A big thank you ...

A very big thank you to Gail for bestowing me this Lovely Blog Award. I am thrilled and very flattered. Yes, Gail, we must have coffee when I am next in Sydney - or perhaps next time you are up this way?

My main reason for keeping this blog is to motivate myself. If I feel I have a commitment to show my work and write something at least once a week, then I will sew more. Thank you to everyone for support and encouragement. I will pass this award on, as requested, but I need to figure just who to pass it on to next.

In the meantime, I pose a question.

When does a piece of fabric stop being a piece of fabric and become a garment?

Recently I received an order from Gorgeous Fabrics. There was a piece of ivory rayon jersey. When I bought it, I had no idea what I had intended, but as soon as it was in my hand I had a complete picture of the garment it was to become. Nothing earth shattering, I know, but the fabric felt like that top.

There have been times when I've spied a fabric in a shop and could instantly see the finished garment. There are fabrics in my stash that still, years down the track, will only be made into the garment I first saw when I bought it. Meanwhile, other fabrics I forget even buying. Sometimes I go to my stash and something leaps out and demands to be made and it's not what I had intended when I bought it.

Then there are the times when a garment only emerges as I finish the hem, or sew on the buttons. I have a jacket downstairs pinned on Vera which consists only of the two back pieces. The front interfaced pieces are laying across the arm of the sofa next to it and the rest is still in its box, but it is already a garment. It just feels that way.

At the other end of the scale there is the orange safari dress that I started when it was still warm enough to wear short sleeves. All this dress needs is the epaulettes sewn on, buttonholes and buttons and hemming. I can't finish it because it doesn't feel like a garment. It feels like an old scrap of fabric.

Shannon has blogged before about the weight of garments and I think she's right. When the fabric starts to take on a weight and a life in my hands, then it becomes a garment.

Tonight I received another Gorgeous Fabrics order. Top left is a choc brown jersey because I need a plain brown top, top right is persimmon shirting because I was so impressed with the lovely blouse that Karen made and I knew this colour would work with my vanilla choc orange theme. The bottom is a brown wool suiting that will become B5250 wide leg pants to go with my June Capsule Contest wardrobe and my vanilla choc orange. The squiggly jersey is called Steam Heat and I liked it when I saw it on the website and I LOVED it when I opened the package. It will become a dress first thing tomorrow.

The other thing I bought I have no idea what to do with, but I fell in love with it because I adore paisley and I had to have it. Don't know why as it is largely blue and I don't really wear blue, but I'm sure this fabric will tell me what it wants to become!

I'm off to start my weekend sewing. With DH in Sydney at his grandmother's funeral and not back till Monday, I can sew without anyone saying I am not paying them enough attention!