MakingOver Quilts

I’ve never been much of a “traditional” quilter. Early in my sewing life, I resisted the perfectionist tendencies that seem to creep into traditional quilts. I thought it was ridiculous that my 4-H sewing projects were judged on having perfect points or that people would insist that there was a right or wrong way to do anything. I was an artist, after all! That resistance was part of why I didn’t start quilting until I was 25, a full 15 years after I started trying to make my own clothes. Quilting seemed so tedious and quilters seemed uptight. That brings me to today. Today I love quilting. I could go on and on about the ways that quilting has improved my mental health, logical thinking skills, time management, and even my own tendencies toward perfectionism and anxiety.  Once I learned some of the tricks of quilting (I love this book for intermediate quilting tricks), it became a meditative practice. There is something so calming about sitting down with 100 beautiful little bits of f

In 2022, I set a goal of making 50% of the clothes I wear. I didn’t make that goal, not even close. But, I loved getting back to apparel design and construction. I set that same goal for 2023 and I’m getting much closer. People are often curious about how and why I am doing this, especially given how affordable fast fashion makes clothes and how expensive apparel fabric can be. As a purely financial decision, it doesn’t make a lot of sense. So, I thought I’d explain a bit more about my reasons and what I’ve learned so far. Reason #1: Resisting the Consumption Urge of Late Capitalism Okay, so not everyone spends their work days thinking through the evils of capitalism, but as a sociologist I have spent a good deal of time thinking about how capitalism, mass production, and fast fashion has shaped my relationship to clothes (and everything else, really). Increasingly, I have been thinking about how to make my life more local, smaller in scale, smaller in impact. It’s not easy and, of cou

 Geez, that whole pandemic thing really changed a lot. One thing it didn’t change for me is my love of sewing. In fact, sewing became one of my most important outlets, especially during the early days when there was so much uncertainty and anxiety.  Over the last couple of years, I’ve tried out many new ways of building out my sewing skills and connecting to others. There are two quilting activities that I now recommend. This post is about the first and I’ll update about the second over the next couple of days.  Early on in the pandemic, I wanted a monthly subscription of quilting related stuff. I tried a couple of the fabric and notions boxes, but just didn’t feel inspired. So, I kept looking and eventually came across the  Murder Mystery Quilt , which is a monthly quilt pattern, plus a chapter of a mystery novel, plus a facebook group that the creator claims is filled with “the nicest quilters on the internet.” She’s not wrong! Each subscriber is put in a small group where people sha