Keeping it Together

Or at least trying to.

It's been a very difficult week. Seamus has been in the hospital since Monday with some major pancreas problems. It's tearing me up to see him so weak and so out of it.  I've been visiting him as much as I can, but it's a half an hour walk each way, and we're now in 90+ degree heat. Plus the electricity partially went out (taking the A/C with it) at work earlier in the week, so I'm running on fumes, both physically and emotionally.     Understandably, I'm not exactly in the mood to be working on things, but I did get some things done before all this went down, and I've been drawing a little bit too.

Dear Jane G-5 and G-6. Two particularly fussy little blocks. I tried to do the right one as full patchwork first and it was a mess, it worked better as a partial applique. The tiny, tiny star in the middle of the star block was also tough, especially since I'm not paper piecing. 

I did also do some more work on the braid coat, but one un-attached strip of braids looks pretty much like another, so no picture there. However, I am getting back to sketching the finished product a little bit. I'm now thinking it's going to have a kimono-like collar of braid that is wool on both sides, but I'm going to have to make a sample and see if it gets too thick. 

I also did a little bit of knitting this week. When I bought all those double-pointed needles for my Lenore Tawney project, I also bought a chunk of Knit Pick's Palette yarn to get to free shipping, and I've been sitting on it ever since. I decided to finally bust it out a swatch some fair isle. I think I'm going to make a hat, I'm coming up with a shape right now. 

Which got me thinking about hats, and so doodled out this very embarrassing and not at all stylish hat for Sal. To keep his horns warm? Somehow I don't think they get cold. But it's a nice sentiment. 

And a last little drawing, this one's pretty old. Just trying out a more cartoony, thicker lined style. Still not drawing as much as I ought to though. 

Back to Braids

After a long hiatus, I'm back on the braid coat. The amount of time sunk into this one is getting ridiculous, and I need to finish it to move on, so I'm trying to buckle down. 

Progress has been made, a side has been joined together, and it no longer quite looks like just an odd flat rectangle with long bits attached. I'm liking how it curves away a bit in the front. 

And the inside, looking good, just gotta keep on it. It's not the most exciting project, and progress moves very slowly on it, which is why I think I've been dragging my feet getting back to it. 

More Dear Jane Blocks this week. These, on the other hand are just super fun to make, even if the quilt as a whole will take forever to finish. G-1,2,3 and 4. G-3 is really pretty lopsided, my applique is never going to be all the great, I think.

It's been a while since I posted the entire thing so far. I'm nearly half way through the blocks. I'm thinking now I'd like to sash them with chocolate brown. I know I don't want to use black or white, but I'm between a medium gray and a brown. I think a brown will give it a bit of a 70's feel. 

Working, Not Showing

Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I've been working a lot, both in the studio and at my jobs, but it's been a lot more writing/sketching/planning than sewing/making.  

I did finish my Mick Jagger Halloween costume, unfortunately Hurricane Sandy made our party a little smaller than anticipated, and by Halloween itself I was partied out, so not many saw it. Always next year!

The Braid Coat is starting to come together. I'm trying desperately to finish this before getting fully involved in my Lenore Tawney piece but it looks like I may have to start that soon to get it done in time.  Next post I'll share some of my sketches for that. 

Made multiples of my jumpsuit pattern pieces for my class. I make them with a dashed 'sewing line' and an outer 'cut line' to make it easier for the kids.  I'm also teaching them to take these patterns and add volume in areas with the slash-and-spread technique. 

And with that comes my awkwardly drawn instruction pages. These are just a guideline for them, to show how the original garments would have gone together. Almost no-ones will look anything like this once they're done. 

Just fooling around with watercolors.  Starting to actually, for real outline a chunk of chapter from the comic I may or may not be working on, so trying to get back on the drawing.

Seamus's birthday card this year. He's now got my watching WWE (and, I'm not going to lie, i watch it even when he's not here) so he gets a pro-wrestling themed card with Team Hell No--the best tag-team champs!

Using Things Up

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

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

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

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

Replication

It looked like Philly Aids Thrift got a big donation of fabric, there was quite a bit when I last went, and I ended up buying a few pieces. I'm determined this fall to buy less, and make more of my clothing. The top piece feels like upholstery fabric, burn test seems to indicate cotton. The bottom is a pretty amazing woven pattern with animals, it seems to be cotton or rayon maybe--might eventually become a vest. 

I think this was originally a tablecloth, it's a nice thick cotton. It's a huge pieces of fabric, I'm hoping to get a scarf and a shirt out of it. 

Definitely going to incorporate the border print into the shirt. 

I've had this jean jacket for a year or so, and I wear it all the time, with sweaters shoved under it when it's gotten too cold to wear it on it's own. And I thought the very first fabric I got from the thrift store would be great to make a replica of my jean jacket with. First, of course, I traced out the pattern from the jean jacket. I omitted the bottom pockets, they've always been sort of tiny and useless. 

I forgot (like usual) to take pictures while I was working, but here's the finished replica with the original! The fabric was sort of a disaster to work with, it liked to warp and bend, and frayed everywhere. But I'm still pretty happy with the outcome.

I'm making a terrible face because it's too hot in my un-airconditioned studio to put a jacket on. The pockets a sticking out a bit funny, I'm hoping when I put the snaps on them, they'll lie flat. This fabric would definitely not do well with buttonholes, so snaps it is, I found some decorative silver domed ones I like. 

And the braids are starting to get joined together. I haven't quite gotten the trick of laying the tape so it's right in the center of both sides. I've been pinning one side, flipping over, they basting all the way through to hold them in place while I stitch on both edges. It takes forever! I'm hoping to figure out a better way. 

Lots of Progress, Not a Lot of Pictures

I've been working quite hard this week, but mostly on rather slow-progressing projects, so it doesn't look like much!

The braid coat is starting to look like something! Very exciting to see it start to come together, I had lost a bit of steam on this project--so labor intensive--but seeing this is getting me excited again. Imagine the middle of the 'long' strips is the shoulder seam--the short ones end at the neck. So you're seeing a vest laid flat, basically, with the side seams open. Just one more 'long' strip and four 'short' ones. Then we'll see how much silk I have left, which will decide how I tackle the sleeves. 

Broke out the colorwash Irish Chain again too. I'd really like to finish this before it gets cold. That seems  long way away in the 90 degree heat we're having now, but I know it'll be here before I know it. So another diagonal row was finished this afternoon. It's definitely going to be big enough for our queen bed, the only problem is that it's so big I don't know how I"m going to baste it together!. As you can see, it doesn't even fit on my studio floor as it is. 

Things are Growing

Somehow all the projects I've got active now involve tiny patchworking. After this I really need a knitting or crocheting or even embroidering project. 

The color wash quilt is growing. I don't think I quite realized how big I was making it. I believe the finished size I plotted for was 94.5" by 105" which is way, way bigger than any of my other quilts, but I did want one that fits both me and Seamus underneath. But still, laying out on the floor, it feels huge already. Not totally sure how I'm going to baste this one together, I might have to bring it to school. 

More Dear Jane blocks, I brought them home on my little Jersey vacation. These are D-4 to D-9. I'm slowly getting better at the applique blocks, though I don't think it'll ever be my favorite technique. 

Another double-sided braid strip is finished. I need to start casting about for a strip or ribbon-like material to join them together. Maybe a matte grosgrain ribbon? I'm not sure. 

And the interior, looks like one is off by a strip or two, I'll have to check that out. I love the gradient effect so far though. I'm feeling like it might be a little shorter than I'd like, it was hard to tell with just a single strip. I think at this point, I'll get them all to this length, so I can get a better idea of how it will look (and see if I have any pieces left) and then decide if I want it longer. 

My fabric for the jumpsuits has been ordered, I decided to keep it basic with a cotton broadcloth. I would have liked to use rayon twill because it dyes and drapes so well, but I was a little afraid it would be too tricky to sew, and might fray through the dye-baths. Once that gets here I'll be cutting and sewing lots of jumpsuits, and probably make another sample. 

First Strip

So the first full strip of my coat is complete! It's 25 braid segments and 32" long on each side of the 'shoulder' join--the coat itself should fall to about mid-thigh.  I did one full one (after starting up all of them at once) so I could make sure the gradation effect matches up with the subsequent strips. 

And now I think I can finally show you the reversible nature of the braid--when they were so small, it was hard to show, and even harder to explain. Now just to make 3 more double sided strips and 7 one-sided ones. 

Row D on the Dear Jane has begun! I don' think I'll be working too heavily on it at the moment, if only because there is so much handwork invovled with the braid-strips that when I want a break from them, I don't really want to do more handwork. I might start up making a sample jump-suit for the class on my off time.

And just as a neat little aside, my boyfriend works at the Masonic Temple in Philadelphia, and brought me home some bits of old costuming that they were throwing out. In addition to some robes that'll give me some good quality cotton sateen and wool, there was also this lovely embroidered sash, and a military-looking hat from the Knights Templar. He guesses these were from around the turn of the century. 

Auspicious Beginnings

Ah! After so many months of gathering/cutting/dying/cutting some more, I've finally begun to actually make up the braids for the braid coat. Seeing the work starting to pay off is very exciting. The 'double-ended' strips will be the shoulders of the coat, I figured that would be a bit more elegant (and less bulky) than trying to butt two up end-to-end at the shoulder seam. The three 'one-sided' strips in between are the back neck area. The four in front will be the front neck/closure flap area. 

The top row is flipped over to the 'outside' The wool is turning out sort of dimensional (probably because it's difficult to steam/press down) which I don't mind. I'm holding off doing the sleeves until I see how much fabric I'm using up as I go, but it looks like I may have wayyy over-estimated. Still, it's better than not-enough. 

In teaching news, I am teaching the evening "Experimental Costume" elective for highschoolers this summer. Unfortunately the class was cut down from 3 nights a week to 2. I understand why, the poor kids were exhausted last year, but I've had to change up my curriculum to suit only 8 3-hour class periods. It sounds like a lot, but remember I have to devote a whole class to learning how to dye and how to use the machines. So I think I'm going to do a riff on my pattern alteration/thrift remix projects, I'm calling it: Uniform/Custom-I'm making up a jumpsuit sort thing for each kid, and then I'll show them how to add and remove volume, do dyework, add zippers, ect. Anyway in order to do it, I had to make up a loose, basic jumpsuit pattern, which I bodged up from some shorts and a big button-up.

Gotta say I was expecting problems with the shortie bottoms but I think it actually worked out pretty well. It's big and boxy to give them room to play around with pleating or gathering. I'll probably do it as full pants so they can cut them off where-ever they like, same with the sleeves. Can't decide if I should leave the center-front seam open (so they can get inside) or just not connect the top and the bottom before I give it to them (that would leave it open to have a possible skirt bottom too. 

Yep, clearly made with the leftover fabric from my last few projects. I need to decide what I'm actually going to make them with, I have muslin from the pattern-alteration project, but it's sort of wimpy. I'd love to do it with silk broadcloth because it would dye so well, but that would be pricey. Maybe a light-weight cotton twill? Gotta start shopping for that. 

And here's a little drawing dump: 

Mariah, doodling out the outfit altogether.

Page of shirt inspiration, well, you've already seen the top-left one come into being. 

And yeah I like the Avengers. Watch this blog for a big weird dorky post (like my Star Wars one) about the costuming at some point. I was just tickled pink that Loki and Thor's sweet mystical/futuristic outfits had boots with sneakery soles on them, don't know why.

Stripping, Piecing

So the colorwash shirt is pretty much finished! The only snag is, because of the fact that the button placket in the front is so pieces, I don't really want to try and do button holes through it. So I'm waiting on ordering some pearl snaps to use instead. I think it'll give the shirt a neat western look. 

Cutting the dark strips now for the braid jacket. I really need to get a move-on with this, I knew it would be a long term project, but it's starting to get ridiculous. Hoping to get a few more middle shades dyed this weekend and then, finallllly start putting the braids together. 

Four more Dear Jane blocks! C-8 to C-11. Nothing too tricky with this group, thankfully.

And because I was having trouble picking the colors for each block as I go, I jury-rigged a design wall so I could see the whole thing. It's just a wonderfully obnoxious as I had hoped! Also a good motivator to keep working on them.