Unanticipated Hiatus

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

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

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!

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.