Halloween!

There's been a break in my normal work habits to make up some Halloween costumes for me and my boyfriend. I changed my mind from Wesley Crusher (wearing a jumpsuit is not a good idea if you're going out and have to use the rest room) to Mick Jagger, specifically this outfit:

Along with this hat:

The hat is made of cardboard and masking tape, then covered in quilt batting and fabric. Not bad for a rush job, though I think I made it a bit too tall. 

And the shirt, belt, and scarf. I'll just be wearing some tight black jeans I already own, and I can't quite find a picture with his shoes visible, so I guess I'll just wear some black oxfords.

And for Seamus, he's going as 80's/90's wrestler 'Big Boss Man'

His shirt, I couldn't find a confederate flag patch, but otherwise not too shabby. Still need to find him a night stick and handcuffs. 

Also last week I taught a dying and shibori class, I always love all the different samples the kids make!

I also demoed ice-dying, but I tried it with organza this time. I think because organza absorbs dye so easily and doesn't really 'spread' the liquid throughout it like a thicker cotton, I got a very different effect. Still very pretty and painterly though. 

Do-Over

So you may notice the rag-rug is now in a different shape. The round shape was warping/turning into a cone, so I sucked it up, cut it all apart and started over. The oval shape seems to be working much better. I'm out of material now, it'll have to get put aside until I can find some more old shirts. 

Finally got around to finishing patching my cape. The lining (some kind of fake silk) had shredded around the armholes, and in a couple other spots, so I covered it with some scraps of silk I had lying around. 

And the red cable knit scarf is finally done! I really should have made it a little longer, but I was really, really sick of doing that cable pattern over and over. And I wanted to start quilting my Irish Chain quilt as my 'hand work' 

Still, it's long enough to wrap around a few times. I'm not totally sure I should block it--I've heard conflicting things about heavily cabled designs. But it does curl a little at the ends....

Very exciting things to be happening soon--Leonore Tawney's estate donated a large amount of materials to Uarts, and a bunch of students and alumns (myself included) have been invited to do work responding to hers. It's a bit of a challenge because my work is very different, but I'm in the pondering/sample making stages. This is a bunch of really lovely fine alpaca that unfortunately, makes my nose run something awful. 

And some spools of linen. The projects aren't due until January, so I have some time to figure it out. Watch for updates!

Also, I'm trying to keep on drawing, so have this little doodle--I scanned it in before I started working on color in case I messed up terribly. 

Using Things Up

Studio time this week has been scarce. The first cool weekend means the shoe store was insanely busy, and I'm getting ready to start teaching on Saturday. But I did manage to keep working on the braid-coat and use up some of the thrifted fabric I recently acquired.

I finally cut into the table cloth I bought a few weeks back. It's gotta be the nicest material for a table cloth I've ever seen, a nice thick soft cotton. Making a shirt/jacket was a good way to test out my new basic collared shirt pattern, and it was fun to use the border design like this. Don't have any buttons that I like with it, so that'll have to wait. There was also enough extra that I made a scarf for myself. No picture because it's just a big rectangle, nothing exciting. 

Braid coat continues to not look like I'm making progress at all, but I promise I am! Last double-ended braid finished, just two short ones left, although I'm re-thinking the shape a bit. 

And this one's a bit silly, but the cushion that I sit on in my studio was positively ragged, and ugly to boot. So I covered it with a bit of the weird animal mystery fabric, and added ties so it'll stop sliding off my chair as I work.