(Not posed, the love between these two is mighty. Of course, so is the screaming at each other. As it goes. Annabel's shirt, by the way is Zebulon by Citronille that I made for Harper many years ago, and Adelaide is wearing one of her brother's old dance costumes. As we do.)
I have to confess where the inspiration for this flurry of sewing came from. On Monday, Cyber Monday as they say, my phone was off the hook with text conversations from my sisters and mother about this or that sale happening and what size is whom this year and on and on. And I know your email inbox was as cluttered as mine with all kinds of crazy deals from every shop you've ever visited and most that you never even have seen before. I answered those texts and I clicked on a few of those emails. And there were more than a few shopping carts that I 'filled' on Monday. I am not exempt from all of that temptation, as is very well evidenced on this here blog with the things I buy for myself, my home, and my family. Certainly, I am from this culture of shopping and 'deals' and it's the very way in which, in a family of all girls, we connected and bonded as sisters, and mother and daughters (and still do, though I've worked so hard to find alternatives for us). But something stopped me on Monday - maybe it was just having watched The True Cost again, this time with my boys, who are most certainly deep in an age of consumer wantiness. (I highly recommend that film, by the way, if you haven't seen it yet. I put off doing so for so long thinking that I knew what it was all about and it would just be depressing. Not true on either account. I finished it actually feeling quite hopeful, and definitely even more informed.) Or maybe it was all the work I've been doing on getting the Taproot Pop-Up shop launched (today, ironically), and editing the stories of all the many makers and small business people working so hard to live their dream while creating in a sustainable and thoughtful way, in competition with big companies who are doing anything but working sustainably or thoughtfully. Or maybe...it was a single glance behind me from the computer screen to the fabric shelves so overflowing that I can barely close the closet door. Likely it was all of those things combined that stopped me from sending any of those full 'shopping carts' to the checkout on Monday. I can't always claim that feat, but on this day, I did.
Tired of the clutter of so many choices coming at me and the consequences of each, instead I went to the sewing machine. (And let me just pause and acknowledge that it's still muddy and convoluted and I'm fully aware of that. Because I did buy the pants pattern - when of course I have many, many pants patterns on my shelves and probably something that would have worked just fine - and I did buy this fabric - with its own expense. There was, indeed, some shopping that happened to make these simple little pants. Money spent and earthly resources consumed. Ah....it is never perfect!)
But putting all of that aside for just a moment, I settled into the joy of making. Simple, simple as can be, these pants. (The pattern is Moon Pants by Made for Rae and the fabric is Robert Kaufman Chambray in Burgundy. The red pair is a Cotton + Steel double gauze.) But joyfully and sincerely I made them for my girlies. I showed Harper the pattern and he didn't think he'd like them. But once he saw them on his sisters, he decided he might just love them too. So more are in the works - they're quick enough that I can almost whip them up in the moments between making dinner. Almost. But I also don't mind taking my time making them, using that opportunity to slow everything else down around me, focus on the making with intention, and pour a little bit of love into the product. And then, the best part of all, giving them to the people I love.
