unleash my creativity

ok, so it wasn’t such a good idea to photo them against an orange background (it was dark and late and i needed the money), but here we have young Hanna’s birthday prezzies: a Clothkits purse and pencil case. bet she’ll be the only young lady in Hamburg with these. am especially proud of (1) having worked out how to use the zip foot on the sewing machine, even if the seam is totally wonky, and (2) the upcycled lining: an old pillow case that cost €1 at oxfam. you get a better idea of the colours on the Clothkits page.

and here it is, on the creative stairpost. the colours aren’t quite as gaudy in real life. i was inspired by my mum’s hilarious crocheted coat of many colours. anyway, not bad for €5.99 including the needles. knitting must surely be the cosiest winter hobby?

i made a bag! with my new sewing machine! not a straight seam in sight!

i bought a new sewing machine! i’m still not sure it was the right thing to do, and couldn’t sleep last night for thinking of my nana’s sewing machine which i’d schlepped through the london underground and got a friend to drive over to berlin, and have now abandoned to herr ziemann to be slaughtered … i was hoping it could be repaired, but herr ziemann said that it had seized up through lack of use, plus some band that isn’t made any more was too loose, plus the motor sounded slow, plus i don’t know what else, and that a repair job would cost at least 200 euro. and then he showed me the new pfaff machines, especially the select 1528 which was on special offer (end of the line) and can do all these jazzy stretch stitches that the pfaff 297 most certainly couldn’t … i went away to think about it for a few hours, had to ring my mum (who was helpfully in frankfurt) to ask her opinion, but eventually decided to buy the new one and leave the old one there in part exchange. i feel terrible that i didn’t take proper care of nana’s machine, and that it seized up through lack of use. then again, what is the point of keeping a machine that doesn’t work? and even if i’d got it repaired, there’s no guarantee that it would be fun to use. it was about 30 years old, and herr ziemann said it was past its half life. i still feel terrible. but i’ve still got the instruction booklet with lots of lovely photos from the 1970s/80s…

so today i got up early, went out to get patterns and material, found myself completely overwhelmed, had to go swimming to recover, and have now turned the lounge into a complete and utter tip full of sewing stuff. but the new machine sews like a dream! i’m starting with a bag that’s supposed to be easy peasy, but i’ve gone wrong already. well, not terribly wrong, but i want to do it better. i suppose it will get easier with practice.

• bead-making course
• felting
• write stories, e.g., tidying grandma
• paint walls in creative manner
• learn Mandarin in creative manner
• make random creative things for house
• seek out sewing machine and crank it up
  etc
  etc
  etc

under “when this bloody project is finished”. That’s my main problem, I think, everything gets postponed until something else has been done, and then it takes (or i take) so long to do the other thing that the real, proper and important thing never happens.

Last night was a felting evening with Ulrike (http://www.rauthenstrauch.de/ ), something I’d been looking forward to for ages. Felting rocks. You can make it up as you go along, get wet and soapy, and produce something surprising in next to no time. My little felted things have been making me happy all day.
This is a real and proper goal, and one I wish to pursue with elan.