Winter Sewing

It's been gloriously rainy here on the Central Coast of California for about a week now.  And I took advantage of it to stay in the bunkhouse and sew, sew, sew!

First, I finished a coat I started last winter.  It's Marcy Tilton's coat pattern V9070 which I think may be out of print.

I got this fabric several years ago from Marcy and have been trying to figure out what to make with it ever since.  It's a reddish brown raincoat type fabric with copper threads running through it so it keeps it's shape, whatever shape you put it in!  

I love it but not sure how often I will wear it.  It's really dramatic so I can see wearing it out at night.  I'm not sure how rain resistant it is but will give it a try soon.  

I had a devil of a time with the button holes.  I think this is the most test buttonholes I've ever done, by far.  I had to do them manually since the buttons were too big to use the automatic buttonhole attachment on my Bernina 560.  Finally got 'em!

This tunic is another Marcy pattern that I loved making and really think is flattering.  I did take it in a bit in the back since my back measurements are so much smaller than my, eh-hum, front.

The fabric is a very lightweight knit from Marcy.

I'll make it again, next time in a fabric that shows the beautiful lines a bit more.

One of the most fun sewing projects in a long time is this Katherine Tilton top.  I thought it might not be flattering on me but was I wrong.  Although it's gathered it really doesn't have a lot of bulk.  I made it out of fleece so it's my new sweatshirt. I have an orange Italian fleece that's next up.

I thought about leaving off the hood but I'm glad I didn't.  I think it really brings a lot to the design.

AND, it goes with my new tunic!  Yep, they're both winners!

Coat Dress vs. Tunic

I've made this self drafted pattern three times now.  It's somewhere between a coat dress and a tunic.  I love it because it's so versatile.  

I can wear it over pants or leggings.  I wear it either with a top underneath or a Sleevey Wonder turned backwards.  What, you've never heard of a Sleevey Wonder?  It's the best thing that's happened to outfits since the dickey!  What, you've never heard of a dickey?  Throw back to the 60's.  I never liked them.  But on the other hand, Sleevey Wonders are the best!  Check 'em out!

This one is a grey and black ponte with buttons that look metallic but are lightweight plastic.

I love the drape.

And I love the way it curves in at the waistline to give me some shape.

This is the definition of a wardrobe basic.

More soon, I'm in the bunkhouse working away in winter mode!

News from the Dye Pot

For those of you who are not interested in eco-printing you might want to forward on to the next blog you follow and catch me in a few days when I post a new polka dot tunic!

If you are still tuned in this post is a recap of most everything I printed over the beautiful fall months here on California's central coast...Monterey Bay to be exact.

All of the pieces are recycled cashmere sweaters; some in pieces and some the whole sweater.  You will see, in some cases, where I printed more than one piece with the exact same materials, in the same dye bath to get enough fabric to make something.  The smaller pieces were testers but I think put together they will make a very wonderful shawl or huge scarf.

 I'll try to list all of the plants I used.  I came to find that fall is a plentiful time to gather leaves.  Most of the colors I got were in the green and yellow/gold range, which is lucky for me since I love those colors and can wear them.

This and the following 5 pics are all late autumn green, yellow and orange nectarine leaves from our tree.  Sometimes they fall when they are still green but mostly yellow and orange.

This was printed on a very light weight cashmere and silk blend.  I'm looking for more of this type fabric, it prints so beautifully.  I believe it is similar to a fabric India Flint loves to use that uses merino wool.  I'm on the lookout!

 This is from Dodonaea.  It's a landscape plant that's pretty common here.  It prints both green and purple...love it!  It looks like a landscape itself.

More nectarine.

These two I printed in India Flint's class.  I'm sure it has apple leaves, onion skins and dark spots from the iron in the dye bath.

Boy, I know this one has decorative plum leaves which dye an amazing dark teal green.  And a wee bit of loquat that prints the most amazing apricot/melon color...but what else I do not remember.  Bad on me. I vow, once again, to keep better records in 2016.

This is apple leaves and onion skins with some dark spots due to the eucalyptus/iron dye bath.

More decorative plum and loquat.

More onion and mystery stuff!

This is fallen yellow persimmon!

Yet more nectarine, my tree and that of some generous unknowing donor in Santa Cruz who had gorgeous fallen orange leaves by the bucket.  Thank you, Lisa, for introducing me to this find.   I only pick up leaves where I think I am doing the owners a service by cleaning up their yard!

These three are eucalyptus but exactly which one I cannot say.  My friend Joan brought them to me from her garden.  I will be finding out which on because the pumpkin color they produced is exhilarating!

There were some maple leaves thrown in, too.  But again, my friend Lisa gave them to me already dried so I cannot name them.

More decorative plum leaves and one big loquat.  It's from the same dye bath as the other one above. I'm in the process of making a vest from these combined with the two pieces dyed with the Dodonaea.  Yes, I'll post...you can't stop me.

  That's all for now, as if it wasn't too much!

Winter Dye Pot Tales

I haven't been getting much sewing done lately.  I've been holed up in my freezing garage, hunkered down over the dye pots (I now have three...) freezing my patootie off and getting addicted to eco-printing.

Fall is a wonderful time to be introduced to dyeing with plants because the colors are so wonderful and the windfall is plentiful.  I've been all over town collecting fallen nectarine leaves (thank you Lisa), decorative plum leaves (thank you Diane), eucalyptus of several varieties (thank you Joanie), persimmon (thank you Daniella), apple, locust, dodinea, maple, oak...you name it.

I have managed to get some sewing done.  I was left with dozens of small pieces of cashmere that I used to test the color of different plants so I made them into scarves.   

Above I used plum, eucalyptus and apple in an iron/eucalyptus bath.

A closer look at the same scarf.

The above scarf is made from a sweater that had quite a bit more pile so the images are softer.  I used apple, eucalyptus and orange onion skins.  Iron/eucalyptus bath.

This one I tried bougainvillea, not too strong a print, I'll have to work on that.  The lower edge is maple.  Scarves give a good opportunity for hand stitching because it will be seen up close.  You can really see the raw edges on this one.  They will felt and soften quite a bit after just a couple of wearings.

This one I think I used (oops, I learned later not to trust my memory and have been taking better notes!) things from the Pacific Northwest in the India Flint class.

I'm enjoying the idea of using the pieces from sweaters in their original shape instead of cutting them into perfect squares.  I got this idea from Gwen Spencer who is using this technique to spur her creative process.  At the bottom of this scarf you can see the armhole on the edge.

I have dozens of new samples and pieces, mostly in the lime green/yellows from nectarine leaves, fig leaves and apple leaves.  I'll show those after the holidays.  Stay warm and enjoy the season.

Blue Jean Lady~L.A . Baby, Seamstress For The Band~~Elton John

I'm not a blue jean lady, L.A. lady or a seamstress for a band (I kinda missed that window of opportunity!) but here I find myself with a new denim jacket.

My sewing pal, Janet, collected dozens of old jeans for a project she has now abandoned and is gifting her stash of cut-up, pre-washed and ironed pieces to lucky friends.  All of the hard work was done!

I've been "off" jeans for many years; one day they were just uncomfortable so I stopped wearing them.  And I don't think blue denim looks particularly good on me.  But when an opportunity presents itself it could be looked on as a challenge.

That was the case when I visited my friend Sharon in Seattle last month.  On my guest bed lay two huge bundles of denim, shipped by Janet who knew I'd be there.  She gave some to Sharon, too.  At first I groaned.  Oy, denim...

But then I lived with them for another week while on Lopez Island and they grew on me.  So I shipped them home to Capitola, knowing exactly what I would do with them.

Vogue 8709 is one of my favorite Marcy Tilton patterns. Sad to say it is out of print.  What a shame, it's so versatile!   I've used it for jackets, vests and shirts.  I've lengthened it permanently now because my favorite silhouette is longer.  I've also omitted a pleat in the lower center back.

I had fun piecing the scraps and had tons of help from a new pal, JM, who made the job so much easier.  We both worked on the layout and sewing the scraps, it would have taken me twice as long to finish that part without her!  JM, you are a true friend!  I love collaborating, it's one of my favorite things to do.

I decided I wanted to topstitch in heavy black thread.  I didn't have my new, trusty Bernina 560 with me when I started so most of the topstitching is done single thickness with a slightly heavy thread.  When I got home I did the hem and collar detail with the Bernina stitch that goes over each stitch twice making a more pronounced line of stitching.

It's all flat sewn so that the raw edges show on all of the interior pattern piecing, then sewn together with closed seams.  I purposely tried not to match anything.  I wanted this to seem more casual, less designer-ish.

I tried several closures, originally wanting black buttons which overtook the thing like a swarm of huge beetles.  Next I tried some toggle closures for purses, they were too heavy and weird to install.  I settled with these copper buttons, not sure I love them but I can always find something else if they start really bugging me.  I just had to git her done!

I made the sleeves using a very deep hem so that I can turn up them for warmer weather.

Overall, I'm really happy with this jacket.  Tonight is First Friday in Santa Cruz.  We'll be wandering around downtown looking at art in what has turned cold weather.  I think I might inaugurate this beast!

Drawn to the Dyepot

When I signed up for an India Flint class on Lopez Island last September I thought I was taking it for the "experience".  I had no intention of plant dyeing fabrics and clothing in the future, I just wanted to experience a person I knew would be inspiring.  And, after all, the title of the class indicated it would focus on making a garment from previously worn clothing...one of my passions.

Oh, how naive could I have been?  So many have been seduced in the past, it was inevitable.  About the second day of class I began to think, "Hmmm, this could become addictive."  Yeah, right...

I've been out in my garage over the dyepot ever since.  I liken this process to painting in the dark.  You know which colors you picked but until you see how they all come together on the page you don't know what you're going to get.

That's what I love about this process, it takes me away from the person residing in me that has to know everything!  So, it's not only doing something fun but good for me, right?

These photos are in no particular order.  The results are difficult to describe because I worked with various dye baths and materials at the same time.  I should probably have taken notes but that would be so contrary to what I wanted to achieve with this process.

I'm blessed to live on the Central Coast of California where we have variety of eucalyptus trees.  So first I worked with those.  Then I worked with copper, apple, maple and citrus, I have 5 citrus trees.  Then I asked the cooks in my rosticceria to save me all of the onions skins and worked with those.  

My dye bath varied from old chains with eucalyptus to copper with citrus leaves.

India also taught us a brilliant garment design where she sews two top garments together.  In these photos I used my abundant stash of old cashmere sweaters.

I love this design, it's simple but lends itself to lots of variation.  

This sweater is from onion skins, Bloodgood maple and some eucalyptus.

This was my first sweater, eucalyptus and Bloodgood maple.

This is the back of the same sweater.

This is my first attempt with copper, citrus leaves and apple leaves.

The back of the same sweater.

And here they are together so that you can see the variation a bit more.  It's subtle.  I'm still learning so much.  I'd like to get a bit brighter with future sweaters.

 My dye bath that awaits me in the garage this morning is a fresh batch of a type of eucalyptus leaf I've never used before and copper pipes.  I'm headed out there right now to see what that does!

Thank you, India.  You're one of the most brilliant, funny and endearing people I've ever met.  Plus you hooked me on my latest addiction!

Dreaming of Lopez Island

I got back from the India Flint class on Lopez Island late Wednesday but I don't think I'll ever quite get back from that experience.

Sharon and I kept pinching ourselves the whole time.  First, the organizer, Christi Carter of Sweet Pea Path blog, was such a lovely woman, so welcoming and helpful.  And Patsy, who let us use her beautiful studio, garden and house, was a delightful hostess.  We felt pampered and loved the whole three days.

And then there was India.  Original people are scarce.  She's one of them.  Totally herself and, boy, is herself swell.  She's witty, funny, a great storyteller, poem reader, soup maker and free-thinker, in the best sense of the word.  Being in her presence and learning from her was life changing for me.

I slowed down, or tried to...I think I finally achieved it a bit the last day!  Watching how she works, listening intently to how she phrases thoughts, getting used to the wonder of experimenting without attachment to outcome...all lessons this baby bear needs!

The perennial garden designed by Patsy, perfect in it's early fall outfit.

India reading us a poem every morning.  She picked some of my favorite poets, even one from a Santa Cruz poet, Ellen Bass.

The class was called The Wayfinder's Wanderjacket.  In addition to being the master of eco-dyeing India Flint is one heck of a designer.  In this case it was all re-design as we used old garments to create either a jacket or, in the photo above, a pinafore...we call it an apron, out of a man's shirt or jacket.  Above you can see a participant's pinafore under construction as India explains the little bits on her own garment.

She's a very generous and thoughtful teacher.  And sees shapes in an unexpected way.  I learned so much from watching her pin pieces of cloth together!

And then we walked up to the house each noon-time for a lunch prepared by our three hosts...Patsy, Christi and India.  Such good food, so beautifully prepared and displayed.

Breads from the island that were some of the best I've ever eaten, soup made by India each day, every one earthy and tasty.

Our first dye baths, excitement!

This bath had some metal bits in it I think.  Hence the darker color.

Here's what our bundles looked like while they cooled overnight in the dye bath.

I've always wondered why there are so many pictures of India's hands online.  Now I know.  Her hands are so expressive you just WANT to take pictures of them!  She is really a gorgeous woman in all ways but her arms and hands are mesmerizing and take you to other places!

She laid our cool bundles out on a dress she intended to dye later.  We had a jolly time opening them, one by one, to see how each of our's had turned out.

This is what's left after I opened my first bundle.  Rusted metal pieces, string and binding plus my little label so I could tell which was mine.

First day's pieces drying in the breeze.

I wish I knew who's cloth this was, I hope it's ok with her that I posted it.  I loved the green.  I think it's from apple leaves.

More bundles!

Excitement...it's like opening packages on Christmas though we all agreed these were all presents we WANTED!

Again, these are pieces that someone created in class, I know not who.  Just beautiful!

The path leading to the house...what a magical walk that is!

Patsy and Christi bringing our last day celebration, sad day for all of us to be leaving this dream.

But there was this chocolate cake made by Christi (and champagne) that eased the pain somewhat.

And every night when we came home to our rented house we could sit out on our patio with a  Negroni and watch THIS!

One of the best weeks of my life!