Onward to Challenge #2

Now that Nikki's clothes have been retired to the more appropriate three year old hands for which they were intended, I can move on to February's challenge.

Last month, I had thought to try an admiration piece to my mother.  But I couldn't come up with a way to express my feelings, so I selected the color palette instead.  When the topic of remembrance was assigned in February, doing something to honor my Mom jumped into my mind again.  So on February 2nd, I sat down with my photo albums and thought about making a collage of photos of her with a poem to accompany them.  Trouble was, I ended up surrounded with wet tissues, thinking about the woman I loved who is lost to Alzheimer's.  Scratch that idea.  I'd need therapy  or at least a good support group by the time I completed that project.  And one of my personal goals with the challenge was to have some fun.

While going through the photos, I came up with some darling shots of my sisters in the late fifties or early sixties.  I haven't mastered iPhoto yet and I thought I might do a computer project, experimenting with photo layout and color.  This idea was gently percolating, but I hadn't firmed up anything concrete in the way of plan or process.

Then, last night, as I was putting away all the materials from the Barbie project, I came across two containers of sewing supplies that had once belonged to my Mom.  When my sisters and I cleaned out my parents' home just after they had moved to an assisted living facility, one of the items I inherited was a tin of old (and I mean old) seam bindings, elastic (thinks bras and girdles from the fifties), hooks (rusty), snaps, and sundry supplies, plus a small box of odd (really odd) buttons.  I still laugh when I think of my sisters' faces when I said I wanted the items.  I know they thought I was ready for a rest home or at least drugs when I decided to lug this junk hundreds of miles across the Mason-Dixon line, while the Lladro and Limoge went begging for a home.

When I saw the two containers in my sewing bin, that's when it hit me:  use the materials from her stash to do my February challenge.   So I spent an hour or so last night considering how the seam bindings and the assortment of buttons might come together into some kind of cohesive piece.  Since I am starting this project so late, I decided to keep the piece in the 5"X7" range.   I'll probably need to purchase 1/4 yard of foundation fabric (I don't have anything heavy enough in my very meager fabric stash)  and I may add a few seam binding colors if my design requires them.

I am going to use the color palette of one of the last garments my Mom ever stitched before she gave up sewing - a mandarin-collared blouse that I also inherited but haven't had the strength to wear.   It's not good, you know,  when someone says they like your blouse and you burst into tears.  Plus, it's scary to wear your Mom's clothes - like when you forget what you've got on and you pass a mirror, you get inclined to say, "Hi, Mom."  This does not help my self-image.

And how, you ask, does this fulfill my goals for the challenge?  Well, I'm using up stash, holding the cost of the project to under $10, having fun (okay, that's questionable, unless exorcising demons can be considered entertaining, although remembering my sisters' expressions the moment I said I wanted the sewing supplies should count at least a little bit), and it is something I've wanted to do, if only to prove to my dear Allentown sister that I really am going to use this old stuff for something.  Plus, it will actually be a stitched piece, which is more in keeping with the rest of the work the challenge participants are engaged in.  Might as well not be totally out of step here!

Oh, by the way dear Tulsa sister, you don't have to send me those embarrassing photos of us as children that you said you had in your possession.