A Jumble
of Hat Projects.
Notice I didn't say UFO (unidentified flying object or unfinished fabric object, take your pick) or uncompleted sewing projects. Every craftster has their own definition of what's done or not, what's meant to hemmed, sewn up and likewise, ignored and ditched.I look at this Banana Republic paper shopping bag and I see three hats, cut out about three years ago. What I find particularly intriguing is that they're all snipped from vintage fabric. One's a sailor print cotton from a resale/antique shop on the Chicago's Way Northwest side, another I think is from a thrift store that was plowed under to make way for a swanky Chicago condominium building and the other is from a defunct vintage apparel shop in Oak Park, Ill.
All this stuff is from a time when I was fascinated and I had to have vintage fabric. Knit fabric? I would have shuddered at the mere mention of those words then. I was all about rayon, 1940s, and Depression-era chic. Less you think I've ditched my retro roots, I haven't entirely. I can't. Unless I sell at least a box's worth of fiber acquired from eBay in the late 1990s when prices were good. In fact, I got five yards of this amazing Hawaiian polyester print that I'm going to use to make a halter-dress one day very soon.
While I sew more now than I ever did then, I don't hanker for all that old rayon, cottons, although I might jump and bite if I saw some really adorable 1950s border print (like the one with piano keys that got away on Vintage Martini not too long ago) or an incredibly dainty vintage eyelet ((I'm a sucker for that fabric type, particularly the all-cotton variety).
Even if I don't finish these hats, I see them as a happy opportunity to revisit my late 90s self, when I was all about swing dancing and the dancers I had crushes on then, the retro-style clothes I sewed out of cotton and denim. And the cool, one-bedroom apartment with an interior red brick wall that I rented...Those were good times!
And if I don't complete the hats? I've already pinned parts together for someone else to finish...perhaps my 90-year-old self. Ha! I actually know a rug hooker who set aside a project in the 1970s and then finished it some 17 years later. So it does happen, folks!
What projects have you set aside for future fun?
Labels: hats, unfinished projects
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posted by Mary Beth @ 3:21 PM
2 Comments:
Most of my sewing is future projects now! Don't have the energy to finish anything lately--like the pleated skirt for my youngest daughter that was supposed to be done about a year and a half ago, or the nightgowns I desperately need, or the shirt I promised hubby!! Got to get off the computer and get this stuff done! You should use the rayon now since the heat is so bad there. It's one of the coolest fabrics you can wear for hot humid weather. I used to wear pants made of rayon in Oklahoma since it was the only dressy fabric I could stand in the summer. (Polyester was okay in the 60's when I was young and didn't mind the heat so much, but not now.) It can be a floaty, feminine look too. It's one of the few fabrics that stands up to hot water and a hot dyrer too.
Ah yes! I second that about rayon, my favorite fiber. Cooooooooooool!
I used to cut out dresses, pants etc. and leave them in my to do box only to discover later that the pins had rusted and the styles had gone out of fashion. Now I have a rule. Cut it out and sew it before cutting anything new. I do have an exception for hats as I tend to work on 4 or 5 at a time.
K Q:-)
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