piecing together stretchy lace pieces

My dearest needlework friends!

my favourite travelling trousers: tartan and wool for practicality and comfort

settling into a work rhythm on one of the first buses...

Merry midwinterfest to you all, in whatever form most brings your spirit of the darkest time of the year/ the lightest time of the year, depending on where you are!

'sticky' pins; really good for holding stuff in place whilst there's a lot of movement all around.

I am writing on my Manjaro laptop, from a Flixbus somewhere north of Birmingham, on my way to Scotland to surprise my dad (and the rest of the family, of course) with an unannounced visit. I'm travelling by bus. And some other choice vehicles, from Guardia Sanframondi to High Corrie on the Isle of Arran: my home in Italy to my family home where I grew up, in the south west of Scozia.

my collection of fastenings, to cover a variety of eventualities as I'm away from home

I wrote more about this journey over on the Pinmapple travel community pages, but wanted to hone in on clothing and journeying, sewing and keeping sane whilst travelling very-long-distance by pullman: there's an art to not getting totally unwell on an epic bus ride - as well as to getting a lot done.

the photos are not in chronological order, but near enough - this is my wait for the ferry at Ardrossan harbour: there was one sailing, blessedly, the day I arrived!

This time I wasn't soooo productive, however this was by choice, as I really wanted to settle into the quiet of being away from The Arthouse for the first time in several years. I wanted to absord the importance of this journey as fully as I am possibly able, especially in the context of having had this recent meeting with @kesityu.fashion, and having had my mind and heart opened to all the possibilities that I hadn't been able to quite muster on my own! I wanted to be fully present in each moment so that I could connect with the landscape we were passing through, make the trip as comfortable as possible, and make certain that each phase of the pilgrimage unfolded as smoothly and harmonious as it could/ can.

my favourite homemade woollen bag, on the same tartan theme, which acquired a hole on the journey...

Sewing is always a great leveller during travel. It helps me to tune out completely from whatever things might pick away at my neuroses and then take over completely, draining me and exhausting my capacity to thrive on a voyage. Needlework brings the attention to my posture, breath, concentration and the simple rhythm of What Is (rather than 'what is not'). This quality time cannot be over-valued: taking even one small project when I get on a long bus ride, can make the difference between extreme frustration with the whole thing.... and peacefully brushing off every niggle, thus being able to truly enjoy all aspects of the ride - not just the really pleasant ones!

darning the hole in contrasting thread

This journey, I'm currently on my fifth coach: following Guardia S. to Benevento, Benevento to Milano, Milano to Paris, Paris to London - this is now London to Glasgow. Just an overnight stay in the city, then a ferry (hopefully: high winds are forecast), and a final car journey for the last 6 miles on the island, after I call my dad and ask him to come and pick me up - SORPRESA! And I only really got into sewing on two of the previous buses: having, as you can imagine, quite maxed-out on the baggage, because I need to be fed, watered and kept entertained all the way, I had minimum room for even moving my arms and legs whilst being sat down. Smaller buses than the last time I travelled far! And no room in the overhead racks! Yikes, a couple of the phases I had no-one beside me, and could get on with spreading out my threads, scissors, pins and fabrics to the edges of my quota-ed space, but right now the wee laptop and my rattling fingers in front of it is all I can make room for.

the long wait for the last leg of the epic journey: after 3 days on buses, a few hours in the harbour waiting room.... great sewing space, where I could lay out all my garments!

This is fine with me too, as I finished as much as I could without being able to stand up and try the garments on: one is underwear and the other is this tight top - which I think will be too tight. The final piece, which I sewed first, is a gorgeous underskirt/ overskirt, in black with red and white ribbon and lace details, and small flower patterns all over... I had done most of the stitching-in of the new waist, over recent evenings . and now needed to finish the closure.

an earlier phase of the dress

It needed to have the elastic stitched back in place, to secure it, and then a hook-and-eye set into it for the final closing facility. I know that the point of elastic is to not need a closure, but I really enjoy elastic AND a button or hook-and-eye: I go with my gut on projects these days, and get into the spontaneous choice-making that it requires. I like going outside-of-the-grain, if it feels right, and learning by doing whether or not a thing works. This is the best way of learning, for me.

I actually took this apart again, after thinking that a long lower section would be nice...

After the skirt, I pulled out these two lace items which I had: sorry they're not well documented before I cut them up: no space or tech to do that with, as I was beginning them! They were one very average black lacy top with long sleeves, and one front of a similar blouse, which I had removed the back of, because it was made out of stretchy cotton, which wasn't attractive to me. Both are from black stretchy lace, which can really vary from being rather tacky, to being highly classy. My challenge was to move it from one category to the other! Especially the full blouse, I LOVE the material of; the lace pattern has particularly lovely sacred geometry in its flowers - some beautiful details, which its previous incarnation did not showcase.

I cut the lower border to even it up, then (now) am thinking whether or not to enlarge the garment by adding side seams.

I think the full blouse also had a black cotton undervest, to make it less see-through. In this case, I felt that this was ruining the whole point of the lovely fabric, which works well on skin like mine, which is pretty-damn-white. I like the contrast, and am already planning a cool outfit for our village hall mega-disco-hogmanay-dance event in a week.... So I actually have THREE of these kinds of black stretchy lace items - plus a cotton non-stretchy black lace item! - which I may customise before the big event.

Reaching finishing point of this phase of travel-sewing: overwhelm at not being able to see the right way forward.

The material is nice to cut, and nice to sew - apart from some moments when the needle pokes into an elastic thread and stretches it. Mostly it's very straightforward though: I sew new shapes - a pair of lovely knickers, and an 'amalgamation blouse' from all the left-over pieces. I have two sets of further scraps from this work, which I see as the starting points for two bra-lettes, also. The knickers are very simple, taking the gusset part of the original blouse . the one with the lace I like the best - and sewing it into a knicker shape. This did involve some wrestling with tight stitching where the blouse gusset had hooks-and-eyes to fasten it under the pelvis, but I obviously did not want that facility in a pair of knickers, thank you. I have that part of them pinned, and the waist hemmed for a thin elastic, if I can find one on Arran... looking forward to continuing this sewing job, in front of the fire with a mulled wine and mince pie (one of the many culinary delights I miss immensely from my home country).

The unstitching of the added lower border...

The new blouse shape, made from this cropped version of the original full blouse, was clearly too short, though I did like the idea of a crop-top made from this material... But anyways, I started by adding some of what I'd chopped off the other blouse (I think! Actually can't quite remember which blouse was which!), and then took the arms of the half-blouse, and cut them to make a kind of peplum for this newly-shaped top. I cut the sleeves off, opened them up, and am in the process of shaping them to be more uniform all around; I may also take another remnant and add it to the sides, as the top is super stretchy, but even so it may well be way too small for me. Either way, I hope it goes towards cool-stylish rather than dated! And I'm being careful, with such a big stretch capacity in this fabric, to not make my stitches too tight: am pulling the fabric along the stitch line every few stitches, to ascertain that it will retain its elasticity.

If they work, these will be two pieces of really lovely clothing. I'm keen to have a nice 'lux' pair of undies for the occasional party I go to, and to try layering with the lace tops, and see how they mix even with the wool kecks I've been working on recently. I like the idea of making a small winter collection around lace and wool - in particular tartan or tweed, with select lace aspects... Mmmm: I love this space I have to work in, which is being away from home, and having none of the usual myriad issues around to take care of: LOVE having all this time, space, groundedness, family-time, nourishment and healing to look forward to at the end of these buses. I feel ready for all this, having had my first couple of days of bus-sewing, and being all calm and focussed for the next steps. Midwinterfest is such a creative inward time, which I am glad to be getting to a colder country for: lots of chats by the fireside, long philosophical conversations, and inspiration from returning to my roots and culture... I am very blessed.

On the ferry to my home island, at last! Appreciating the contrast of fabrics between my kecks, the tweedy skirt-shorts I was hemming up, and the ferry bar carpet!

Sending love to you all; winter cheer all around!

www.claregaiasophia.com