apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

This looks like it was inspired by the Foxfire books which focused on the ways of life in Appalachia in the first half of the 20th century. They are truly incredible books. I've started collecting the series

"In 1966, in the Appalachian Mountains of Northeast Georgia, Eliot Wigginton and his students founded a quarterly magazine that they named Foxfire, after a phosphorescent lichen. In 1972, several articles from the magazine were published in book form, and the acclaimed Foxfire series was born. Almost thirty years later, in this age of technology and cyber-living, the books teach a philosophy of simplicity in living that is truly enduring in its appeal. This new volume--Foxfire 11--celebrates the rituals and recipes of the Appalachian homeplace, including a one-hundred page section on herbal remedies, and segments about planting and growing a garden, preserving and pickling, smoking and salting, honey making, beekeeping, and fishing, as well as hundreds of the kind of spritied firsthand narrative accounts from Appalachian community members that exemplify the Foxfire style. Much more than "how-to" books, the Foxfire series is a publishing phenomenon and a way of life, teaching creative self-sufficiency, the art of natural remedies, home crafts, and other country folkways, fascinating to everyone interested in rediscovering the virtues of simple life."

Sewing! It's rarely taught in high school Home Ec any more, and I feel it's a dying skill. From making curtains to your own clothing to recovering sofa cushions, it's a very useful skill to have around the house.

I miss what Yankee used to be.

Not only is sewing a dying art in much of the US, mending is practically dead. So many clothes could be kept out of garbage dumps if their owners would simply learn how to take care of them - or if they knew a good tailor who could do it.

Granted, most clothes these days are meant to be worn out, tossed out, and replaced quickly, but I for one would love to see that change.

Sewing/knitting & other craftforms have found a new home with the alt-y DIYers you see on Etsy, in Make, and on websites regularly linked to here. ArtStar (http://www.artstarphilly.com/) organized a craft bazaar here in Philly this past weekend, with 125 vendors at Penn's Landing -- and there was loads of great work (we picked up some beautiful prints by Jaime Zollars & a stuffed animal by Cutesy But Not Cutesy).

With sewing & crafting, it's as if the making knowledge that used to define the Betty Crocker mainstream has been appropriated & re-valued by the artsy fringe, while the mainstream is preoccupied with their Gameboys & Wii's & Twitters & gadgets-du-jour. I don't know of anybody home-firing bricks, however....

We have definitely learned hanging drywall. Also floating drywall, carpentry, tile setting, fence building, drain digging, irrigation system installation, you name it. Plumbing and electrical we leave to the professionals, though.