The Coat of Many Colours: Lessons From Life and Dolly Parton

A few days ago, I sent a link to my recent blog post about the Glass House build to a few people whose emails I don't have and I received this most beautiful heart felt message back from one of my favourite guests:

“How Lovely to Hear from you Kiki. We are so thrilled to see that you continue to play and soar. We found it a profound coincidence that we should receive your email the day that Dolly Parton died. Your beautiful greenhouse creates the same emotions as her song “Coat of Many Colours.”

Back to the seasons of my youth

I recall a box of rags that someone gave us

And how my mama put the rags to use

There were rags of many colors

Every piece was small 

And I didn't have a coat

And it was way down in the fall

Mama sewed the rags together

Sewin' every piece with love

She made my coat of many colors

That I was so proud of.

You probably know the song but it’s about seeing beauty and love in places and things that others discard. Our stay with you was very special and you helped us to make our lives more colourful and loving xx”

Wow, this melted my heart…and made me start reflecting.

I grew up like that, with a mamma making all of our clothes. She made everything. She used natural things to dye her homespun wool; onion skins made the most deep turmeric and chartreuse shades. She spun these wools into yarn and she knitted the yarn into glorious jumpers and hats and cushions. She sewed many of our clothes, even my ski suits. She sewed all the cushions and curtains for the house and restaurant, the wait staff’s uniforms, the serviettes that went on each table. She melted hot wax to make batik art and boiled it free in cauldrons of fire. And this is all on top of working together with our father sourcing and restoring all of the old wood and windows to rebuild the Cardrona Hotel.

I remember in sewing class in school, maybe 11, I was already sewing with my mum, so Home Economics classes felt a bit dull.  When we were instructed to bring fabric to make a pillow cushion, I dove into the scraps of fabric and decorative bits. Not that I could have done anything else…this was so long before websites and online shopping, there wasn't even an actual fabric shop in town, was there even a clothing shop?  Our town was barely 1000 people, and then we lived 25km up a gravel road to nowhere away from that! So in class I patched my bits of fabric together and sewed lace along the stitch lines, and I got marked down! I was so annoyed, sad, angry… I never took ‘Home Economics’ after that anymore. Who needs cinnamon scrolls and pillowcases when I have my mum and dad running a restaurant and the endless pools of creative outlets at home, and I had already sewn my mum a dress.

My sewing has taught me to make the most out of things, or rather, the way my mum taught me to sew made me get the most out of things. When you are laying a sewing pattern out on fabric, you don’t buy 5m of fabric and lay them end to end. You puzzle piece them around the fabric to fit them all in, knowing some pieces need to follow the grain of the fabric, some you cut two pieces of and another two inverse, others you need four the same; but be sure to not mess up the flow of the pattern as you don’t want your pattern upside down on a leg of your pants! You need a very logical brain.

It is only after the message comparing my Glass House to the Coat of Many Colours, that I now see it: it comes from my sewing!  I have a really good eye for measurements, for cutting straight, for seeing level. This all comes from hours of sewing the machine accurately along 1.5cm seam allowance, of top stitching double rows a millimetre apart, of squeezing a pattern out of the smallest bit of fabric. The Glass House was like that…not around the body, but now in space. It is glorious fun!  

So thank you my dear P&M, for your words unleashed a wonder of connections and a deep well of love in my heart and memories of my mother.

Of course I needed to listen to The Coat of Many Colours and I went down a sweet rabbit hole of reading about the great and wondrous Dolly Parton. The thing that blows me away to most about her is her unwavering bravery and commitment in being all of her most magnificent self.  So what lessons do we learn from Dolly Parton? Mel Robbins just shared some of her favourite lessons on Instagram and I love the these the most:

I am being me, on purpose. I am being brave and paving my own glittery path…

Rest now magnificent Dolly. Fly free as you life you lived

Rambling and love,

Sonia