This is probably the most joy-filled thing I’ve made so far. The end result, the making process and how the whole thing came to be, all three have been coloured by joy.
It all started in Llandudno, where I spent 3 weeks on a spirituality and prayer workshop1, last August. Each day, we were given suggestions for ways of praying and things to pray about. We went away to try them out then came back and shared our experiences, in small listening groups.
One of the early exercises we were given was to imagine a sculptor had made a statue of us, and we were given the opportunity to see it for the first time. The meditation (originally from a book by Jesuit priest, Anthony de Mello) encouraged us to imagine what the sculpture looked like, what it was made of and what we felt like when we were looking at it. After we’d mulled this over for a while, the meditation encouraged us to have a conversation with God about the imagined experience.2
I’d done this meditation before and found it quite uncomfortable, so I was a bit unenthusiastic about doing it again, but I gave it another go. I ended up with such a clear image of a textile sculpture, in the form of a flowing denim dress, hanging in the air, as if worn by an invisible body. The skirt was swirling out as if mid-twirl. There were bright colours in the skirt and it had been mended with patches in several places. I was so struck by this, I had a go at drawing it, with some of the random array of art materials that the workshop had available.
I really wanted to have a go at making what I’d seen from fabric, but that’s weird, right? Imagine a sculpture of yourself, then take it seriously enough that you go and actually make the thing? However, a big theme of the workshop for me was not hiding away my creativity, however odd it seemed. It looked like a really fun and interesting challenge to make. I had a day free in Llandudno to wander around charity shops looking for suitable fabric. I thought I’d give it a go.
Charity shops provided me with a denim blouse and a duvet cover with stripes of many colours. I already had threads, needle and scissors, obviously (because why would I travel without them!?)
It felt important not to hide away while sewing this, so a lot of the dress was constructed while sitting on the floor of the conference room, in the retreat house we were staying in, with other people around as I did so.
At the very end of the workshop, we were encouraged to choose items that summed up our experience of the workshop and share them with the whole group. My dress, half finished and held together with borrowed quilting pins was passed around the circle of people. As it went from hand to hand, each person treated it as if it was a young child they were fond of. It got hugs, and dances, and sat on people’s laps, giving joy as it went. My eyes are getting a bit damp, right now, just remembering how this little scrap of sewing was received and appreciated.
The black patchwork and the multi coloured hand quilting stitches that make the background happened after I got home. I shared them, during Advent, with the online creative spirituality group3 I belong to, to keep with that theme of not hiding. I couldn’t bear to sew the dress down, having seen it dance, so it’s held in place with quilting pins!
The result is a joy-filled reminder (just maybe, on a good day) of how God sees me. Worn and mended, yet creative and beloved. It’s also a nudge that sharing creativity is a very lovely thing. So I think my next big sewing project might be not just sewn in public, but sewn in collaboration with other people – with anyone who wants to join me. Making connections with other people feels especially important, right now.
I don’t yet know quite how it’s going to work. It will evolve once I get started, like all the best projects do. But if you think you might be interested, let me know. I’ll write about it here, I hope, once the details are a little clearer.
Bonus final picture, for those who made it this far: Guess who ISN’T very helpful at collaborative sewing!?
- The Llysfasi Spirituality Workshop, which I would whole-heartedly recommend, it was amazing. You can find more about it here: https://www.llysfasi-spirituality-workshop.org.uk/homepage ↩︎
- I’ve tried to find a link to the text of the meditation online. The best I found was a copy of the whole book with it in, here: https://archive.org/stream/anthony-de-mello-sadhana-a-way-to-god/Anthony%20de%20Mello%20-%20Sadhana%20-%20A%20Way%20to%20God_djvu.txt If you search the text for the word “statue” you’ll find it! ↩︎
- Get in touch if you think this is something you might be interested in. We meet on Zoom, WhatsApp and Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/344546283209624 ↩︎
Ragbag Mending 