Clockwise from top left:  patchwork handbag; shirt tailored to size; glasses pouch with strap; shorts with decorative mending

Sewing is relaxing for me in troubled times. It keeps me balanced and meditative so I can focus on the present.

I’ve been bringing old fabric back to life by repurposing, making purses and doing repairs and alterations, sewing lightly used cloth into new shirts so they will fit me. If you’ve been sewing for a while you probably have your own collection of different fabrics lying around!

Using what we’ve already got goes along with the idea of “car[ing] for our common home,” to use the words of the Laudato si’ (Pope Francis’s encyclical from 2015).