I wasn’t sure how my relationship with my sister would take to me leaving for college. We didn’t have a bad relationship or anything, but five years apart can be a lot, and we were already pretty different (my sister is far chattier than I am). I wondered if the distance might have us talking less, or if it might make us less close.
But it turned out that spending some time apart helped rather than hurt us. Coming home for the summer, I went to my sister’s school band concert, where she had a brief trumpet solo, and listened to her talk excitedly about her science class. Instead of seeing her as merely my kid sister who was all up in my space all of the time, I started to see my sister as her own individual self. This time around, I took her seriously, and we were able to really talk.
Not only have I started to understand her as her own person, but we’ve started to realize the little things that we have in common as well, one of which is a love for crafts. We spent a couple hours last weekend sewing together little stuffed figures, and it was a simple and relaxing way to spend some time together. From designing the toy (and its clothes, in my sister’s case) to passing scissors and felt and buttons, it was a comfortable and agreeable, if not wildly exciting, way to pass a Sunday afternoon.
Image credit: flickriver.com
Sewing as a pastime seems almost archaic now, but there’s something deeply satisfying about making something on your own, from start to finish. And even if it is a simple, age-old activity, it can be fun when relatives come to visit. My mother, grandmother and I used to sit at the kitchen table and do beadwork together whenever my grandmother came to stay. We’d sometimes talk and joke, but making something with your hands also occupies the mind and takes off the pressure to converse, making silence quite comfortable. It was okay to just focus on the beads we were stringing together. There were times when we would hardly say a word, and yet we’d still feel at ease in each other’s company, and happily busy. It was only when someone finished their project that we’d remark how well it came out, or how wonderful the colors looked together. Although of course beadwork can be incredibly intricate, it can also be really simple and still look great, making it a delightful little project to do with others, regardless of skill level.
Art materials can run a little on the expensive side, but if you hit a good sale it’s absolutely worth it, especially since most materials keep for so long. I have all sorts of leftover fabrics, and these can be used for small projects, or patched together for more unusual ones. Even materials that seem unusable, like buttons that don’t match or the end of a spool of ribbon, can be put to good use in another piece. For the figures we made this weekend, my sister used felt that we’d had for a few years, and I used the scraps that she was done with and two odd buttons. Out of that, we were able to make something new.
Anais DiCroce
My tumblr is here.
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