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!

New Project...the poem

Travel
by Robert Lewis Stevenson

Partial poem in red DMC 3 strand
on an antique linen tea towel

Now for the illustrations

done with the jacket

The finished jacket:

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As finished as finished can be

the back

 It's as finished as finished will be for now.  I need to move on to other projects...I'm starting on some very old heavy linen and doing a poem with illustration.  And illustration is never my strong suit but I just have a bug up my butt about embroidery right now.  I also found a stash of antique brass sequins that used to be on one of my dance costumes.  Glad I didn't get rid of those in my purging.  I love metal shiny things, I guess that's why.  I am also working on using the silk chiffon burn-out piece I bought from Rebecca years ago when I thought maybe Lise would want it for her wedding dress.  It will start to yellow with age, and I will never make anything from it that I will wear, so I am combining it with a lovely little Edwardian bodice I got a while back from Etsy or Ebay or somewhere...cheap.  I will post photos.  And I completed two pair of earrings that I am quite proud of.  A stretch for me.

Sterling silver Turkoman beads with sterling quality
Afghani drops.  The one on the left has a tiny
turquoise and carnelian bead.  Sterling round
spacer beads as accents.

Sterling silver Lao butterfly buttons
with sterling content Afghani
drops.

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Return to Embroidery

Now that the hectic holiday season is over I am back at my embroidery. I have a new chair, which helps, and I'm doing some of my work in the daytime, which is HUGE! Better light, better back, better inspiration and less fatigue. The purple tunic is getting full. I have to remember not to try to do projects on it in very dark colors. They just don't show up. I found some antique linen tea towels, old, heavy linen, and I'm going to do a series of hangings on these. I want to do one for the RL Stevenson poem, Travel. After all, it is what set my mind to travel as a child, hearing my grandmother and then my mother, reciting the poems from A Child's Garden of Verses. So that is my new goal. In the meantime, I have much to do before I go back to SE Asia. I have a mission at Samphan Lane to find some embroidery thread, perhaps silk or rayon, and different buttons, perhaps some nice trims. Who knows what I will find in the rat's nest of alleys and packed lanes? It's taken me two years to think up a valid reason to return there. Now if I can only find it.

Creative Impasse

Since this seems to be the only place I'm doing any writing, what the hell. I rescued another mistake today. A Chinese style tunic I made for myself turned out way too large at the top. Who knows what pattern I was using, but I cut it down, did some clever trim, added gussets, which made it hang correctly, and after taking it apart, removing facings and changing them a couple of times, I actually think I'm almost done and it might be good. Still embroidering, and looking at knitting some neck cowls as gifts. I used a gift certificate from my mother from last year and bought some beautiful yarn. I've taken 4 sweaters apart in the last 4 years and wound the yarn to reuse, reused it, and taken it apart again. Maybe things made with one ball of yarn will be easier to finish. How is it that my skills have fallen by the wayside, like making my pie crusts. I used to make wonderful pie crusts, for years, and then every pie crust I made was like an old worn tire, rubbery and chewy. But now my pie crusts are good, actually, a little better than good. Can I redeem my sewing, my embroidery, my knitting skills? Who knows, but I'm tryin' to find out.

Creative Musings

Having worked meticulously within the confines of a commercial pattern, I finally finished a jacket made from a kantha quilt I obtained from an Afghani merchant friend. I had great hopes for this jacket. It seemed a good choice of fabric and the pattern was exactly what I was looking for. However, upon finishing and trying it on, I realized that this really wasn't the pattern for me, at least not in this fabric. The pattern will work, but will require modifications. So, the jacket is quite charming and well made, but I will never wear it. This is a common theme for me. There seems to be a disconnect between what I like and what looks well on me. I use up more fabric that way. I will put this jacket up for sale and move on.

The next project I made from some linen I dyed this summer. The Asian style tunic came out splendid. I made some modifications to the pattern and it is well suited to my style.

I moved on to a vest I made from hand woven indigo dyed cotton I bought on my first trip to Laos. I got it from a Lienten village outside of Luang Namtha and chose to make a traditional Chinese style vest. I have made this pattern before and I didn't like it then and didn't like it this time so I took the seams out and began modifying the design. It took a lot of patching and cutting and shaping but I finally ended up with something that is very cute and works.

Then I tackled a 16th century pattern I made of a jacket worn by everyday people in the Netherlands and England...a sort of a "Cut Your Cote" style using the maximum amount of loomed fabric, very simple. I made some adaptations again and the result is a jacket is a jacket that I will definitely wear. I used another length of linen I dyed a couple of years ago and ended up having to piece the sleeves because I ran out of fabric. It looks like every seam was intentional. I faced the sleeves and front openings with some vintage cotton feedsack print I bought from Etsy and I just love it. I am contemplating an embroidered border of some sort. It would look just dandy!

My conclusion is that I am better at adapting and rescuing things than following strict pattern guidelines. I do well under pressure, whether in my writing or my cooking or my sewing. I just wish that instead of spending a lot of time making something and then having to take it apart and re-construct it, I could cut that part out and go right to the garment proper. Could it be that this is my "process"? If so, it is a tedious way to create, but the only one that seems to work for me.

Photos will be posted of these four garments.