Sewing: A Seriously Fun Meditation!

There’s an old Zen proverb that I love. “You should sit in meditation for 20 minutes a day unless you’re too busy, then you should sit for an hour.” I’m one of those people who’s spent so much of her life doing, doing, doing. My husband, who has mastered the art of sitting still after forty-five years of a hectic medical practice, calls me a “Human doing” (of course, as opposed to a “human being”). But one thing I’ve learned over the years is that sewing is that space where, despite the fact that I seem to be “doing,” I can also “be.” Sewing is my meditation.

When last we met, I wrestled with my desire to make a muslin for a very complicated design. In the end, I didn’t have the time or, frankly, the inclination to pursue it. So, I picked up a piece of leftover fabric that I had bought too much of last year and rifled through my patterns.

The piece was black. So what else is new? *rolls eyes* Of course, it was black. Most of my leftover pieces are grey or black, so sue me. And just consider the possibilities when the fabric is black, and you just want to have fun.

The fabric reads like a ponte with a brushed back so I was looking for a cozy “sweater” type pattern. I have one Jalie pattern, “Charlotte,” that I’ve used for three favourite cropped jackets.

Since I didn’t need another cropped jacket, and I wanted to have some fun, I decided to make the longer version of it and experiment with some machine embroidery. And I thought I’d do it in red.

I never use the embroidery function on my machine (or almost never), mainly because I’m not an embroidery kind of person. I don’t wear embroidery as a rule. But, in the spirit of having fun, I thought I’d go for it. I experimented with a couple of feathery things but ultimately chose a triple sort of zigzag.

Then I had to decide how much of it I’d use because, well, you know, you can have too much of a good thing. I decided to trim the pockets and the sleeves and see if it could cope (or I could cope) with more. Since I decided to order fancy, hand-made buttons from Buttons d’anjou on Etsy, once they arrived, I realized that would be quite enough embroidery.

Then, I just meditated my way through a fun project. And voila! I have a new sweater (jacket?).

Moving on to spring now … if it ever comes!