Having Horns

Sick Days

2012-02-11T20:41:00.000-08:00

I've spent the last week in various stages of sickness, recovery, and then sickness again, so not a whole lot has gone on. But I did manage to make some progress!

The skirt has been sewn together and all the cutwork cut. And I didn't cut through any of my stitching--I thought for sure it would happen. The seams also pressed flat really nicely, which I was concerned about.

Now onto outlining and cutting the bottom hem. I think that really helps pull the whole thing together. Then I'm going to half-line it (the wool it's made of is pretty scratchy) and figure out the buttons/waistband.

More grey wool! I never thought I'd say this, but I think I may have gotten too much! But at least I know I'll have enough for the coat, and patchwork always takes up way more fabric than you think.

That bag of silks also got dyed. I forgot how well silk picks up color, these are a bit darker than I had imagined. I might do a bit more silk-searching to get some lighter, brighter colors as well.

I'm starting to cut them up into little trapezoid shapes, the box is starting to fill up. This is definitely going to be an 'over time' project.

The Braid is Back

2012-01-31T11:52:00.000-08:00

The reversible braid jacket in now in the 'material gathering' phase (which, when you use recycled materials, can take a while) but I decide to do a sample in the actual weight/type of materials I wanted to use, just to make sure I was on the right track.

And hooray, everything seems to be working fine! It is very hard to photograph something double sided like this though! This project seems like it will be a good continuation of Leoh's Coat: now with both sides patchworked together. But similar idea, gray/black outer, dyed bits of silk insides.

Both sides. I haven't yet decided how I will join the strips together, probably bias strips of some kind though. Also, the grays here are from the lighter gray pile, I also have a pile of dark, dark charcoal, and I'm not sure how I will arrange the colors.

The silks in the sample above were from a lovely gift from Astrid, and they'll certainly make it into the finished project, but they're not enough, so I've gone through all my scraps of silk and sorted them out. I still need more though, so a trip to the thrift store for more awful silk shirts is in the cards. Then to dye them all green/blue/purpley.

And my boxes to keep the little pieces in. Woefully empty now but I'm sure they'll be overflowing soon enough.

The skirts moving along. I was awful and did cut away the back on a whole panel, I just couldn't resist the temptation. The executive decision was made to nix the braid motif above this one, so once I'm done this last panel, I'll start sewing them together.

Drawing Dump

2012-01-22T18:18:00.000-08:00

One of my other resolutions this year was to draw more, and I have, so just a quick post of some sketches and a little progress on other projects.

Playing with braid designs, and going back to Leoh's design, some of the basic components could be fixed, still want to make some decent pants.

I move my book around as I draw, sorry! Teoh, some thoughts on support garments for Mariah, based on something I saw on the Met online archive.

Mariah, wearing the skirt I'm working on now.

Thinking about outer garments using that double sided braid I made a sample of earlier, also a sketch of a tabard-type thing made of a traditional shell one-patch design.

I also did a thrift-store run, $30 gets you quite a bit of stuff. Most of this is for my student's 'thrift remix' project this semester, but the grey wool pants and white twill collared shirts are for my own work.

The pants have already been disassembled into chunks of fabric, I think these will become that braid-coat I sketched above.

And the cut-work skirt is continuing, I'm about halfway through the 3rd piece of it.

Triple Metallic

2012-01-15T19:30:00.000-08:00

Primed--and that matte gray is sort of lovely in it's own right.

Top masked off to do the first layer, the sole.

Gold soles achieved, then the soles were masked off.

Uppers sprayed copper, then the wingtip details were carefully taped off.

Careeeefully removing the masking tape!

And all off! I did mess up and get some drips and chips but all in all I think they came out pretty well. I need to get some new laces though, their old black ones don't really work.

Cutwork Begins

2012-01-12T12:35:00.000-08:00

Since my five-year-old Macbook Pro finally started to bite the dust, I sucked it up and bought a new laptop, so if my images look a little strange, bear with me, this screen seems really different than my old one.

I got a Lenovo x120e, I would have loved another Macbook, but all I really used it for was Netflix, the internet, and fixing up images, so I think this one will do just fine for that. It's very sturdy too, which was my main concern, I would be frightened to lug around a Macbook Air.

The four pieces of the new skirt have been cut out of the boiled wool welding trousers, and the bottom pattern has been traced on. I've begun to do the buttonholing and bars now, and I know I shouldn't, but I did cut out one just to take a peek at how it looks.

Promise I won't cut the rest until it's all done! Please with the effect so far though.

Also got the design for the braid finished. I think I'll see how the horns look on their own though before I decide on it, now I'm wondering if that will be too much.

I also got the supplies to make over this pair of Dansko oxfords. I love their chunky shape (reminds me a bit of the Prada platform oxfords that I'll never be able to afford) but I already have one pair of black lace-ups, and I honestly don't wear much black, so I'm going to give these a metallic finish! Just have to wait for a day when it doesn't look like it could rain any second.

A Quick DIY and Progress on the New Project

2012-01-08T17:15:00.001-08:00

I've been seeing shiny little collar tips and embellishments for a while now, and kept saying "Ah, what an easy DIY!" So I finally put my money where my mouth is and did one up on a plain denim shirt I thrifted a while back. I'm pretty pleased with it, and it was quick, only a few hours' work.
And I'm finally pushing forward on my next narrative piece. I'm keeping it fairly simple, I find in the past it was the basic garments that maybe got a little neglected, so I'm trying to really consider them this time. The boiled wool welding pants are going to become a very simple A-line skirt with cut work lace around the bottom.
Wow, I was so, so certain I had posted this sample a while ago when I made it, but I just went to link it and apparently I hadn't. Okay, so this is why I need to post more frequently. Anyway, this is the technique (basic buttonholed cutwork) that I want to use to create the pattern around the bottom of the skirt.
Other samples that I swore I had already discussed. Hmm. Maybe it was just on Tumblr? Very excited about the braid, it's double sided, I think there's going to be a really interesting strip-built cloth application for it eventually.
See? So it can be colored on one side, and not on the other, or different patterns, ect. Not sure whether I want to use the technique with whites (cotton/linen) or dark wools. Might be interesting for a religious outfit in whites.
Drafting out the skirt pattern, I've got the bottom horns pretty well figured, now I'm working with the braid above. Also a little sketch, you can see I'm already thinking about those double-sided braids.
And I made a hat, which sadly ended up too small for my head, thankfully it's just frogged yarn so I have plenty more, I'll probably try again. Pattern is Gingerbread Hat from Ravelry.

More Neckwear and a Gift for my Gift

2012-01-02T18:18:00.000-08:00

So after my successful yellow silk bowtie I made the other day I began to think about how to change and alter the classic bowtie (I've been playing with collars lately too, I have to remember to take photos of that) and I thought about making a bowtie with a shaped front. After a bit of fussing I think I did it.
Little wings! This fabric was not the best choice, it's a little floppy and odd but I'm rather pleased with this. More neck-wear experimentation to come.
I also made, then forgot I made, a cover for my new cherished Kindle. The ones online were awfully expensive and in stores most seemed to be made for the bigger models. This one works pretty well, I used cardboard to make it sturdy and batting to cushion it out.
The elastic on the spine side got a lit bit screwed up, if I make another I'll handle the spine differently.
Strips made with my patented "grab a few colors you like and cut them into random strips" method. Got really wobbly as I sewed them on, but I don't mind.

New Year, New Post

2012-01-01T18:01:00.000-08:00

You'll be happy to know that more frequent posting is one of my New Year's resolutions. I don't normally make a list, but this year I felt compelled to. Other goals:

-Draw everyday
-Stop buying lunch at work
-Wake up at 8:00 am *every* morning (I've been having problems sleeping in too much)
-Be more socially proactive
-Make more clothing for yourself

Anyway, here's a catch-up post since Christmas.
This is really just a show-off post, look at that delicious Xmas dinner! It was just me and Seamus, nice and quiet and relaxing. I got a Kindle from him which I'm very excited about.
And he, of course, was gifted his two custom-made shirt from me. Sorry about the web-cam pictures, I haven't gotten a proper picture of him in them yet.
You may recognize the rosy cross pin, I made it for him long ago. The lizard ring was a gift this year. Anyway, it's great to see him wearing them, it's a sense of satisfaction that I don't get all that much, since a lot of my work is not 'everyday wearable.
'I also used some of my Christmas Amazon cards to get a new shelf for my studio. I'm not much for decoration so industrial steel shelves are good enough for me. I re-organized the room a bit too and I think it works better now.
Clothing rack moved into the corner, I'm much happier to have it there, it was up next to the window before and I was getting worried about things fading.
Dear Jane keeps plugging along, here's B-5 and B-6. B-6 was a beast! Definitely my least-favorite so far. So many little strips! And the colors I pulled for it (I try to pick them semi-randomly) are my old high-school sports colors.
I also finally figured out how to tie a real bowtie, and liked it enough to pattern it out and make another. (the original bowtie I actually bought for Seamus for Christmas, though he hasn't figured out the tying yet.)
Well, now I can have any color or pattern I like!

Just a Few Little Things

2011-12-07T20:12:00.000-08:00

I totally forgot in my last post that I've also been working on my Dear Jane blocks. They're great when I don't feel like working on anything else.
The last three blocks of Row A. Those tiny flying geese on A-12!

Row A is finished! Just, uh, many more to go!
And the first four of Row B. My applique is a little wobbly but I'm getting back into it.

Calm after the Storm

2011-12-06T19:15:00.000-08:00

As you've probably noticed after a big project, I usually slow down and work on a few little ones before jumping into another big one. I do have some big things percolating, but for now it's some little holiday projects.
My boyfriend Seamus is quite a tall man, and he has a hard time finding shirts long enough for him, let alone shirts in fun patterns or colors. So for Christmas I'm making him two custom shirts. I based the pattern off one of his old shirts, adding some length in the body and sleeves. One is a floral print with yellow piping and accents. The other is a mix of a blue and white twill stripe and a toile print.
As the old quilt ladies say, I "fussy cut" the pocket to get some goats front and center on the pocket.
P-p-placket, and a little piping too on the floral shirt.
And I've been back to working on my cabled scarf. Yes, I messed up about 2/3 of the way up, no, I don't really care. When it comes to stuff I'm knitting for myself, my policy is to press on.

Mariah's Coat Photoset

2011-11-16T13:30:00.000-08:00

So before I delivered the coat I did a bit of a photoshoot, so at least I have something to show for it! Though really now, thinking back on all the other bits of clothing I've kept and given away, I think I'm always happier when a piece is with someone who will wear it.

So the rest of the outfit is a bit of a pastiche of bits from Lirienne's and Leoh's, but I figured that was better than just wearing it with black pants/shirt. I am wearing the horn headpiece and coif though!
With the sleeve cuffs buttoned. I love how the quilting really gave the coat some body, it makes the pleating into the sleeve cuff look really molded. I think the weird raglan cut of the original garment also helped give it that shape.
Side view, with one sleeve buttoned, and one sleeve left hanging.
Back view, my poor stocking's falling down. Putting on Leoh's shoes again I realize I really need to get back into shoe-making. Also that they are awfully uncomfortable.
Some closeups--with both the sleeves hanging it's almost more like a cape.
All-in-all, I'm really happy with the way it turned out, and I'm happy it found a good home. And I'm happy that now I'm back to getting normal amounts of sleep and being able to work on a variety of things!

Speaking of which I finished another Dear Jane block last night, A-11:
I'm addicted to the little things! Unfortunately, connectingthreads.com has stopped selling sets of solid color fat quarters, anyone know where else to get them for cheap or do I really have to buy a yard of a whole bunch of different colors individually?

Hello and Goodbye to Mariah's Coat

2011-11-16T12:40:00.001-08:00

Oh boy oh boy lots has happened since I last updated, and I was so busy throughout that I didn't update at all, so I'm sorry.

So the coat was lined, and quilted with a lovely silver metallic thread. It was very difficult to work with, particularly because it was old, and prone to tangling and snapping. I think it is a really metal coiled thread, the spool was very heavy.
It was worth it though, I love the effect it gave. On the outside, it's actually really subtle. It blends into the gray wool and is noticeable mostly as a texture.
Against the black of the inside, it is much more pronounce and you really see the shine of it.

And then the sleeve cuffs got attached, which was tricky business. The pleating was just so thick, and I had to stagger the double braid that goes down the center or it just was not going to lay right. Then a five-strand braid went over that mess of a seam and I just capped the braid ends with two little reinforcement patches.
Lining of the sleeve cuff. You can see how thick that seam was.
Then the embroidery started. I actually ended up using the silk-wool yarn instead of the cotton thread. The cotton thread was giving me too many issues with getting an even coverage and it was snarling up a lot. The sheen of the silk also just looked better in the satin stitch. It's worked over that purple cotton braid you see to give it some body. The little white thread are there to indicated eight even sections, so I know where to change over colors.
The embroidered inside. If I had had more time and more silk yarn (I was cutting it close, should have dyed more!) I would have loved to repeat all of the leather braid from the outside to the inside, but I didn't have either, so I focused on the front closure and back designs. I used the echo quilting as a guide, so that these spirals reflect the leather ones on the outside.
Best image color-wise, the yarn tends to pick up the light a little, it's hard to photograph. Also notice I didn't use the full color range I dyed--the more purpley colors didn't look as nice against the background of the lining.

So the coat was finished at about 3AM the night before the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show! But it was finished and delivered, and I got to go to the opening, which was fantastic and had so much tasty food.

But the most surprising part is, on the last day of the show it actually sold! I was not expecting that--since my work takes so so long with all the handwork it ends up being really expensive, and I know it's not exactly 'wearable' for most people so I really never sell anything. I'm a little sad, particularly since I never got to make the rest of the outfit that went with it, but on the other hand, it just leaves an opening to make another great coat, so I'm okay with it.

I'll post up pictures of the finished jacket in the next post, this one is super long already.

Gradiants!

2011-09-29T17:26:00.000-07:00

My thread gradient is done! 12 colors, and a whole lot of work un-tangling and making bobbins out of then. When I was making my skeins, it didn't seem like much thread, but as I tried to rewind it into bobbins, the amount seemed a little overwhelming. There's also a little more color variation than I would have liked, but oh well. It's all cotton, and just about the same thickness as ordinary sewing thread.
While I had the pots set up, I also dyed a gradient with this silk/wool blend yarn. It's pretty fine, a little thinner than fingering weight? I might use it for some really fine fair isle work.
And the coat itself is rolling along. The back is almost done, just have to do a small spiral at the top and bottom, then it's back to tackling the front/side area. Then it's on to lining and quilting.

Spiraling Away

2011-09-19T20:48:00.000-07:00

So I actually did so really exciting dye work tonight, but I didn't bring my camera with me to school, so unfortunately you're going to have to wait to get a peek at that. But here's a quick update on my coat's progress.

The horns are on the back are getting laid out. The one on the left is sewn down, the one on the right, you can see the basting thread. I baste them on with white thread before I sew them down.
The split in the back--again on is sewn down, one basted. When sewing it down, I come up between the strands of the braid, then back down through them, and snug up the thread so it basically disappears into the braid.
And the front now has an edge, though there's more work to be done there.

So basically, still to do on this project:
-Finish putting the braid on.
-Cut a lining.
-Echo quilt around the braid.
-Use the echo quilting as a guide on the lining to embroider the lining with the same pattern as the braid on the outside (this is where my recent dye work comes into play)

Preparing for Winter

2011-09-01T19:54:00.000-07:00

I know it seems awfully early, but we're starting to get boots in at work, and I feel like starting to prepare for winter already. I've been hanging onto the remains of my beloved bomber jacket for a while now, with the express purpose of making a hat out of them, an I decided it was time. It was also time to finally cut into the sheepskin I've been dragging around for more than a year.

I wanted something in the style of an aviator or hunting cap, with a central gusset and two sides that extend down to cover my ears. The sides I wanted to give a quilted horn design.

Drawing out the sides, and marking 1/8 dashes on all the lines as a guide for stitching.
Poking through the paper pattern to give myself a guide to quilt by. Also to make things a little easier--poking through leather is never fun, and I had to do it quite a bit later on.
My studio becomes a hot mess as I begin to cut the sheepskin lining. I moved my table against the wall awhile back, it's working a little better this way.
And then, like an idiot, after being so nervous to cut into this sheepskin, I screwed up. I didn't reverse the pattern, so I ended up with two sides that were exactly the same. Thankfully, I managed to patch it and recut it properly. Such a dumb mistake though.
The sides and top quilted up.
Basting things together with duct tape, sure, why not. Don't want to pin leather.
Tacking the seams down, it made the seams lay nicer on the outside, even though no one will see it once it's lined.
And, I forgot to take the pictures of the inbetween steps, but rest assured that sewing the lining and the outside together was rather hard on my hands. Turning it inside out was also difficult, I was afraid I was going to rip it, it was so thick. But here it is! And boy is it warm.
And the back. The straps on the sides were originally the little straps on the sides of the bomber jacket. I was so sad when that jacket ripped, but I'd had it since sophomore year of highschool, so it served me well.
And now I look like something from Adventure Time. But it is incredibly warm and cozy.

In other news:
The cleared-off mesh is growing, I need to start doing some experiments on it to see what kind of lace pattern I want to use on it. It also needs to be washed, it makes me itchy when I work with it.
And I just picked this floral fabric up to make Seamus a shirt with.

Strawberry Pants

2011-08-22T20:27:00.000-07:00

So I made up a pant muslin out the the pattern I posted last time. And, to my amazement, all was well. I even managed to get the fly together with only a little bit of difficulty. As much as I feel guilty sewing for myself, I feel a little validated--in the last month I've picked up how to do sleeve plackets and zip flies. I really want to work on bound buttonholes next.
But I can't wear pants made out of muslin, so I made up a pair out of this awesome cotton twill gifted to me long ago by my teacher Chrissy Day. Stripes and strawberries. Of course!
The fly was a little more unwieldy in this fabric than the muslin, but I think I did fairly well.

I did purposely line up the stripes on the butt gusset (is there a name for that piece of fabric?) I didn't on the waist band though, sort of wish I had.
The insides are pretty darn good for me (for machine sewing--I'm super controlled with my hand sewing but I lose it at regular machine sewing sometimes.)
And here they are on me! Pretty good fit--I think next time I'll dart or curve the waist band though, it gaps a little at the top...like most of the pants I buy anyway.

I've also gone back to the filet net, and am ripping, ripping, ripping away at the lace.

Purple Pants, Red Scarf

2011-08-16T16:41:00.000-07:00

I've been working on my leather braid coat, but it doesn't look like much progress, so I haven't taken another picture of it. But in the meantime I've also started a few small projects.

I've started this scarf now, because on size 1 needles, it is going to take a very long time to finish. But I love a good cable, and this yarn is super super soft. It's a wool/cashmere blend I found still in it's original skein at a thrift store for a couple bucks. This one's just for me.
I dyed a pair of jeans to this...orchid? color. They were originally a light tan/off white, but I didn't realize when I bought them online that they had a 'stain effect' on them. It wasn't noticeable in the pictures, but it was sure noticeable on the pants, and it didn't look cool, it jsut looked stained. Dying it made them just about disappear.
I also traced out a basic jean/pant pattern from a pair that had ripped. The only tricky part was that the pants had stretched out quite a bit, so they were a little warped. I'm hoping to make a muslin soon to test out the fit.
I also found this book on Seminole Patchwork, which I've been really interested in!

Class is Out

2011-08-10T13:22:00.000-07:00

Done with teaching Summer Institute! It was a lot of fun, but also a major challenge, and just a whole lot to do while still working full time at the shoe store. But now I've got my free time back, and my shiny new studio, so I'm getting back into it.
I think I've got my shirt-making skills down just about pat now, I'm very pleased with how this shirt came out! I found all three awful/wonderful fabrics at the thrift store, they work so well together. This picture was taken at about 80% completion, I hadn't sewn on the cuffs or done the buttons. It's done now and I've worn it several times, I need to take a good finished picture.
This was actually my first sleeve placket! It's a little lopsided, not too bad though. And just look at all that piping.
Matched up the stripes just to be cool like that. The new machine is a fantastic topstitcher! I'm still a little wobbly, but so, so much better than usual for me.

I put the log cabin blocks that have been sitting around a while together. I'm sick of making them, so I'm just going to make some borders (probably piano keys or string blocks) to make this bigger and finish it. I'll most likely use this to cover another ratty comforter and tie it.
I also recently found this big filet-net lace table cloth at the thrift store, and I'm rather painstakingly removing all the worked lace so I'm left with a giant piece ( or at least some long strips, if taking out the tight woven part in the middle is too difficult) of filet net mesh. I'm thinking it'll go towards a shift dress to go under the leather-braid coat.
I'm thinking it'll go towards a shift dress to go under the leather-braid coat. Which I've also started back to work on.
I was a little stalled out on it for a while because I was beginning to run out of leather, and wasn't sure if I should go light on the leather braid and try to finish it, or try and find more. But another awful XXL black trench coat jumped out at me from the thrift store (which turned into this pile of leather) so I'm back on the case, and now I can make it a braided as I want. I also found a few yards of nice cotton velvet in an olive color, not sure what I'm doing with that yet.
And just for fun, since I don't post much of myself here, I also got a great navy blazer at the thrift store as well! And new glasses (but not from the thrift store)

Unanticipated Hiatus

2011-07-17T18:12:00.000-07:00

For the last few weeks, I've been simultaneously moving and preparing to teach my first class. Not a great excuse for not updating this for over a month, but that's all I've got. To be honest, it left little time to work on my own artwork anyway, so there wouldn't be a whole lot to show. It's still bound to be a little slow right now, the class is taking up a lot of my time, and work is very stressful right now.
But on the bright side, now I have my own space to work in, and that's a beautiful thing.
And all my work is actually hanging nicely and not squashed into a tote bin. Somethings have not weathered the storage as well as others, but what can you do? I might try to wash some of it, I think they'd be alright in a 'delicate' cycle.
I also have a new workhorse. I finally ponied up the money for a new/old sewing machine, the one I was using was almost more trouble than it was worth. It's a Bernina 732, like the 730, but it's just a straight-stitch/zig-zag machine, no special stitches. Which is fine by me, I never use them. So far it's been a perfect little tank.
To test it out I made a very stupid little vest, it's made of denim-weight twill, and the machine had zero trouble ripping through it.
Just for laughs, and to test out the machine's topstitching, I used a Hong Kong finish on just about every part of it.
I mean really it's pretty unnecessary, but fun to do, especially with a contrasting floral.

I got one of my crocheted meshes to felt down really well. I was really shooting to erase the "crocheted" aspect of it, to just leave a felt mesh, and with this piece I think I got there.
The other chunks were somewhat less successful--one must have had some acyrlic or nylon in it, it got all crinkled and weird.

Quick Update and Some Selfish Sewing

2011-06-08T18:07:00.000-07:00

I've been busily collecting horrible thrift store garments and getting them scoured for my class, as well as making powerpoints and getting supplies. (If there's one thing I've learned in art school, if was how to make a powerpoint!) But I did squeeze some of my own work inbetween.
The coif made with recycled needlepoint whites is coming along--just have to finish the center section and sew it up--then dye it.

I also made myself a shirt--sometimes I forget how gratifying it is to do a quick, wearable project! I cut it a little bit short, but I'm pretty short so it still fits pretty well.
I cut it out of a striped tablecloth, and incorporated the stripes into the back and yoke.
The collar got a little screwy, but I'm still pretty happy with it. As much as I'm confident making very painstaking handsewn garments, I'm a little rusty when it comes to regular, machine made clothing.

Got a New Baby

2011-05-30T18:30:00.000-07:00

I've been away from the blog for a while, I admit. It's a mixture of post-big-project let-down and the fact that I've been getting ready for a summer teaching job (very exciting!) I've Assisted the Wearable Arts class at the Uarts Summer Institute several times in the past, but now I actually get to teach my own version of the course as an evening elective. I'm a little nervous to be honest, and scrambling to get my syllabus and supply lists ready.

In other exciting news I have a new baby:
My old iron spat out some awful rust water right out onto one of my nice shirts, and I finally decided that was the last straw. It had really been broken for a while, the dial had snapped off months ago so the temperature was impossible to control. This one works so nicely, but I do need to get used to the weight of it.
I also did a silly project. I found a bedazzler long ago, and had yet to use it, so I jazzed up this plain white shirt just a little bit.
I'm also continuing to add leather here, although I've put the project aside for the time being.
And I think once I'm done with all the leather braid I'm going to use some metallic threads to sort of sashiko quilt the whole thing together.
I've also restarted the coif project with the varieted white recycled yarn. This time I sort of knotted and felted the ends of the short strands together, it seems to be working out. I'm rushing this so I can dye it while I have studio access.
I'm hoping that dying it gray will preserve the nice variation in colors.

After Three Years!

2011-05-17T15:21:00.000-07:00

It's finished! The t-shirt quilt I started back in the summer of 2008 is piece, tied, and bound. It's a trip going back and seeing the pictures of a few little blocks. The whole thing really started because I was making altered t-shirts for the Punk Rock Flea Market, and I had lots of scraps. Now it's a beast of a blanket!
It's super heavy and soft--there's a whole old comforter in there! And the multicolored tying just adds to it's obnoxious colorfulness.
I actually spent some time on my Tumblr seeing if I could find a more awfully bright quilt, and so far I haven't. So this may well be the most awfully bright, obnoxious quilt out there.
The back is also pretty enjoyable, with the little colorful stitches all over. I know tying is not usually done so close together, but I like the way it looks and feels.
So thick!

Anyway, I'm just glad to finally have this piece incorporated into something useful, and not just taking up space on my shelves. Feels good. I like making my weirder garments too, but sometimes it's so satisfying to be left with something you can really use all the time.

Tying it Together

2011-05-10T16:41:00.000-07:00

The borders are on and the t-shirt quilt is laid out for tying!
Underneath this layer is an old comforter, and the bottom layer is a black jersey sheet.
I bought one of those party packs of embroidery floss and cut lengths of it to tie with--I've already gone through that whole bunch and cut another. The curved needles have been invaluable to the process.
I'm just going with random selection for the ties. The whole thing is pretty offensively colorful anyway, so I'm going whole hog.
I love I can get up so close with my new camera!
And it actually looks pretty nice on the back too! I'm definitely tying it much closer together than it strictly needs, but I like the sturdiness and pattern of it. Only problem is that it's taking a pretty long time.

Sleeves and Cuffs

2011-05-04T06:30:00.000-07:00

Real short update today. The quilt's borders are all on, no picture though, since it looks pretty much the same as the last picture, just with the border on all four sides. Hoping that I can get down to the store to get a backing on Friday.

And I've been busy at work on the jacket, it's just a little slow going.
I'm focusing on the sleeves and shoulders now, then probably the front closure area, then the back. It's getting pretty clear that I need more leather though...
Pinning the cuff on to see how it looks with the rest of the sleeve. It hangs loose really nicely when I tried it on--has a nice weight to it.

Sawtooth and Stripes and Spirals

2011-04-25T17:55:00.000-07:00

I can see the end of the t-shirt quilt tunnel! I'm on the very last border now, then it gets tied and stored until next winter--definitely don't need it now, it's been quite warm the last few days.
The green showing around the edges is the blanket I'm going to cover with it. I'll probably buy a jersey knit flat sheet for the back, then tie it with embroidery floss and self-bind it.
Here's the darker colors with black, making the second sawtooth row. I'm not being particularly careful about the corners, as you can probably tell.
And just today I've started to put the very last border on--a gray and black piano key. I've only got one side on so far, but it's going fairly quickly. On my next day off I'll search for floss and a backing.
And more braid is going on to the jacket, this is the sort of underarm area. Not a whole lot to talk about this week, just plugging along! If all goes well we should sign a lease for our new apartment this week--complete with studio, so that's all very exciting.

Spiral Shoulder

2011-04-17T07:27:00.000-07:00

Excuse my dirty sock, but this has been my vantage point for most of the last week. Trying to get the basic leather strips down on the jacket, before I start with the rest of the embellishment. Getting a little nervous that I might not have enough leather...keeping my eyes out for another jacket with a similar weight of leather.
The ball and loop closures are attached to the front edge.
I've started to baste down one of the spirals on the shoulder. There's a dart on the shoulder (the straight line the comes out of the spiral runs along it) so applying leather there is strengthening the shape.
Everything that's on so far--now I need to do the other side. Then the edging, and some decorative work along the back seam and the front edges.
And I finally got some new sewing thread, so these triangles are turning into squares for my t-shirt quilt.

Many Feet of Braid!

2011-04-08T16:36:00.000-07:00

I underestimated how long it would take to make the braided lengths to go around the edge of the coat! There's two and they're about 5 feet long apiece, which took a few hours to do in a five strand braid.
Before I can add that, however, there were some small worn patches (maybe moth holes?) across the back and shoulders that I had to patch. I think they'll be less conspicuous when the leather braid designs are on top of them, but I don't particularly mind them being visible. The clothing isn't supposed to be particularly pristine.
Nothing fancy, just extra fabric turned in and applied over. You can see one more little worn spot up on the right. I probably should have darned this but I've never been good at doing that inconspicuously.
I cut up black triangles for my t-shirt quilt's next border. I haven't forgotten about it, I just honestly need to be more sewing thread, I'm very low, and there isn't a store close by that sells it.
I also finished a few more Dear Jane blocks, here's A-7 and A-8, nice easy ones.
And A-10, which was really difficult and fiddly. I think I did fine until the outer borders, now I realize I should have put them together in a different order. Oh well, it's just a little lopsided.

From the Cuff Up

2011-03-31T09:03:00.000-07:00

Folks, it's just not my year, I'm now sick with the flu. Really just hitting all the popular illnesses one after the other. However, I did get some things done before I got sick, and now that my fever's down below 100 degrees, I feel up to looking at a computer screen long enough to post them.
The coat itself has been cut into shape--it's a cut-away shape similar to the other coat. It's a shape I like and something sort of consistent throughout the garments. The sleeves are slit, so they can hang, and I've already cut the cuffs off, the sleeves will be gathered into them.
Something like the bottom left illustration, but with a tight cuff, and the rest of the sleeve gathered into it. I swore I had seen something like that in a historical piece, but since I can't find an example, I might be making things up. Which is fine, I'm not in the historical reconstruction business.
I decided to start the braid application on the cuffs--they're small and fairly manageable. There's a combination of 5-strand and 3 strand braid and a twisted strand of leather (for the spirals) The nice thing about using leather is that I get the smooth leather side and the suede side to work with.
The twist is a little difficult to work with (I have to sort of twist and hold it, then couch it down as I go) so my spirals are a little lopsided, but I think it's getting easier. I'm not looking forward to making the long braids to go around the edge, it all gets very tangled.

In slightly less important news, I just got these great new shoes (made in Pennslyvania!) but they have a true leather bottom, and I will both slip and fall and wear them out really quickly.
So I cemented on a layer of tough suede to the front, which will hopefully add grip and help protect the sole a little bit (I always wear out the front of my soles faster than anything else)

Leatha Strips, Leatha Braid

2011-03-23T07:59:00.000-07:00

I ended up working a little overtime this week, so I did not get as far into my new jacket project as I wanted. But I have gotten the ball rolling at least!
Starting with turning some chunks of soft leather from a very ugly leather jacket into thin (1/8") strips. I cut them on the fold, and didn't cut all the way through, then sort of pulled and snipped the fold so I could get longer strips out of the small pieces. (if you've ever done rag rug braiding, it's the same sort of technique, I'm not explaining it very well I'm afraid.)
Bundle of strips being produced, and test out the braiding. You can sort of see the "corners" on the strips in the bunches.
And application and construction is just beginning on the actual coat, starting with the button loops on the sleeve cuff. I'll be sure to take some more all over pictures of the jacket's alterations for the next post.
And on the nights I got home too late to want to drag all that out, I did finish three more Dear Jane blocks, A-3 through A-6. They're just so quick and addictive. Here's all six done so far.

Growth Rings

2011-03-17T10:35:00.001-07:00

The t-shirt quilt is growing, around and around. I did pick up more shirts on Monday, both black and gray, and I decided to split the remaining triangles into light and dark to do two sawtooth borders.
All the lighter triangles got sewn to the gray shirt fabric and made into many little squares. They finish at a little under 1" and I think I made about 250 of them.
So since last time, I added a 1.5" gray border, the sawtooth border, a 1.5" black border, a 2.5" gray border, and another 1.5" black border. Next is the black and dark colored sawtooth, then maybe just solid black around the outside. I still need about 8-9" around each edge to make it big enough to cover one of my comforters.
And I also finished my third Dear Jane block, here's A-3. A little wobbly, I did it in pieces rather than applique, because that's what it looks like in the picture.

Piano Keys

2011-03-12T06:19:00.000-08:00

Work on the T-shirt quilt has commenced! I swore that somewhere in the apartment, I had a bag of bigger chunks of t-shirts from when I originally was cutting the pieces, but it seems like I may have thrown it out in a fit of organization. So I was left with a bag full of tiny little chunks like these:
And the rest of the the triangles that I had already cut:
Which I just separated into lights and darks for now.
Out of the rest of the scraps, I cut 2" by 1" bricks. I would have loved to make them bigger, but the pieces were really small, and that was all I could eke out. I also cut some black bricks to alternate with.
So with my bricks and some black strips, this is where I'm at now. I think I'm going to have to make a thrift store trip for some more black t-shirts. I'm definitely thinking of doing a sawtooth border with the left over triangles, and I'm playing with the idea of using a gray t-shirt too, for some contrast. Maybe a sawtooth border with lights and the gray, then one with black and the darks?

I've also been looking at countless pictures of Turkish and middle eastern jackets and vests to get inspiration for my jacket piece. My next post, I'll put up some of the images I'm looking at. I think I've decided to go with leather as my braiding materials, I have quite a bit of really thin leather from thrift store pants and jackets, and it braids up really nicely (bonus--I don't have to sew it into a tube because it doesn't fray!)
It also gives me an option for thicker and thinner braids, and I do have both some gray and black leather. I can also use the leather or suede side of the braid for extra variety! I'm not looking foward to cutting many many strips of leather at about 1/16th of an inch though...

Dear Jane and an Project Revisited

2011-03-08T16:38:00.000-08:00

I always have some misgivings about posting my quilting stuff on here--something inside me tells me it's not my 'serious work.' It's silly, I know, and I'm trying to just see it as both a more design oriented end of my work, as well as helping me gain further precision in my sewing, and giving me some blankets to put on my bed, in the end.

I've started working on a "Dear Jane" quilt. I'm not normally the type to want to make something from a pre-existing pattern, but it's a sort of brute force pinnacle of quilt-making, and I love the ridiculously small, precise scale it requires. It's like my little jigsaw puzzle.

The original Dear Jane Quilt. As it states proudly on the bottom corner, made of 5,602 pieces.
So far I've managed the first two squares.

A1-Pinwheel gone awry. I'm ignoring the idea of a background fabric and just making every square a different combo of colors. It'll be obnoxious I'm sure.

Yesterday I started A2, here's the 'drawing on freezer paper stage'

The 'iron onto fabric then trace around and add seam allowance stage'

And after four hours of meticulous piecing, I've got this.

I'm also restarting up work on my old t-shirt quilt. It's not what you would consider, um, a traditional 't-shirt quilt.'
I've posted it before, but in case you forgot, that's the status it's still in, and sat in for two years. It's a damn shame to let it rot, so now I'm determined to finish. But I sure as heck don't want to make any more 3" blocks with jersey knit. So I'm going to improvise some borders with the scraps and triangles I have left, plus some black and white shirts Seamus recently donated to the stash. Cutting some rectangles up tonight, I'll post progress soon.

Finally a New Post, Finally a New Camera!

2011-03-04T19:11:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted recently because I got sick for a good week there, and didn't really work on much of anything. I had some sort of allergic reaction, we think to a cheap laundry detergent I bought, and broke out in some really terrible hives all over my head, legs and hips. And as that finally healed up, I caught a nasty cold from my coworker.

On the bright side, it gave me a lot of time to start organizing my enormous image archive of well, everything-I have about 2,500 images saved on my laptop, and they were just sort of jumbled into general categories, so I'm (still!) working on getting them on a thumb drive in some sort of orderly fashion.

And I got a new camera! I was fed up with my little Powershot--it kept telling me the batteries were dead, after only taking a few shots. And it was horrible in anything less than very bright conditions. So with a little birthday money donated by my parents and boyfriend, I bought a gently used Canon 20D this very night! Very exciting.Despite my relative inactivity, I did manage to finish both of the silk braid strips. Now I just need to figure out what to do with the rest of the coat. Part of me just wants to make it a very simple sashiko-style quilted jacket, the other half wants some sort of braided trim application.

The colors are so much more true-to-life with this new camera! And I don't have to play around with the color balance much at all--hurray!
I took some test pictures with my horns, thought I would post them, since I only photographed it on the head. Still thinking I need to redo the coif again...ugh.
I also reorganized my materials in the living room, and now I'm working on making some basic shirt/pant patterns for myself (you know, in case I ever get around to making myself anything)

Stripped and Braided

2011-02-16T07:17:00.000-08:00

I ripped the coif I had started in the last post, and started over once again. This time around is better, and at least I know the shape that I wanted works. But I need to get it a little closer to the face, so I'm going to make the face hole a little smaller, and then increase some stitches at the top of the hole to curve it back out and cover more forehead. So it's back to the knitting needles again! I think this is why I didn't do much knit work in college, it's just so fiddly to get the shapes right, and I have to keep starting over.

I'm finally dipping into my little shoebox of precious dyed silks. I hoard every scrap, sample and dye mistake from my classmates, my students and myself, and I'm breaking them out for Mariah's coat. Like with the horns, small areas of color (unlike the all-over color of the others) but really concentrated, bright, colorful. On this I'm breaking it into cool and warm, to avoid the rainbowishness I wasn't sure about on the horns.
I'm doing a little strip of braid quilting, one cool, one warm, probably to go on either side of the button up front of the coat's lining. The silk is a pain in the butt to sew, very shifty/stretchy, but it's going okay with the foundation strip.Close up--it's really a challenge keeping them centered, they just want to stretch all over.

I was also making more blocks for my log cabin quilt, which is why there's not quite as much other work this week as their could have been. Now I'm up to 60, shooting for 150. Guess it'll be good for next winter, I think I'll still be working on it through the spring and summer.

Tiny Gift and Trial and Error

2011-02-07T07:08:00.000-08:00

First a small gift for Seamus for Valentines Day's (which is also our anniversary, approximately, makes gift-giving easier!) It's the symbol for Chapter of Rose Croix in the Scottish Rite of Masonry, which he has recently joined. It's truly a tiny gift, only about 1 3/4" diameter. Done in chain stitch with sewing thread. I'll probably go back and fill in the little white bit peeking through on the rose, I didn't notice it until looking at the picture.
I recently de-plied a whole ton of white three-ply rug/needlepoint yarn (the type pre-cut into yard-long lengths) and wound them up on cardboard. I really wanted to knit my under-horn head covering with them, but I was having some problems with the sturdyness of it if I just held two strands together to join.
So right now I'm knitting a mock up in some frogged sweater yarn (a super soft wool/cashmere blend, I really want a hat made out of it for myself) and debating whether to just make it in this yarn, or re-try it in the salvaged yarn. Not certain yet, though I love the variation in the de-plied yarn. Thoughts?

Annnnnd Done

2011-02-01T06:48:00.000-08:00

So I swallowed my fear of color a bit and finished the other half of the embroidery on the horns in teal, then sewed up the other sides. I don't have a head form right now, so you get treated to my tired head modeling it. The balaclava/ski mask I'm wearing under it is not what will be used in the end, just giving you an idea about how the piece will look over one. And without it, you could barely see the horns against my dark hair.
I am particularly pleased with how they look from the back--that I'd really not been able to see as I was working on it.

Horns are Coming Together

2011-01-31T07:16:00.001-08:00

In the most literal sense--I joined them at their fronts.
So the right sides are totally done. Just have to be joined at the back when I get the insides finished. And here's where I'm having a little bit of an issue.
I couldn't quite decide on the colors--either coral-orange-yellow or coral-orange-teal. I think the teal works better with the colors I was using for the vest pockets, but I just don't know if it's too weirdly 'rainbowy'
Yellow.
Teal. Thoughts? The whole thing with this character is much smaller areas of color, but with very bright, cheerful colors. It just feels weird, after having such controlled colors for the other characters--Red for Leoh, pink/peach for Lirienne.
Close up of the embroidery, which is just multiple rows of feather buttonhole stitch sorta "woven" into each other. Really happy with the texture of the stitch, it gives it a little bit of a ridge, echoing the corduroy.

Horns in Progress

2011-01-27T06:50:00.000-08:00

The head piece is progressing!
One half has both the corduroy and the metallic threads couched down, it just needs some lining and finishing. The other I'm just starting to lay down the metallic threads.
It is very hard to get a decent picture of the metallic effect, but I'm really happy with it. Because of the raised nature of the corduroy, depending on the angle, the metallic threads appear and disappear.
Annnd because of the snow, it's been completely dead at work, so I have some time again to draw. I was thinking a bit about what to do with that strange lining tunic from I. Goldburg, and I wanted to sketch out with these horns plus the knitted under-helmet.

Sourcing Materials

2011-01-22T17:33:00.000-08:00

I don't really mention all that much about my materials and where I get them, except to say that they are about 95% recycled (thread is a bit difficult to recycle, though I do when I can!) So I thought maybe it would be interesting to talk about a bit.

I have three main sources for materials:

Philly AIDS Thrift on 4th and Bainbridge--A bit of a 'cooler' thrift store, with mostly newer (80's/90's) stock, honestly I do more shopping here for myself than for my work, but they have a nice little fabric/craft section where I find some notions/trim/tools occasionally.

American Thrift on 7th and Wolf St--A digger's paradise of moldy old crap from the varied people of South Philadelphia. A lot of truly bizarre stuff and dirt cheap. Lots of my leather/suede comes from jackets and pants I find there, as well the stack of tweed suits I used for the lone star cape last year.

I. Goldburg Army Surplus on 12th and Chestnut--The top two floors are just rugged work-wear stuff, Woolrich, Levi's, Dickies. The basement, however, is a mess of old, clearly used often damaged army surplus from across the globe. This is where a lot of the 'base' garments I use come from. Something about the wear and construction of military clothing makes me more comfortable leaving something of the original garment intact. Most of the clothes I get elsewhere end up completely cut apart and reconfigured, but the stuff I get from I. Goldburg is often what informs the shape of the final garment.

I generally try to cycle going to these places every few weeks, and I had a little bonus money from work, so I went to I. Goldburg on Friday, and this was my haul:
Two hats/balaclavas for patterning inspiration. I don't think I'll actually use them physically, in anything (except maybe to warm up my own head) but rather to get an idea of the shapes I need to get the sort of coif I'm looking for. Also a pair of absolutely enormous wool socks that are half felted already, and I'll probably just finish the job.
Grey waffle sort of knit thermal, very large. I like the cotton plackets at the neck and sleeves, and the roughness of the knit material.
Some sort of jacket liner, I think? It's grey wool, and the shape is really sort of like a Turkish robe, I definately think the shape of this will be kept pretty much the same, not sure yet what I'll be doing with it.
Another undershirt, I used one of the same sort for Leoh's undergarments, it's made of this sort of perfect rough woven wool.
These might be my best find in a while. They're white boiled wool pants. According to the tag, they're British Welder's pants--I've seen leather used for welding protection, but never wool. Though it does make sense, it doesn't burn well, and the boiled wool on this is very thick.
Look at those giant buttons! It's all very brutish--it doesn't even have sides seams (must have been a large bolt of cloth!) They just kind of amazing, I'm not certain what's going to happen with them yet, I'll have to ponder.

I don't generally post picture of garments before I break them down. Partially, I think, because I just forget. The other part is that my work isn't really about the before-and-after transformation--I'm not turning an oversized t-shirt into a babydoll dress anymore, the presto-chango aspect of it is sort of moot. It's more about clothing adapting from one thing to another, without the idea of improving (or, god forbid, the awful word 'upcycle') Not to mention it gives my work a more clear and immediate history that I don't necessarily want known when it's seen.

Just thought it'd be interesting to share with you folks for once, after all, this blog is about the process, it's not my professional portfolio.

Some Finished Pieces, Some New Starts

2011-01-20T18:05:00.000-08:00

The lace shirt is all finished. I'm still iffy on the finishing of that stupid cheesecloth, but the rest I'm happy with. Wish I still had a dress form to put it on...

The woven vest/jacket's pockets are lined and installed.

I confronted my fears about sock making, and was pleasantly surprised to get through these two with relatively little trouble. I think I messed up on the toe decreases a little, but in theory I'm understanding how the gusset/heel flap work.
I've wanted to work with corduroy for a while, it's a fabric with the sort of strength and familarity that I like, but I always felt like I had to transform it a little bit, it was a little too recognizable, I guess? Anyway, I cut a pair of pants down into bias strips, and I loved how it suddenly turned into something like a cord.
It's starting to turn into this, which will be a sort of head-band that goes over a hat/coif sort thing, probably a knitted one. I'm couching down some yarn, then sewing the 'cord' over it to give it some dimensionality.

Tiny Things

2011-01-09T07:22:00.000-08:00

I didn't make any specific New Year's resolutions, but with the holidays far behind, I'm resolved to focus back on my work, and back on updating more frequently. Just in general. Also drawing more and cooking more rounded dinners. So I guess there was a few little things.

Working on some physical little things as well. My poor woven vest has been languishing sans-pockets for a while now. After the tough going with that tape lace, I figured some tiny, quick little pieces might be a good thing, so I set to work on some pockets. Instead of making a matched set, I like the idea of completely different ones, perhaps given by different people. They're almost like little badges that way, marking connections or events. This character's clothing is a little more piecemeal in general, for two reasons. The House of Horns is the house of orphans and clergy, so their clothing is bound to be a little less ornamental, and even further recycled than other house. She's also an outsider, recently taken in, so the clothing is going to be a sort of donated mish mash.
The knit one I didn't get an in-progress of, unfortuately, but you can see the patchwork one taking form. It was worked on 0 or 00 (I'm not sure, they were not marked?) needles with one strand of three-strand crewel or rug yarn. I would love to get even finer, if I can find a finer wool to work with. Lace weight wool tends to be sort of fuzzy and doesn't come in great colors. Any ideas?
And now pieced! It's a traditional 'snail trail' pattern, which I think looks like a variation of several older 'ram's horn' patterns. The beautiful silks used in this were gifted to me from my studiomate Astrid who dyed them. I used three shades of blue and a pale green. I'm not sure how tiny those seams are, but I think they are just shy of 1/8th.

And here it is bound and quilted. I love how this silk feels when quilted, would love to work with a whole garment of it. The variations of blues are also really nice.
You can see from the back of the knit one that there are a *lot* of ends--this is due to using (reusing) those short lengths of wool pre cut in embroidery kits. I was working with wool only about a yard long. So lots of joining. I'll probably line it as well so it's not so messy inside.

I think the next project I'll be moving onto is a hat/headpiece. I've been posting some 'hat-spiration' over at my tumblr, here's some of the key objects I'm looking at.

A Few Finds and Some Terrible Fabric

2011-01-03T15:42:00.000-08:00

I generally try not to buy much old trim/ephemera or old embroideries. I'd love to collect them but I just don't have the room and they'd just pile up. Usually it's just old clothes to process (tear apart) and recycle into garments, and maybe something for myself. But I did pick up some neat things today.
Some really amazing old bias tape, in two plaids and a candy stripe. There was also polka dots but I'm not so fond of polka dots. It's still sealed and entire, and I'd really like to use the plaid! The plain muslin skirt facing is actually useful for my work, and the last, I admit...I bought for it's really lovely metallic label. The scalloping itself is kind of beat.
Entirely New!

The other big find was an unfinished piece of tape lace.
It's about half-finished. Sadly it's not really usable for my work, but it's a great reference for different stitches (would have been great to have about a month ago, hah)
I wish I could find this sort of premade lace. In any case, if I try my hand at tape lace again, it'll be a much finer lace.
Little eyelets!

My own tape lace is having some issues. The cheese-cloth like fabric that I was using to back the lace/make the arms ended up being incredibly difficult to work with. It's beautiful (thanks to Diana for gifting it to me!) but it shreds and pulls, and it definitely not made to be a weight-bearing fabric. Oops. At this point, I am going to finish it, and I may replace it at a later date.
It was originally going to be a full sleeve, but it was just not going to happen. Still, I'm okay with it. Many of the historical garments I look at have some pretty strange improvisations or fix ups, it doesn't necessarily harm the integrity of the garment.
Little baby sleeves. On the bright side, the lace merged really nicely with the body of the shirt.

All that said, I am a little ashamed of the hot mess left on the inside. I've always been pretty proud of the neatness of my insides (one the difference, I contend, between costume and clothing) but holy crow this fabric did not cooperate. And I don't want to add even more bulk by covering it. Agh.

Just...one...more

2010-12-29T06:33:00.000-08:00

One more christmas gift eked out, this one for my workplace pollyanna. Thankfully we exchange those on Saturday, so I still have time to finish one thumb.
Pattern is Can-Cans from Ravelry. Knitted in Knitpicks Palette yarn, which was really nice to work with and inexpensive. I bought three balls just in case, and didn't even use a whole one. And I did add to my practical knitting knowledge--now I know how to work a thumb gusset.
Went back to work on quilt blocks. I added one round to the blocks I already had done. They were honestly a little small (6") and I didn't feel like joining a million blocks together. So I have 30 finished blocks and 20 half finished. I probably need 100 to get a good sized quilt.
Best of all, the tape lace is off the backing, and beginning to be turned into a garment! It held it's shape fairly well, though next time I will make sure to have more points of connections on the tape itself, I think that will help reinforce it.

And just a little bit of relevant Christmas loot--Seamus's father got me an Amazon giftcard, with which I scored some new textile books (as well as a few science books and novels) The black work and whitework books are mostly design inspirations (not all that clear on technique, which is fine) the Fashion in Detail is my second, and one of the best series of books! And the Art of Manipulating Fabric we had at my school, and I always meant to purchase it. More pleating, quilting, smocking and cording how-to and images that you can imagine.

Holidays are Taking Over

2010-12-12T16:55:00.000-08:00

Seriously, I haven't made anything that wasn't a gift in almost a month. As much as I like making things for people, I a) am afraid of getting so out of the swing I can't get back and b) feel vaguely guilty posting them here...it's not exactly exciting stuff I'm the first to admit. But forgive me, here are some gifts to come out of the Havinghorns factory recently.
The diagonal scarf for my mom is finished and blocked. It's nice and long and quite soft, so I think (hope) she will like it.

Also for her (well, for the house, so I guess for both of my parents) is a little table runner. I bought a pack of christmas fabric and made up this pattern, which was fairly easy. I'm terrible at cutting things out accurately, so quilting not made of strips or single shapes gets a bit hairy.
Machine pieced, hand quilted because I don't really trust this machine to quilt. It bugs out and breaks threads even while piecing.

Also been busy with ornaments, I've made 6-7 of the little granny square stockings, they're my favorite so far. The I-cord wreath was a bit of an experiment

These wreaths came out better--a sort of improvised crochet over an ornament hanger twisted into a circle. The fabric balls were made out of leftovers from the table runner. I remember having a ball like those on my tree growing up.
And last, but not least, for my Something Awful Secret Santa, a needle point 'smug' emoticon. Just because.

Christmas Gifts, and Something for Me

2010-11-21T18:19:00.000-08:00

About 3/4 of the way through this Diagonal Lace Scarf for my mom for Christmas. It's been a quick knit, and has been getting me into the rhythm of lace knitting, though this is about as simple as it gets. The yarn is Caron Simply Soft, nothing pricey, but it feels nice, which I think is all my mom will care about.
Some tiny knitted things, I'll tuck a few in with presents to my parents, Seamus's parents...getting more comfortable with shaping and following patterns. I feel a bit like a baby following patterns (I really never have for sewing) but I really need to learn to do things structurally before I go off on my own.
It doesn't look like much, but this is the result of some meticulous muslin-botching-together and pattern drafting. If you've been following me for a while (I guess most of you have? Impressive!) you've probably realized that my pattern-development process is not very...organized? Orthodox?

Anyway, after putting it off of a while, I've drafted out this pattern for a cape for myself, I'm pretty happy with it. Hopefully when I get back from Thanksgiving I'll get it cut--grey wool with a plaid lining.

Finally!

2010-11-11T12:47:00.000-08:00

The scarf is done, blocked, and fringed. It's insanely thick, so I don't think he'll be wearing it until it really cools down. I did have him try it on for a photo though.
This is our seldom-used, seed covered back yard. In anycase, I'm glad it's long enough. The last scarf I made for him ended up at an awkard not-quite-long-enough length, so I erred on the large side this time. It's longer than I am tall, nearly 6' long.

My strips of plaid have finally started coming together. I went to fabric row over the weekend and picked up a golden yellow to use for the centers of the log cabins, and started throwing some together.
I love the barn raising layout, and I'm happy that the light/dark contrast is looking pretty good. Now I need about 100 more blocks! I hope I have enough strips.
And the lace keeps on going. I'm getting more even as I go, but some of the first ones are really lopsided...that's what I get for not doing more samples...

Very-Slightly-Late Birthday Present

2010-11-02T19:05:00.000-07:00

The scarf is pretty much done, only a week late! But Seamus did get some other nice things for his birthday, so he didn't mind. Putting on a black fringe now, I'll take pictures of him wearing it soon.

The keystone/triple tau came out a bit oval-y, a bit bumpy. I've not done intarsia inside another pattern, it got a little messy, especially since it was worked in the round. Lots of tying on and breaking off. It's super thick too.

The box of plaid scraps is growing, I've separated it out into darks and lights. Still not sure whether I'll do foundation pieced scraps, or log cabins, but either way, I'll probably do it with a light/dark separation, and probably set it in a 'barn raising' pattern.
I've also been playing with some tiny little snail trail blocks. This is about as small as I can manage by hand. Any smaller, and the pieces start to fall apart as I sew them, or the seam allowances get really bulky.
I know there are ways to get even smaller by using paper foundations on a machine, but I'm thinking I'll use this to make the pocket of my vest, so I need to keep it to hand techniques. The Snail Trail block looks a lot like traditional horn pattern, so I think, done in solid silks, it'll be a nice pocket detail.

And finally, my latest thrift-finds. The book is a great guide to netting, bobbin, and needlelace. All the 'contemporary' projects in it are the usual ugly hemp/wool abstract wall hangings that seem to have dominated fiber arts in the 70's. But the stitch patterns and diagrams are good. I also found these turquoise doc martens, quite a bonus.

Other than Knitting

2010-10-21T17:44:00.000-07:00

While I've spent most of the week continuing on Seamus' scarf (almost to the end of the 3rd and 4th balls) I couldn't work on it *all* the time. Knitting seems especially rough on my wrists, so I need to take some breaks.

The plaid shirts I collected so far were joined by a few more and cut down to 1.5" strips.
I'm sticking with blue/green/gray plaids, to keep it cohesive--they are seem to be the easiest colors to find in thin cotton (not flannel) shirts. I'm still not sure whether I want to do a simple diagonal strip block, or a log cabin. Have to wait and see what the light/dark ration is like.
Strip of each shirt, and the 7" paper foundation. I use phonebook paper because it's free, and it tears away from the fabric easily. It's the fastest way to make strip blocks. If I make log cabins I probably won't use it.
And, excitingly enough I started filling in my tape lace piece. This stitch is called the 'pea stitch' I think I'm going to alternate it with a looser stitch.
Right, now I'm back to knitting!

Scarf Keeps Going, and Growing

2010-10-14T16:45:00.000-07:00

If I had known when I started knitting this how much of a pain this much 2x2 checkerboard was going to be, I probably would not have done it, but it looks so nice...
According to Seamus, the "Tessalated Pavement" checkboard represents life and death, triumph and despair, good and evil. Working on this for him has been interesting--normally I am used to pulling imagery and symbols from my own fictionalized 'library.' I have both general and fairly specific rules and meanings behind the colors, shapes and materials that I use in my garments and what they mean in the fictional world they are created for, and to the characters that they belong to. Making this for him means working with pre-exsisting symbols, from the very rich visual language that Freemasonry has developed.

The tape-lace experiment continues on:
The bias strips were laid and stitched down to a dark backing fabric-so I can see what I am doing. When the whole piece is finished, I'll cut the green basting stitches holding it down and lift it off the backing fabric. Here it is not yet sewn to itself, so you can see some rough edges.
Joining the separate pieces of tape together. There will be some raw edges on the reverse, I'm not totally sure yet how I will deal with that.
Anddd, all joined up and a it cleaner looking. Now I'm ready to start the lace. I'm not sure yet if I'm just going to do an alternating pattern in every other compartment, or a bunch of different ones...
I've also started hoarding plaid shirts for a quilt, this time, I swear, queen sized to keep me warm this winter. Pattern I'm not totally sure on yet, but tonight I'm cutting them into 1.5 inch strips. I will probably just end up doing a string quilt, but I could also do a nine patch or something with the strips...

Small Post for Small Progresses

2010-09-30T12:37:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally have a day off, after a very busy work week. Our assistant manager went on vacation, and boot season is finally starting to happen, so we're getting busier every day. So not too much got done on the sewing/knitting front, but I've been keeping up steam at least.
The keystone for Seamus's scarf is taking shape. I really do not dig this yarn, it's so poofy, and I feel like it's always getting in my mouth, but it was soft enough for him to like it, and not acrylic, so I won't get that squeaky feeling when I work with it.

Back, with the checkerboard that looks a bit more like houndstooth in the knit. This is going to be one thick, warm scarf.
The quilt is pieced. Came out much smaller than I had hoped--only about 50 by 40 inches. I'll put a little border on it, I suppose, but not much, I'll just keep it small. Whatever I do next, I'm going to plan out to get a queen size. On this one, I was just winging it with chunks of fabric I dyed.
And something new, something art-related, hurray! Breaking out my Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Fashion in Detail (an awesome book) inspired me to get back to exploring old embellishment techniques, in this case, tape lace, or Battenburg lace. I pulled apart one of the few linen mumu's I've picked up from the thriftstore. The bottom half is remaining as yardage, the front top became thread (as the bright white of cotton thread would look weird) and the back was cut into bias strips to make the tape. We'll see how it goes...

Warm Things for Cooler Weather

2010-09-20T19:27:00.000-07:00

Once the temperature dips below 80°, it's time to start wistfully stockpiling/making warm cozy things for the nippy weather that's sure to come soon. Only then the temperature jumps right back up and see-saws for two more months. Ugh.

The purple vest is finished! My first non-scarf garment, I feel quite accomplished. Starting with a new medium leads to some nice instant gratification.
Little cable around the neck. Dunno if I need to block it really, the silk just sort of hangs nicely.
Laid flat, you can see how simple the shape is, it's really just a big old rectangle with arm holes.
I made a "Fetching" fingerless mitt from Knitty to get the hang of putting in a thumb. Was much easier than I anticipated. I knew the gauge was wrong from the start, so they are huge, but no problem, my boyfriend Seamus has much bigger hands then me. Now to make the other, and move on to mittens and full gloves.
He's also getting a scarf for his birthday! I actually had to go out and buy yarn (usually I scour for appropriate sweaters to unravel) because I needed specific colors. This stuff is a little fuzzy for the colorwork I wanna do, but it'll work.
The body of the scarf will be black and white check, worked in the round, and then one of each symbol at the end. The designs are both symbols of the Holy Royal Arch, the masonic group that he's joining this fall. Considering how tacky a lot of the masonic stuff (rings, ties, shirts) is today, I think it's pretty classy.
Sample of the checkerboard pattern (also my gauge swatch)

In non-knitting news, I've picked back up my double-four-patch quilt. I put it away for a bit in frustration. I had sewn it with one seam allowance for one part, and a different one for the next step, so I had to pick out a lot of seams and re-sew.

Now I've got 2 more colors to go, then I can start putting it together. Two possible orientations:

I'm leaning towards the first, it looks a bit like plaid. Thoughts?

And finally, I scored a pretty incredible thrift find this week.

Yes, it is a child's bed comforter in a completely awesome moon-and-stars celestial print, something that's been rather trendy in the last year or so.
A la Christopher Kane Resort '11. But I've always loved astronomical imagery, I have more than one of those cheesy "Universe" picture books you find on sale at Borders. So I think it's going to have to become something cozy and warm. I'm debating about the shape now--drapey blanket coat, peacoat-ish style, cape? Not sure yet.

Selfish Sewing (or knitting, or whatever)

2010-09-10T17:22:00.000-07:00

After years of only really posting up my school/"art" work or stuff to sell, I feel a bit bad, posting about things I'm making for myself. Heck, I feel a bit bad even making things for myself, period. Furthermore, I'm not sure if anyone'd be interested in the not-so-special things I make to wear, but that's what I'm working on right now, so it's either share that, or let many days pass before I post at all.

Whenever I tell people what I went to school for, they always think that's so great, I must be able to make all my own clothes! But up until this summer, I didn't have a single piece of clothing that I really had any hand in at all. I was far to busy working on school work to take a little time out for myself. So I hope you will understand and forgive my selfish work right now.
Mesh scarf for the winter, using up some grey wool I frogged out of a sweater a lonnng time ago. An extension of the filet crochet mesh I was playing with earlier in the year that never really went anywhere.
It did lead to a tiny neat little sample, trying the same stitch pattern out with some white wool I had left over and felting it. I like the hand of it, and am pondering the possibilities of using it for a patch-worked sweater/jacket/cloak in several yarns and sizes.
Not actually clothing, but something I've been meaning to make for myself for some time--a needle book. I usually have needles stuck all over my pincushion, as well as lost in my sewing box, my desk, my carpet, everywhere. So it was a necessary little project.
Fancy little patchwork cover, I sort love strip-piecing simple stripes and arrowheads and things.
Last week I started with the vague idea of making a drape-front vest, based on all those cardigans I've been seeing with straight-cut fronts that drape. The yarn is a great dark purple 100% silk that I pulled out of an extremely large sweater. Also shown, two sets of double-pointed needles I picked up from Philly Aids Thrift, now I'm obligated to figure out socks/mittens.
And progress tonight, one armhole in. The second will be made in a few rows, then the other front piece. It drapes really nicely, I'm happy. Kinda want to do a longer one, but in a larger gauge yarn, this is a bit much.
And lastly, I've had these Wallabees for a season, and never wore them much. I got them because they were a great sale, but I'm not too fond of the light sandy color, plus my jeans stained them with indigo.
So I dyed them red! Fleibing's leather dye is a wonderful thing. I love red shoes, and I don't have a pair now. Much happier.

Finding my Knitting Needles Again

2010-08-29T07:12:00.000-07:00

Folks, as much as I am confident in a lot of my fibers based skills, in today's hip and somewhat oversaturated knitting world, I'm a complete fumbling beginner. I'm pretty good at cables and stranded work, but once you start working in the round or doing lace, or shaping, I'm completely lost.

So I finally joined Ravelry, the promise of lots of step-by-step tutorials was too good to pass up. I think the unhelpful environment of similar sites like Craftster, as well as the proliferation of ugly gradient dyed and foo-foo yarn turned me off. But, with just about every skill, I have to start at the beginning, until I understand all the techniques well enough to use them in my work.

So I started a simple feather-and-fan scarf to get me over my fear, and I'm starting to understand how the stitches work. Plus it's helping me get rid of the random crap yarn I've collected over the years.

That ugly sweater I unraveled became (partially) a little cowl-sort thing for the winter, at least the colors look much better this way.

And the second pocket finished, I don't think I'll use it though.

Another pocket idea, I've wanted to do a black work piece for a while, and I like how this is coming out, we'll see.

Graphing and Drawing and Knitting.

2010-08-19T18:34:00.000-07:00

So the vest is now cleaned up around the edges, with a braided trim to neaten things up.

And around the sleeve and side seam.

The lining is starting to go in, it's only on the back right now. Is this the way you're supposed to do a lining? Absolutely not, I should construct it and then put the whole thing in, but honestly, since this was woven in shape and it's so thick, I feel like this is more accurate in the end, I can adjust as I go. Plus the lining is a little bit of a patchwork, I didn't have any one piece of linen big enough to cover the whole space.

Now the vest is supposed to be a bit of a hand-me-down garment, so I felt like a super detailed lining wouldn't be appropriate, but an ornamental pocket, add later, perhaps given as a present, would make more sense. It had been a while since I knitted anything, so I decided to try out some knitted color work. There's surprisingly little knit work in my garments so far, despite the fact that it's an easily recyclable technique.

More sketches, lots of little pixels.

Trying both designs out.

Came out pretty nice, very geometric, mirrors the diagonal striping of the vest itself.

And the second, which is more pictorial.

I like both, but I feel like they don't have the level of detail or workmanship that I'd like. I'd love to do a much much finer knit, but I don't have any needles under a 1. I may end up simply doing an embroidered one, and maybe felt these and keep them.

I've been keeping on the drawing, I need to get back into practice big time. This week was 're-figuring out how to use a brush for inking' time.

Doing some watercolor too. Not very exciting to do color on my design sketches because everything is black, white, and gray.

I ended up using this one as a color tester, but the lines are kinda nice.

I've also started drawing out what I hope will be my winter jacket/cloak. It's difficult for me to put aside that much time and effort for a piece of clothing that's actually for me, and not a part of my work, but I feel like I deserve it.

The outer fabric will be either a grey wool flannel or a marled grey sweatshirt fabric. The lining will be a diamond patchwork of plaid flannel shirts, quilted through to the front. Hopefully. We'll see, I'm going to go root around at Jomar tomorrow.

Off the Loom, Starting the Quilt

2010-08-02T19:08:00.000-07:00

So the vest came on off the loom a few days ago. The edges were a total mess, but it held together until the end, and I hand-fixed it after it was off the loom.

In all it's ragged glory.

Cleaned up a bit, sides sewn together to make a vest shape. Still need to clean up the warp edges, get rid of that fringe, and probably do a braid trim and line it. Want to do some really beautiful, colorful pockets, but not sure what they'll look like yet.

Secure edge on the armhole. Will probably add braid here too.

I also cut up the cotton I post a entry or to ago and started getting it together for a double-four-patch quilt. After realizing how comfortable and light my ugly quilt is, I'd like to make a better quilt that both covers my whole bed, and isn't ugly.

All the colors and another white sheet, cut up into strips and squares.

Sewing the strips together.

Cutting the strips and arranging with the squares.

One color down, five to go!

Also I've been having a lot of fun working on some little projects for myself.

Did a quick little bind-up with string on this, before dipping it in thiox (something sort of like bleach that smells like farts) Now it's a fire polo.

Close up, it did some neat things to the pattern. I want to try this with some flannels and more complex tying patterns.

Also resized this shirt and gave it a fade-out effect by dip-dying it in the thiox. Very comfy linen shirt for me now.

Weaving and Drawing

2010-07-26T19:06:00.000-07:00

So my loom is set up and I'm about half-way done with my weaving. Unfortunately, my original idea did not work. The rag strips I'm weaving were to thick to 'cross over' each other in a more detailed pattern with the double cloth pick up, so I changed it to a simple, textural diagonal stripe, which I then stuffed with scraps to make dimensional 'ridges' I'm happy with the compromise.

The edges are a total wreck though, I feel like I'm going to be fixing them up when I take it off the loom.

It's even more pillowy and 'ridged' than it looks here.

I've also been doing more drawing lately. It's been slow at work (sandals slowly getting replaced by shoes and boots already) so I get some good doodling time in.

Want to make that vest in a dimensional tambour-sort of all over embroidery.

Interested in making sort of cut away sleeves like that.

Stripey Strips and Postcards

2010-07-21T17:53:00.000-07:00

It's actually been a pretty productive week, but my camera is rather continuously on the fritz, so not that many pictures. "New camera" is definatly high on my list of things-to-buy when I have a little money socked away--maybe after I get paid for summer institute.

So, that fat old stack of 500 has finally (two months late!) come into my possession. They're still a little pixelated and weird. But I had to pay for them anyway, so if anyone wants me to mail them one, drop me a line at regae@uarts.edu

The lovely stack of colors next to it was the result of me purchasing a cotton bedsheet at the thrift store and using up the little bits of dyes I have left. I'll probably use them for quilting sometime soon.

The colors all came out a little greyed out, but I don't really mind, at least it makes them all work together pretty well.

In other business, I have a weaving in the works. I'm attempting to do a rag-rug style weaving with wool strips, and hopefully as a double-weave pickup (we'll see if that's possible!) No pictures, but I also dyed and wound my warp this week, and have begun getting it on the loom.

The Ugly Quilt is Finished

2010-07-14T18:26:00.000-07:00

The delay in posting is due to my determination to finish this quilt before I updated. The more I worked on it, the uglier and uglier it started looking. I blame it on the fact that I am paralyzed by printed fabric. But the hand-quilting looks lovely, I almost like the quilt better on the all-white side.

The handquilting took way longer than I thought. Major props to all you that make king-sized quilts this way. But it's worth it, I just can't get into machine quilting, plus my machine would not handle it.

I'm rather more fond of my new floor/butt pillow. I do the vast majority of my work on the floor, now that I don't have a studio. And the floor is hard, thus a butt pillow became essential. Done with the fabric my friend Astrid dyed and gifted to me, in a drunkard's path pattern.

Little Bits

2010-06-26T18:52:00.000-07:00

Just some small progresses.

Started making a bunch of these little pencil cases, they're quick and easy and let me play with color as well as chip away at the pile of quilting cotton I have. I may put them up for sale at a later date.

The cathedral window skirt continues to grow, slowly.

I also started handquilting my bargello quilt, which was basted together last summer, then unceremoniously shoved under my bed for a year. It's taking quite a while, I'm not the world's fastest hand-quilter, and I don't have a whole class helping me out like with the fundraiser quilt.

Close up of my wavy stitching.

Back to the States

2010-06-20T16:09:00.000-07:00

After a dizzying two weeks in South Korea, I'm back in Philly, back to work, and slowly trying to get back in my own work. I think I'm feeling the post-school let down at the moment, so it's a bit difficult at the moment.

I won't turn this into a vacation slideshow, but just some of the more inspiring images from my trip.

And some travel-ready cases for my sketchbook and pencils I made just before my trip:

The red one is a roman shade pattern, a little crooked, but I don't mind so much. The pencil case is just a quick little stripey design.

While I love the pastel tones of the pencil case, it got dirty really fast.

I also brought along my cathedral window project on my trip, it's growing.

This, like the two coat, is going to be one of those long-term projects.

See You in Two Weeks!

2010-05-30T06:44:00.000-07:00

Leaving tonight for South Korea, on an art exhibition/fibers symposium/vacation. I'll be back soon, with lots of pictures!

Sketches an Progress

2010-05-26T20:45:00.000-07:00

Trying to get back into drawing/painting a little bit--never would have thought art-school would have left me out of practice. It's nice to have a metric ton of reference photos too.

The cathedral window skirt plods on, this is an all-summer sort of project, I can see.

Sketch of what (I hope) it looks like on completion.

I also found a pair of shoes at the thrift store today that have a really interesting, lastless construction that I definitely want to explore.

Color Lovers

2010-05-21T22:27:00.001-07:00

All the work I do with black gray and whites makes me greedy for color. I hoard tiny scraps of silk and bright crewel yarn. I have boxes of embellishments and little dye samples made, stolen and gifted. Putting the color on the insides of my garments somehow makes me feel much more free about using it strongly. My own closet is taken over by brown, grey, olive and navy blue, so clearly I'm not a huge fan of ostentatious color for myself. The fact that it's there for the enjoyment of the wearer, and those closest to them means that I don't really need to worry about the colors in terms of anything other than just that.

Okay, my diatribe is over, suffice to say, I've been enjoying a temporary reprieve from black and am relishing in making things as bright as possible.

There's been a really fantastically ugly sweater at Philly Aids Thrift for several months now, and since it dropped to $3, I bought it and unraveled it. It'll be a good source of wool for fair isle knitting.

You can see the sleeve right behind there. I was sneezing and snuffling the whole time I was taking it apart. Apparently I can work with wool in fabric form okay (though sometimes it gives a rash near my wrists?) but the wool is a little rough.

All that remains. In this case, I think the parts are much nicer than their original sum. I'm thinking of doing some sort of gradated fair isle with it, just don't know what to make it into.

At the very end of the school year, as we frantically tried to clean out our studios, I was incredibly grateful to be gifted a chunk of dyed silk and cotton from my studio-mate Astrid. If any one loves a gradation as much as me, it's Astrid.

The cotton gradation.

The silk gradation--the colors are really amazing in this, kind iridescent.

As a little thank you for the gift, I made a pillow out of some of it to give back to her, so she can at least keep a little bit of it around.

I also made my self a little belt-bag (let's not call it a fanny pack, even though it basically is) for my trip to South Korea. Which I am just now realizing I never really mentioned on here. Well I'm leaving in 10 days on a two-week trip to South Korea with a few of my teachers and classmates. YEP!

It's made of the remnents of the giant pile of army bags I have lying around. I bought 8 of them to get enough nice looking D-Rings for Leoh's arm-pieces, and now I need to come up with a use for the rest of the bags! Hand sewn with jean thread, ostensibly because it was too heavy for the little sewing machine donated to me, but mostly because I'm more comfortable doing it that way. Which is dangerous....

Back, that loop on the back hooks into an optional Han-Solo style leg strap.

Velcro fastening, used as much of the original strap's structure as I could.

Inside, with pocket. It's a perfect size, and pretty comfortable, I'm happy with the effort. Pictures of it on to follow.

After all that

2010-05-16T18:41:00.000-07:00

Well, the senior show is over, school's over. All that's left is to show up and get my diploma on Thursday, which means I no longer have any excuse for not updating. I'm going to do the best I can to get back into an every-other-day schedule.

The show went well, in all honesty it was a bit of an anti-climax for me. I had to be finished with the whole outfit almost two weeks prior to get it photographed, so much of my time leading up to the show was spent working on the website and doing liberal arts work. I wasn't actually working on anything, so I just felt weird the whole time.

My baby the senior show website, can be seen HERE

The whole show--I'm behind one of the white dividing walls. The walls were designed and set up really fantastically, I have to give great credit to our exhibition design crew. It made the space look so, so much better.

My little corner, I tried to set up the space so that people would be able to see back and front of the mannequins, and I think it worked out pretty well. I'm also so pleased I did the photography, people were really investigating them, and I got a lot of interesting feedback on them. The format and formality of the shots really both helped relay information about what you're looking at, and made the work seem a little less nostalgic.

And happily, me and Don Miller were able to figure out how to drill into the ceiling securely enough to suspend my work.

My dummy/doll/squishy people were completely trashed by the end though. Apparently news-paper stuffed plastic wrap is not great under stress.

Anyway, it was lovely, but it's all over, taken down, dummies were tossed and clothes packed away in rubbermaid bins. And then I had to bring home my studio. I'll definately miss having a nice, open space just to work in. I've now taken up under the bed, most of one closet, and half of the living room with material and tools that I've accumulated. When you work with reclaimed materials, you tend to just sort of pick up appropriate materials as you go, and hope they come in handy. And I keep all my little bits and pieces too.

There's another grid on the other wall, plus a three-drawer thingy in the corner.

Before I left school for good, I shelled out some dough to work on something I've wanted to do for a while--a cathedral window skirt, in cotton organdy, in a gradated gray. So I bought ten yards (which is way more than you think!) and dyed it up on my last day of school.

The gradient--more subtle than I thought it would be, and still just a *touch* purpley. I might put the whole skirt in a light yellowy bath when I'm done, but I was running out of studio time.

One of the benefits of cotton organdy over organza is that it rips easily and evenly.

Cut into squares, then ironed into the little fortune-teller shapes that will make the cathedrals.

Too Tired

2010-04-21T20:46:00.000-07:00

Too tired for much explanation. But I finished and photographed the second outfit! So enjoy some selected pictures from the 68 photo sequence. I'm no longer doing these as animation. Instead, I'm simply hanging the pictures, printed at 4" x 6" in a grid in sequence. It gives the same feeling of progression as the animation. This allows people to spend more time on the images, rather than trying to catch them as they go by. In addition, it has a feeling of 'production' (i.e: reference photos taken in movie production.)

big update

2010-04-15T21:25:00.000-07:00

The days are passing quickly and the nights are getting long and I'm getting tired, but here's what's been happening in the mad rush up to the senior show.

Some chip-carving.'

Putting it to good use, carving some buttons for Lirienne's shirt. Much better than a manufactured one. I might make some of these for etsy post-graduation if there's any interest.

Made some wood hands for my manniquins.

They made good base to pattern a glove to.

Working on gloves.

Also had to set up my work that is going in the show for critique.

Nearly done with the lone star cape.

Inside:

Bought some supplies to make Lirienne's undergarments.

Mannequins!

2010-03-21T08:11:00.000-07:00

And how to make them! I figure some here probably has need of this info! I can tell you from terrible experience that this method is much more comfortable for your model than duct tape alone.

1) Acquire a restaurant sized roll of saran-wrap. Restaurant supply stores will have it, it costs about $20. Also pick up a roll or two of duct tape and lots of old newspapers.

2) Find a very patient friend or someone that owes you big time.

3) Wrap them in plastic wrap, many layers thick, until it's no longer transparent. This might take a awhile. Bring snacks for your model and helpers.

4) Use duct tape to reinforce the armpit, crotch, knees, wrists and ankles. Also put a strip of tape where you're going to cut it apart. I put it from the neck down the arm to the wrist, and from ankles up to the armpits.

(should looks something like this!)

5) Cut it off, trying very hard not to cut your model (I got poor betty twice )

6) Re-tape the seams that you just cut, and stuff with newspaper or whatever.

7) if you want feet or hands, you can do them separately and attach them. Heads will have to be made up yourself, don't think you should wrap your friend's head in saran wrap.

8) Yay! Now you have a light, portable version of your friend! In my case, I'm suspending them from the ceiling, so they don't need to be self-supporting, but I'm sure you could figure out how to put an armature in there before you stuff it!

And just for kicks, my senior portrait, which I can't help but laugh at everytime I see it. I thought it was head-and-shoulders only, so I wasn't expecting alpaca in the shot.

Final Animation

2010-03-15T21:15:00.000-07:00

Two posts in one day, imagine that. I have nicer, bigger version, but it's huge. So bear with the dithering.

Sorry for the lack

2010-03-15T11:10:00.000-07:00

of my own work right now. It's been both slow going, as I'm getting tripped up in ever sort of documentation and writing and crap possible. So little actual new work is getting done, which has been really getting me down, honestly. I feel like my inertia from last semester is pretty much gone. But to keep the posting alive, here's some pictures from my "close up" assignment for portfolio documentation.

Close-up of the neckpiece, I'm actually pretty proud of this picture!

Leather feather leggings.

Lirienne's wing vest inside/outside

Just for fun, my jar of tiny t-shirt triangles from my (now rather long-abandoned) t-shirt quilt

More Later, but for Now

2010-03-08T22:18:00.000-08:00

...Take a look at the new Flickr that I set up for my Portfolio Documentation class. I'm still working on it, but it'll be a handy reference for all my photography of work.

Documentations

2010-03-04T20:03:00.000-08:00

Sorry for posting a lot of the same piece, but I've been in documentation mode lately. Still working on some other things, but mostly right now it's all about making sure I've got this outfit documented properly.

Big thanks to Ken Yanoviak for taking our postcard/catalog shots. He also took portraits that I'll probably get next week.

My proof for the catalog.

Post card proof. When I get them, anyone that wants one, send me your address, I get 500 (!) so I have plenty to spare. Forever.

And the thing I'm really excited about (or, at least, the beginning of it!)

Later I'm going to streamline these into one movie, but for now, here's a preview! Many thanks to Sidney for putting up with the heat and long photoshop.

not that much to update on

2010-02-27T16:23:00.001-08:00

Still trudging away at bigger projects, but between the field trip this week, working on the senior show website, and finishing my 12" by 12" piece, not that much progress was made.

The 12" by 12", finished except for the wooden 'neck' that it'll eventually sit on. After losing the original 'tie' for it (which you can see unfinished in a few other pictures) I was forced to madly complete this one, which is a crochet mesh (the basis for filet crochet)It looks okay, but I'm not used to crochet, and my wrist is still hurting me.

Continuing with the quilted cape.

The class had a workshop on indigo batik, and I'm in charge of making up the samples into a quilt to be raffled off. Now if only people would get the rest of the fabric to me!

Picked up this rather mangy fur coat of unknown animal, I'm slowly taking it apart, but I have to be very carefully, the leather is very brittle.

The inside was a mess of basting stitches and dust.

Some of the chunks as I take them apart.

On a Photo-Roll

2010-02-19T07:04:00.000-08:00

Not much to say here I haven't said before, but here's some new, somewhat better shots of the entire Leoh piece.

This last one is pretty much what my postcard/exhibition catalog picture is going to be, just much better shot!

Cloak Progress

2010-02-15T10:04:00.000-08:00

Cloak Status: Lining is dyed, and quilting has begun!

After helping many many high school students to dip-dye their kimono in Saturday school, my fear of ombre went away, and I began to see it's allure. And it stuck in my head, until I found a place for it in the lining of this cloak.

Unfortunately, actually doing it, I was reminded of why exactly I was afraid of it. I ended up dying it twice to get a peach I liked, and dip-dying it twice to get a deeper pink on the ends. I honestly wanted it to fade to a more raspberry color, but cotton flannel doesn't take dye very strongly.

And a much better picture of the outer 'lone star' patchwork.

With the first lining piece tacked in:

I'm not joining them before quilting them if only because everything is slightly irregular, and it'll be easier to adjust them this way.

And as it sits on the manny. I'm not going to "fill in" the points, I've decided, but will be making a knit "under cloak" that will fill it in, I think it'll add another good layer, and gives me a good reason for a knit collar. The under cloak will probably button in and be removable. I've started it, but it looks like very little at the moment.

Photo Practice

2010-02-10T07:47:00.000-08:00

As you may have noticed from reading this blog, I am completely awful at taking photographs. This comes from a long tradition of only owning outdated, shitty cameras, and never really having an interest in photography growing up. As a result, I'm terrified of good camera and, as much as I attempt to learn what the settings do, still end up futzing with everything until I completely screwed up and have to start over.

Anyway, this week's futzing with one of the photo departments E500's. They look far and above anything I've taken so far, so I'm happy.

And my homework, working with my own camera (Powershot 570) I was working with the natural light in my studio, and I think it may have been a little bright.

They may not be particularly good, but they're better than most of my pictures, that's for sure.

The final documentation for my work I think is going to take the form of something like Aitor Throup's website.

End in Sight?

2010-02-07T21:21:00.000-08:00

Getting there with Lireinne. Neckpiece is mostly done, and the cloak is pieced together. Senior show is sneaking up in the most terrible way, giving me some awful anxiety, but I'll unload about that some other time.

Embroidery on the neck piece is done, now I'm just working on the white "scarf" that runs through it, probably will do some cut work on that, make it lacy.

You can see the scarf/tie better here.

And a whole shot, legs and all! The black skirt will probably have some openwork on it at some point.

And some frighteningly bad shots of the cloak. For some reason, even though it's lit just fine, the crit space takes terrible photos at night.

It's basically a lone star quilt pattern, but with two diamonds omitted to make it less than a full circle, and a hole in the middle as a neck hole.

Front

Back

I'm not sure right now if I'm going to leave them as points, or fill in the spaces with more fabric to make a more round shape. Or possibly make another layer underneath this one. Thoughts?

Little Bit Better

2010-01-22T07:24:00.000-08:00

Expect the pace of this blog to pick up again, now that I'm back in school. The sheer pace of it, after a month of lazing around, is feeling a little overwhelming, but it's also ensuring I'm not slacking off at all. I only hope my restfulness over break was a needed respite and not an indicator of my post-graduation work ethic. Or perhaps the winter's just making me depressed. In any case.

Yay, there's the finished shirt and vest. Tried it on my mate Allie who I really hope can wear it in the end, it looks really good on her. The only issue is it's a little snug, so I know I'm going to have to make the undergarments really thin, so there's little bulk. Also I'll have to make an underskirt, the skirt I'm working with would be inappropriately short.

Currently working on the neck-piece for the shirt. This, along with the arm-bands, will probably be what goes to Korea in the summer, our piece for that had to be smaller than 12x12x12" and, well, it's a little hard to get a garment into those dimensions.

With a scarf running through it. I'm trying to decide now what to embroider on the little disc in the center, I'd like to do some really fine work, it's a small space, so I can take my time.

And a little sketch I did a while ago. Can't seem to draw those feather-leggings though, haha.

New Work You Say??

2010-01-18T20:18:00.000-08:00

Well, a little bit at least.

Finally rounding the bend on Lirienne's shirt. I left it sleeveless at the end of the summer, and never had time to pick it up during the semester. Now it's all but done, just needs buttons, which I'd really like to make of brass or carved wood.

I'll get a picture on a mannequin as soon as I can, it looks a bit odd skewed out like that. The sleeves will have a band around them, so make them more poofy than bell-shaped.

Collar and button placket. I had to insert fabric on either side, as the piece shrunk a bit when I sewed in the gussets. There will eventually be a tie or cravat sort thing.

I like doing buttonholes by hand, it feels nice to make something so solid.

Got the feather fair-isle off the needles. I think rather than using it as a neck piece, I'm going to felt it and turn it into two arm warmers (probably for Lirienne as well)

Star Wars is Making Me Think

2010-01-16T20:12:00.000-08:00

So I've mentioned that I've started a tumblr here and since I've been a bit lazy/don't have a ton of photos of what I'm working on, I've been on it a lot, just posting pictures of things I'm interested in. Which seems to be mostly sci-fi book covers, costumes, and detail shots of historical garments. And tonight I was going through posting Star Wars costumes--I love the original trilogy with all my heart, and as much as I'm not a fan of the recent three, they have fantastically weird costumes.
And something struck me. Because Star Wars nerds are incredibly, well, nerdy, it gave me an opportunity I haven't had with other clothing or costumes. I could see the garment in nearly every context: moving on film, frozen in screen shots, taken out of it's environment in staged character shots, then onto a mannequin in exhibitions shots, and finally, in design sketches. These are all things I've been considering as a 'final' piece to the work I'm doing, so it's interesting to see something laid out like that. I'm going to illustrate it with an Episode 1 outfit, it's not my favorite, but there's a mass of information and pictures.

1) The initial drawing, the concept with no concrete object:

2) A segment of film in which the garment is worn. The garment in motion, in character, moving within the environment it was designed for.

3)Screenshots of said film, the garment is no longer in motion, but still exists within the still photo in an enviroment, and as a character.

4) Backstage photos of garment, the character, and illusory immersion into environment is broken, but garment remains connected to the idea of film and character.

5) Reference photos of actress in garment, environment does not exist, and purpose of garment is unclear, though the viewer may still infer from details of costume/person inhabiting it. Costume becomes costume more clearly.

6) Photo of exhibition of garment. Like backstage picture, the garment is removed from the environment, but connected to the idea of film and the character by prior knowledge. Garment is no longer living on a person, removing the person in it from the idea of the character. Costume becomes display/anthropological.

7) Costume presented as fashion. Removal of the wearer as character, replaced as model. Context of fashion runway removes garment from idea of film, make the wearer more a blank slate than active participant in the presentation of garment.

8) Garment as it's details. Garment's narrative becomes more vague, person or character is not present, garments purpose is unknown.

I'm not pretended I've got it all figured out, but it's inspired new thought on the tricky subject of "Okay, I've made these garments, now what the hell do I do with them, and how do I show them to people"

Pictures of actual work next post, I promise.

belatedly yours

2010-01-04T19:26:00.000-08:00

So I have a camera, sort of. It's not great, but it'll work for now, and it was free. So what have been up to?

Well, I meticulously deconstructed four thrift store tweed jacket into the giant pile of tweed you see here.

Then cut them into strips like you see here.

They will eventually be turned into a cape, something like what you see here. At least, I want to get a woven effect with them.

Been looking at a lot of fair isle again (look at my tumblr!) lately, so I'm starting a small piece to play around with. Here's the chart.

And so far!

I've also been trying to draw more, in general, and to get some design ideas better laid out.

Working out Mariah's undergarments.

In progress.

2009-12-29T12:04:00.000-08:00

Hold up in posts is caused by the fact that as far as I can tell, the camera is well and truly missing. I have a very old one that was scavenged from god knows where, and will probably start using that soon, sadly, the quality of picture is very poor (not that I take great pictures to begin with )and I need to wait on a cord to connect it with. But I am working on two pieces right now, finishing Lireinne's shirt and starting on her cape/coat.

More Pictures than you can shake a stick at.

2009-12-16T10:49:00.000-08:00

Upon urging, I've started a Tumblr that will be a dump for my many ridiculously unorganized folders full of reference pictures, inspiration, and other things that get sorted under "stuff I like"

http://havinghorns.tumblr.com

Also, I have some much photos from my rehearsal that show the detail of Leoh's outfit much better, even if I do look dumb in them. Also some shockingly good pictures from the performance itself.

Rehearsal:

Surprisingly enough, people seemed to want the leg pieces to wear themselves more than any other piece.

Hurray! The quilting shows on the black side! All my work was not for nothing~

My head piece is rather twisted--but I think it's interesting that the whole thing still looks rather slim from the back. It also makes me have a weird stance.

Lookin' dumb.

And the actual performance. Which went completely amazingly. No one can stop saying how perfect the model was for the piece, and I agree--thanks Jessica! Fantastic job.

I have the video from the performance as well, but we're having trouble getting it off the DVD with audio intact. I have it without though, and may upload that soon.

Camera is still AWOL...the chances of finding it at this point seem slim. Bummer.

Problematic

2009-12-14T15:12:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the lag in posting--My laptop went FUBAR and my digital camera seems to have disappeared, making updating difficult. The laptop will be picked up tomorrow, but the digicam is still gone...so you may be dealing with some Mac Photobooth pictures in the near future.

But for now--I'm taking the photographic images of my work and turning them back into illustrations. It allows me to put them in a context without actually building anything (which I am rapidly concluding I'm not very good at.) It also makes sense that since the work starts as drawings, it should really come back to them eventually. Sadly, my illustration skills have suffered as a result of focusing on fibers, but I'm giving it my best shot.

The original photo.

Sketching out the character.

Sketching out the background. It was helpful to have the perspective in the photograph to work off of--that's my weakest point, I think.

Putting it together, drawing out the lineart. Done on translucent marker layout paper with a plain ol' micron.

I did flat computer colors this time because I'm on a short deadline, I'd like to do one in watercolor soon.

Putting it all together.

2009-12-01T16:18:00.000-08:00

It's not too often that I'm stupidly pleased with myself, but I'm stupidly pleased with these sort of 'hidden' pockets in the hexagonal patchwork. I made the pocket pieces out of the left-over hexagons, then backed it with red silk and whip-stitched it in. The joint is just about invisible.

Sewing it in.

The finished pocket! There's one on each side. The only issue is that they're rather hard to access with the coat shut, but oh well. I'm going to keep this idea in the back of my head for later.

I also made a little union-suit to go under The Liar's outfit--It might seem a little bit over-kill to go so far as to make the underwear, but I fee like it's important to not neglect any part of the clothing. Also, the performance that I'm working on involves undressing, so I sort of need it for that.

I joined a pair of army long-johns to a rather strange (also military) woven wool undershirt, and made a button-placket in the shirt to bring up from the pants.

And, of course, I actually got a model for The Liar's outfit so far! It's been totally great (and somewhat surprising) to see all of the pieces together. I was a little scared to see it all on--I didn't exactly y'know, plan it all out, and I wasn't sure how the whole thing was going to work together. I essentially had no idea was the sillouhete was going to look like until I got it all on Jess. It's somewhere between traditional Japanese firefighters, a Moebius character and medieval armor. It was also an incredible relief not to be wearing it myself. I'm not a performer, and having the burden of performance on top of making was a little too much I think. It also helps to be able to see it performed. Many thanks to Jessica!

Starting from the base-layer. This actually fit perfectly, no fixing needed! She reported that it was pretty comfy, even it the upper wool was a little scratchy.

The pants also fit well. I was originally planning on altering the waistband of the pant, and now I'm not sure if I will. It feels a bit like cheating to leave it constructed like that, but it looks good and hey, if it was in good shape when the character recieved it, maybe it didn't need much reconstruction.

After getting the hooded shirt and quilted jacket on.

Opening the jacket a wee bit to see the red.

All together now! The only thing I'm missing is the stockings, and connecting the gloves to the rest.

The quilted jacket is really rigid, you can see it holding it's shape here.

My favorite picture, you can really see all the intersections and different 'colors' of black and textures.

Strappy Legs

2009-11-26T21:23:00.000-08:00

Feel like I've been working and working lately, and not getting anywhere--or at least not getting there fast enough. No idea how it's all going to come together before the costume show, especially now that I need a few more pieces to make the performance come together. And I need to find a model! I'll put flyers up tomorrow night, but I'm not sure how I'm going to find one by the rehearsal on Tuesday. A distinct fear of failing wretchedly is beginning to manifest.

Aside from my anxiety, I also finished up my shoes and made some legs.

Just added the buckle, and started to wax the suede.

Giving them a try-on. Pretty comfortable, though they're too big for me.

Cutting out the leg-guard-spat-thingys, and adding the suede straps.

Put a little stretchy gusset area to stretch over the shoe.

Giving it a little try-on over my pants as I was working on it.

Trying on with the shoes and the (unfinished) pants that go with them. They're actually fairly comfortable, and extremely warm.

Not bad to move in, either.

Heroes

2009-11-18T19:10:00.000-08:00

"In order to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe."

"It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring."

The sense of wonder, and love of science that Carl Sagan inspired in me and so many others is an immeasurable gift.

"One is always considered mad when one perfects something that others cannot grasp."

I cannot help but admire Ed Wood's singular vision and dedication to it. It may have been awful, but it was so earnestly awful that I love him for it.

"If I shout:
Ideal, Ideal, Ideal
Knowledge, Knowledge, Knowledge,
Boomboom, Boomboom, Boomboom
I have recorded fairly accurately Progress, Law, Morals, and all the other magnificent qualities that various very intelligent people have discussed in so many books."

"You'll never know why you exist, but you'll always allow yourselves to be easily persuaded to take life seriously."\

Tristan Tzara seems to have existed as a perfectly exquisite verbal wrecking ball--carving a path of disruption through Europe's academic art world.

"We wanted to work with someone on this role that we knew and could beat the crap out of."

"Such is an actor's life. We must ride the waves of every film, barfing occasionally, yet maintain our dignity, even as the bulk of our Herculean efforts are keel-hauled before our very eyes."

Bruce Cambell reminds me to both take pride and have humor about what I do, no matter what it is.