? Or has this Recession gone on just a little too long? The only way to stop the madness is to dip into stash and a nice vintage pattern and make something luxurious!
Aux barricades!