I’ve been working on a skirt this week using some lovely wool fabric my mother and great-aunts had, and it’s been going very well. This morning I set in my invisible zipper (my first zipper set into woven fabric – gasp!), and I’m pleased at the results. I guess reading sewing blogs for 3 years means you pick up something!
But it’s got me thinking about the differences between sewing and knit/crochet – and this morning I finally hit on why I’ve not quite ever taken to sewing the same way that I do knitting.
It’s all about the addition and subtraction.
You see, when I took my two sculpture classes my senior year of college, I generally liked the types of sculpture that were additive; that is, I liked things that started from nothing and I added material, shaping it along the way. I liked things like clay, wax-work, and plaster.
Plaster sculpting was perhaps my very favorite medium, because it was additive as well as subtractive. Plaster bonds to itself very well, and after you add plaster to already existing plaster, and it sets – it’s like one whole piece of plaster. You can then chip away at the material you added, for further shaping purposes.
Activities like woodwork were harder, because you had to plan things out ahead of time. With the exception of wood glue, the place where you fasten wood together will always be weaker than the rest of the wood. Places where you use things like nails, joints, or staples will always be weaker than the original whole thing.
Sewing is like wood: the seam is nearly always the place where a garment wears out. It’s also a subtractive craft, to me. Each time you shape a piece of cloth, you start by a large piece and you gradually cut stuff away to shape it (using darts, for example). You might add more fabric, but there will always be a join.
It is perhaps not a coincidence that when I started doing sewing crafts, I started with quilting, which is much more of an additive activity.
Crochet and knitting, on the other hand, both start with nothing, and you add more and more stitches to make the thing. If you mess up with crochet or knitting, you can pull your work out and start again (it’s a pain, but you can do it).
Whereas sewing, if you make a mistake with your cutting… well, you’ve just ruined that piece of fabric.
Do you do any other crafts other than knit or crochet? Do you think of them as additive or subtractive?
