Personal Projects Completed

It is always nice to get some personal projects completed in a somewhat timely manner. Usually I start a personal project and kick it around for a few months while I work on things for other people or Fabulous Pants. This, however, seemed to defy the odds. I guess part of it was that I really have loved this particular fabric for a long time. I bought it when Dan and I were trying to see if we should move out to California from Illinois. I purchased this wonderful piece of batik at a fabric shop and carried it home with me. It was a well traveled piece of cloth as it came back to California when we moved, still uncut. Packed away, I had forgotten about it for at least three years until a recent dig through my stash for the tiny little dresses project.

This particular piece of fabric was a little over a yard and a half in length. It consisted of two different patterns. One is the darker background with the blue and green flower motif that you see in this choli. It made up a third of the total cloth piece. The other motif is the lighter color for the background with the darker tan on top along with the blue and green flowers and vines. I loved the entire piece of fabric, but the darker tan section seemed to really want to be turned into something beautiful.

It took me the good part of an afternoon playing with the pieces of the pattern before I found a way to get it all harmoniously arranged in the small section of the fabric I had to work with. I then let it sit and marinate for a while. I was too intimidated to cut into it. I did not want to mar the fabric and find that I miscalculated somewhere, leaving out a piece for instance, to only find that I could not complete the project. The bad part of working with old stashed away fabrics like this is the small margin of error. If you miss the mark, there is no running out for a new section of fabric. It does not exist at a store any longer.

Once the project was fully finished yesterday, I realized just how much I love what I did with that small section of that beautiful fabric. I think my favorite thing I achieved is the row of roses that run down the back side of the choli as well as the cuffs of the sleeves. The lining of the choli is made out of scraps of muslin from the first thing I ever sewed, a peasant top for an outfit for my first events in Belegarth. It was a full circle moment for me being able to use that fabric from my first project and integrate it into a project that I put together so well, including splicing the bottom band together out of the sides of the original piece of fabric.

Seeing at it is Earth Day today, I wanted to recommend a great program that I watched last night. It was an American Experience episode called Earth Days. It was a great program and was also a really interesting look at how the observance of Earth Day began. I am already a big fan of American Experience, and this was yet another winner. I thought I would add this picture of last night's sunset with this recommendation for viewing today. The picture does not do the actual sunset justice. The colors were much deeper and darker, and the reds were more fiery. I never can seem to get a good photograph of sunsets like this. I guess that is what your memory is for. Happy Earth Day.