7.06.2018

6: he's not crazy...

relief finally came at about four in the morning. it was brief, intense, and very much welcomed by all. i climbed out of bed, threw open the balcony door, and just stood there, savoring the spray. rain! 

i felt a familiar presence near my feet, and i reached down in the darkness to pick up the Little One. then we just stood there... watching it fall. rain!!!

one more brush against my leg, and Baby Bear (the "middle kitty" of the three) had stretched herself out by my feet, right up against the screen door. she too wanted to welcome the newcomer. rainnn!!!

and so we did.

it should be noted that i had to diffuse a growing conspiracy theory after i pulled today's topic out of the treasure chest, which—i was convinced for a short while— had the power to read my mind.


me: i really want to go to the fabric store, but it's too hot for any non-essential trips outside. i think i'll wait till tomorrow, when it cools down a bit.

that was yesterday.

what is the connection, you ask? well, i wanted to go to there for the express purpose of buying a roll of fusible interfacing (stuff you iron onto fabric to make it a bit stiffer) so that i can finally use up of the stack of fabric i plan to turn into bags for housing my various knitting projects.

here are all the bits of fabric, destined to become bags one of these days.


so, there i was this morning, lungs bursting with petrichor, face sprinkled with a healthy spray of sanity-restoring rain, when i came to the firm decision that i would definitely go to the fabric store today! then i shoved my hand into the treasure chest, and... well... you already know the rest. i am still not completely convinced that it really was a coincidence, but i will keep the "alternative explanations" to myself for now.

i honestly figured that his presence with me in such a setting would deter any unnecessary spending. i would get in, grab some interfacing, and we could kill a bit of time elsewhere, and maybe grab lunch before heading home.

boy... was i ever wrong.


worst part was, it was all him.

we took less than three steps inside the store before he was trying to convince me to buy the first thing he saw. a wooden basket with all sorts of compartments for storing sewing supplies.

me: i don't really sew enough to need something like that? why would i get it?
him: because it looks so cool.

at one point, he was lamenting that we are not into nautical themes in our home decor. he said this while gazing up at a display of drapery fabric featuring lots of shells and sea creatures. i just shook my head in wonder.

i made the mistake of suggesting that we should check out the bin that every fabric store on the planet has, where you can get great deals on the odd bits from the ends of the rolls (or the pieces that customerd changed their mind about buying after it was already cut from the roll). it is the perfect place to go diving for 'odds and ends' for making project bags.

i looked at a few pieces, and i was ready to resume looking for the interfacing... but he just kept digging deeper through the bin and adding stuff to my shopping basket. not only did he find a few great pieces for bags, but he also convinced me to buy a couple other pieces so that i can practice sewing knit fabrics (the kind that t-shirts and other "stretchy" garments are made from), as i have very little experience with such things.

he spent some time considering a display of large pieces of foam, and considering their usefulness in the noble art of puppet-making. yes... you heard me right.

i decided that i wanted a bit of black denim to mix with some of the patterned fabrics, and while i was walking away from finding that, he convinced me to get a bit of some cheery, colorful fabric to add to my bag-making stash.

then we got to the button aisle, and things went completely sideways.

he found a corner with a bunch of Disney buttons and such things, and he proceeded to "ooh" and "aah" over every single one of them. luckily the place was nearly empty, or i would have had to explain to curious passersby that "he's not crazy... he's an animator".  i may need to print that on a t-shirt.

he came across these chicken buttons, so now i own a cardi-worth of chicken buttons because he really liked the design. makes perfect sense.


i do not keep a lot of sewing supplies on hand these day, so i had to get some zippers and threads to mach the various fabrics. and, yes... he even enjoyed that part of things.

then... finally, we went to find the interfacing. and, as we were heading toward the register, he decided that he really wanted those perfect-for-puppets pieces of foam after all, so he ran back to get them. not sure why, but i sense that there is some puppet-making in my near future.


so, i will share the (planned) bag-making combos from the new pieces of fabric. this is also meant to serve as a note-to-self for after i shove all these pieces into the same drawer, and i find myself six months from now trying to remember what combos i intended for the whole lot.

this was the first piece of fabric that caught my eye. i wanted to emphasize the bright yellow with a matching zipper and thread, but i am considering using the black denim for the bottom of the bag, to pick up those small bits of black in the design. or i may just decide to skip the denim on this one.


there was very little of this floral fabric, so it will definitely be combined with the black denim. i cannot decide if i like this better  with the beige zipper and thread or with the black.


this was the colorful fabric he suggested. he also picked out the thread and zipper. i love this combo more than i can explain.


this is a heavy fabric of the type that is used for outdoor furniture, so it should make for a durable bag with either the antique gold or the black zipper. i might add a black denim bottom to this one too... if i have any of it left by that point.


these are two identical pieces of knit fabric, for practice sewing. i folded one to better show the print. i need to go hunting for more of this, because i want a set of big-kid pajamas made out of this stuff.


and a different practice knit fabric. this would be lovely as a skirt.


and, last, but certainly not least... three meters of the unremarkable fusible interfacing that started this whole field trip to the fabric store.


i could have just ordered the thing online, and skipped the trip, but then i would not have twice as many sewing projects to ignore. joy.


oh, and if you ever get a chance to spend your life with someone for whom "embracing your inner child" is both a career requirement and a "calling"... just take it! i guarantee you will never regret the experience.

4 comments:

  1. This is funny. I can just see him browsing the store at top speed, flinging fabrics into your stash, overjoyed with what you plan to do with it...are you making the puppets, or is he?

    He has a good eye, being an animator probably helps a great deal there.

    definitely like the heavy striped material.

    Far better to have someone around who gets it, as far as inner children are concerned, than one who looks at you crosseyed and turns the page to the financial section...

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    1. our life together is sitcom most days, and i am happy for that fact.

      your picture of the scene in the fabric store is pretty much how it happened. i was mostly just walking along behind him, shaking my head.

      the puppet-making is mainly his thing, but he will find a way to get me involved. last time, he did the design and cut out all of the pieces for the "skin", but i sewed stuff together as needed. he uses hot glue for most of the structural foam pieces, so my only role in that is to occasionally hold something together while he applies the glue.

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  2. I was also thinking, this is not a man who should be allowed in a fabric/craft store alone with a bankcard or a credit card...

    does he just make puppets because, or does he use them as part of a show? I have a jones for puppets, the first programs I watched on TV as a kid were all puppets; marionettes, Kukla Fran and Ollie, even Gumby.

    We pretty much go our own creative ways here, but are both (like you) available to murmur our praises, hold something together while the glue dries, or just be understanding when the head falls off or the paint doesn't look quite the way it was supposed to...

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    1. it's not just the craft store. he has gone overboard buying the most mundane of things... like the time i asked him to pick up some marmalade from the supermarket, and we ended up with about half a dozen jars.

      the puppet is just because. he made a muppet-sized one several years ago, and he's been amassing a trunk full of parts ever since. i think the sight of all that foam inspired him to get back to all of that.

      our interests overlap in many ways, but when it comes to the crafty-type hobbies, it's total night-and-day.

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