Wednesday, June 25, 2008

(Learning to) Sew With Local Organic Cotton

My mom never taught me to sew, she barely could sew a button on a shirt after popping off, she was more of the "let's go to the mall and get something new instead" type. When I was 10 she tried putting me in sewing classes for a week but I puked at class (had some flu) and missed the important lessons - my only memory besides the toilet in the ClothWorld was that I had coaxed the sewing instructor's son to actually finish my project for me. (Super fulgy shorts and top.) When I was in college I finally got my first sewing machine, which I mainly used on mixed media art projects that were not at all meant to push through the thing, and I nearly killed my sewing machine 100 times. To my surprise the only person I met who knew how to sew at the time was yet another boy- Rodney Tassistro. He taught me how to load the bobbin and push fabric through and even got me to try out a actual pattern. I stuck mostly to sewing art though, since I could not be tamed by the rules of sewing clothes.
I have been making frankenstein-ish outfits on occasion ever since, but recently i am determined to really learn to sew. Here is a picture of what I threw together yesterday morning, made with locally grown, milled, woven organic cotton I bought at Spiritex. It was actually a ball of scraps with a rubber band around it for like $2, and I barely put thought or work into it - but best believe I am going to sport this thing. The belt is something my neighbor Heather picked up for me at a flea market :) ... I love when hippies get sick of their cool beaded shit!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I got mad respect.

Unknown said...

There's nothing stranger than goggling your own name and seeing it in an article about sewing... Leslie, if you get this, track me down... I'd love to hear from you. Your dress looks wonderful. ~Rodney

Miss Voodoo said...

Rodney!!! YAY!