Everyday PARIS photography by Candice Lesage.
Very HAPPY about the DISCOVERY of Fräulein Magazine, a new arty/creative/illustrative German MAG. LOVE at 1st SIGHT!
Elliot Smith’s ‘PRETTY (Ugly Before).’
Check out the delightful/AWESOME/brilliant cat RABBIT website.
All hand-made (no name) designer JEWELLERY by jOOlz.
There are many things in life we are a shamed off and only a very few we finally grow comfortable to admit in public. It took me a long time to confess: I’m addicted to STITCHing. Mostly because if you’re under 50 and you stitch, people think you are sad, odd or lonely. Or, in the worst case, all of the above. “POOR GIRL,” they think, “NO SOCIAL life at all. How’s she ever going to catch a decent CHAP? Probably she hasn’t had SEX for years. And most likely she’ll die as an old SPINSTER..,”
Pffft! There’s not much you can say to this - especially if you are wearing one of your latest designs which admittedly took you 150 hours to stitch. Even worse, I can see their point. Sometimes, in the midst of a stitchery session, I suddenly realise how I must appear: a NARROW-EYED figure hunched in the fading light over some fabric, mumbling along and throwing tangles of THREADS in all directions.
Most people my age don’t even know that there are some such people as stitchers, apart from their GROSSMUTTER, of course, who is 80 years old, convinced she should take her stitching talent to the street, showing off her latest knittery design. These days ‘normal’ young people are into CLUBBING and mingling in BARS at night - no self-stitched hem-lines in that lifestyle. But in fact, a SECRET NETWORK of home-crafters – stitchers including myself - does exist: young, VIVACIOUS, creative women who not only know all about FREUD, Kant & CO, but can spot stem STITCH at a hundred paces.
I have been stitching since I was about FIVE years old. Yes, even before I could spell my own name I was able to STITCH. It all began with watching my MAMA stitching curtains, pillow cases and clothes for my dolls, carefully following every stitch she made. And then I was given a SEWING KIT for my 5th birthday; from then on I stitched my way from junior to senior stitchery level. It wasn’t until more than a decade later that I actually got my own SEWING MACHINE, a medieval hand-me down version from my grandmother. My stylish older sister watched the use of this machine with bemused interest, nicknaming me “The STITCHING B***” and developing a whole series of hysterical jokes about me and my “nana habit.” But I remained undeterred, even more so I began to advance my technique soon afterwards, branching into CROSS-STITCH and tricky sewing patterns.
When I was about 13 I did my 1st fully fletched dress, a floaty little floral design. And that was it. Suddenly I was waking up in the midst of the night thinking about LAZY DAISIES DESIGN and ways of stitching 20s-STYLE RUFFLES on a dress. While other teens my age went out to TWIST & PARTY the night away I stayed home to STITCH & SHOUT all night. It was right there that I knew I was in trouble – ‘Hello, my name is MISS LONELY and I am a STITCHER!’
Come stitching peak times, the symptoms of my ADDICTION go like this: I get up at 4am to check on my latest design, ensuring the fabric would be enough to cover the pattern I had in mind. I also tend to examine my current project in bed late at night, known to actually fall sleep with my STITCHING KIT in bed, despite warnings from my highly concerned parents about the DANGER of exposed SAFETY PINS & NEEDLES. (And horror tales by my sister of being found forked up by needles like a VOODOO DOLL.)
Some of these SYMPTOMS have nothing to do with my personality as I know it. I like to imagine I am very PLEASANT COMPANY, yet I have such a PARANOIA of losing my creative energy that I am forced to finish a project late at night or within the early hours of the next morning.
It’s too terrifying for words. Even more, it’s embarrassing. My friend L***, a fellow CRAFTER, admitted one night when we were both happily crafting away: “It’s just not something we EVER imagined ourselves doing. When I started I thought, ‘Great. I’m 20something, LOVELESS and I’ve taken up cross-stitching. Welcome to my LONELY LITTLE UNIVERSE’.”
Nonetheless, the ART of stitching/sewing, you see, is not always a happy preoccupation, at times it can be even a LIFE-THREATENING past time activity. Sometimes, when you’re in the depths of the obsession, it can RUIN YOUR LIFE. At 1st, you start a piece and you’re pretty happy with it. Then, after a while, you’re adopting the ‘stitching position’: Your neck’s paralysed, your eyes are narrowed like a NADELÖHR (literally ‘EYE of a needle’) and you can hardly see any more, The television’s on the tragic 2am stuff, but you can’t stop stitching (actually a similar pose I adopt as typing this).
For some reason my EXPERTISE is unknown to most people. Like me, most STITCHERS lead SECRET LIVES. I tried a couple of times to expose my DARK SECRET but all I got as response was big smirks. From then on I kept my mouth shut, reveling in the SOLITUDE that comes with stitching. But why is everyone so ashamed?
My own MAMA - most likely biologically responsible for my HIDDEN HABIT - also seemed particularly attracted to stitching of any kind, ranging from curtains, cushions to doll clothing (she gave up trying to make some for me as I always had my OWN STYLE, adding some TWISTS to hers). She learnt it all years ago at school, in some ancient subject called ‘HAUSHALTSLEHRE’(domestic science). But in contrast to me she’s not ashamed to admit her soft spot in public. Then again, the difference is that she’s in her late 50s while I am in my late 20s. Nowadays most women are more into BOYS-STUFF like managing a firm, leading the stock market or buying expensive machinery that does all evil household things for them. Stitching a dress and even sewing a button is too OLD-FASHIONED and feminine to care and fit into everyday (working) life. With that new FEMINIST MOVEMENT on the way, a stigma becomes attached to stitching “Hey! You stitch? You must be DOMESTIC, old-fashioned & OPPRESSED.”
Fair enough, financially it makes little sense to STITCH & CRAFT yourself. Thanks to the mechanised age and the subsequent MAS PRODUCTION, you can buy professionally machine-stitched designs for a fraction of the price and, above all, the time spend manufacturing them yourself. these days you can buy most items sewn in a CAMBODIAN garment factory for half the amount you’ll pay to make one yourself.
But all this misses the point. As CONFUCIUS once said, it’s not the destination but the JOURNEY that matters. The same applies to STITCHING: there is a certain rhythm to drawing a thread through a piece of fabric that is absorbing, almost HYPNOTIC and highly ADDICTIVE. There is also a SENSE OF BELONGING, placing yourself in a long line of fellow female STITCHERS: 1000 of years ago, women were CRAFTING & SEWING all sorts of things in exactly the same way than some of us still do TODAY.
Plus stitching away CALMS THE MIND, Stitching got me through the STRESS of studying and graduating, it helped me through the DRAMA of losing the 1st man I’d ever loved. In times of all that TURMOIL, I used to turn to stitching, even just shortening a skirt. In those troubled times I would sit in front of the TV, stitching but not crying. In retrospect it was my PERSONAL THERAPY, putting a PAUSE to everyday life, allowing me to just sit and stitch, often hours without weeping. Point in case - I produced the most immaculate, controlled pieces of my very own work in my most DESPERATE & TROUBLED times. Truth is the ART OF STITCHING has been more FAITHFUL than most of the men in my life. So you see, there are very serious reasons for stitching and, ultimately, keeping SANE.
On another note my PRIVATE PURSUIT gives me also an excuse to be alone, pondering life and all else while brooding over some tricky piece of stitching. From time to time it’s a good way to spend some valuable ME-TIME and be sad in private. Besides it’s almost a MEDIATIVE kind of thing, allowing me to just sit and be on my own, giving me some kind of CREATIVE OUTLET. While I have a job pushing paper around all day, there’s barely anything tangible to hold onto at the end of the day. In contrast, labouring away at some piece of STITCHING and you do have something to showcase in the end.
So fellow STITCHERS & CRAFTERS of all sorts: we should NOT let ourselves be DOWNCATS and/or DISMISSED as people without SOCIAL LIVES (n)or SEX APPEAL. We do NOT need PITY (n)or THERAPY. Let’s stand up and unite. As MARX would have probably meant to say: “STITCHERS & CRAFTERS of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your STITCHES.”
Photo: Alana’s Cherished Treasures
BUBBLEshots by Fernando Farfán.
Once upon atime there was a girl called Nadid who happened to be very crafty & creative. Et voilá, NADINOO was born.
NINA Simone’s ‘Feeling GOOD.’
Take a KIWI born designer PLUS some Brooklyn, NYC vibe = Kelly REID’s new bag label Reid Damnit.
Check out Michi’s new book, What On EARTH Are You Wearing?
