Assuming that these days are the last really hot summer days this year, I introduce “change“. Welcome, change. 🗝🌈
Everybody who knows me, knows that I am not into ruffles, not at all. Nevertheless they don´t stop speaking to me. When I saw this light top with lots of ruffles I wanted to transform it into a kind of ruffled top which even I would like to wear.
Working process
If I start with a new piece I first take my time to look at it thoroughly and listen. There always comes the time, when it tells me what it wants to become.
This is the moment where an idea emerges in my mind and I can “see“ it vaguely. Not till then I can start with cutting / sewing / stitching / whatever.
I adore this stage of creating. The revealing process is exciting, though sometimes also annoying, because I cannot accelerate it.
In this case I “saw“ a crop top with long floating ruffles with blue running stitches around their borders to intensify the impression of waviness.
Uniqueness
While working on the top I was thinking about the beautiful creation process of the co-created dresses during Maker Faire Vienna. I was astonished at the ideas and solutions other creators came up with, I never could have found them on my own.
I started to understand: There are as much hidden creations in each garment as there are creators.
My interpretation is uniquely mine as yours would be different and uniquely yours.
Is´nt this amazing?
Eclectic possibilities
I love finding solutions that can be worn in more than one way.
So I detached the inner half of the ruffles and stitched running stitches around the ruffle borders.
The now quite long ruffles can be used in different ways:
And then came the point where I was asking myself: What is the missing thing? More often than not this will become the most interesting part of my piece, at least in my view.
The missing thing is change
In this case it is the stitched word “change.“ on the backside of the top
We (meaning myself, my society and we all together globally) are in the middle of a huge transition, which is scary as well as thrilling and full of new challenges and possibilities.
Therefore I welcome change from the bottom of my heart.
Tiny details can make a difference
After shortening the top and sewing the waistband it bothered me, that it was not tight enough.
Thus I inserted elastics on the left and right side of “change“. It fits better this way and pursues visually the smocking from above.
Crafting musings
When working with textiles I am falling into a state of flow, where my mind is strolling in new directions. I think this is one of the reasons why I love it so much.
But of course my thoughts are not always shiny pink and happy, as we do not live in barbieland but in a dual world with a lot of joy and a lot of suffering and many shades in between.
Feeling heavy emotions
One of my grave fears is eco anxiety. Sometimes I feel powerless, helpless and paralyzed in the face of the ongoing events worldwide. These feelings are seducing me to believe that we can do nothing anymore, that everything is lost anyway.
But this is not true at all, we can change our route. Together.
Today I found this video on instagram with very wise words from Tori Tsui, a Bristol-based climate justice & (environ)mental health activist. She is speaking at The Climate Conversation (Southbank Centre, London) alongside Greta Thunberg and other activists – with Alice Aedy.
One of her powerful statements touched something deep in me:
Anger is one of the most powerful catalysts for change… We need to understand that anger can be from a very deep place of love…
Tori Tsui
Understanding that anger can be rooted in deep love allows me to feel my repressed anger finally. Wow, words can have a lot of power. Thank you, Tori.
You can listen to the whole conversation in this youtube video.
Conclusion
Crafting / making can have side effects 😉
