One of my favorite magazines is Selvedge, a UK-based textiles publication that I was first exposed to when I volunteered in the library of the Textiles Museum in Washington, D.C. I used to subscribe to Selvedge, but after a series of shipping mishaps / lost issues / unanswered emails to their customer service account, I now mostly follow Selvedge through their website and email list.
While I have primarily relied on Selvedge for pattern / color inspiration and knowledge about global textile traditions, I recently tackled my first Selvedge "project" - only 13 years after first being exposed to the magazine.
This project was Alabama Chanin's Cut Flowers from the Alabama Stitch Book, which features a range of American South-inspired projects.
When I first saw the beautiful image of these cotton chrysanthemums, I knew I had to make them. They just seemed so cheery, light and homey - the perfect antidote to our otherwise staid New York City apartment.
It took me some time to organize myself to start making these flowers, and I can't wait to make more. This despite the fact that they are time-consuming, require close attention to detail, and can be quite difficult to sew through. But the simple beauty of even my less-than-ideal home versions (pictured above) are just so delightful to me.
I admittedly took some short-cuts when I initially made these flowers at home. First, I used random leftover fabric I had at home - an old bed sheet, old t-shirt, and one of my husband's old t-shirts for good measure as well. Some of the cut fabric made quite a mess, but it was a great was to use up some odds-and-ends I have been holding on to.
Second, because some of the fabric was thicker than the cotton jersey called for in the pattern, I varied the size of my flower bulbs. I made one 5-bulb flower and two 3-bulb flowers, one of which was made from other single strip fabric bulbs instead of the pattern's double strip bulbs. Even by making those bulbs with less fabric, it was still a bit difficult to sew through the bottom of the bulbs to hold them together because of the thickness of the fabric and my relatively skinny needles.
Enough of the negatives - I love these flowers! I'll be making more and more of them, my time and hands be darned!
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