Ovaliy
About the Page:
Ovaliy is the experience of overwhelming change documented through the body's second skin - clothing. What we wear tells the story of who we are; now, then and for what's coming. How we choose our clothing directly or indirectly speaks to how we see ourselves and who we are as beings participating in culture.
My main medium is patchwork 'cause I can talk and be with people when I make it. I can stitch their ideas into a shape and I pray that those shapes become a coherent thought. This website is really new, I just started it 8/2025 and I'm learning as I go. Feel free to tell me what you want to see in the guestbook.
Recent Snippet
Weaving feels like a whole test on how to use scraps. A lot of what I try to use are things that someone else couldn't find useful. I like looking at trying something new.
Tah daaaah - you've reached my page. Welcome. I'm Lily Ova.
I’m a patchworker that can’t stop moving my hands. I think that our textiles tell our histories. I use fashion as a tool to work through issues surrounding humanity. But like, this mainly means that all I do is work with fabric, talk to people about fabric and think about what I’ll learn about or try next with fabric.
Do you know what other fibers look like underneath a microscope? Have you sewn on a button before? Where do your clothes go when you donate or throw them away? How did your clothes get made? How does that affect you as a person?
I dunno, there’s just a lot of stories to tell, rabbitholes to go down. I’ll try to talk about a few things but I hope that my site gets you a little more interested in your second skin.
I sew clothing on two of my Great Grandmothers’ Mid-Century Singer machines. I also have a Studio knitting machine from the 70’s (The background image on this page is a swatch made on that). Their names are Hildegard, Artie and Mary. Named after their previous owners, of course.
Sewing “skipped a couple generations” in getting to me. I learned to sew from a local class and it was in the first session there that I felt a wave of “this is what you’ll do for the rest of your life” when sitting down at a machine. I haven’t looked back since that point about 10 years ago. After those local classes, I studied Apparel Design, Sustainability and Peace Studies to continue what I can feel in my body is a big part of whatever path I’m taking in life.
I’ll make updates on that path as we go along.
10/7/2025 - I'm finding spaces to talk about patchwork more with people in my local surroundings and have been excited at the idea of teaching more. I spent a lot of these last couple of days processing black walnuts. Have you ever done that? Oh my gosh, what a labor of love!
9/22/2025 - This site is so boxy! Nothing at all what I'm hoping for in the lovely rounds of ovals but I think I've got to learn a lot more on how to position things on a webpage. All in due time. I've been a little restless lately, taking stock in how to best convey through what I make how to convey the theory and actions of change. I like thinking about it constantly but it makes me wonder how conducive that is to taking a break. Anyway, there's new photos in the "Everything Else" tab of outfits mainly from 2024. I'll archive snippets there too since I think they're fun little weekly changes.
9/9/2025 - I'm wearing some of my favorite colors today and had time to stretch in the morning so the day is looking optimistic. My mending pile has gotten larger so I'll try to get a few things fixed in the following weeks while learning more css. I'm gonna start learning Javascript within the month. Have you looked into what online databases are available to you with a library card???
9/6/2025 - Feeling pressure to get this website looking perfect. Thing's will get done in the time that they get done. I'm a one woman operation and have a lot of other things to do! Still, I'm enjoying chiping away at update here day-by-day. Just like how I make my patch pieces.
9/2/2025 - Page up! Trying to get a workable site going. I'm building this site in-between tasks at my job. May as well do something productive. ㄟ( ▔, ▔ )ㄏ
Projects in Progress
9/20/2025 - This, I can't tell if it's a snippet or a project but it feels like something I want to look into more. It's made from the smallest scraps of lace patchworked together. The red is there cause I was working on a piece and the only way I could use red was to dig lipstick out of my purse and I didn't have a napkin to wipe it off so I figured I'd use the scraps in my sewing bag. I love how it came out and it's experiments like this that make me near emotional about how we gotta care more and make something out of textiles that would otherwise be wasted. Maybe more notes soon.
9/22/2025 - I started the research-phase of a long term project with my friend. We're going to be looking into the science of spider webs for it. Here's a little charcoal piece we drew together while thinking about how we wanted to work together on the project. We're both machine knitters who enjoy natural dye so I'm really looking forward to what we make together.
8/31/25 - I finished the second round of pleating in my attempts to make delphos pleats a la Mariano Fortuny. This is my first real test and I would have tried the order of pleating backwards, starting with non-tension pleating and then moving onto tension pleating.
9/33/2025 - I wore it to a wedding and beer got splashed on this, aside from brief terror, I was remarkably impressed at how well the pleats stayed.