Studio Craziness

When I'm laying in bed trying to sleep, I think of all sorts of things to write. As a matter of fact, sometimes I can do nothing else but think of all sorts of things to write -- and sew. I've never known myself to become so obsessed with these two passions -- writing and sewing, but they now take over most of my thoughts and almost all of my dreams. I wake up some mornings exhausted because I've been "working" in my dreams -- making new dresses with belts, staging photo shoots, and of course writing about it all. Whew...

And if I'm not thinking/dreaming about making dresses, then I'm thinking about selling them. Every time I finish a dress and sit it on my dress form, I can feel that it belongs to someone. It's a matter of getting the dress to that very person that it's for. The last dress was for someone in France. I'm not sure what path led her to the dress, but the dress is now on its way to her.

Here's the dress winding its way across the globe to reach its final destination. What's really interesting about this is that the model in these pictures just took her husband to the airport yesterday to fly to France. Hm, never thought about that until just now...

Images of dresses meander through my mind at all times of the night and day. It's a never-ending movie in my head. I just go into my studio, grab a pile of scraps, and just serge until I can't serge anymore. There are so many times that (most of the time, actually) I have no game plan whatsoever. I pick up the piles and serge. I go into a serging mode that releases my thoughts to another world, and when I decide to "come back" to my studio I discover the pile of scraps have disappeared and the dress that they have turned into is heavy in my lap.

As a matter of fact, the end of September was a turning point for me. I had a birthday, and for a week I sewed until I couldn't. I sewed. I cut fabric. I dreamed. I thought. I mulled, and here are the results. I call these The Birthday Dresses.

These are all different sizes too. Dan, my partner, and I go to rummage sales, garage sales, bag sales, and anywhere else we can find amazing bargains. After bringing home our finds and looking at each one of them (and are there ever oohs and ahs over many of them!), he tie-dyes them in lots. As you can tell some of the above dresses are in golds, yellows, and browns so that I could mix and match the pieces. Once they're dyed and dried, they come to me in my studio where I pick a top to start with (at least that's what I did with the birthday dresses) and then slice up other shirts for the skirts.

Yep, from fabric to dresses. That's how it goes. Last step is drinking my coffee and putting my feet up!

But that was back in September. October's been a new month for me in every way. I've lost my mind in fabric, and I have one of my latest to prove it.

Looks not so crazy, right? Sort of? And then there's this...

Now that's what I'm talking about -- still crazy after all these years!