Creatively challenged

     I am creatively challenged. 

     I love to create things in textiles, and some methods are more attractive to me at times. But I always seem to be copying something. Or following a pattern. Or decorating something that will be used. I like doing that, it's true, so this is not a complaint.

 

     I have been noticing, though, this year that I am more attracted to the more artsy end of the spectrum. New ideas, to me at least. Mixing different mediums, using several methods, images that are more abstract, although not completely. Above is a photo my sister took sometime around 2005 I think. Our feet. Recently I came across this picture: 

     My first thought was how I could do this with the photo of our feet. I could even add my other sister's feet into the embroidery. I could do it with appliqué, embroidery and silk painting. Maybe I could event make it a little abstract... NO WAIT!!! If it's abstract, who would recognise it? My sister who took the original photo may not recognise it. Maybe no one would like it? What-if's are everywhere! 

     I need to give this some thought. Contemplate. What if I do it in shades of all one colour? What if I don't like it, even? What if I try several versions of the idea? The world won't end if I throw the whole thing in the bin, finally. Will it? 

The Oven Mitt for Valentines Day

I made an oven mitt. This is for a local competition in our own SWRI meeting tonight. As a first try it's fine and I will next make one for the Federation show in May, removing some of the flaws.

Here it is and here is a link to the album showing the making. 

Valentine oven mitt album

The Western Shirt

THE IDEA
John wanted a Western shirt. My father had given him a bola tie, and he now wanted a western shirt. Now, I haven't be shopping to a lot of places in Scotland, but I had not seen any western style shirts in any shop windows. And I was just as certain that we weren't going to find one that fit John. So I showed him a few patterns on the internet and he chose. It was still a few months before I managed to get the fabric, but I thought it would be a nice birthday surprise for him in December.

THE START
Started in September 2011 The pictures will show a few details in this sewing project. It's fitted to John and isn't a real western yoked shirt, but it is in a heavy denim so it's more of a jacket than a shirt. I altered several things on the pattern (size XL) prior to cutting. 

• The waist is 15.2cm longer
• The back is 3cm wider, as is the collar (this allows more room for his posture)
• The sleeves are 6cm longer

After cutting, the back needed to be taken in at the shoulders, so I cut the fabric at the armholes, and then angled the cut from the bottom of the armhole to the waistline. This leaves the waist line with the extra space.

In assembling, I also added a overlapping tab for the cuff closure. This solved two problems: the cuff was too narrow for his wrists, but also the cuff fabric, being a heavy denim with a heavy interfacing, would have been far too bulky if the cuff had it's original design of the overlapped cuff with a button.

The collar was also very difficult at the neck closure. He wanted snaps, and found large enough pearl snaps for the front placket, but the cuff and collar were to wadded up with seem allowance and interfacing. I might have tried to trim the seam allowance more and trimmed the interfacing so it wasn't right up to the edges, but I'm not sure how that would stand on the assembled shirt. I thought it might look a bit bedraggled.

THE FINAL PRODUCT
Today: 10 February, 2013. Today it is finished. The shirt-tails are hemmed with a seam binding because the fabric was too heavy for John to wear as a shirt (his intention) and tuck the tails into his trousers. I used a narrow red seam binding - 1/2" single fold, but the heavy denim leaves it as a narrow half-inch. It looks good out, because the red piping following the yoke is mimicked the the red hem. So it has doubled it's purpose as a design detail.

The collar snap was the final piece. The cuffs and shirt pocket flaps have brass denim snaps, instead of the pearly ones, so he could get a little bigger size snap for the denseness of the layers used in those places. The same applied to the front collar closure, and I didn't think the even the large snap was going to work. The fit was great, but the thickness of the fabric was so bulky. However, after two tries, John got the snap to stay in and be secure. 

THE DEBRIEF 
I will try another. With cotton, and a western plaid. I would have liked to make a real yoke, but the denim (I do complain a lot about this fabric) was too much. I also should have used a flat fell seam throughout but ... same old story. I also might have used a red thread, it may have been too much, though, so it's done anyway. I also never made slopers or a muslin mock-up, that was really a mistake because I had to remake every single cutout of the pattern at least twice.        

Jewellery making

This is not Textiles, but I took a little side trip to explore jewellery making. I am interested in this on it's own, but especially as an enhancement for textile arts. I have tried making costume jewellery before, a necklace and a pair of earrings. I enjoyed it, I like making just about anything and I'm eager to try any kind of arts/craft activity at least once. As I've been collecting pictures and drawings for my textiles ideas scrapbook, I have been noticing what the people are wearing or what details and enhancements are part of the design. I when I did the jewellery class today, I did it more in mind with textiles work.

Our tutor was terrific. He was well prepared and welcomed any question. He was very patient and never made anyone feel inadequate. He was very sensitive to the abilities and interests of each student. That really helped. Since he is a professional jeweller, and I have seen his work before, I know he is very talented. I was glad for his expertise and for his effectiveness.

I made a necklace (second one; I will send it to my sister that I've sent one to a little while ago, but it seems to have been lost going across the Atlantic.) I made it for her, and with embroidery in mind. Those two things gave me a different viewpoint. Unlike the first two projects, I felt more able to think creatively about this project. I could think more about colours and patterns. Shapes and balance came more into my thought process. I think this is because I stopped thinking of it as jewellery, per se, and thought about it as something I was creating. It was a more reflective process, not entirely consciously, but I was thinking about my sister and the kinds of things she likes, the fabrics she prefers, her personality, her responsibilities. All of that. And I was also thinking about fashions and embroidery projects I currently have on the go. I also had the influence from my scraps-book of ideas.

The other times I tried the jewellery making, I was only thinking "jewellery" like you give your mother on Mothering Sunday, or like your husband gives you on a special occasion. I guess I was thinking Tiffany's, so quite naturally I felt out of my depth. This time I went with thoughts along the lines of "How can jewellery making influence my textile arts pursuits?" "What can I do here that will express how I value my sister?" Those questions opened up the entire project, so I owned it; it was clearly my creation.

It remains to be seen how this will actually affect my sewing. But I liked today and I think today will have made a difference.

The steps of what I was making can be viewed by following this link. This in no way describes the steps in a how-to fashion, only my experience. I would recommend this Master of the Craft as a tutor for any group or individual.

Jewellery making photos

Sewing again.

Well, I got out some new fabric and my favourite pattern but then, while I was digging through the piles of material and I realised I have three- no, four outfits cut out that need only putting together. No worries. Let's see. A blue blouse is cut out, silky kind of fabric. Two skirt and top sets; a mix and match. A solid rust coloured and a solid beige jersey fabric, but that will be fine. They'll need a lining, at least on the skirts. Oh, look. Here's that white Egyptian cotton sheet I've never used. That will be enough for lining on both skirts and the bodice on the tops. great. also this blue corduroy dress, pinnies, really. Needs a blouse under it but how about that: I started by finding the dark blue, silky blouse. Great. Three outfits, mix n match to make, really, 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 or 8 outfits. Not too shabby.

Ok. Well one whole day to get organised. Another day to cut out the lining. today both skirts, with lining, are assembled. Need some detail for the waistline. A belt or sash. Maybe a rope belt. I'll sleep on it and decide in the morning. What fun.

My second attempt with the silk painting. Obviously I need to do a lot more experimentation and practice! This was based on earlier units in the protfolio using shapes of nature and colours of Autumn. The outline stitch used a variagated thread (cotton, crochet weight 20) on the dyed slik. The drawng that inspired this was a series of 5 maple leaf shapes in an alternating, overlapping wave. I tried to have the paints 'bleed' on colour into another that would indicate the colours of Autumn trees.