I made a decision early on in my making. It was this: I would commit myself to using only the fabric and bobbles and such that I could find. I wouldn't go buying retail fabric and spending 80 kahundred dollars for every project I wanted to take on.
This makes it sound, of course, as if I knew exactly what I was getting myself into when I began. I didn't, of course. I really was more like standing at a thrfit store bin full of weird napkins and scraps and I thinking Hey that would make a cute apron. But then I went back for more scraps. And more.
And before I knew it I was collecting scraps. And I wasn't feeling limited. I didn't have an urge to go buy anything different than what I was using. I was pumped to be turning trashy scraps into Real Things. And pretty soon I noticed that there was an Actual Fabric Bin at the thrift store. And there were table cloths and sheets and all sorts of linen dying to be turned into other more beautiful, more usable, less-ready-to-be-thrown-away things.
And then my stash got bigger and bigger. And then I started making bags and anything else I needed. And slowly I realized that I had made a Decision: I wouldn't use a store to solve my creative problems. I would use what I had on hand. And that only.
Here's what happened (and it's going to sound a little cliched, but bear with me, if you will): in the handful of moments when I've been tempted to double back and reconsider, I haven't. I've stuck to my Decision. And every. single. time. it's made the thing I was making Better. Every single time.
I remember once making a bag for a friend and I just didn't have the right button. I laid every last old button I had on hand on top of that panel and stared and stared and wiiilllleeddd the thing to look right and it wouldn't. Then I went downstairs and fidgeted around with something else--like, I don't know, making dinner for all the hungry people in my house, probably--and went back the next day and laid some more buttons on top of the same panel in the same way again. Still nothing. The clasp just looked crummy next to the bag.
And the next day I got in my car. I drove toward the craft store. I arrived on the street of the craft store. I circled the block. I was going to do it. I was going to go back on my Decision. The bag was for a friend and I really wanted it to be great.
I circled the block again.
And then some sort of Sheera-like determination set in, and I drove the 12 miles back home. Didn't go in. Claimed the fact that even though other people would think I was nutball crazy, I'd made a Decision that I wanted to stick with.
And I went upstairs and went rummaging around in my big box of notions and found a pearly clasp I'd never noticed in a bag at the bottom I hadn't put my hand on--and it was because I'd said to myself BUTTON when i'd been looking. And so when I re-said CLOSURE to myself as I went digging, I found what I needed.
And it was better. You knew I was going to say that. But it's true. It was better.
And so I've stayed with my Decision: aside from thread and foundation materials (like interfacing and quilt batting), I use the fabric and buttons and closures and zippers and snaps that I can find at a thrift store or a garage sale (if i can get myself out of bed that early) or whatever my friends and relatives hand over to me or leave on my doorstep. I save fabric: I rescue it. It's on its way to being unused and unusable, and I give it a home.
I'm like the Human Society for Abandoned Fabric.
And it's the best way to sew.
I never worry about ruining anything. I don't worry about making mistakes. And I don't get in my car to solve my creative problems. And I promise that it's the smartest thing in my Making Life that I ever chose to do.
