Lettergirl

Catch-up.

*cleaned off the table where I meet with customers

*covered a giant old bulletin board with batting to use as a design board

*covered a small ugly bulletin board with linen to hang over my desk

*sorted fabric scraps into the right bins

*checked out some cookbooks from the library

*wrote out about 25 stamps for etsy orders

*visited my skirt at the Textile Center

*started Juliet's scrapbook pages for this year with a peacock feather theme

*finished watching Downton Abbey

*bought some more chocolate brown bamboo jersey to make this:

 
I found the pattern at Your Style Rocks a month ago, via Craft Gossip, and cut out what I thought would be my size, but is more likely to fit my 12-year old.  I happened upon the last scrap of the bolt in the remnant bin, just enough to make a matching (larger!) one for me.  I wanted a little something to wear over this:

 
The front closure on the hoodie is a zipper, and I haven't put a zipper into any of my hand-stitched garments yet.  I'll keep you posted on my progress!

Sticks & stones.

Another in the middle project.

 

I cut out this tank & a matching bolero last fall, with the simple goal of stitching something light for a change.  I had assumed I would paint a flowing and organic motif on it, until I saw the quilts of Karen Kamenetzky, which told me to take a look around me for inspiration.

 
We have two big old oaks in our front yard (the tree in the foreground in this photo).

 
(Did I mention the fabric was folded up and waiting inside a ziploc bag for me to paint it?  Wrinkles, schminkles.) 

I've gotten a little farther with the bolero sleeves, where I painted stones and used a combination of applique, reverse applique, and embroidery to embellish them. 

 
 
I didn't anticipate the three-dimensional quality of the stones (caused by using textile paint, two layers of fabric, and a double row of stitching around the perimeter of each), but I like it.

What are you in the middle of?

Wow factor.

I must be a fan of the wow factor.  I tend to show my projects when they're finished; maybe a hint at the beginning, not much of the process, and then the big wow, look at this.  This morning I realized that I am in the middle of a lot of projects, and that I won't have much to blog about if I don't take advantage of that. 

 
Remember my string quilting idea from last week?  I began playing around with my hand-dyed jersey by cutting out the front and one sleeve and layering colors together.  When I string pieced the first strip onto the front, I decided to add some handpainting and stitching unique to that segment. 

 
I am amazed at how quickly the color comes together sometimes.  I use SetaColor textile paints by Pebeo.  I was out of yellow, but was able to use a metallic lime green Jacquard paint I had on hand,  mixed into some white and turquoise.

 
For reverse applique projects, I like the durability of buttonhole thread -- but not the limited color palette.  So for this project, I expanded my toolbox with variegated thread, pearl cotton, and embroidery floss.  I made up a little swatch of each thread stitched on a scrap of the fabric, and decided to go with a monochromatic scheme of embroidery floss in 3 shades of blue-green.  (Most of my embroidery floss is leftover from my cross-stitching days in high school.  I meticulously organized it at the time onto little cardboard spools.  I'm glad it doesn't take up much space or I probably would have gotten rid of it years ago.)

 
I first stitched one complete fern to make sure I liked it, then got going on just the lighter green bits.  As you can see, there is another "string" to the right in a brighter blue -- I stitched that on after the painting (since I wanted the painting to go right to the edge of the strip), but before the embroidery.  I might do the same pattern on that strip in a different color, or a different pattern altogether, or possibly even leave it blank.

Sometimes you get going on a project and you come to a point where you don't like it.  Or you wonder if the fabric you dyed is "good enough" for all the hand-sewing effort.  I am working at embracing the process and being less concerned with the final result.

I have several other projects to share, and hope for a calm and healthy week to share them with you!  Last week passed in a blur of taking care of sick kids and rushing off to meetings.  Today I'm looking forward to catching up on work and Downton Abbey, and starting the audiobook Wolf Hall.

Evolution.

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.

 

Dyeing day.

Take some cotton fabric:

 
Add a morning at the Textile Center Dye Lab.  Get this:

 
I hadn't really tried fabric dyeing until yesterday.  Generally, I'm a "necessity is the mother of invention" sort of girl -- if I don't have the "right" color, I make what I do have work.  But a morning in the dye lab has made me a fan of custom color.  I know I've barely scratched the surface of possibilities, but I could hardly sleep last night for all the ideas in my head.  (And I kept imagining William Carlos Williams saying, "The fit was on me!")

I'm especially interested in overdyeing and painting with dye.  When I prepare my handstitched garments, I use textile paint -- which can influence the overall drape of the finished garment (because it's thick).  Who knows what I'll come up with now that I'm stocking up in the dye department!

Holiday countdown (8).

Remember this?

 
It turned out like this:

 
Under construction:

 
One of my favorite things about handsewing is the pace:  slow enough to contemplate as you're stitching, to change your mind or your project as you go along.  Originally I'd planned to just paint the lower halves of the sleeves, but as I got going, I decided to extend the pattern into an asymmetrical wave from one side to the other.  It also reaches just a bit over the shoulder onto the back.

And on a practical note, instead of buttons under the left sleeve that I couldn't actually reach, I adhered the wrap more permanently.  It is knit, after all.

 

Holiday countdown (7).

i thank you god

for most this amazing day

for leaping greenly spirits of trees

and a blue true dream of sky

e.e. cummings

 
 

This pattern is directly out of Alabama Studio Style, stitched in a dark chocolate bamboo jersey.  (I love the way bamboo retains its shape, and is easy to care for to boot.)  I have just enough fabric left for a long-sleeve shrug to wear over this -- but I haven't ruled out making a skirt instead. 

Not quite finished with the embroidery around the hem, but then, I like to think of all my garments as ongoing projects....

Holiday countdown (6).

I stitched this little wrap number to go under my Angelou jacket; it's made from a rayon/wool jersey with a whole lot of drape.  (Unfortunately, I did have to pull it out of the laundry basket for this photo; sorry about all the wrinkles!)  I based the pattern on a vintage dress pattern I've been storing for years -- very fitted and with too many darts for me to ever bother with; but using the knit, I was able to shape it by including single darts on the back, double darts on the front inside, and no darts on the front outside.  Then I gathered the front layer with pleats on the side, and secured them with little leaves that match the jacket:

 
 
The original pattern calls for gathering the front at the shoulder, but I chose to pleat it instead, mimicking the side and adding some breathing room across the top. 

 

I didn't finish the edges, so it stitched up in a snap:  darts, shoulders, sides, done.  Definitely my favorite go-to ensemble lately.
 

Holiday countdown (3).

 
Meet Ellie.  She's made from a pattern in the darling book Wee Wonderfuls.

 
Ellie is actually a sweet little bag -- her tummy is hollow, and lined with fabric to match her ears.

 

A satisfying weekend.

I had enough energy on Sunday afternoon to cross four unfinished projects off my list.  Unfortunately, I've had a relapse of my cold so I couldn't share until today.  (Insert pity party here.)

  

I put this quilt on our bed on Christmas Eve (2005), but had only quilted about half of the top, doing just enough that I could finish it "later."  Later turned out to be last Sunday.  One very satisfying hour.

 
I also finished piecing this quilt top, part of my cabin quilt series, a series of four twin-size quilts for our home away from home (which is not actually a cabin, but an Airstream).  This was mostly complete but when I was stitching the five main rows together last spring, I realized I had miscalculated by 1/4" on the third and fifth rows -- easily fixed, but not on that particular day.

 
I started this skirt last fall, just hadn't gotten around to the lining.  I used the Amy Butler Barcelona Skirts pattern -- this is my third skirt from that pattern and all three are super comfortable.  A great way to showcase woven cotton prints too lovely to stay hidden in my stash.  My favorite uses Martha Negley's tree rings pattern in a chocolate brown.  (Here's a sample of the fabric in a lighter brown.)

 
I cut out these pj pants for Juliet last summer, and with an hour still to go in the afternoon, I figured I should probably get them sewn before she outgrows them.  The trim is Farbenmix from one of my favorite etsy sellers, chickadee supplies.  (I noticed that she is closing her shop temporarily at the end of next week; I need to order some of that new Matryoshka trim!)  If I'd really been thinking, I would have given them to her for her birthday with a set of fabric markers.  Don't you just want to color on these?