You may have seen the bumper sticker that reads; "practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty." Well, our bedroom curtains have been my recent contribution to practicing senseless acts of beauty, each having taken more than 24 working hours to complete. They began, as many of my projects seem to, because I was unable to find what I was looking for in stores. I wanted curtains with that pure, white, vintage, lacey, country look. At first, I thought I might be able to crochet the entire curtain, but I soon found out that would be more time-consuming than would be possible for me. Then, I stumbled upon a small book called Fifty Beautiful Edgings by Terry Kimbrough, which launched me into making lace edgings for my curtains. I should mention I had never crochted before. The base of the curtains is a lovely, light handkerchief linen, which I hand hem-stiched. I learned how to do this from a book, called Pulled Work on Canvas and Linen by Rosemary Drysdale, which is out of print, that I picked up at the library's thrift store for $1. I am thinking of doing a tutorial here on hemstitching because it is not hard and would be perfect for making some nice dinner napkins.
Now, something that has been on my mind lately that relates to this project is "Slow Craft." Have you heard of this? Well, maybe you were one of the hundreds of people who entered the recent giveaway put on by Jan DiCintio of Daisy Janie, designed to bring our awareness to the fact that a third of the world's pesticide use is in growing cotton, and that we can make a difference by buying organic cotton. This really got me thinking. I have recently been very hot on the Slow Food movement, which is saying no thanks to factory farming, instead buying local, organically, and ethically grown food. Maybe you've seen Food Inc.? Slow Craft is based on the same idea. So, an item handmade with organic cotton wouldn't cause a whole lot of pesticides to be used, it wouldn't be made in a factory in some small, third world country, it wouldn't cost gallons of oil to be shipped, etc. And there is so much more to it to, like the relationships created in buying and selling a handmade item, and the satisfaction an artisan or artist derives from making. So, we have incredible power as consumers. With our spending power we can demand that businesses take into account the environmental, ethical, and social costs, not just the bottom line. Honestly though, right now I'm wearing a shirt made with conventionally-grown cotton, sewn in Brunei Darussalam, and purchased on sale at Macy's. But, I have an incredible oppurtunity. Much of the US-grown organic cotton is grown in my own state. There are some wonderful companies selling a wide variety of organic, US- grown and woven fabrics, like Near Sea Naturals and Organic Cotton Plus. Maybe someday soon, I'll be posting about my new hand-made organic shirt!
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