I think all of us are asking ourselves, how do I dress and look good wearing a mask? For some reason some of the more "out there" clothes I have made seem like they'll make me look like a crazy lady while wearing a mask. Is anyone else thinking that?
I'm working on it, I've been slowly introducing more adventurous outfits lately.
Let's face it, I have a lot of clothes. Most of them made by me. I have more clothes than I could wear in a month....changing twice a day. Especially during this phase of my life, home most days, enjoying peace and quiet, I dress casually so that I can tear outside and tend the seedlings or go out in the garage and slap some paint on fabric. So I've been a little less motivated to do my usual sewing. I've done some, but mostly these days I'm interested in using the fabric I've made. Creating fabric is getting to be a passion.
I'm taking several online classes in the next few months and have been acquiring various white fabrics for those projects.
Here are a few of the garments I made from my last few classes.
This fabric was made in the 2nd Pat Pauly I took in Sept. It is using two techniques. One is the stenciling at the top and bottom, which is part of Pat's curriculum, and the large ovals are deconstructed silkscreening I learned in Kerr Grabowski's class two summers ago.
This is a lightweight ponte, mostly cotton, of course there has to be some synthetic in it for the stretch but it holds the dye just fine.
The deconstructed silkscreening gives you results you can't ever control. That's the fun part of it. As the dye slowly releases from the screen each successive print is different. I like that a lot.
In my last blog I showed you a photo of fabric hanging to dry after the class. This is the dress I made from that fabric. It is a lightweight seersucker type fabric. The pattern is drafted from RTW.
Love the huge pocket!!
I'm learning a lot about color with each class. There's nothing like more hours put into your work to teach you what doesn't work...and what does.
This is another very lightweight ponte. I made this fabric in Kerr's class last year and just got around to sewing with it.
The black detail on the sleeves is from a silk screen I burned in a Holly Badgley class many years ago. I'm building a nice library of images to use as layers.
This is a very lightweight cotton knit that didn't hold up well to the rigors of dyeing. It's pretty stretchy and wrinkles badly. I color blocked this one, using paper and painter's tape to block out areas.
It wasn't a really satisfying technique for me so I won't be doing whole cloth with this style again. But it was useful to see how it works and can be used here and there.
As I mentioned above, learning, keep learning...over and over...never stops...about color. Some of these work, some do not. I' like to spend some time before the next class (yes, I'm taking another Pat Pauly class!) and do some dye mixing to see what happens.
This tunic pattern is by Katherine Tilton B6564. I've made it twice and LOVE it.
And this is just a whimsical idea I had. The tshirt that is on top was from Lucky Brands and was always too small for me. So I hand stitched it onto a men's shirt.
And I tried sewing the cuffs onto the top of the sleeve. Not sure I love this, I'll probably take that off. What do you think?
Next post will be on the block carving and printing I've been doing. Stay tuned!
