two bits

The theme for last week’s Inspire Me Thursday (I’m a week day late) was Comfort Zone. I hadn’t planned on participating because I was busy doing something outside my comfort zone: sewing. Now, I’m good at sewing straight lines and I did get reasonably speedy with the lined drawstring pouches (check the crafting tag for details), but I’m not a great sewist yet. Not by a long shot. And yet I had decided to sew up little heart-shaped sachets to list in my Etsy shop. The front would have embroidery, examples of which are scattered throughout my Flickr account and the back would have been patterned fabric. The thing is, I’d hit the top end of my sewing abilities and no amount of care and attention was going to allow me to sew a really great heart-shaped sachet, especially since, let’s admit it, I don’t even like sachets. I appreciate their function because who doesn’t want a gitch drawer that smells like lavender, but I have never actually liked sachets, although the one in Denyse Schmidt’s book is pretty nice.

This led to a discouraging Tuesday on the craft front. I had perfected my heart template. I had sewn one very well. And then? I punched a hole in the fabric while turning it right-side out. I also finally acknowledged a couple of still-existent engineering problems. I put aside the sewing, admitted that sachets were not for me, and on Wednesday got out the ephemera, paints, pastel pencils, and an old ATC that I’ve been wanting to turn into a larger piece.

I finished the piece on Thursday evening. Here it is.

I’ll be listing it and some other pieces in my Etsy shop soon.

Have a good weekend, everyone!