The last two weeks have been a real roller coaster of emotions for me.
A lovely customer asked me to make her a unique jacket for a very special event. She provided the fabric, along with a photograph of the kind of thing she had in mind — a beautiful patchwork and appliqué design. However, she didn’t want me to simply copy the picture. She wanted something original, and gave me the freedom to develop my own ideas.
That freedom was both exciting and, at first, rather daunting!
The fabric she supplied was not your usual craft cotton. It was a polyester stretch weave, which made it more challenging to work with. On the positive side, it didn’t fray, which was a definite bonus. Still, getting started was slow, and for the first few days I have to admit I felt almost overwhelmed by the task ahead.
Then, gradually, something happened.
The creativity started to flow.
Ideas began popping into my head, one after another, and suddenly I couldn't seem to stop. What started as a rather intimidating project became a process of experimenting, changing things, adding something here, taking something away there, and seeing where the next idea would lead.
The work was spread over three weeks, although most of the actual work was done during the last few days. And that was when things really came together.
There is a point in a project like this when you almost don't want to stop. You know that if you go to bed, that wonderful idea you've just had might disappear by morning! So you keep going, just for another little while… and then another… and suddenly it's very late at night.
It was exhausting, exciting, frustrating and incredibly satisfying — sometimes all within the same day!
The best part of working on something completely unique is that you never quite know where it is going to take you. You start with an idea, but the finished piece often becomes something entirely different.
And that, for me, is one of the most enjoyable things about creating something by hand.