Saturday, oh saturday.

I bought this: Six Strand Embroidery Cotton, 500gm, White and I have no regret. I am falling in love with embroidery, and I mean head over heels in love.  And Procion MX dye has some part in the picture. 

I have been having a post cancer dialog with myself as to whether I would continue to use Procion MX dye.

Pros and cons:

It is a synthetic chemical.

It isn’t conducive to apartment living/studio space. 

I still drum up projects using Procion MX dye  for at least a portion of the project. 

I own a full set of colors and all of the equipment to go with it.

So what I have decided is, I am going to use the dyes I own and I am going to use it sporadically, as I see fit.  Embroidery is my current obsession and I want a full array of color gradations in every color of thread, so I prepare to dye them. I am on a mission to use the cloth I have been making for the last 10 years. Some dye use here and there, if tidy, succinct, and abbreviated is OK.

Discussion closed. 

 David and I walked through Red Hook this morning. There was a tag sale. I bought this set of stamps for 5$, no wait, 15$, oh, I mean 10$. It was a confusing negotiation. The cigar box had a 5$ sticker on it. I told the guy I wanted it, he said, “15$, please. You get the idea. We settled on 10$. I wanted the set. It also has a full set of numbers. The box they are nestled in, not the cigar box is the original.

Great find.

We also found a brand new wash board. I have been wanting one, we hand wash a lot here at Casa Testa. This washing board is metal, has two textures, one flat, one grated. It really is Dubl Handi.

Breast Pocket production is in ull swing around the world. I have spoken to folks in Hong Kong, Australia, Finland and all over the U.S. Someone read about the project over at Craft Gossip, which I have never heard of but I like very much. Great name, too.

Here you see the western pocket. I will Kantha Stitch this piece, dense straight rows in the negative space around the ribbon. Can you see it in this picture? For no particular reason, I am stitching this pocket for my paternal Grandmother. Maybe it is because she used to enjoy watching Westerns on Sunday afternoon television.

I love the Kantha Cloth that uses stitch along with pictorial story telling. I will be researching more about Kantha.

Sewing, Stitching, Embroidery.

The Little King has been doing quite well. He loves Chicknbits. Arrow can no longer hear well, his sight isn’t 100%, but he knows Chicknbits. He will lead me to the cabinet when he thinks of them. He has been a snuggle bunny, lap focused. He is warm. He smiles a lot. We put an old bed pillow on the floor, under my sewing tables and he loves it. You should see his happy baby, buddha smile. I treasure each moment with this little cat.

Speaking of Arrow, look who made it onto a Sew-plies Purse? Do you remember this stencil?

The owl, vaguely seen at upper right was copied from a bottle of Haden Fig wine. That was a good bottle of wine! We drank it over dinner one night in Seattle. It was a bit too much to drink and we enjoyed walking for a few hours afterward, it is fun to get too tipsy now and again. It is especially fun to get tipsy with David when we have the time to really enjoy one another’s company.

This Sew-plies purse will be a memory catcher, or a stitched journal, of sorts. Because if the nature of hand sewing (it takes a little longer), I have a bag of receipts and a pile of papers and cards that have logos, times, dates and ideas for further exploration here. I would love for this bag to be dense with stitch and the story of our trip to Seattle.

In the lower left you see a metal box. I am quite an obsessive compulsive person when I cotton on to an idea. The Sew-plies purses are really opening the way for me to sew wherever I go. But sometimes I just don’t want to be strapped into one. So I introduce, tiny sewing kits. The idea is that you can throw them into your purse and never be without something to do!

I am buying candy tins left and right, the smaller the better. I throw the candy out, rinse the box and gather a few choice items and ideas. This box has everything needed to create tags or labels. The white paper tag you see up there came from the scissor sharpener, when I brought my scissors for sharpening and I would like to use the written words from that tag to create some cloth labels. This box has cloth, a needle, pins, embroidery thread and a few scraps of cloth, for ‘just in case’.

And, of course, breast pocket production is in full swing. Kathy York has been making some. Will you? I need 1000.

Breast Pockets: A morph

Many people have contacted me and are making pockets to raise awareness for the breast cancer survivors who have decided against reconstructing our bodies! This is fantastic. I would love it if you too, might make a pocket! If I can get 1000 pockets, I will call the reporter I met on Monday and ask her if she will do a story! Please talk about this project on your blog, Facebook, by tweet, on Pinterest, wherever you think you might spread the word.

Just a few words on how I began doing this. I have been working with stitch and embroidery for a few months. At the same time, I am deconstructing and reconstructing the clothing that I own so that I can continue to wear them. Lots of women’s clothing is fitted , darts are used to accommodate the shape of the bust, my wardrobe has a fair amount of fitted garments that no longer hang properly on my frame, so I am taking them apart, removing the darts and putting them back together. When the darts are taken out, the breast pockets need to be temporarily removed and reattached after the dart is removed. I often have at least one set of breast pockets on my work table as a result.

That got me thinking about breast pockets, breast forms, prothesis, bra pockets and (of course) how I could make this into an artistic statement.  

The pockets we will make for the 1000 pocket project are not meant to be useful, they are an artistic statement, a showing of numbers and a way to create awareness that relates to real women and their choices related to the disease. The pockets should be ‘pocket shaped‘, or, as a pockets appear on the blouses in your closet. These pockets can have raw edges, you can fold the seams under as you would if you were going to sew it on a blouse, you can make a “pillow case” style pocket and hide all the raw edges, you can make it out of paper, you can knit pockets, it doesn’t matter how you do it, just that you do it. And please do it in memory or support of someone you know who has been diagnosed with breast cancer and decided against reconstructing their body, it does not matter if she wore breast forms. 

I would like to take the reporter I spoke with on Monday up on her offer to do a story about non-reconstructed breast cancer survivors, can you help a girl out? So far, about 40-50 people have ‘signed on’. Which means we need another 850 people! Let’s make a huge pile of pockets and help the women who decided against reconstruction know, they have your support. 

Breast Pockets-with deadline! 1000 pockets in 3 weeks?

I feel passionate about being a ‘flattie’, a woman who chose not to reconstruct after breast cancer treatments and doesn’t want to wear breast forms either. I am getting used to being flat and am experiencing the stares of curiosity that is a normal part of our humanity but also a showing of how few women chose to ‘go flat’ after breast cancer treatment. You may have read a recent article I wrote for Role/Reboot, an online magazine questioning gender in society. Here is the link:
 
 
The article pretty much sums up why I think women are hesitant to put their breast forms aside. I am active in an online forum for breast cancer survivors and the women on this board really would like ‘Flat Awareness’ to occur. We cringe at the thought of Plastic Surgery Reconstruction Day (October 17, search google-!) We don’t want foreign objects in our bodies. We don’t want to wear forms to maintain a ‘socially acceptable body image’.  We want to be accepted as women who have decided against reconstruction and we want to push this image into being widely accepted in the societal visual lexicon of what a female body can look like over the course of a lifetime. This isn’t just a choice for women who are ‘of an age’ (i.e. having no stake in the game, and believe me, this is often the response I hear when I say that I decided against reconstruction, it goes like this, ‘Oh! My mother (aunt, grandmother) decided against reconstruction but she was _ _ years old.’). We want to turn the repressive body image pressures off and create a new sexy, strong and beautiful but we are flat or half flat!
 
Today, I participated in a taped segment about my hospital’s Breast Cancer Survivors Pool Program. This is a local ABC News at 5 program. And believe me, I made sure I would be taped with no towel covering up my beautiful flat chested body. I went to represent me and my fella flat chested survivors. Hopefully, my interview will make the 90 second segment! At the same time I spoke with the reporter about the Breast Pocket project to raise awareness for those of us who decide against reconstructing our bodies. The reporter said, “If you can get 1000 pockets, contact me, we will try to do a story.”
 
—
 
I seek a physical representation of the women that you know, who made the decision not to reconstruct their bodies after breast cancer by way of making breast pockets (explained below).
 
Women who decide against reconstructing their bodies often wear prothesis or breast forms, as they are also called. These breast forms need pockets sewn into bras, camisoles and swim suits in order to hold the form in place. These forms can be quite heavy, uncomfortable, they shift, rub against our scars, often contribute to the dreaded, under-studied and life long struggle with lymphedema. Many of the women on the cancer boards I frequent do not want to wear forms, these women often feel compelled to keep up a ‘good image’ in their workplace and on the streets of their hometowns. We want to see acceptance of our choice and to let other women who have to make this decision to know that it ain’t all bad! So, won’t you please make a breast pocket in the name of your friend, mother, aunt, sister? Lets break the walls down, stop being quiet and making nice, lets build a world where it is acceptable to go flat after breast cancer treatment. With this call for breast pockets, I am using the idea of the shirt pocket, also called breast pockets to make an artistic statement about breast cancer and deciding to forego reconstruction.
 
Please, help me to take this reporter up on her offer to build awareness for us ‘flatties’. 

 
Call For Art: Breast Pockets (pockets as you would find on your favorite button up, pocketed blouse). There are many shapes of pockets, the western, patch, button down flap, choose a style! 
 
 
If your aunt had a unilateral mastectomy without reconstruction, make just one pocket and/or flap. If I am the only ‘flattie’ you know? Oh, well, you will need to make a pair!  The point is, I would like a physical representation of how many women forego reconstruction. I am lifting the curtain and peeking in. How many women do you know? Make pockets for each one, unilateral or bilateral. Each pocket should have a name attached to it, first names only. Please use the pattern on my site (see link below), or make your own pattern, because breasts come in all sizes and shapes, make them with your tools and media, don’t think twice about it. These pockets can be cloth or paper or. 
 
And please, invite your friends, in fact, forward the link to this post freely, please speak up, talk about it on your blogs. 
Email me when you have your  pockets completed and I will tell you where to send them. 
 
Deadline: Please send the pockets to me during the week of October 22. Comment on this post and I will put your name in an already growing list of participants. I will let you know where to ship your pockets in a private email.

Thread Dyeing and other Fun. Also a Call For:

Yesterday, I was making coffee and who ran past the window? A black Squirrel. I immediately grabbed some granola and put it on the sill. Grey Squirrel quickly ran over and started eating.

It is funny! At our subway stop there is a transgender person and a shoe shine man who both ‘beg’ change, the shoe shine man is new to the stop, he has priced his shine at 1$ hoping his customers will give more. I gave some change to the transgendered woman and she asked me to give the shoulder to the shoe shine man as I walked by!

Grey Squirrel didn’t ask, he just shouldered right in!

I am dyeing a color wheel gradation of embroidery thread in four steps for each color of the color wheel, 48 hanks of thread in total. I am doing this in preparation for the upcoming Boro Bag/Hip Bag class at The Clever Guild.

And Look! what just fell into my cart over at Amazon. I have been doing lots of embroidery over here and I find that I like 6 strand floss the best! I love the look of a single strand of floss, I like the ability to use all 6 strands, three strands, two, I am forming preferences related to embroidery threads.

These ‘100 calorie’ zip tight bags, all in a row, happy sigh. I am so glad you can’t eat the content of these bags! That would be a lot of calories.

I don’t think I got the recipe for the gradation down pat. I will be washing these samples today or tomorrow and I will need to tweek it a bit.

The 4 red thread samples you see here, told me the middle two gradations were ‘too close’. But they are so pretty all the same.

Who doesn’t like a gathering of good stuff to get the juices flowing.

 

I now have a fascination with breast pockets. I have been making breast pockets, not the blouses to go with them, just the pockets. I am changing my wardrobe to printed, button down blouses and pockets are key! Really, I like the name breast pocket, I no longer have breasts, but I can wear breast pockets!

When breast cancer survivors wear breast forms or prothesis, they need pockets sewn into their bras, camisoles and bathing suits to hold the forms in place. And flaps? Some reconstruction techniques use the word flap in the description of the procedure. I am not interested in any of that, but I like thinking about parallel ideas. In talking about clothing, when breast pockets have buttons, I think of them as nipples. When they have snaps, those too are nipples, with the added benefit of the actual shape (the male portion of the snap is nipple shaped). And with breast pockets on shirts, you can be prepared to stuff them full and change out the size of your ‘breasts’ in minutes flat (pun intended)! It is always good to have some useful pockets! In fact, I was putting embroidery floss in my breast pockets while laughing my head off in this in this post.

Do you know anyone who has had a mastectomy without reconstruction, unilateral or bilateral? Say you or aunt (mother, sister, friend, wife, coworker) was diagnosed with breast cancer and didn’t have reconstruction? In her name or memory, make either a single or a set of pockets and flaps appropriate to her choice, unilateral breast pocket or bilateral pockets and send them to me. I would like a huge pile of of pockets, in effect creating actual ‘awareness’, with a physical object that represents a real person.

And in preparation of the ‘pink month’, I figured I would ask for some help in creating awareness that does not exploit, or misrepresent me as a survivor and to go further, to shed light on us half/flatties! Some of the half flatties call themselves uniboobers! Funny, right? So, I invite you to make pockets and help raise awareness and pride in a choice I hope none of you ever face.

You can make them out of cloth, paper, I don’t care how or what you make them with, just make them. If you are interested in helping me out, please comment on this post. I will let you know where to send your pockets.

Here is a pattern for  a BreastPocket, if you feel you need one.

Edited to add:

Here are a few examples of the pockets I have been making, showing some pockets with flaps and just flaps:

Me and Him.

My good David and I went to Seattle for a few days, we rested, relaxed and enjoyed time together. You might imagine that being a care taker, being taken care of, surviving cancer treatments and moving into life after active treatment is quite a process and I can attest to that, it really is! Taking time to connect and enjoy one another is essential. 

Boy did we need this time together.

I don’t know that I have ever seen starfish that are as big as this. We stood about 20 feet above this starfish and I bet it was bigger than a dinner plate. I am not saying I would like to eat it though.

I am so happy to experience open air markets like Pike Place Market in the U.S.! All this hermetically sealed food in plastic wrap? Does it have to be this way? Gosh. When we were in Barcelona we explored a market where a butcher had a cutting block that had been hit so many times it was severely concave, it was impressive. I know. Germs. Phobia. But you know? We humans seem to stick around! 

Me and him at an ATM machine. I couldn’t resist snapping a photo.

This was a good vacation because it was just relaxed. We walked all over the city. We found ‘favorite ‘ spots and frequented them. We ate well. We enjoyed drinking wine. We talked, loved and were present to one another. What could be better?

We even stepped out of our comfort zone and ate meat! Andouille sausage sandwiches with sauerkraut , potato salad and a pickled pepper to be exact. It was just something we stumbled upon in Pioneer Square. It cost all of 10 bucks for two plates and it featured foods found in Pike Place Market. We don’t eat meat often but we are opportunistic! They placed gorgeous thick wooden tables and benches in a small park surrounded by brick building that must have been at least 100 years old. There were ball jars with wonderful flowers and happy eating people, come on! Try some meat! OK. And another local treat? Yum.

And I do like my 50 year old trinkets. I didn’t buy any of it because they thought so highly of it (price-wise, that is). But it was a vacation to be cherished and daydreamed about!

Last year at this same time, my hair was just growing back in and I was preparing to go to Switzerland to teach (you really should go to that link and watch the video Marlis created). This last year has been quite formative. Cancer, facing my own mortality, has changed me, not to mention my body. I have been quiet for all of the above reasons. I am returning and settling in to myself, I have been quite creative too, just not very verbal about it over the interwebs.

If you could hear me over here, you would hear a big sigh.

Thread as traveler.

David and I just got back from shanty town, oh uh, I mean, Seattle. What a great city. It feels like a town, which is nice.

It is such a working town, quiet, humming right along, I loved walking the streets. We passed through neighborhoods, quaint with corner shops, over highways, alongside real traffic, through alley ways, the whole deal. We kicked back, ate, drank, walked, boy did we walk. Maybe 6 to 10 miles a day. We had a clean fresh room, we found a coffee-shop to land in, I stitched, he read. We ate doughnuts! The raised cinnamon sugar doughnut? I am glad those doughnuts are on the other side of the continent! Can’t walk there from here! We went two days in a row and each ate 2 doughnuts a day!

 

A total of 4 doughnuts! OMG

 

We don’t eat doughnuts in-real-life.

 

Anyway.

The production of Sew-plies Purses is unceasing. The above Poppy Sew-plies Purse feels very Inspired to Quilt in look and feel. Working with organza just feels comfortable to me. And to watch the sheen of the thread against the organza? Very i2q.

I painted these poppies, perhaps a year or more ago. It was just a sample, playing around with dye and trying to paint and achieve color variations, I liked it, so I batched, washed and put it aside. Layering it over this scrap of Japanes kimono fabric is really opening up the visual conversation. Being able to see through the organza, to see some but not all of the silk undeneath? And to sew them all together? That is the magic of working in layers like this. 

The difference is the use of commercial prints and hand embroidery. What fun a single stitch is. I love hearing the needle rip the cloth, the thread pulling through. Joy. Relaxation. Did I mention the tea shop we found? I am looking to find a yummy green or white tea. I am sorry, I keep derailing my own post. We have been having such fun!! Tonight we will walk Manhattan.

The Sew-plies Purse is playing a huge role in my makings! I am literally sewing on the subways, at the coffeeshop, wherever possible. My goal is to draw, transform, change, create texture, communicate through needle and thread.  To sew imagery from experience as quickly as possible, given the medium. It slows me down just enough! 

Fun, fun, fun!

100% Human

I am enamored of labels. I remove them from my clothing, collect them in baggies, I love them. I daydream of a collection of labels organized by color. The last time I visited my folks, I nabbed a coffee bag label printed on twill tape, I am telling you! Precious Item alert. Yup.

I am making this ‘garment’ for myself. So I decided to stitch my own label, so far I have embroidered,

‘Made in New Haven, Ct

100% Human.

What should the small print should read?

Do I need some care instructions? I like the idea. 

David and I are still enjoying a vacation with each other, so I will be scarce for a few more days.

Yarn Bag and Project

Dear Person-Who-Lost-Your-Grocery-Store-Stuff- Sack-Purse. I found it. It took my fancy and I am using it. I feel badly for you. I am sorry if you are looking for it. I wanted to do a post on Facebook: I have taken to stealing. Because it is true. 

And I continue to move labels around and misrepresent items in my possession. 

 

Who doesn’t need a Knitters Ruck Sack? This bag will be a regular ‘wear’ over our jaunt to Seattle. It has two neat coils of Malabrigo sock yarn in aguas color. I am making Boardwalk.

At which time, I want to knit this. I need both sweaters and this one will need to be made out of Jared’s line. I tried both sweaters on while visiting Purl in Soho. I need both!

I am determined to have this sweater complete and worn in one months time. OK? Do you hear me? I am verbalizing a commitment to self, publicly. I want that sweater. I would love to fall in love with a ‘look’ and to create a few choices pieces to flesh out that look. I am a textile artist. I print cloth, I have a great stash, it is time to start making things! Fixing and updating vintage blouses? Yup, got that too. I am hoping this sweater will look cute over printed button up shirts (like this one, oh my! That one needs some green to tame it!).

I am on a mission to dress creatively!

My Man and I are off to a much needed vacation! Seattle here we come.

Project bag?

My Man and I are planning a trip to Seattle next week and I need soft, easy to carry, project bags. In fact, I care more about packing my projects than I do clothing! This bag is made of cotton kimono scrap and is lined in cotton kimono cloth. It is not as ‘sturdy’ as the ‘market bag’ I made earlier in the week. But it is basically the same design. Perhaps it needs some boro stitching and patching, which would give the cloth more body.

I do like the strap tab detail at the lower left. 

I think it is kind of funny. I have had this ability since I was a child. I could not for the life of me, figure out how to sew the straps into the bag while I was lining it. This bag also cinches shut with the weight of what it carries and the strap emerges from a button hole middle top sack. The strap and buttonhole just mussed up my ability to think! So I stopped, got my book, went into the other room. Read for a while. Closed my eyes and saw it! So I hopped up and finished sewing the sack.

My friend Cricket can’t see pictures in her head, I can, can you? It would bum me out not to be able to see things in my minds’ eye.

 

Oh Gosh. Does this mean that each of my Sew-plies purses needs its own project bag? I think that is going a bit too far.

That’s that.

Socks, toes, skirt? That is all I have to say about that.

I have been wanting a RED sew-plies  purse and this is it. There is a bit of kimono fabric under and Inspired to Quilt style poppy on organza. I found the dragon while walking here in Carroll Gardens, last November and it has been a magnet on the fridge ever since. Now the dragons outline will be embroidered here.  I may use some hand dyed red velvet for the straps and flap, I don’t know but this bag will be very rich indeed.