Made and treasured (Fashion Revolution Week)

Fashion Revolution Week: April 23-29, 2018

These cushion covers (from Ten Thousand Villages) are not clothes, you say.

Yes, I know.

But they have something in common with the aims of Fashion Revolution Week.

They were loomed by hand, by artisans in India who used the ikat dyeing-weaving process. If you're not sure what that is, take a look at the crafting footage in this video from My Green Closet.

Besides the fact that making ikat cloth seems incredibly difficult and time-consuming, which unfortunately makes it expensive, there's another point to consider: it's valuable because real people used their eyes and hands and tools and skills to create it. Like the Fashion Revolution slogan "Loved Clothes Last," it means that items made with that much artistry are for keeping. We put them to use, but we also treat them with care, out of respect for their makers, for the materials, and the creativity embodied in them. Like hand-knit slippers, or hand-penned calligraphy. Or a recycled-iron owl (also from Ten Thousand Villages, but not currently on their website).

Things kept and used in this way take on a meaning outside of words like "sofa cushion."

And clothes kept, worn, worn again, maybe mended or dyed or altered, take on meaning as well. It's not just a jean jacket; it's your jean jacket. 

That's a long way from fast fashion.

Christmas Countdown with Charlotte Mason, Week 5 of 12: Heroes of Faith

8 weeks until Christmas...

Here is this week's passage from Charlotte Mason, Parents and Children, Chapter 26: The Eternal Child

"Children are Objective in Tendency––Now, the tendency of children is to be altogether objective, not at all subjective, and perhaps that is why they are said to be first in the kingdom of heaven. This philosophic distinction is not one which we can put aside as having no bearing on everyday life. It strikes the keynote for the training of children. In proportion as our training tends to develop the subjective principle, it tends to place our children on a lower level of purpose, character, and usefulness throughout their lives; while so far as we develop the objective principle, with which the children are born, we make them capable of love, service, heroism, worship."

In the spirit of Charlotte Mason:

Love, service, heroism, worship: these are the things that education should equip us to be and do. Love must have an object. Heroism includes fighting to save and protect others, with little thought for ourselves. Serving and worship also need someone or something outside ourselves.Were you educated with a view to "developing the objective principle?"

If not, Charlotte Mason suggests finding some little children to hang around with, and taking notes from them. (Something that Jesus also recommended.) 

Things to do this week:

If you don't have children close at hand, maybe this is a week to explore family memories and photographs. Or re-read stored-away books that brought you or your children wonder. (Some of my friends recommend The Christmas Mystery, by Jostein Gaarder.)

What's the big holiday this week that has nothing to do with pumpkins? All Saints' Day, November 1st. When our children were younger, that was the night for good clothes, the lace tablecloth, and an invisible "guest" chosen from Christian history. Such events don't need to be for children only; we continue to remember and honour those who loved, served, worshipped, and acted as heroes of faith.

Do you wear aprons? I hardly ever do at home (what do I do that's so messy?), but they are useful for helping out in the kitchen at church or somewhere, and they're also a good symbol of service. (Or you might just think they look cute.) A few years ago, I helped review a downloadable apron pattern, and while it wasn't hard to make, I was a bit shocked at the amount of new fabric it took. Fortunately there are ways around that, and this video on My Green Closet (starting at the 2:30 mark) shows how to upcycle an existing dress into a useful apron. Or you can use skirts, men's shirts, or old jeans. Tip Junkie has more apron ideas.

I don't know why, but the beginning of November always feels a bit Return-to-Narnian around here. I'm thinking of apples, sausages, and cold forest mornings. There's always the off-chance of a bit of snow, or even a lot of snow by the end of the month. Time to get hats and gloves ready for cold weather.

She's an outfit repeater, and why "again" is a good thing

No apologies for wearing the same thing again. When something's a favourite, a hard-wearing, perennial best choice, why run to change it?

If you shop at the same stores or eat at the same pizza place regularly, you become known. If you make great butter tarts, the people at church will want you to bring some to every potluck. If you have a favourite hymn or Scripture or poem that gets you through, each time you use it makes it richer, not staler.

It doesn't mean there's no room in life for new ideas.

Even favourites have to start someplace. But we probably don't need as much "choice" as we think we have. Quotation marks there, because finding good basic things these days is little short of miraculous. And that gives even more power to the idea of keeping something you like, and wearing or using it a lot. Sometimes you even find a new use for it, like the shelves I posted about which have filled multiple needs over the past twenty years, and now hold Mr. Fixit's stereo components. Or the baskets I have scattered around the apartment, some from yard sales, some that were gifts. Or the chest we use as a coffee table, which used to hold "old baby stuff" (for lack of a better description), but now hides all our board and card games. Those home things are all repeaters for us, but we like them and want to keep using them.

Keeping a short rein on clothes isn't just an attempt not to have a "wicked" overstuffed closet, as Anne Ortlund called it (and "wicked," forty years ago, was not a compliment). It's not only about the environment or workplace justice or keeping out of debt. There's something in there for us, too. There's a reason Anne mentioned setting clothes limits in Disciplines of the Beautiful Woman, which is a book mostly focused on spiritual goals and keeping your life on track: it's good for us, not as in eating liver is good (and that's debatable), but as something that can bring more peace and less frustration. In the same way that children focus better when there are fewer toys, it is a good thing to allow ourselves to become less scattered.

And that's why it's okay to repeat repeat repeat repeat.

Make It Your Own, Part Five

Part One is here.

Part Two is here.

Part Three is here.

Part Four is here.

Why did I choose the photograph of the afghan and the chair for this series of posts?

Both of those objects represent our family habit of giving things a longer-than-expected life, even when we didn't intend to. I crocheted the afghan as a gift for my parents in 1987. When my mother passed away nine years ago, my dad returned the afghan to me, and it has been in our living room ever since. The chair is quite old. It was scrounged from my parents' basement, also about thirty years ago; it spent some time in off-campus university housing, may have gone back to the basement for awhile, but wound up here again. It is not the most comfortable chair in the world, unless you sit on a cushion; and the arms are a bit wobbly; but it does have character.

Last week Mr. Fixit and I were sitting downstairs in the 1960's panelled rec room (which was our main homeschooling space until two years ago); and we were talking about where the things in the room came from. I said "bookshelves, we bought those over a few years as our book collection grew; the chair and loveseat, we bought those new; the computer table was the kitchen table from your pre-marriage apartment, and we found it at a yard sale; the coffee table was here in the house when we moved in; the T.V. stand was an antique bought from a friend; the T.V. came from someone we knew who was getting rid of one," and so on. It's about the same as the rest of the house, a conglomeration. Some things we chose. Some things chose us.

And that is what I wanted to finish up the week by saying: that one secret of more contented living is just accepting and being comfortable with the things you have. Adding a cushion, so to speak. Re-heeling your boots twice if you need to (54 seconds into the video). Making the best of them. Making them yours.