It’s hard to say which came first – my love affair with textiles or my descent into doll costuming mania. It’s all a little bit blurry around the edges.
However.
What is NOT blurry, in the least, is my committment to interacting with old things.
I get a lot of practice with that in the mirror these days, but I digress. . .
I’m feeling a bit defensive because I told someone I was writing about stabilizing old fabrics. And that person wanted to know why I bothered doing all the careful stitching I do, using fabric that is about to disintegrate. Wouldn’t it be better to use new fabric, so it lasts longer?
Fair point.
Except for one thing.
New fabric doesn’t bring me nearly the level of joy that old fabric does. Antique fabric is more fun to use, and to collect, in my opinion. Which is the only opinion that matters when it comes to my sewing.
Take Maddie’s current South of France dress project. The fabric pictured below is a portion of what I have to use for the bodice.
As you can see, I’ll need to stabilize all of it. It’s going to be extra work. And it won’t look like a “new” dress when I finish.
The thing is, I’m okay with that. I don’t mind it looking old, and I don’t mind the extra work.
I “bother” because it makes me happy.
End of story.
To follow along with Maddie’s South of France dress project, click HERE.
To see all of her wardrobe so far, click HERE.
And to read my new sewing tutorial about how to stabilize antique fabrics, hop over HERE.