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| Via Hideous! Dreadful! Stinky! |
Back today with another interview with a fantastic blogger who sews for my occasional series,
The Sewing Circle. I discovered the blog
Hideous! Dreadful! Stinky! within the last few months, and a few things struck me about it. First off, the great
Summer of No Pants event. I loved reading all the tutorials for skirts and have since been making my own well-documented allotment of skirts and dresses. The thing that really made me want to interview Marigold though was her humor. Marigold writes -- and sews -- in a way that makes me wish I could hang out with her. She's funny. Even her email was funny. She said to me,
"Sorry it took me so long. I had to go back and edit some things to make sure I didn't sound like an asshole."
Haha. But serious, I can't imagine.
Marigold lives in Southern California with her husband and two sons Huck and Milo. Besides sewing (
check out her tutorials here), she also does felting, paper crafts and other crafty things. You can connect with her all the typical places --
Facebook, Twitter,
flickr and her Etsy shop
Stinky Boy! She is also nominated for a spot in the
Babble Top 50 Craft Mom Blogs, so go vote for her!
Read on to see what Marigold has to say about using a broken sewing machine, stocking an Etsy shop with only items she truly wants to make and what inspired her to inspire so many others to wear skirts all summer long.
Tell me about how you began blogging. What was the impetus for
you?
I started my first blog in 2004 because
my friend Cory told me to. He sent me a link to Blogger and told me to do it, and I
did. I have always been one to cave to peer pressure! Back then
blogging was different. This was pre-Facebook. Pre-MySpace, even!
Blogging was the online community, and it was before people felt
self-conscious about what they were putting out there for anyone to
read. So there was a lot of diary-like confession going on, and you
would form these intimate friendships with other bloggers. My blog was a
personal blog for many years. I wrote about my daily life, my jobs,
my pregnancies, my mother's death, my boys' first years. I even
live-blogged the homebirth of my second son! Everything about my life
was on the Internet. But as my readership grew, and I became less
comfortable with who might be reading it, I felt that I had to close
the blog. I loved the friendships I had made through it, but once I
had kids I had to consider their privacy above my own. Things on the
Internet don't go away, and 15 years from now, my boys might not want
potential employers or girlfriends or whomever else to read stories
of their potty training experiences.
I started
Hideous! Dreadful! Stinky! in 2008 when I
participated in the
Thing-a-Day challenge. It was supposed to be a simple portfolio. If you look at the earliest
posts, they are just a picture of the work, materials list and maybe
a small, impersonal description of the process. I had never intended
to be a craft blogger! But as I was ending my personal blog, I still
needed an outlet to write and I began to focus more and more on my
craft blog. I had started reading other crafty blogs and I thought
that I was just as talented a crafter and writer as the big ones out
there, so I decided to focus on
Hideous! Dreadful! Stinky!
and make it into what it is today: a semi-popular crafty mommy blog
with tens of readers!
Haha. (Looks like more than 1,000 followers through feedburner, and 500 more through Google.) And what about sewing? When did it become a serious hobby?
My husband bought me a starter sewing machine for Christmas back
in 2005. I had it on this little side table and within a day or two,
my fat, stupid cat knocked it to the ground and broke the light and
bent the thread holder thingy. So ever since I have had it, the thing
has been falling apart! I used it a few times over the years, but I
didn't get the Sewing Bug until my second pregnancy a few years later.
Somehow my nesting instinct manifested itself in the form of making
baby booties. I made soooo many baby booties in that final trimester
and started selling them on Etsy. I eventually got sick of that,
which is what I do once I feel like I've mastered something, and I
began to experiment with making other things.
 |
| Robert Smith softie and booties set. Hilarious adorable. |
What’s your favorite type of project to sew? Is there
something you’ve made you’re most proud of?
I rarely sew anything for myself and I really love to give
handmade gifts. It's hard to choose a specific type of project, as I
cycle through obsessions-booties, softies, lap quilts. I often move
away from sewing and into crochet or felting or papercraft. I'm into
shrinky dinks right now! Hmm. A favorite project? That's a toughie! I
recently collected all of my favorites into a
Flickr set that I plan on eventually making into a real portfolio. My very
favorites are probably the
Robert Smith softie & booties set that I eventually sold on Etsy and the
Hobby Horse
I made for my boys. I also recently
made a patched skirt that I am very proud of because it was the most challenging piece of
clothing I have ever made, and also the most well-constructed. I'm
not usually one to follow a pattern, so having to make facings and
use twill tape and installing an invisible zipper was a big change
for me!
What if anything in your life gets neglected so you can find
time to sew?
Wow, what doesn't get neglected? I despise housework and I am
naturally cluttered. My New Year's Resolution this year was “Wash
dishes every night if it KILLS me.” And I did really well for
several months. I've been slacking lately, though! I do love waking
up to a clean kitchen, but washing those dishes truly feels like
torture sometimes. Much of my crafting happens when there is a pile
of housework that needs doing!
Me too! You started the Summer of No Pants last year as a challenge to
sew yourself some more skirts or dresses and to wear them all summer.
Did you really wear skirts all summer long?
Absolutely! Although, for decency's sake, I did wear pants to my
kickboxing class. But that was it! I am really motivated by
short-term goals. I always set them for myself: wear skirts all
summer, wash dishes every night for a year, no ponytails for three
months, etc. Even when I quit smoking many years ago, I did it with
the stipulation that I can start again when I turn 70. As long as
there is an end in sight I am willing to do something that I don't
want to do.
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| Marigold's first skirt for The Summer of No Pants 2011. |
So how did you decide to start the Summer of No Pants project?
I was in a play area at the mall with my kids and I looked around
and all of the moms looked so tired and we were all in the same
uniform: t-shirt, jeans, ponytail, no make-up. It was Frump City! It
really bothered me. I had become so consumed in my Mommy-ness that I
wasn't giving myself those five extra minutes in the morning to
choose an outfit that didn't have something crusty stuck to it. I
thought, there are others who are like me, who want to feel pretty
again and do something creative, and thus The Summer of no Pants was
born!
I love the way you inject humor not only into your writing, but
actually into your sewing. Your projects all have that “funny but
still practical” vibe. How has that developed?
Whenever I make something, I try to think about how I can make it
a little bit different. I really love ridiculous things, kitsch, and
I'm fascinated by pop culture, so I suppose that's where a lot of the
“funny” comes in. I do try hard to avoid crafting cliches (
put a bird on it!) and even if I truly love
something trendy that is happening in the indie craft world, I spend
some time thinking about how to go beyond what I have already seen.
As far as being practical, I think I just tend to favor functional
things over purely decorative objects. Whenever I make something
decorative I end up thinking, “Umm. Sooooo what do I do with this
thing now?”
 |
| Cracks me up. the Faux-y Lady Scarf |
Do you look at a project, like a scarf (thinking of your Faux-y Lady scarf), and think, How can I make this funny or ironic?
I don't know that I would necessarily think that outright, but,
yes, I definitely do try to add a funny or ironic twist to many of my
projects. You know, I call myself a “crafter” all of the time,
but at my core I do think of myself as an artist. I do traditional
folk arts & crafts, and I am a married, stay-at-home mom, so I
think it is easy, even for me, to dismiss what I do as something that
is not “serious” art. And much of it isn't. Much of it is purely
decorative or functional where my only thought was, “OMG! That
would be so cute!” But there are pieces that I have thought deeply
about, and that have a goal of provoking an emotional response. I'm
certainly not doing anything to revolutionize the contemporary art
scene, but I think I have a few pieces that could be gallery worthy!
Or at least funky gallery giftshop worthy :)
Your Etsy shop is a little bit different. You’ve made a
decision not to do any custom orders and want to keep your business
strictly about selling things you’ve made for the sheer enjoyment
of it. How did you come to adopt this business plan?
I'm not sure I would call it a “plan” exactly...that seems to
imply something that has a focus and goals and such. My Etsy shop is
not a money-making endeavor for me. For awhile I thought it would be
an actual business, but the truth is that I am not interested in
production work. I used to do customs until one day it clicked that I
hated doing customs so, so much. My joy is in the creative process.
Ask me to make the same thing again, or worse, ask me to make the
same thing a hundred times again, and I will immediately curl up on
the couch and watch Twin Peaks and eat Cheetos until I am in a coma.
Plus, and this sounds awful, I really despise working with clients,
especially clients who are not visual people themselves and familiar
with the limitations of a creative project. Even with the best
clients, custom work is a time-consuming process, and you never know
who will be a great client and who will be a nightmare! It sounds so
terrible, but it's true! I was able to tolerate it when I was younger
and didn't have kids, but now my crafting time is so much more
precious to me.
Have you at times thought about expanding and making the shop
more of a focus?
Ha! Yes. All the time. And as soon as I do, I freak out and the
shop goes totally quiet. I had big plans to make it into a
boy-centric shop. I planned my projects and started production on a
lot of cool stuff. But I quickly got bored of doing it and haven't
put anything in the shop for months. What I really need are some
minions to do all of the production work for me. I would just come up
with the the ideas and they would work their fingers bare, sewing
away in a little room under the stairs, and I would pay them in table
scraps! I think that's about the only way my Etsy shop could be a
commercially viable venture.
What has sewing and blogging about it brought into your life
that you might not have had otherwise?
Sewing gives me a creative outlet and some selfish time, which
every mom in the world knows that you need! Blogging, and the fact
that people (strangers!) are interested in my work is humbling and
gives me a great sense of accomplishment. I love the online crafting
community. I've virtually “met” so many women who inspire and
motivate me. And having a lot of eyes on me makes me push myself to
do better work, too. I don't want anyone to get bored with me and
leave!
Non-sewing question! Your son’s name is Milo. I love that
name. How did you and your husband pick it? Was it difficult swaying
him to it? (My husband vetoed every non “traditional” boy’s
name.)
I am a total name snob and still
faithfully read
The Baby Name Wizard even though I am so done making babies! But I think baby naming is
such a fascinating social study. As for Milo, my favorite book as a
kid (and still one of my favorites today) was The Phantom Tollbooth
by Norton Juster. Milo is the main character. He's a bored little boy
who never notices anything wonderful in the world around him until
one day when a mysterious toy tollbooth arrives for him. He drives
through it and goes on to have an impossible adventure, and in the
end he learns to use his imagination. I always said I would have
Milo. But first I had a Huck (who's first name is actually Henry). My
own name is pretty uncommon, and I believe that helped me to feel
that I was different and special my whole life. “Marigold” always
stood out in a sea of Jennifers and Melissas, and I have always
appreciated that my parents named me something a little bit
different. So the goal both times in naming our kids was for names
that were uncommon, but not unusual, difficult to spell or outright
made-up. Does that make sense? Nothing wacky, just something you
don't hear every day. My husband, who has spent his life as a common
Steve, was right on board with both of the boys' the names.
That's it! Thanks to Marigold for joining us here and giving such interesting, thought-out answers to my questions. I enjoyed this. Hope you did, too! Oh and by the way, if you're wondering if she still uses that broken sewing machine, yes, Marigold reports that she does. I would have been whining for a new one
ages ago.
Have a suggestion for who I should interview next? Drop me an email at tharshesews @ gmail.com.
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