Creating: An Extension of the Heart

If there was one thing I was meant to do in this world, it would be to create. Since I was a child, creativity and the art of creative expression has been all around me. My mother was a seamstress, and since the moment I came into this world she has been crafting things for my sister and I -be it clothes for our dolls or halloween costumes for us or any other fashion piece that our heart desired.

Some of my most vivid memories are images of my mom hunched over her desk as she drafted a pattern for a costume, or of her seated at her sewing machine, pins in her mouth as she carefully guided the fabric beneath the steady hammering of the needle. The sewing machine had belonged to my grandmother, a 1940's Singer featherweight, and just as it was the same machine my mother learned to sew on, it was the very same that she would teach me with many years later. She believed sewing to be a very valuable skill, and so from a young age, whenever I was willing to sit and listen, she would teach me a stitch here, how to thread a bobbin there and anything else she could try to put inside my young mind. Her creativity inspired me to such a degree that my first job was at a craft store, and here I am today, crafting costumes just as she did.

My mother always encouraged us to express ourselves artistically, and I more than took the message to heart -truly thriving when I am able to create. Watching my mother take different pieces of things, be it popsicle sticks or bottle caps and turning it into something new and special seemed magical to me. She could completely transform a piece of foam into a shield straight from a movie, and now as an adult I am constantly trying to recreate that same magic my mother would in her sewing studio. As I've grown, I've made many different costumes based on my own interests but I can never forget the small costumes my mom keeps hung in her closet -small princess dresses and other outfits that once used to fit my sister and I. It's those very dresses that always pull me back to creating one thing, and that usually involves a princess or heroine of some sort.

For the past few months I have spent countless hours searching, desperate to find the fabric I needed for this particular project -something that proved to be quite difficult during this current pandemic, but we prevailed! In the end I was able to find the perfect fabric to replicate the gown worn by this particular princess. I wasn't able to find the perfect shade of lace, but it wasn't anything a little fabric dye couldn't help solve! With my trusty Fiskar rotary blade and my sharpest pair of scissors, I was able to cut all of the pieces needed for this gown by reusing various bits of patterns I had made for previous projects and making some simple adjustments where needed to make it work. In a further effort to save myself some time and energy, for the pattern along the hem of the dress I decided to consult one of the many tricks my mother taught me -the potato stamp. For those unfamiliar with the technique, you must cut the potato in half and on the inner part of the potato carefully carve your needed design. Once completed, you must then allow the potato to dry overnight before it is ready to use for all your stamping needs the following day. Once my potatoes had sufficiently dried, I used chalk to mark out my desired placements before using fabric paint and stamping away. Once finished, I was able to go in with a thin paint brush for further detailing.

Despite my little shortcuts to lessen the time and energy I spent on this project, as many of us know how much of our soul we often put into the things that we create, there still remained one thing I was in need of, as no princess costume is complete without the accompanying headgear! After copious amounts of searching I was able to find the wig I was in search of, and when it finally arrived I went about the laborious task of washing and combing the wig to prepare it for styling. Once dry I was able to condition and braid the wig into the appropriate style before moving onto the remaining pieces needed to finish the look of the wig. In a careful effort to not burn myself for once, as many are familiar with the tenuous relationship we have with hot glue guns, I went about glueing various faux flowers onto pins that I then arranged into the wig as artfully as I could.

Although the creation of art can sometimes come at the cost of our peace of mind, I always try to remind myself that it isn't the outcome of what we make that is important, but rather the journey. In an effort to make something grand many of us stress over the perfection of the piece that we are working on, and I often find myself guilty of this. It is in those very moments that I stop to remind myself that this is meant to be my free space, my time to pour my talents into my art and create something magical. And once I am able to take a step back like that, it's often easier to see how a small mishap -like paint getting on the wrong piece -can help me realize that I would perhaps like to try a different finish rather than the one I was using. In those instances I see my mistakes as a blessing, a way to make it better and another opportunity to better the magic I’m wielding as I create these pieces.

It never ceases to amaze what can come from nothing, and I hope someday to inspire my own children or other young people to pursue their passions and to create as I do. Because a pair of scissors, some fabric and some thread may seem insignificant to many, but others will view it as an opportunity. There are so many things you are able to create with just a few items, and even more things that you are able to do with such few items, it's simply a matter of what you're able to dream up. We simply have to remember that the art is in the crafting itself -the transformation of something normal to something extraordinary, something that we bring into creation with our hands and all our hearts.