With Love and Gratitude

My husband asked me to sew up a few holes in the safety overalls he wears at work. He's hoping to make them last until his retirement, which isn't too terribly far off.

He said it didn't have to be pretty. I think what he actually meant was "please don't make it pretty!!" as he has seen my ongoing work on my own Boro/Sashiko vest.

So here we are, a few discrete patches hidden in behind the main fabric, with stitching matched as close as possible to the overall fabric. 

Completely invisible mends were not possible since some of the rips, including this three corner tear, were large, gaping, and surrounded by fabric that was nearly worn through. I think I closed them up quite nicely. 

Once I had the overalls in my hands I noticed many more, smaller tears and holes and I stitched those up too. I made sure I sewed down the areas where the reflective safety tape was coming loose too. 

As I contemplated the 44+ years my husband has put in as a telephone lineman I couldn't help but feel an immense love, gratitude, and respect for this hardworking man of mine and his dedication to supporting his family and doing his best for his employer.

A Little of a Lot

I've been doing little bits of a lot of different things lately -- which doesn't add up to much progress in any one area!

Now and then I sit down at the loom to work on my weaving project for the Three Random Colour guild challenge. I finally managed to get this infinity scarf off the loom, fringes twisted, wet finished, and now hanging to dry. It will get a pressing and a final trim of the fringe tomorrow. The warp left on the loom still has enough length left for a second coordinating project though.

I've done a little knitting on my granddaughter's sweater. The pockets are knitted now but some sewing on one of them still needs attention. The button bands are also complete. I have stalled on the sleeves though. I'm just really not in the mood for knitting and only occasionally force myself to pick it up.

I've been getting a surprising amount of enjoyment out of simpler things lately. Like mending the worn knees of my son's work jeans.

During the patching a little Boro stitching may have spontaneously happened. He doesn't seem to mind. In real life his black work jeans are much darker than they appear here so the stitching isn't so noticable. 

Inspired by the success of patching his jeans I picked up a really inexpensive pair of artificially distressed and ripped jeans from Winners. My intent is to play around with doing some decorative Boro on them. I might add additional embroidery or other embellishment as well, as the mood strikes. 

What I didn't take into consideration is that the "skinny" jeans have a lot of stretch to them and I'll have to adapt my method so that even once stitched they will still retain their ability to expand and contract. I'm using a doubled piece of stretch jersey for the patch and I'm stretching both it and the jeans in an embroidery hoop, which is not traditional for Boro, which is usually just hand held. 

And finally I DO have one finish! The fabric for this simple v-neck t-shirt with 3/4 sleeves has been cut out and laying in a heap in my sewing room for months. I finally got around to sewing it up today. I've made this pattern, #2805 Women's T-Shirts, by Jalie before and it always turns out great. 

Oh! I nearly forgot to include the cross-stitching! I've been doing about an hour's worth on the train picture every morning as I have my coffee. No progress photo of that though, it's very slow going and updates will be few and far between. 

For Your Safety!

Part of my clutter clearing in my crafting spaces has been picking up projects that have been on hold for some time and working on them. I figure the very act of making some progress on them should clear some of the stuck energy.

In the last few days I've added a couple of textile hobby related quotes to my crafting apron, which is a l-o-n-g term project. I still need ideas for getting knitting, crocheting, and spinning represented.

I work on my cross-stitch picture for about an hour every morning while I have my coffee. It's a large picture with lots of colour changes and it's done on 28 count linen. Progress is very, very slow.



I've added to my Sashiko/Boro vest.



The back is sort of finished for now. I say "sort of" because the intent is for this to be a perpetual project. I'll be adding patches and further embellishment in the Boro style, over the years, as the garment wears and needs further patching.

I've now moved on to the front where I've added a few patches (legitimate ones, over holes and very worn sections of the original shirt),



and a whole lot of stitching.



The vest is so comfy that between each addition I try to keep it wearable as is.