Nearly august, so much left to do...

I can feel school sneaking up on me, slowly but surely. As much as I may not have gotten much important down that's I've posted on here, I have done a lot of the grunt work--gathered a lot of materials, taken apart a lot of garments, used up two whole jars of black acid dye to dye everything gray/black. So hopefully that will clear up some time during the school year. Obviously, various black wool and cotton isn't particularly interesting to see in photos, so that's all a bit missing here.

Stuff that is photographic--oh god, more quilts. The amount of fabric doesn't seem to be going down either, I don't understand it.


Fancy Stripe Status: Getting bigger, need more white fabric.


String Quilt: top's pretty much down, need to find backing material.


Bargello Quilt: Bargello part is done, I think I'll do something on the top and bottom to stretch it out.

And I've put my new quilting experience to use in garments:


Shirt was original from Army/Navy surplus, I re-cut it, shortened the sleeves, changed the collar, and put in the braids. They were hand-pieced, and the entire shirt was handsewn. I feel like it looks much more appropriate than machine stitching would have.


The braids come from the scraps of this project, which I think I'm abandoning. It doesn't sit well (I wish I'd had a mannequin to draft it on) and I think it's too busy to work under the wing vest.


And I've been working up some tiny 2" squares in a pattern called Winding Ways with black and gray wool. I think they'll eventually be a vest, can't imagine how long that'll take to work up.
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School? In July?

Yep, but this time around I'm teaching...or at least, teacher-assisting. I'm TA'ing Chrissy Day's Wearable Arts class for the high school summer program here at the university. Fringe benefits include access to the dye lab/sewing room and just being able to talk to Chrissy about my senior work. It also means cleaning up after 10 15-17 year olds that all think they are the absolute shit and leave dye everywhere.

Also, I just got a message on craftster about being profiled in some sort of package to show off to their advertisers. Not sure what to make of that, I'm not on there all that much any more.

Anyway. Pictures. Things.

Teaching myself a little blackwork technique, thought I'd try it with some color. Unfortunately, I sort of underestimated the size of the weave you're supposed to do it on, and nearly burned my eyes out taking those teeny little stitches.

Quilt Party


It might seem like a bit of a departure from my costume work, but I'm really trying to use up all the patterned fabric I have lying around. I'm sick of lugging it from place to place, and I really don't like using pattern in my clothing. So I went the traditional route, apparently called 'stashbusting' by the middle-aged quilters whose mailing list I've joined. Plus it's giving me ideas for garments using the techniques I'm picking up. And I might actually get some useful objects out of it!

Summer Assignments:


Working on a shirt to go under the wing vest I posted a bit down. Thought it would be a quickie, but making all those feathers was a pain. They're all cut on the bias in two halves, then strings are pulled to create the lines, and they're handstitched to give it seam. The shirt sections are also all bias and hand pieced.

I used nearly a whole container of Jet Black acid dye on this stuff and an old army coat that still needs another top-dye--it's all blotchy olive-and-black right now. The embroidered piece needs another go too--the cotton part didn't take the acid dye that well, so I'll re-dye it in Procion black. The crewel wool embroidery took perfectly though, I love the dark shades it turned all the colors. I found a large piece of crewel embroidery at the thrift store, I think it must have been done for a piece of furniture. Part of it is becoming a pillow for my new sofa, and the rest I've been top-dying to use in garments.
The sweater and pants will probably become another pair of breeches for The Liar.


Ughhh, so many half-into projects this summer. Here's to finishing as much as I can!

Some thoughts in Pictures

I don't normally make these sort of posts, but I'm here on fast internet, and I have a 500+ image inspiration folder, so I thought I'd give a little insight to what I'm looking at. Don't ask me what or where this is all coming from, I can never recall. And yes, it's heavy on thick fabrics and texture because that's what I like~

Ok ok, one more, maybe it'll help

My apologies, I drank a cup of coffee and a cup of tea, and now I'm on a manic streak, so enjoy one night, two posts, rather than two months, no posts.

Here's my final piece for projects. Probably the piece I am happiest with yet. Terrible, awful photos, since I just stole it back from my closed-up studio and took some quick shots. I promise once the under-shirt is done (I'm working on it now!) I'll do some better pictures with a proper model.

First, a few in-progress.

Sketching out the shape. Not actually having any classes on draping/patternmaking, I saw the people on Project Runway use tape on their mannequins in a similar way. One day I'll know how to make clothing the real way.

This one presented a challenge because it was made of a Dutch Army officer's jacket (two, in fact) and the pieces I could get from it were quite narrow--so I would tape up the manny, test the pieces, re-tape, ect.

In progress--Don't have any pictures between.

Close up on the texture and some explanation. The technique I used is based off of traditional Italian quilting and cording. I carefully hand-sewed 'channels' in the two layers of wool, and inserted a stiff cotton cord into it, to create a dimensional effect. I added the cord as I was going (each feather is a separate piece of cord)so there was no need to cut slits to get it through, and the piece is reversable, which will be important later.

Finished awful pictures:

The cording gave it good stiffness and structure--like the boning in a corset.


The back hook is a little junked up--I think I need to add a second or move it down a bit.

And now the inside-Like the bag, working with the idea of color as something hidden and personal.



All hand-done crewel embroidery. I had to work very carefully to keep it all on the surface of the inside (that is, to not penetrate through to the outside) Feather stitch and chain stitch.

phew. Okay. Next one will play some catch up to this summer. Not that I've done that much, but there's a bit.