Fear, Creativity & Spiders: Working with Arachne
Raechel Henderson
My previous workshop was a con verted garage. It was unheated, uninsulated, and riddled with hidey-holes and cracks. The walls were lined with shelves overloaded with bolts of fabric, patterns, thread, sewing tools and baskets, sewing machines, books, and boxes of finished and half-finished projects. All of this added to the hodgepodge ambience that I found useful to my creative process. It also played host to a whole ecology of insects, as well as the occasional mouse. As such, I found myself forced into close quarters with various spiders.
Spindly house spiders hung out in the window above my sewing table. Black chitinous ones hid in the darkened corners. Jumping spiders, belying their name, were often found on the ceiling. On occasion one would even scuttle out from under one of the sewing machines, giving me a start. For someone who is totally freaked out by spiders, this was not the most ideal work environment.
Despite my fear, I had work to do. I had spent more than a decade supporting my family with my sewing, so I forced myself each day to head into my workshop, spiders or no. During those first few weeks in the workshop, I learned what corners to avoid. I would give boxes a tap and a jiggle before I took them off the shelf to allow any spider the opportunity to skedaddle. And I became less fearful.
The big black spiders still creeped me out, but the long-legged house spiders spinning webs in the windowsill didn’t bother me as much. They were delicate, almost ethereal creatures, and as far from threatening as I could imagine. I could recognize that they were just living their lives and keeping the bug population down. If I left them alone, they would extend the same courtesy to me.
I was also exploring ways to bring my witchcraft practice into my work. I wanted to build a practice that was akin to kitchen witchery but founded on sewing. As I worked at my machines, I played with various ideas: trying to adapt color correspondences to sewing, working out the magickal properties of fabric, and so on. I would stop my work and gaze out the window while my thoughts swirled, trying to fit them together.
It was around this time that I made the connection between those spinning spiders and Arachne.
Depending on who is telling the tale, Arachne was the victim either of a jealous Athena or the realization that her own skills were no match for the goddess. Either way, her fate was the same in all the tales: she was transformed into the first spider, and was inexorably linked with the woven arts for all eternity. As a woman who took up sewing to support my daughter after divorce, I could relate to Arachne’s story. There was always a feeling of having to prove myself with each project taken on, with each stitch sewn. Granted, failure on my part wouldn’t end with me being turned into a spider. The fact that Arachne was not a deity in the strictest sense made her more relatable to me.
Like the strands of a web, I began to see how my work could be connected to my magickal intentions. Just like a kitchen witch would choose basil and garlic to add loving energies to their spaghetti sauce, I was paying more attention to colors, patterns, and materials.
After a while I would find myself talking to Arachne through the spiders. I’d complain about a particularly difficult bit of sewing, or I would brag about a beautiful seam where the stitches were even and well placed. Being a seamstress means a lot of hours working alone, so having someone to talk to is nice sometimes. It was this relationship that helped inform and build my sew craft.
Like the strands of a web, I began to see how my work could be connected to my magickal intentions. Just like a kitchen witch would choose basil and garlic to add loving energies to their spaghetti sauce, I was paying more attention to colors, patterns, and materials. If I was making items for sale, I started using only pins with green heads. I started adding stitched runes to the inside hems of clothes for loved ones to give them added protection. I would mark runes on my sewing machine when I had a deadline to help me stay focused and stave off doubts that I would finish in time. And each day I would look at Arachne, sitting and spinning in the windowsill, and know that I was weaving my own magick.
About a year ago I left that workshop behind. My current one is set up in a finished basement that is carpeted and heated. I have yet to see a single mouse (much to the disappointment of the house cats). The spiders, however, are here. Chitinous, jumping, and spindly, they all live in new places. The windows of my workspace are high above and let in little light and no view worth staring at. Even so, Arachne has found places to settle, most often from the undersides of the shelves.
My working relationship with Arachne led to me write a book of sewing magick, Sew Witchy, and continues to this day. I walk downstairs, say good morning, and ask, “What are we going to work on today?” The answer is always, “Something magickal.”
DIY Fabric Tray
The soft fabric tray project outlined here is a perfect introduction to including magick in your sewing. It is a simple craft, requiring no complicated pattern or sewing techniques. It can be easily resized to whatever dimensions suit your needs, and you end up with a useful item.
This tray takes about an hour to put together. If you can, find a time to sew it during the waxing moon to tap into the energies of growth and change, especially if you’ll be using it to hold your runes or tarot cards. Pick fabric prints that tie into your intended use for the tray. For example, use prints that feature crystal balls, tarot cards, or other mystical images for a tray meant to hold your oracle tools. If the tray will be used to hold special jewelry or scents, pick a fabric that is printed with hearts (for self-love), pentagrams (for confidence in your magick), or symbols related to deities you work with (to enhance your connection to them). You can work color magick into your tray through your choice of fabric and thread as well.
While cotton is recommended for this project, it is suitable for a variety of fabrics. You’ll be fusing your fabric to the interfacing, which will require an iron with a steam setting. If you choose a delicate or synthetic fabric, you might want to use a press cloth—simply a piece of muslin that is placed between the iron and the fabric to prevent scorching or melting. Consult the owner’s manual of your iron to find out which setting to use when pressing. Heavy fabrics such as velvet, denim, or canvas may need extra pressing and to have their seams trimmed close to the stitching to reduce bulk.
The craft interfacing used in this project is a thick material that gives the tray structure. The interfacing called for is “doubled-sided fusible,” meaning it has a layer on each side that melts and fuses with fabric when it comes into contact with heat. You want to make sure you have the double-sided type, so that both the top and the bottom of the tray fuse to the interfacing. It is available from most hobby shops and online.
Tray Instructions
This fabric tray can be used in a variety of ways. Use it to hold your runes or tarot cards when you aren’t using them. When you are using them, you can lay them out on the tray in the same way you would place them on a cloth, table, or altar. Or use the tray to hold herbs, crystals, jewelry, or other items. If sewn using the following instructions, the finished tray will measure 6 x 6 inches, with walls that are 1 inch tall.
Materials
• One 7 7⁄8 x 7 7⁄8-inch piece of double-sided fusible craft interfacing
• Two 9 x 9-inch squares of fabric
• Thread
• Sewing machine, with regular and heavy-duty needles
• Quilting pen or pencil
• Steam iron
Preparation
1. Cut a 1-inch square from each corner of the interfacing.
Steps
1. Take your two squares of fabric. With right sides together, sew a ½-inch seam around all four sides of the fabric, leaving a 3-inch gap for turning. Use a needle in your machine that is appropriate for the fabric.
2. Clip the corners and trim the seams.
3. Turn the fabric right-side out. Use a skewer or chopstick to push out the corners. Press with an iron.
4. Fold the interfacing into thirds and insert it into the 3-inch opening of the fabric. Unroll the interfacing inside the fabric so it flattens.
5. Press, using steam, to fuse the interfacing to the fabric on both sides.
6. Sew 1⁄8 inch around all the edges of the tray. Use a heavy-duty needle in your machine so it will go through all the layers.
7. Using a quilting pen or pencil, mark the interior stitching by drawing lines 1 ¾ inch from the edge of each side. The lines will meet up to form a square in the middle. Stitch this interior square.
8. If you are using a quilting pen that requires heat to fade the lines, then press the tray.
9. To sew the corners, bring two perpendicular sides together to form a triangle. Sew a verticle line 1 inch from the point of the triangle through all the layers. Sew back and forth over this line a couple of times to reinforce the seam. Repeat with the other three corners.
10. If you wish, press your tray along the interior lines to give the folds a crisp finish.
Resizing Instructions
This tray is easy to customize. Decide how large you want the interior of the tray to be, then decide how deep you want the walls of the tray to be. Add the wall measurement to the interior measurement. Finally, add 1 inch for the seam allowance (giving you a ½-inch seam allowance on each side). For instance, if you want a tray that has an interior of 4 inches and walls that are 1 inch deep, then you’ll want to cut two fabric pieces that are 6 x 6 inches: 4” (finished tray measurement) + 1” (wall measurement) + 1” (seam allowance) = 6” (size of each fabric square).
For the inside craft interfacing, you’ll cut a square that is 1 1⁄8 inch smaller than your fabric squares. This takes into account the 1 inch lost to the seam allowances. The extra 1⁄8 inch allows the interfacing to fit without strain, so the edges of the tray won’t be wonky. Using the previous example, the interfacing for a 4-inch tray (which uses two 6-inch fabric squares) would be a 4 7⁄8-inch square.
Cut out squares on each corner of the interfacing to match the depth of the walls. Again, using the previous example, you would cut out 1-inch squares on each corner of the interfacing for the corner seams.
Then sew your customized tray as per the instructions.
Raechel Henderson is a dual class seamstress/shieldmaiden. She has been sewing professionally since 2008 and has traveled around the Midwest region selling her handmade bags, skirts, coats, and accessories at various events and conventions. Arachne hangs out in the window of her workshop, reminding her to check the tension on the sewing machines. She maintains a blog at idiorhythmic.com and is on Instagram and Facebook. You can find more sewing magick in her 2019 book, Sew Witchy: Tools, Techniques & Projects for Sewing Magick.
Illustrator: M. Kathryn Thompson