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. 

Irish Chaining

Two more Dear Jane blocks down--here's C-12 and C-13. Pretty easy ones, the little half-square triangles on C-13 were fiddly, but not too bad. Now I'm on to row D, almost a quarter of the way through (the main blocks, then all those triangles!)

I was generously gifted/purchased lots of little floral scraps from various lovely quilting ladies on my Yahoo quilt groups, and since quite a bit of them were already cut into 2" squares, I cut the rest down into that as well. I'm going to try to make it into a colorwashed Triple Irish Chain.

Figuring out the color variations, and how many blocks of each I'll need. 

Starting to sew them together, it's amazing how fast things go together when you're using a sewing machine. Sometimes it's a nice break from all the hand work I end up doing.

If this post seems quilt heavy, no worries. I'm also still working on the braids for my jacket, but the progress isn't very interesting looking at the moment. I've also purchased some heavy-duty wool felt that I'm tooling around with to make some shoes/boots. I've missed making them!

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.