Handmade Designer Women's Apparel
Can you believe it? Here we are again. The light returns and a new year begins.
Let’s acknowledge this magical time!
However you celebrate I hope you have the very best and happiest holidays ever!!!
And, for sure, I send all my wishes to you for a joyful, delightful and blissful 2023!!!
A few weeks back, Holly Andres, photographer extraordinaire, asked if I would participate in a fund raiser for our local greyhound adoption organization, I enthusiastically answered yes!
When greyhounds can no longer race, often between 3 or 5 years old, they are retired. The Greyhound Pet Adoption NW organization helps to find homes for these beautiful dogs.
The idea was to photograph the dogs wearing ‘Elizabethan Collars.’ Not those cone shaped collars that dogs wear after surgery, instead, they wanted fancy, Tudor inspired collars.
Holly gathered 12 local designers and asked them to create their own version of an Elizabethan collar. The photos would be for their 2023 calendar.
What to make? I still had a headpiece for the ‘bride’ in this photoshoot from a few years back and thought it would make a good starting place.
It wasn’t quite Tudor size, so I added bigger bias loops. And in honor of Elizabeth I, it needed more pizazz and sparkle, so I added some good sized beads.
A detail shot.
I handed the collar over to Holly who photographed it and the 11 other contributions.
The final photo, on the beautiful Zia, looking glamorous and fetching. And oh so sweet.
Miss November.
The calendar is available at the Greyhound Pet Adoption website. Only $19.99! All proceeds go to the adoption, medical, transport and housing of these retired racers. Check it out here.
The backside, so you can see some of the other photos. I am always blown away by how different the results can be when creative people are asked to complete one task. Amazing!
Please check it out. And consider helping out this wonderful organization by buying this calendar!
People ask, “Where do your idea come from?”
Sometimes they are from something I made before and wanted to do again, only in a different way.
For example, I’d been wanting to revisit this piece I had made years ago. It was a white on white wrap top. Sewn from a matte silk crepe and appliquéd with satin bias tubes.
I liked the subtle textural contrasts and have been wanting to do something like it again.
This time, instead of concentric spiral shapes, I decided to do something with more energy. In my pile of old drawings, I found a sketch of a skirt with scribbly, graffiti shapes.
I went with a gorgeous tomato red kimono silk for the base and used a slightly redder, shinier fabric for the appliqués.
Below, in process, pinned and ready for basting. The back and sleeves have the same designs.
Now it’s in my hand-work queue.
Stay tuned.
Another coat, from over a year ago, made with the fabric below. I was surprised to discover that the Japanese weavers wove the plaid in a random, totally laissez-faire way. It is not at all what I think of as ‘plaid,’ where all the stripes are the same distance apart and you can line them up so ‘the plaid matches.’
I laid out sections of the fabric next to each other and in most areas there was no way to line it up. It was one step from impossible to match the plaid. Can you see how the horizontal lines are close at the top, then shift so much that they are completely out of alignment at the bottom?
Although I had to go through the whole bolt, I was able to find enough areas to at least, kind of, match the plaid.
Below, the front of the finished coat.
I didn’t even try to get the sleeves to line up. If I had, my head would have exploded. But, I did manage to line up the sides and pocket pieces so they were close enough.
After I finished that coat, I thought, I’ll use the rest of the fabric and make another piece where absolutely nothing lines up. I’ll work with the uneven, totally random, ‘plaid-like’ fabric. Everything will be totally out of order and it will become a piece about a plaid that absolutely does not even try to line up.
On my wall, in process.
Below, Finished!
Nothing lines up and it is not supposed to.
One last thing, as requested and in order to make my blog more readable, we’ve adjusted the font so it is darker and thicker. After all, my whole goal here is to tell my stories. Legibility is definitely the way to go!
