applique

Smithsonian’s Craft: Fashion + Home

September 17, 2023 2 Comments

I’ve been calling the Smithsonian’s fall show, ‘Craft2Wear,’ but it has a new name. They’ve added in artists from the home-dec world so have updated the name to ‘Craft: Fashion + Home.’

It’s coming up soon! October 5 – 8. I’ve been running up the down escalator getting ready. So much to do!

Here’s a couple pieces I’ll be bringing.

The fabric for this jacket had gorgeous Hokusai waves, which you must know I love. But alas, each wave crest was a different bright color, beautiful in the original kimono, but not at all the look I was after. I cut out the colored parts [saved for a future project!] and rearranged the rolling wave parts.

Jacket with Hokusai waves made from kimono silk

The back

Below, a long ‘trench coat,’ sewn from a very cool deep, deep purple with a floral design in deep reds, greens and oranges.

I cut the scraps into squares and appliquéd them along the bottom panel. I love how the floral images are abstracted by cutting the print into random squares.

Trench coat of kimono silk with appliqued squares along the bottom panel

The camera in my phone has its own very specific ideas of how to record colors. Sometimes its guesses are right on the mark, other times not so much. I spent a bit of time wrestling with it trying to accurately record the lovely subtle colors in this coat. They still weren’t right, so I tried to adjust it in photoshop. Although better, it’s still missing the mark.

If you’re near Washington DC October 5 – 8, please come to the show! And see this coat’s true beautiful and subtle colors. And all the other jackets, coats, skirts and scarves that I’ll be bringing.

A detail shot showing the appliqués.

Detail of Trench coat of kimono silk with appliqued squares along the bottom panel

Another way to have accurate images and colors. Hire a professional!

I had another fantastic photoshoot with Mario Gallucci last week. So much fun! He’s processing those gorgeous images and I’ll be posting them soon.

For more information about the Smithsonian show ‘Craft: Fashion + Home,’ check it out here.

Applique, Fabric Sale and a Fancy Watch

June 18, 2023 8 Comments

I am absolutely ready and eager to start a piecing project. I want to pull scraps from my stash, cut fabric up and start rearranging, sewing and creating something new.

But when I wander into my studio, instead of piecing, I find myself working on appliqué projects.

For example, this coat. I found this amazing kimono silk and wanted to appliqué skinny gold strips to emphasize the wandering steam design. No waiting around, no first I’ll piece a new jacket. Nope. Instead it was Appliqué.

Now.

Below, the strips pinned in place and ready to be basted.

Just before the black and white stream piece above, I was working on another appliqué piece, a wide shawl collar for a coat. It’s is from another amazing kimono silk, this one a shibori design in red and white.

Shibori, it’s the impressive Japanese tie-dye. In the detail you can see where the threads were tied tight around each of the circles. The little squares I’ll appliqué are also from a shibori, this one with tiny circles instead of big.

The woven red silk I’ll use for the coat has a classic design of overlapping pieces of fabric.

If you are anywhere close to Portland, I hope you or any other fellow fabric fiend will come to our big fabric sale. Several friends and I will be going through our stashes and offering fabric, notions and other sewing related things to sell at greatly reduced prices. I have way too much! And will be selling silks, wools, a few cottons and even some of my kimono silks that I can’t use. In addition to fabrics there will also be Elisabeth Gillem’s shibori pieces and Marla Kazell’s sample garments. And lots more!

Next Saturday, June 24th. I hope to see you there!

And one other thing. A friend sent this link and I can’t stop thinking about it. It is so cool.

I have never paid any attention to fancy watches. I knew they existed, but never had a thought about them, until I saw a little video about the making of a Patek Phillippe Grandmaster Chime watch. I was mesmerized. The craftsmanship is so impressive. Check out the video here.

Next up for me? For real. A piecing project!

One last look

March 26, 2023 6 Comments

Before I refocus towards new work, how about one last look at some of the pieces that were sold at the Baltimore show?

A tomato red coat with appliqués in a slightly different red. I posted a story about this one in October when I started it. Check it out here.

I did finish it, just in time for the show.

A jacket, sewn from the remainder pieces of coat I made a number of years ago.

All those little bits and pieces, left over from various projects, that I store away. Eventually, sometimes years later, I use them for a new project.

Waste nothing! A skirt pieced from various leftover scraps of kimono silks, all woven with sparkling metallic threads.

Topped with a black hitoe that was sewn from an amazing ‘rinzo’ kimono silk, a kind of a damask.

A detail shot.

Formal wedding kimonos are fantastic to work with, not only are they amazingly gorgeous, but they also have extra long sleeves, also covered with designs. Those long sleeves mean all the more beautiful fabric to work with. Like this oversized jacket, loose and full.

And enough fabric left over to make a second jacket.

And a red and gold jacket sewn from the remainders of another oversized jacket.

Below, that oversized jacket, the one that I had first sewn from the red and gold kimono silk. I brought it back with me and listed it on my web-shop. You can check it out here.

This is how it goes, I start with a beautiful kimono silk and see where it leads me. I sew up new work and send those jackets, coats, skirts on their way. Then, maybe the best part, I get to start all over again.

Every time it’s different, sometimes a challenge, but in the end, always fun, always rewarding.

ACC Baltimore ’23 Coming Up!

February 19, 2023 3 Comments

I’m sewing up a storm these days. New jackets and coats are flying out of my studio. Pieced, appliquéd or beaded, each one sewn using a gorgeous kimono silk. No more sitting and waiting patiently on my shelves, these fabrics will be out and about, living their new lives.

I started this pieced jacket a few weeks ago, using fabrics from my scrap stash. From a pile of fabric bits and pieces to a brand new jacket. Magic!

The Met Museum’s Instagram account has a picture of a Japanese pieced vest from the first half of the 1800’s. The caption reads, ‘Patchwork has connotations of longevity, since stitching together the scraps extended their use.’ I love it! Wear a jacket made from leftover fabric scraps and add years to your life. Perfect!

The back.

Below, a new trench coat sewn from an amazing old meisen kimono.

You remember ‘meisen’, yes? Where they weave the fabric, print the design, unweave it, then reweave it?

When it is rewoven, the threads do not line up and you get a soft, out of focus edge.

This stuff is gorgeous!

I started this black and white striped coat with appliqués of thin bias tubes a few months ago.

Finished and ready for the show!

From the side, appliqués on the sleeves.

And the back.

And for a bit of sparkle, nothing beats glittery gold.

From an amazing kimono, a silk woven with golden threads, with beads sprinkled about for even more shine.

And the back.

These and many others will be coming with me to Baltimore for the big craft show.

March 3-5. Which is soon!

Can’t wait!

New Year New Work

January 8, 2023 3 Comments

Happy 2023! Are you ready?

January always feels like a brand new beginning. Anything is possible! We can start over, look to the future and choose wherever we want to go.

The holidays are over and there are no distractions. I can step into my studio and focus on my work.

I’m just now finishing up a couple of pieced jackets. I start with kimono silk scraps from past work. I sew the little pieces together into blocks, then lay them out until they flow together and look right.

It’s kind of like a water color, where the process dictates the outcome.

As I lay out the pieces I check out the composition by taking snap shots along the way. Why is it that a photo helps to look at the overall design? Back in the day, artists would turn their work upside down to see how the balance and composition was working. Or, they’d look in a mirror. The camera in my phone serves the same purpose. And a bonus, I have a record of what I’ve been working on.