Embroidered Levi Denim Jacket

I think I've finished the Levi jacket.  Its hard to finish, even though working on denim is challenging and requires larger needles and larger thread.   Now I need a new project....

Full back shot

Snake in the grass 

Twining vines

Center panel.  At the top right I did the
Scorpio sign floating in a swirl
of variegated blue thread...
doodling...the round gold thingies
are vintage 1920s brass sequins
The eye uses glass seed beads, the
tears are mother of pearl beads

New Jacket

I've finished another jacket.  This one is made from a pha sin from Laos, very old silk supplementary weft, quite thick.  I had to add some linen cotton open weave fabric at the top shoulders, and I used a wide skirt border of silk from Laos, also an old piece.  It came out beautifully and looked much nicer than I thought it would when I started, quite a handsome piece with an elegant simplicity.  A simple design shows off the complex hand woven fabric best.  It is unlined, and the collar piece is also the linen cotton fabric I found at JoAnn Fabrics.  I've used this fabric for other jackets including the Khamu jackets I made when I brought the original back from Laos a few years ago.

Finished jacket

Close up of front

Back showing full skirt panel

Sleeve from unusually wide Laos skirt border

Back close up

Full shot

The Indigo Vat

I finally got around to making up the indigo vat.  At first I thought I'd screwed it up.  Where was the bloom?  What is it supposed to look like?  I am a tentative explorer, and since I am mostly self-taught, I have to rely on sheer moxy.  What the hell, I thought, if it doesn't have a "bloom", maybe it will still work.  So I over-dyed a very blah April Cornell smock coat I found at Ragfinery, and then did the remaining yardage of a beautiful piece of bamboo/cotton I bought from Dharma Trading.  Yes, ugly yellow green and then, viola!, dark dark dark indigo after about 10 minutes in the air.  And I still have a question about dyes...just how clear does the rinse water have to run before you put it in the machine and wash the hell out of it?  I never know, and by the rinse stage my back is usually screaming and I'm tired of being in the dank basement.  But on the other hand, I won't have the luxury of a huge cement double sink to use when we sell this house and move to a smaller one.  I love the result of dying cloth. Since I approach it with the same attitude I do travel, I have few expectations.  Therefore, I am seldom disappointed.  Fun fun fun.  I will post photos.

Oh, and the "bloom"?  It showed up as soon as I started moving the dye bath around...introducing oxygen into it.  I get it, and I'm not quite as intimidated as I was when I started.

Day one:

Formerly a blah beige April Cornell jacket
in a nicely worn linen.  Some streaks, but
I kind of like that.

2 1/2 yards of bamboo/cotton.  The dots are spots
of light from a disco ball in the garden.  They
are not on the fabric.

Day two:

Linen/cotton fabric tied with cotton twine.

I began to untie the cotton twine.

3 yards of linen/cotton.  The fabric is still
wet.  After washing and drying, the
color is a softer blue.

The Jacket Projects

And another jacket.  Materials:  indigo dyed hand spun, hand woven cotton from a Lienten village in northern Laos, 2003.  The fabric is very thick with indigo and not easy to work with.  The white hand woven cotton is from Japan, katazome, which is a resist paste of indigo, either block printed or done free hand, here in a butterfly design.  This fabric is about the same weight and texture as the dark blue.  The collar is a 50/50 silk cotton I picked up in Myanmar a couple of years ago.  The design is a modified kimono style.  It has irregular shaped pockets and "picking", or sashiko, a Japanese running stitch.  I used DMC perle cotton white for the sashiko.

Next project is to embroider my old Levi jacket.  I am doing scroll work, a moon and Tibetan clouds.

Jackets

The jacket:  I used an Indonesian tube skirt from Flores for the body, back and front, and part of the sleeves.  For the collar, I used a very old silk hand woven partial pha sin from Laos that was part of a phasin that had been cobbled together.  I took the old skirt apart and salvaged the pieces.  The very dark pieces near the bottom of the sleeves are from pieces left over from another old phasin, hand woven with indigo dyed threads.  The large sections of the sleeves is a skirt border, old, silk, from Laos.  It felt good to use all the small sections and pieces I have been saving because the seem to precious to just throw away.  This jacket came out beautifully and I will wear it a lot, I'm sure.  I did have to shorten the sleeves a bit, and did that by adding black rayon/linen to the reverse sides of the sleeves, and turning up the cuffs a bit.  I also added pockets.  It's quite a coat!