The Friend Fabric

Have you read The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman? It's on my top ten best books ever list, the ones that have impacted my life. In it, Gary talks about giving and receiving love in our own language (or your child's or your spouse's or your friend's) and how we sometimes miss when others are expressing love toward us, or they miss when we're expressing love toward them, because it's not in the right language. The five languages are acts of service, words of encouragement, touch, gift giving, and quality time.

We can have a primary and a secondary language. My primary language is quality time and my secondary language is gift giving. If you're not sure what your language is, a hint might be found in how you complain. For instance, I'm likely to say something along the lines of and they couldn't even be bothered to stop and visit. Hints can also be found in your actions. I'll drive hours to meet someone for coffee, lunch, dinner, a short visit, whatever, even someone I've never met in person before. Spending time together is the most important part. For me, life is about relationships and - LOL - gifts!

I love getting gifts and I love gift giving, finding just the right something that will make the other person happy. Any excuse to celebrate an occasion works for me and if there isn't one to celebrate, let's invent one. I was talking with a woman the other day who said that her and her husband were not exchanging Christmas gifts. That made me sad. Who better to celebrate than your partner. And then she said that while she'd like a new dress, there was no point buying one, where would she wear it?

Do we need a sanctioned by others, national holiday, kind of reason to celebrate? Won't any reason do? How about I'm alive today. It's not hard to find something to celebrate if you want to. Take January 16th for example, the 32nd anniversary of our first date. That's definitely celebration worthy although - LOL - I doubt my husband will remember without prompting. Even so, I'm sure I'll need a new little something and - luckily - I have a stash of potential outfits.

I exchange Christmas gifts with several friends. In town, we go out for breakfast, have a wonderful visit, and pass presents. It's an extra special time to say how much we appreciate each other. For friends out of town, I mail packages. With the cost of shipping, that's darn near a gift in itself however, friends are so worth celebrating. This year, I'm using the friend fabric as part of my gifts.




It's a turquoise and black print. I'm not sure what the fabric content is but it's silky without being slippery and thicker than most fabrics of this nature. I'm hoping to pick up more on Thursday so I'll check out the fabric content then, It's the perfect fabric for seaming. The join barely shows. I bought two meters, ripped it down the center, sewed it right sides together along the long side, pressed the seam open, turned it right sides out, cut the ends square, and then sewed the short ends together. It's called a neck ring. If you have the October/November 2010 issue of Vogue Patterns, there are instructions on page 10.




The opening was pulled tight and pinned firmly - about every 1/2" - so it could be machine stitched closed. These things are so quick to make that there was no way I was hand stitching the opening. It would have taken ten times as long. Instead...




... I used a tight zigzag stitch across the opening. The above is a close-up detail image. The stitches are much smaller and nearly invisible in person.

This is the neck ring wrapped three times around the neck and...

This is the neck ring wrapped twice around the neck and...




This is the neck ring looped through itself and...

This is the neck ring with the long end of the loop tied in a knot and...




This is the neck ring with one loop around the neck and the other under one arm and...

This is the neck ring crossed across the bust and under the arms. There are lots of different ways to work with this piece. The friends these are planned for both look excellent in turquoise although their color choices are otherwise vastly different. I plan to buy brooches to go with that are more in their individual colors. AND...

... I plan to send some more of the fabric (if they have some left) to my friend Caroline up north along with a copy of The Party Dress Book by Mary Adams and the suggestion that we make party dresses for our 50th birthdays in 2012. So far, we plan to go to San Francisco and check out fashion and fabric. A dress-up dinner would be fun too.

Caroline and the two friends that are getting the neck rings don't read this blog so I'm safe talking about their gifts. The rest, I have to be quiet about for now - LOL.

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - celebrating friendship