Two New Coats and How They Came to be

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!