Here is a sea of smooth fabric before me…

It was hand-washed with care and watered with perfume. It was delicately dried so not a wrinkle remains and laid out true on a table, ready, waiting, waiting, ready.

 

It could be any number of things.
It could take any number of forms.
It could serve any number of purposes.

 

How does one discern the RIGHT one?
and is there such a thing?

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There is only this:

a tactile sensation, a palpable sense, a glimpse of shape, a squeeze between the fingers, a brush against the flesh, and the material issues a wish.

if you listen closely, you can hear what it was made to be.

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You can fight this, as you are the one with shears in hand. You are the one with needles and devices to alter and restrain, to tuck in, to let out, to pin down. But it the end, if you have not listened, this garment that you have made will be ill-fitted, either straining at the seams, or lost in drape and hang.

Still, you must act, for fear of making the wrong thing will only leave you with a heap of cloth and unspent energy.

Rules a tailor must accept:

• You must let the fabric dictate the design.
• You must see it in your mind before it’s visible on the body.
• Consider your true size. Do not construct what shall constrict you. Do not devise what would drown you.
• To take shape, you must first cut.
• Reaping is 30% of sewing. Make peace with this and the reaping will not be done in anger. You will break mislaid threads and make stronger stitches.
• When you’re mid-construction, and the pieces make no sense, and the two-dimensional is at war with the third, you must stay the course and follow the pattern. Confusion is just a phase. It’s possible to lose sight and keep vision.

and most importantly,

wear it.