Mother’s Day

Car Wash Skirt by Tracey

Pattern, draped by Tracey

Fabric, Wool Tweed, B&J Fabrics

Lining, Silk Charmeuse, Susan Khalje Couture

Photography by Santiago Vanegas

At least once a day, I feel like Sisyphus.  If you need a refresher on mythology, Sisyphus was the guy who was doomed to push the boulder up the hill, only to see it roll back down again.  I think many moms feel just like that, some of the time.  When asked, “Hey, what did you do today?”.  I say, “Well, let me tell you, I pushed this boulder all the way to the top of the mountain.  And man!  Was it hard work!”.  To that, they reply, “Uh, you sure about that?  Is the boulder you are talking about the one sitting at the bottom of that hill?”.  Yep.  That’s the one.

That’s one of the reasons why I make my creative life a priority.  For the times, I’ve cleaned my butt off, but there are still dirty dishes in the sink, or all of the clean laundry seems to be spilling over the dirty clothes basket, or my son rips the toilet paper holder out of the wall (true), I need to be able to make progress somewhere.  So, I head to my tree house (which is what I call my sewing room), and get to work on a project.

The car wash skirt project threatened to topple my whole system because the progress I was making was about the slowest in my history of sewing.  Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got no problem with slow sewing, but this was like watching the grass grow!  My pace was so frustrating that it took a Herculean (mythology again!!) effort just to finish.  And after about 10 months, give or take, I finally did.  Phew!

This skirt is packed with couture details.  The wool tweed is quilted with the silk charmeuse lining.  The interior pieces were joined using a hand sewn fell stitch.  I put in a petersham ribbon waist band and the zipper was installed using a prick stitch sewn by hand.  Now that it’s completed, I’m thrilled with how it turned out and I’m already starting to forget all the time and force of will it took to get it done.  Just like child birth!  We moms are programmed to forget the pain.  And when I look at my gorgeous angels, I don’t think at all about the effort of bringing them into the world.  Or not much anyway.

Next week, I’m off to Baltimore for another couture sewing workshop with Susan Khalje.  I can’t wait!!  I’m busting out some lace I bought in Paris.  See you soon.