Do you ever get a project idea in your head and then you dwell on it for awhile and then you make it and it's not what you envisioned? (Or perhaps I should say, "How often...?")
I love using my idea journal to sketch out ideas so they can ferment awhile. A couple of years ago I sketched a fall coat idea, based on these red jackets, but then when I finally took a weekend to stitch it up, I didn't love it and wondered if that was an idea that should have stayed in the book. (For the record, I let it sit a couple of months, and I worked on it again this weekend. A fresh perspective, and the end in sight.)
Last week after I played around with fabric dyeing, I was obsessed with an idea in my head of a string quilted skirt using hand-dyed jersey. (String quilting is a traditional way to use up fabric scraps by stitching strips together to make a larger piece.) Several sketches in my journal, a night of tossing and turning, a trip to Goodwill for old t-shirts, more dyeing. And maybe the hope that I could learn something from stitching that fall coat (which I still might fall in love with eventually).
I have never been very good at reworking ideas. But as I stepped across a stack of miscellaneous stuff on my floor, I saw a pattern peeking out and I recognized it as the missing piece in my dyeing-string quilting-garment puzzle. Not a skirt, a shirt.
I'll keep you posted.
that fabric is divine- like something from my wildest dreams!!
Posted by: chel | Jan 17, 2011 at 11:04 AM
Yes! I love the color combination, the sleeves, the topstitching. You designed a shirt I'd want to make for myself.
Posted by: terry hendrickson | Jan 19, 2011 at 09:52 AM