Visible Monday: Suede & Bricolage

Today, I am wearing my Uggs moccasins, Levi's boot cuts, and a long-sleeved tee--words that don't describe the outfit at left.  This is what I wore the first day of the semester and didn't publish then because the photo was too blurry.  The sweater is a Pendleton, worn with a burgundy suede skirt by Banks (both thrifted), grey tights and wedges, with a necklace I won months ago from Pam at Over50Feeling40.

I am headed into a week of heavy grading and have resurrected this look to illustrate a point about thrifting.  DH has been hard at work rebuilding a second antique organ.  A lifelong woodworker, he is fascinated that these foot pedaled organs operate on bellows and wood, all natural materials.  It puts his carpenter and problem solving skills to good use during the cooler winter months.  On this one, he salvaged a bellows system from our piano tuner and is in the process of modifying it to work with this organ. 

Saturday, we were thrifting when I caught him eying my book bag which I had been carrying as a purse. He admired the buttery leather of it and suggested I look for old leather purses he could dismantle for use on his bellows. I cringed. The chances were if I located a similarly buttery leather I would NOT want him to cut it up for the leather! He'd already had good luck locating the belts I'd suggested for some sort of interior straps, the tongs (spring steel), and a bit of brocade for the foot pedals, all from a thrift store.

Fearful of my book bag, I began to chew on the problem of an inexpensive source of good leather.  I love this suede skirt and its fit, but I love my book bag more.  At length, I told him about it and you can see it perched as a possibility atop the organ frame.  He needs the leather to reinforce the corners of the bellows.  It is not yet clear that he will use it, but I know that I paid only $4 for the skirt.  If he does use it, I will make elbow patches for a jacket or two from the scraps. How often do any of us re-envision the original purpose for a "thing"? To my way of thinking, that's creativity.

Sunday, I went fabric shopping with him, for the material for the bellows and the backing for the woodwork. I loved the photos of his hands handling these delicate fabrics, but gently tried to discourage the combinations of expensive satin and lace he kept coming up with. On Saturday, I had suggested skirt linings, but perfectionist that he is, money was no issue. Gently, gently, gently, I steered him towards the voile, which he was ultimately very happy with.

I noted though that a long line of women were standing in line to have cloth cut.  DH walked up to the counter, laid down his bolts, and a clerk fresh back from her lunch break, ignored the queue to cut what he wanted.  I teased him that he was being given preferential treatment.

Minutes later, we visited a craft store for a couple of pieces of woodwork and adhesives that he needed.  Here again, the clerks fell all over themselves asking if he needed any help.  "No, we don't have the contact cement.  Try a hardware store."  As he stood in line to pay for his items, an entire table of women in a class for cake decorating stopped what they were doing and in unison, their faces turned toward him!  Is a man in a craft store such an unusual thing?

Again I teased him.  Mock announcement:  "Male in Aisle Three!  Male in Aisle Three!"  But, I think that this raises an interesting question about customer service.  In both stores, my husband was given better customer service than I would have received.  I don't know if the reverse would have been true, if I was shopping in a hardware store for example.

But I'm wondering if any of my readers have noticed this tendency? Or, if they have a similar story to tell about bricolage, "to make creative and resourceful use of whatever materials are at hand (regardless of their original purpose)"?

This post is part of Visible Monday, a weekly event open to all bloggers at Patti's NotDeadYetStyle.