A Big Giant Rectangle
So I hadn’t realized it had been so long since my last post. But then I got an email from my mother which basically said “I have regularly been checking your blog, so you should at least regularly update the thing.” Of course, it was thinly veiled with concern for my personal well-being and interest in what I have been doing, but the message came across pretty clear nonetheless.
What I have I been up to? Aside from attempting to create some semblance of order in the crafty/sewing storage arena (an attempt which is failing horribly, by the way), I just finished up a commission. A dear kompadre of ours, S, is an artist who does video installations for parties and events all over Tokyo. Normally the video is projected directly onto a plain white wall, or the event is taking place in a venue accustomed to hosting VJs (meaning the site has huge projector screens already). But the location for the next installation doesn’t have either of these things (or doesn’t have them in the proper dimensions). So S called me up one day and asked if I could make him a solid white backdrop, three meters wide and two meters tall, that didn’t “look as if it was made from a bed sheet and tape on a bedroom floor.” No problem at all.
Mr. Kaizer and I went to the fabric district and found extra wide fabric in the fourth store we visited – to be fair, the first store was nothing but trim, all of it 100 yen (about $1) per meter. I was distracted by this like a magpie is distracted by a nickel. Couldn’t help myself. And the second store was nothing but remnants of adorable Japanese fabrics. But once I got the initial “ooh, I love the fabric district” jitters out of my system, it took us almost no time at all to find what we were looking for. I found heavy white cotton fabric that was 228 cm wide (just over 2.25 meters) for an extremely reasonable price.
The difficult part of the whole thing was hemming the edges of a two meter by three meter rectangle in a space that isn’t large enough to lay the whole thing out and make sure the edges are straight (I live in Japan – my apartment is a shoebox). But it turned out extremely well and it was actually easier than I expected. Really, the only challenge was the sheer size of the finished project. Other than that, it was just a big giant rectangle.
Until next time, may life continue to inspire you!
Miss Kaizer
Sewing | Miss Kaizer | 
August 31, 2009 6:34 am
Subscribe