Ciao again dearest Needlework Friends!

As mentioned in my last post about Giant Knickers, I still had to finish off the buttonholes of this garment... I put this off NOT because it was a boring job or that it'd take such a long time, BUT because I knew it is pretty compulsive for me, and if I started, I likely wouldn't be able to put it down - until my hands really hurt, or they were all completed!

So I just wanted to share here; each buttonhole - and what a joy it is to work around a wee cut in a fabric, some of them less neat, and bring the cut back to clarity, as it were.

I've been 'doing' buttonholes for a long time, but my recent return to needlework got me on a whole new vibe with them: helping friends and neighbours out with occasional paid sewing jobs, I wanted to put that little bit extra effort into the work...

I often reinforced buttonholes, because on bought garments they often unravel or become weakened over time, through use. A loose buttonhole can affect a garment hugely! I often adjust my own buttonholes, on new or on well-worn items, because I am extremely sensitive to things fitting nicely! If a button keeps coming undone, it gets me really aggitated! If I have my sewing kit in my handbag, if I'm out and about, I'll get to it immediately. It is deeply satisfying to me, to have a previously-loose button then fit beautifully.

A good buttonhole - the right torque, or the angle and tension of sliding in of the button - can make a garment which is already a favourite... THE favourite. Buttons are magical, but without a right, accompanying hole, they are useless!

So each of these buttoholes on my Giant Knickers, was very meaningful. I live very spontaneously and creatively, and this allows me to see-feel-know everything as metaphor. The metaphor is the magical channel-between-dimensions, that lets us see how Truth interconnects all things - and thus unlocks our power to affect positive change (i.e. be creative) in the world. Metaphor is like the first step into Magic and Alchemy.

Buttonhole metaphor - for me- relates to borders, to tiny tweaks being vitally important, to the yin and yang relationship of hole and button, and to the attention to detail of right stitch for a particular fabric edge...

And perfecting a buttonhole really can - at least for folks like me who adore detail - become addictive!

At least, on these big underpants, there were ten holes to work on. Tiny wee intense jobs like this get me really inspired: I feel all professional and proficient, capable and industrious, even if I am sitting in bed whilst sewing!

Especially in the most domestic setting, working so intimately, whilst also being in an intimate bed setting, seems to connect me - via hands and heart - with all the folks who used to work from home doing similar work.

All the needleworkers in particular: across the planet, in different climates and seasons, through the ages and even right now alongside me - dipping and pulling the needle and thread, in and out and in and out and in and out... Breathing deeply, stretching occasionally a leg or arm, or shaking the hands and wrists... Feeling their work profoundly, and taking such care and attention to every single stitch.

The power and energy sewn into a garment which is hand-finished like this at home - is incomparible, in respect to a machine-made garment in a factory, where the folks in servitude to a corporation are paid a pittance.

The feeling is different, wearing something touched by a bare hand, and by intention.

The difference in the feeling, of wearing a garment touched by love, is significant... Perhaps this contributes to my obsessive urge to reinforce buttonholes! I feel really enthused by this activity, as it frees my mind to imagine the possibilities: contrasting-threads buttonholes on winter coats, using buttons instead of elastic or zips, playing with homemade, natural,or found objects buttons, and solving problems of structure with inventive buttons and buttonholes.. Expansive activities like this help the imaginal realm to open wide!

Much LovE to you in your work today!!

www.claregaiasophia.com