I Made This - Jennifer Mobilia

I Made This is a weekly blog series that features makers from around the world and aims to talk about the things we are proud of; of the objects we make that have meaning to us and the journey we take to make them.

This week's I Made This features my very good friend Jenn. She doesn't have an online crafty presence for you to check out, but she happens to be one of the most inspirational crafters I know. I'll let her speak first, but at the end of the post I'll tell you just why I find her so incredible. 

The lovely back of her head at The Craft Sessions 2014 wearing her freshly made Scout Tee!

It was the inaugural Craft Sessions Retreat in 2013 that finally shifted me from wanting to ‘make’ a garment to actually getting down and just doing it! Oh and the exceptionally kind and encouraging words of my mate, a seasoned ‘maker’ who said with gusto and a big cheeky smile ‘yes of course you can do it’.  So, I chose to believe her and thought why not just give it a go.

I chose this wonderfully comfy and simple to make garment for a relative beginner - The Made by Rae Washi Dress that I saw the spunky Georgie Hallam wondering around in at the first retreat.  It wasn’t long before I had my fabric, was fumbling around with the PDF pattern puzzle pieces with a girlfriend and getting busy with my not-so-sharp scissors. I couldn’t believe it even in the midst of making the dress that the bodice fit perfectly and it came together so quickly without assistance from anyone. I love that way the dress gives me a sense of wearing something fitted but also allows my lower half to be totally comfortable.

It is my favourite piece to date as it has given me the confidence to surge forward and make more and more. Yes it is bit of a hack job made with a wonky neck, fraying around the underarms and stiff crafting fabric, being the novice that I am - but there has been much joy from regular wear and positive comments from friends and family that reinforce the lovely feeling of having made something for myself.  

Being a mother of two young children in between careers without a crafting background this dress represents for me exploration, fun and creativity – a sense of achievement. Fearlessly learning to sew has given me an accessible outlet to connect with one of the things I love most – fashion and clothing = lots and lots of joy!

Jenn

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Hi - Felicia here - so I wanted to postscript her post with a little bit about why I think she is so inspiring - and it comes down to her get-it-done attitude. She has been making clothing for not even two years and in that short space of time has made a full size men's jumper, herself a 5ply cardy, many small person carries and numerous frocks…..things many a crafter before her would not have attempted to make, without more experience. I wrote a post really early on on this blog called "Good technique is overrated - discuss" and she is the epitome of that. She didn't get stuck on doing it "right". She just made. And now with each project she gets more skilled and is doing beautiful work all over the place. Which is why I love the photo below so much  - it reminds me of her courage and her determination. She just did it. Didn't worry that it wasn't perfect, wore it proudly and then made another. The other post I wrote that makes me think of her is "The false economy of not making". She practices. She makes me want to be courageous in my craft! Thanks Jenn x

Stash Less - Selling Discontent

The series where we talk about having a thoughtful stash.

We were talking about stillness on this here blog last week and it seemed to be a post that resonated with quite a few of you. I'm sure this struggle is probably something that many of us face, especially in our society, at this time, and especially at this time of year. Your comments on that post got me to thinking about how I craft, why I craft and how much I make, and whether that crafting fulfills its purpose. See I think that mostly we craft to satisfy our souls. Creating feels good, and I truly believe it is one of the most deeply satisfying activities we can take part in as humans. 

BUT ….then we add all these very human layers on top of it. Layers of pressure about what we are making, how much we are making, and judgement about how well we are making it. About whether we can make what we see in our minds eye and practising in the gap. And it complicates what should be a simple and joyful process. It should simply be about getting into the flow of creating and taking that joy with us into the rest of our lives. 

Belinda's comment on the stillness post really hit the mark for me. 

“I have decided that, for me, the problem itself isn’t exactly that crafting is replacing stillness. Because I find that crafting, when set aside and done alone, allows me to enter a kind of meditative state and/or be alone with my thoughts, similarly to what yoga or running might do.

It’s about the compulsion to craft (that fills my mind when I’m not crafting and therefore takes over other parts of my life), the crafting multitasking (podcasts, etc), and the obsessive focus on creating the perfect end product that are the three core problems for me.”

The buzz we were talking about in last week's post; the idea of creating beautiful things, adds up to a lot of possibility roaming around in my head. Part of Stash Less for me is to be more conscious about how I make, what I make and hopefully calm the buzz down to a dull roar so I can be more mindful in the rest of my life. I really think Belinda is onto something. For me the sheer volume of ideas and things I want to make are the problem, and not the actual crafting.

And then last week I was reading the wonderful Dumbo Feather magazine and there was a feature on Seth Godin with another idea that I think adds to the mix. He said ;

“The average person 125 years ago in Australia and the United States owned two pairs of shoes and two pairs of pants. One of the challenges of the industrial revolution of the early 1900s was that the industrialists were petrified that the new machines they were installing would make stuff faster than people could buy it. They were really sure there was going to be a demand problem. Let’s say you can figure out how to make 500 pairs of shows a day, instead of five, you say, ‘But everyone already has shoes! If I make a hundred times as many shoes a day, who will buy them?’ What they had to do was sell us discontent; you are not happy if you don’t have as many shoes as someone else. You need another T-shirt, you need a new garden set, you need a better this, or a better that. This discontent fuels demand, and demand is met by industrialists. Discontent is not inherent - it is merely inherent in the Western world, with money to spend on stuff that’s getting advertised to you.”

— Dumbo Feather - Issue 40

And although the context is slightly different (Seth was asked a question about status anxiety), I've been thinking how discontent and the quest for more, impacts on my making. And how our culture definitely plays a part in creating that discontent, and from a very young age.  

I'm currently avoiding (boycotting!) one of Australia's two big supermarket chains. Their main marketing approach in the lead up to Christmas is all about marketing to kids. After you have paid for your goods they hand you cards with animals on them. The more you spend, the more cards you get. So the kids beg (yes beg!) us to go to Supermarket X rather than Supermarket Y, when we are buying our tinned tomatoes and toilet paper. And here is the hook. Not only are they giving out cards, but they are selling folders to put your cards into. The animal folder details ALL of the possible cards you can collect. So not only are they giving you something for free to collect, which kids love, they make it clear that there are many more to collect and you don't have them all. When you put the cards in the folder there are all these gaps. The folder (which could be fun if you looked at it from a particular point of view) makes it clear what you don't have!! The whole marketing plan is around telling you that you don't have enough. You need more! You aren't finished! You aren't complete until you have them ALL! And my kids fall for it hook, line and sinker. Chasing cards - not happy with the cards they do have, full of desire for the ones they don't have. And I hate it and have been actively seeking out Supermarket Y wherever possible.

We have been trained to respond to the "more is better" "bigger is better" song. Fear of missing out and wanting to own the pretty. Add the internet to mass marketing and it is no wonder people are leading lives filled with unnecessary desire. And even if one of our main family values is "stuff doesn't make you happy", I know I am affected by it and need to be conscious. I go through my pinterest page of pretty frocks it's like the idea part of my brain goes into overdrive. I would love to make this and this and this and this. I would love to wear. I would love to…..

I never feel like I have enough time to make all the things I want to make. I often feel dissatisfied with the amount I achieve. The sheer volume I expect to make is totally nuts. Totally unrealistic expectations and making that is filled with underlying pressure for more. A fine example is the picture at the top of the post. That is about half of my frock fabrics. I have ideas (and the fabric) for at least twelve frocks for myself. Twelve frocks. Really. Who needs twelve frocks? Why am I wasting time and energy thinking about that many frocks. Each one of them takes up some brainspace; a tiny corner filled with the niggle of desire. 

Reading Jared Flood of Brooklyn Tweed's blog post a few days ago I saw this;

“That touches on something I think about a lot—how handknitting (and home sewing, by the same token) is such a dramatic departure from the “fast fashion” of our consumer culture. I think once you slow down and start making garments with care, you really start to see some of the benefits of creating your own wardrobe pieces. And also, being more invested and passionate about them as a result.”

I am invested and I am definitely passionate about making my own, but I've been thinking that maybe my view of how much I want to make for myself is more akin to buying fast fashion. I want to make ALL the things, in the same way I could buy ALL the things. I don't just have one or two ideas, I have thousands of them, and I don't rein them in by consciously dumping those that are less worthy or unrealistic from a time perspective. So I am left wanting. It's almost like my craft can't fill me up the way it should or could, because my expectations are so out of whack with what is possible, and would make me happy. There will never be enough time to make all I want to make. BUT nor do I need all I want to make.

Maybe setting some realistic goals of what I could achieve next year and working hard to make those as beautifully as I can - getting them right? - will lead to less buzz and more satisfaction. It will mean letting go of some ideas but I'm game.  I feel excited that Stash Less is making me more conscious.

Any thoughts on this post my friends?

Felicia x

Previously Stash Less - Why Restrictions Rock!

Stash Less - Why restrictions rock!

The series where we talk about having a thoughtful stash.

There is this art theory that goes something along the lines that creativity can be enhanced by actually giving yourself or your project a set of restrictions or rules.

(To read more about this idea: Why placing limitations on yourself is the key to creativity.)

And although this isn't the purpose of Stash Less, in many ways that is what it is. A set of restrictions that I am growing to totally love. Last week I talked about some of the negatives, some of the realisations. This week I want to share one of the enormous benefits. And that is that I am looking at what I have with totally fresh eyes. 

Reading Tom of Hollands blog last week I had a "ping" moment when I read the words of Felicity Ford in this blog post. She said

“when developing guidelines for a creative process there is usually some tension around rules. Rules can be extremely helpful and supportive, offering a framework for creativity or a set of criteria to which a brief can be fitted; but they can also sometimes seem restrictive. This tension between rules and openness was important to explore……….”

— http://tomofholland.com/2014/11/28/knitsonik-blogtour-pt2/

In my crafting past I haven't had that many restrictions. I find a project and pick some materials. If I don't have what I need, I reassess or I purchase it. Restrictions aren't something I have thought about much, and as a consequence I have generally played it safe and not taken risks. 

This passage from Felicity lead me to think of all the projects I have come up with as a result of stash less. And what is interesting to me is that these ideas have come about because of Stash Less, rather than in spite of. Because of Stash Less I am looking around my existing stash to see what I can come up with that will make my heart sing.

To explain what I mean I'm going to list you a couple just to get your juices going. There are many more. 

1. The silver kid sweater. 

Among my stash I have found about 250g of 5ply in different silvers. There is a single ball of Jo Sharp Alpaca Silk Georgette, a single ball of Milla Mia, a single ball of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino and about 1.5 balls of Blue Sky Metallico. I also have a smidge of Blue Sky Sport Weight. All of these could be knit at a gauge of between 22 and 25 stitches. Without Stash Less I wouldn't have gone through my stash with such a critical eye and I would have used these one by one for small projects like for hats. Instead I have been figuring out how to best combine them for my almost 7yr old. 250g of 5ply is enough for a whole cardy. 

So what am I thinking of making? I'm thinking a top-down pattern so I can knit until I run out of yarn. Body first and sleeves second so that I can 3/4 the sleeves if I need to.

The questions yet to be answered are;
a. Do I use another colour with all the silver - either to use as a break between the transitions from one silver to another, or as an accent, or just to get full length sleeves in case I run out of silver. I have yellow, or charcoal or duck egg in stash….
b. Do I colour block the cardy with the silvers, or because they are so similar will that look stupid. Do I do a four row, four row, four row thing where I switch randomly. Do I include a textured stripe to transition between colours - like a garter stripe or maybe some moss…..

This project is fun and will be ace. I just know it. Requires a little more thought. And I have to wait until Xmas craft is over to begin.

2. The quilt.

I have started making my first king sized quilt. About 230 x 230cm. It's big which feels a little scary because what if I screw it up. That is a lot of fabric. Without Stash Less I would have been tempted to stay safe and use the dirty blue with the hatched cotton (like what you see in my mock up). And it would have been boring. BORING and safe!! Instead because I didn't have enough of the dirty blue, I had to use some denim along with the dirty blue, and I am so very very happy I did. You should see how pretty it is. I would show you but sadly I have had to put it down for a moment to get onto Christmas and birthday crafting. So I will show you in the New Year when I have basted it. Until then there is a small picture on instagram. 

3. Frocks. 

This is not one project but many. As I mentioned in a previous post I don't use scraps. A terribly wasteful fact I am not proud of. I don't use them because I haven't had to, because there is other pretty stuff in the cupboard. I want to change this and this dress on pinterest is part of my obsession with this idea. I see myself creating so many versions of this as a combination of yardage from my stash and my scrap basket. I feel like I will learn so much from trying this idea out; I will be practicing colour choice and bravery all at once. I see grownup frocks and kid frocks and shirts and tanks. I'm excited and I love the fact that this is not the easy option.

Also inspiring along the same lines are this and this and this and this.

So the point I want to make is that without this restriction I would choose safe over tricky. Safe to make sure I got something I like and didn't waste the materials by mucking it up. But safety doesn't necessarily achieve projects that sing. There is more risk in all of these three options. All of them could fail. All of them could look rubbish. But I have the feeling that all of them will sing louder and much prouder than if I chose the safe option. 

I'd love to hear about your projects that fit into this category. Do you ever restrict yourself creatively? 

Felicia x

Previously Stash Less: A Realisation!

I made this - Elizabeth Barnett

I Made This is a weekly blog series that features makers from around the world and aims to talk about the things we are proud of; of the objects we make that have meaning to us and the journey we take to make them.

This week's I Made This is by the amazing Elizabeth Barnett - a visual artist and maker from Melbourne who I met randomly many years ago at a sewing class. When we met she was making these beautiful textile collages - some of which you can see on her website. Normally I include the person's logo (if they have one) below - but I really wanted to include one of her paintings - just to give you a taste of her work. 

I made this Lisa dress from a pattern that I bought at Tessuti fabrics in Melbourne on the Cup weekend recently. Bel aka dyeingtrade (who I met at the Craft Sessions in September!) and I have been talking a lot recently about planning our summer wardrobes and so when I saw this pattern I was pretty sure it would be the centerpiece of my summer wardrobe. Bel and I met up on the weekend and madly sewed our dresses (Bel made the wiksten tank but as a longer dress version).

I bought the fabric at Treehouse Textiles in Mornington and the mother of pearl buttons are vintage ones from the beautiful L’uccello in the Nicholas Building. I spent quite a bit on these items but I am glad I did because I now have a dress that I love every element of and will wear often, rather than a garment that I sort of like but it isn’t quite right and I have a pattern that I will definitely use again and again. (and in light of Felicia's recent post on Materials... it confirms that one should use good materials that you know you will love to wear)

I had seen the pattern on pinterest and it instantly reminded me of a dress that I used to own that no longer fits me after I had my baby last year. I thought, YES! I can recreate the dress to my own shape and size in a fabric of my choosing. I like the way it is floaty and light for summer wearing.

I went through my stash to see if I could make this dress out of something I already had but none of the fabrics that I have were big enough (as the pattern required about 2m of fabric) so I decided to buy something new (going against the stash-less ideas that Felicia has been posting about recently and which has really got me thinking) But this project was special and I don’t have a huge fabric stash in large pieces so I felt justified in buying the Nani Iro fabric which I totally adore.

I am a pretty confident sewer these days after years of hacking away and fudging garments together. I have always been a maker/crafter (Craft has always been a part of my family) but my finishing of garments had always left me feeling unsatisfied with the things I made and they always ended up falling apart or I hated how “handmade” and dodgy they looked. I did a class a few years ago (where I first met Felicia actually!) at Amitie textiles when it was in Bentleigh. Our teacher Gwen has years of experience and she taught me things that I will never forget! Eg. button holes, hemming, inserting a zip, setting a sleeve, and the importance of pinning and tacking! These classes have been invaluable and have taught me not to hack at fabric or brazenly sew without pinning (which has its place for some projects but in most cases for me would end up in me unpicking and ruining beautiful pieces of fabric).

When I looked at the pattern I wasn’t that keen on putting in all the fabric stiffner and the shops weren’t open on the Sunday to get some so instead I did without and I decided to add a full lining for the bodice of the dress (with some leftover fabric from one of Mum’s quilting projects). I am really pleased I did as the Nani Iro fabric is really sheer and I am not that keen on see through garments for myself! I love the bias binding that finishes the neck and sleeves and helps them to sit nicely. I had never done that technique before but it worked amazingly and I starting thinking about other patterns that I could alter to achieve that look. I could even make different fabric bias bindings from my stashed fabrics for a nice bit of interest on the garment…. the possibilities!

I LOVE this dress and have not really taken it off since I made it. I will definitely the pattern again and maybe even in two fabrics, one for the top and one of the skirt (perhaps something in my stash will work for this).

In pursuit of stillness…..(or not?)

I was out with some lovely crafty women on Friday night for dinner, and one of the topics we covered was whether or not crafting makes you less able to sit with stillness. As I get older I become more and more convinced that ideas around stillness, have real relevance and usefulness in my pursuit of the most happy and content life I can have. Another of those ideas is of course mindfulness. And then there is the usefulness of meditation. For the purposes of this post I am kind of rolling them all into one. 

A few years ago I was on a train into the city and I clearly remember seeing that it was going to be a 22minute train ride. Once on the train I realised that I didn't have a single thing to do. No knitting. Of any kind. No paper, no book. I wasn't yet on instagram, and there wasn't even any advertisements to read in the carriage. I felt a small amount of panic. Actually the amount of panic I felt wasn't really small. It was kind of big and kind of shocking. And I felt a little bit horrified to realise just how unsettled I had let myself get. So unsettled that the idea of 22minutes of sitting on a train looking out the window made me feel stressed. I decided in that moment it wasn't that healthy, and booked myself into my first basic meditation course. After that I began to think about some of these concepts regularly. And  after my meditation course, I've have found a way to incorporate simple small moments of mindfulness into my days as a way of making me a better parent and better human. Super useful.

Lately however, I have noticed that small moments are not enough, and the hypothesis suggested to me on Friday is that my making is making it worse.  While I am incredibly grateful for the role a creative outlet has played on my general mental health and well-being during the intensity of early parenting, life has started to feel a little chaotic. I've been thinking about it since Friday's conversation and I think I might agree with my friend. I'm laying much of the blame squarely on my craft. 

These days when I sit down for a cup of tea I don't want to "waste" the time so I sit down like this. Materials or a project and a book and a tea and a notebook and a …. You get the picture. I sit down with a cacophony of ideas, possibilities, futures, fun. I sit down with the buzz of creativity. 

There is no stillness. 

The increase in my making over the last ten years has created a time pressure that I didn't have in my pre-craft life. As well conducting normal daily life with three kids, I'm trying to fit making in. As making is one of my great joys in life then I find I desire to do more and more of it. Which means multitasking wherever possible. I don't sit in the car or at the school gate or in the park, without a project. If I am knitting on a couch then I may also be blog surfing or listening to a podcast. I sometimes sew a dress with the background of a movie on my computer. Multitasking while crafting has become a bit of an art form.

So yes - making in my household isn't always the calm picture one might expect. Not all the time but a fair bit….

Of course, the thing that goes missing in this situation is clarity. Without stillness through meditation or yoga or something, there isn't the space to sort your thoughts and prioritise what is meaningful. The ideas come one on top of each other without the clarity created through the not-thinking of stillness. I recognise that maybe I need to look for stillness in other places and at other times, but I am finding that I almost don't want to. The time poverty of early parenting* means that I resist the idea of finding stillness knowing that the opportunity cost of stillness is less making. 

Part of this thought process for me includes the acceptance of the type of brain I have. I have an "ideas" brain, a "get it done" kinda brain that means that the stillness achieved by others may not necessarily be as achievable or even desirable for me. I am not a calm fella. I am an excitable fella and I'm totally OK with that as it has other benefits, like that I make a lot of stuff. Other personality types might not find it so hard to accept there isn't time to make every little thing they dream up. They might not engage in so much dreaming? …..

There is a way forward. I know that finding space for stillness somewhere in my life means life is better, for me and the rest of my family. Getting back to some kind of semi regular yoga practice and running regularly works well even if it isn't technically stillness. Any kind of activity where I'm not multitasking for me is a good halfway house to stillness. And maybe that is where it is at for now.

My other friend last Friday suggested a good initial challenge for me, to pull things back, might be just to sit and knit. No podcast. No tele. No book. Just knitting and sitting. A controversial suggestion if ever I've heard one. 

I guess I'm wondering if you guys had any thoughts about this topic and/or had achieved any kind of balance with your own making. Do you find that making and "going with the flow of creativity" is sometimes a negative in your life? Is stillness part of the process for you or do you find you don't need it? Does crafting make you crazy ;)?

This one is a total work in progress for me…. 

Felicia x

*Maybe the fact I am actually writing this post means that I am heading out of the early parenting stage. The baby just turned 4.