Vanilla Babies

So this week I bought a lot of fabrics for my collection. The shops I visited offered so much variety that it inebriated me. It was as if I were in the Disney World of fabrics, or at least my own private Disney World. Hey, you know what they say: splurging in a fabric shop is a lot cheaper than in a jewelry shop, so I guess this makes me feel better about my little extravaganza!

 It wasn’t easy to pick and at the same time figure out how and in which combinations I was going to use them. And don’t get me even started as to ‘what for’ I am going to use them…rs.

So getting home I started to fold all the beautiful fabrics as if I was savoring the sweetest chocolate or smelling bottles of the most delicate perfumes. I took the whole afternoon in this small delight.

When I finally looked at the stack of samples I started to have visions of the “objects of affections” I wanted to create with them.

I saw them in knitting bags, grocery bags, and other, mostly utilitiarian, bags combinations, cel phone, cameras and ipod cases, in little organizing purses for toiletries, reading glasses and such.

  

But, of course, the star of my show is my design for our Cutie, so I envisioned little dresses, coats, blouses in a clean A-line cut and some accessories for and around baby’s room, playing and living.

My only problem is that my skills don’t measure up to my delirious dreams. It is taking me forever to finish the quilt I started in the quilting class, which, by the way, thankfully finishes next Wednesday. I fear that I won’t have the quilt ready by then, but at least I will have learned all the steps to make one. And most important of all, I conquered the sewing machine (hooray, although I have to admit that it was a tight fight between me and her, most of the time the balance tilting to her side).

So, what did I get from this quilting class?


First of all – quilting is definitely not my kind of pie. All those little pieces, all the milimetrical measuring… no sir, thank you.


But, it has definitely given me a very precious tool, because now I feel that I can even launch myself into sewing.


And, actually, I don’t even need a pattern or design.


Somehow, I instinctively know how to set the pieces of a dress for example, and in what order to sew the parts. The measuring part is easy – according to a measuring standard chart – and the rest is left to imagination and creation – the part I really enjoy, and with all modesty, am best at.


So these are this week’s updates.


Ongoing activities are of course:


1. knitting (Cutie’s dress and a commission for designing a “hug” (yes, a “hug”) in knitting and appliqué with the costumer’s specified purposes);


2. designing my own projects and patterns for both knitting and sewing;


3. drawing them, printing, and organizing them into files;


4. reading, from Nietzsche and Nihilism to sewing and appliqué books;


5. sewing… tiresomely through my quilt;


6. browsing the net for fabrics, accessories or some specific fabric. By the way, should anyone know where to buy fleece in São Paulo, please, please, let me know. I have been spending valuable working time in searching for it. I sure promise you a “big” reward!