Getting Things Done

Years back I bought a simple black winter coat from sale. It was very cheap and the quality of the material was not great. However, the coat had such a simple pattern that I wore it over a decade and never felt terribly unfashionable. Despite its questionable quality, it lasted long, because I spend years in the tropics in between and wore it only during my winter holidays.

Last winter I decided that the coat had come to its end, but I still was not quite ready to part from the model, so I went to a fabric shop, bought cray wool and cut the old coat into pieces from the seams. I cut the new fabric according to the old coat and started to sew. Everything went fine until the pockets. I realised I had totally overestimated my seamstress skills. I was stuck. I did not know how to continue.

This winter I joined a sewing club run by a friend. Every Tuesday I have cycled to the other side of town to wait for my friend to pick me up from a certain bus stop. Together we drive 30 minutes to a school of a village outside Oulu. From six to eight thirty me and 13 other women work in the school's craft class room. For every cut and seam, I ask my friend, the instructor, for advice.

The work in process has struck me by surprise. The simpler than simple pattern of the old coat has turned out to be pretty complex to sew together. There has been times, when I have lost faith and  regretted the good amount of euros I invested on the fabric. Until I finally joined the woollen part to the shiny silver lining. The coat started to look like a piece of clothing.  I took that as a turn in my life. Things started to happen and got done.