(The header image is not my project, but from the free WordPress images collection for use by bloggers on this platform)

Hello friends, I recently came across a podcast that was titled “The Art of Unfinishing” (funny how algorithms work).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0021qrw

It started off with conversations with a group of quilters and knitters from the Pacific Northwest who accept unfinished quilting, crafting and other needlework projects originally started by someone’s deceased or now-disabled mom, daughter or no-longer-interested-in-it grandma or other relative. The group then proceeds to complete the piece. The now nationwide group of women receive the UFOs (we all know what that stands for) and finish them off. They very aptly call themselves “The Finishers”. Someone, please make a movie or a TV series with that title!

I was definitely intrigued — would this work on unfinished clothing? If I become unable to complete a dress, pants or shirt, say, would someone else complete it and make it a useful wearable? Or will it go straight into the landfill pile?

Is there beauty in an unfinished sewing project? There is on several levels:

= the inherent beauty of the object itself

= the connection with the hands that started it and then let it go

= the touch of the finisher’s hands, now embedded in the project.

= emotional beauty in the family’s reaction who requested the finishing.

Authors certainly have left unfinished books for someone else to complete; even after generations. Didn’t founding father Ben Franklin leave an autobiography without completing it? Wait, that’s an oxymoron—- how can an autobiography ever be finished when the subject is alive to write it? Please explain. In old timey English fiction, Jane Austen left some unfinished work — recently made into a TV series called Sanditon, with a happy ending penned by someone else.

So, I have a couple of unfinished projects that have a lot of promise. I am still healthy and sewing up stuff — just have not got around to these particular ones for reasons forgotten. I am not ready to pass them onto the “finishers” just yet, but here they are.

Mantel Stockings

The Christmas mantel stockings made by a non-Christian (me); isn’t there a certain beauty in the melding of faith-related rituals? Details on the actual making of these stockings is an entire post by itself — I will re-visit them and report back to you. I really would like to finish the stockings myself before old age takes over.

Black gabardine pants — forgotten and hidden in a corner of my closet. Alas.

This pair is made from a discontinued pattern by Vogue (Today’s Fit by Sandra Betzina) and has been languishing for a few years. I am not ready to give up yet. I’ll report back on that too.

I have now stopped feeling badly about unfinished projects in my stash. Someday the Finishers might just finish them.

Are you now inspired to go look at what lies beneath your sewing and craft stash?

Samina