New Jacket x 2 and update

Update -I am still not in the best place at the moment but I also know it will take a long time to get back to normal.  Good news - I have sold my Pfaff ! Whoop whoop - so glad it will be going to a good home - to someone who will use it to its full potential.

I have started work on two jackets. One a Steampunk jacket for the museum exhibition and the other a Steampunk/post apocalyptic jacket !!  So far I have made a start on the background fabric - below is a photo of the piece which will be the side panels of the museum piece - it measures 112 cm x 85cm.  The other is a sample which I will use to work out colours for both jackets.

I have also started the background fabric (which will be the same) for the whole of the second jacket but this piece measures 150cm x 2.5 metres - so this is going to be a long project!!

Update - finished the sample piece - measured 35cm x 44cm - cut in half - one piece for each jacket.  The first one then looked like this..

And dipped in this.....

however currently looks a little dark? Hope this idea works! When it's dry I will be stitching into it too.

Back to work :-)

OK so after the mega tidying session it's time to get back to some art work ;-)

I have dyed some white fabric and lace yellow ready for the sunflowers:

I have now made all the free standing petals for the practice iris - laid down on the desk (pic below) - think it will work.

 

Today it is the day to start the first of the flat Iris flowers - in the right colours - blue

Happy Christmas to all

As some of you know I have not been too well recently - things are not much better - scan showed some unexpected issues but no main reason for the stomach issues which are getting worse.  Anyway - this has meant that I have not really felt like doing very much - not even wanted to blog!  To make amends - a quick update....
During my weekend away recently (when the Christmas fairies invaded my house - see last blog) I did start a new garment project.  These pics show where I have got to so far - I do have to say that the stamped bits you see in the pics will be covered and the jacket will have sleeves..  I am just using up old over dyed fabrics and bits. The main fabric had been created many many years ago when I was doing the Surface Decorating C&G Course with Val Campbell Harding and had been yardage  for a 'sea' themed roller blind for my bathroom - but I moved house and did not have a big enough window any more - so the stamping and stencilling will be covered up.
Front view

Back view

Close up of godets and the different fabrics used

I hope my enthusiasm will come back in 2014, maybe I need to set myself a creative challenge - any ideas?? For the moment I wish you all:

Wesolych Swiat Bozego Narodzenia

i Szczesliwego Nowego Roku

(translated - Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year)

White Rabbit Pocket Watch, Klimt etc

I have tried to keep busy this bank holiday. Lots of photos but not much progress as I keep going from one thing to another.You may remember I made a few miles of cord ready for the White Rabit's Pocket watch - (which I lost interest in) so I thought I aught to get on with the watch.


Here is stage one - this is the outer watch case (cover) - I am machining over water soluble fabric and rust dyed twinkle organza (which I may burn away). The design is drawn on the water soluble.

 Stage two - lots of stitching....

 Stage three - the brown stitching done.

Next it was stitching the outline cord.  First centre circle.








Currently on the spokes - this is soooooooooooo time consuming!!

I have also cut out the Klimt Jacket - (fabric laid on the kitchen table) not done much else with it yet...

 I hope to use up these....... on the jacket.

I also cut out another top - trying the pattern once again but this time using a stretchy fabric. Not done much else other than cut it out!

Klimt Jacket 1

Once I mentioned that I wanted to work on a Klimt piece to Jane L and that I fancied a jacket in the style of the one I made for the Queen of Hearts - she said I should make one to fit me this time.  So today I started the background work by dyeing 4 metres of 150cm wide cotton in my favourite colours purple and yellow (also Klimt colours) and the mix in between.. Photos below - on the left fresh into the dye, on the right fresh out of the washing machine after rinsing.

On the line drying 

The three photos below show close ups of some of the areas which I think are lovely. In my mind's eye there may not be much of this showing by the time I have finished - hence the photos :-)

UPDATE:  As usual I have changed my mind - this lovely fabric is just too busy for my idea - so its back to the drawing board for a fabric base!

Muse 4 - It's not easy...

The basting too yesterday afternoon, evening and most of this morning!! Now here is the centre row of squares pinned down, each square is butted up to the next as planned. Again, for scale you can see my original A4 size picture... I found that it is not easy to free machine these down - I cannot get the tension correct, so I have had to use the normal sewing foot and believe me it is not easy turning the piece round but hey - that's how I have to do it. ii am also using a variegated thread and think I may not have enough of the blue mix. I think it may turn out OK?? Once stitched the squares do separate a little, due to the wadding but I think that when finished and pressed (?) the fringing may look OK.Back to it...

Passing on the skills

My daughter studied theatre studies at uni and did do some costume making but her interest in textiles has come and gone over the years, a try at embroidery when she was little but nothing much. Then yesterday I had the MRI scan on my shoulder - not a pleasant experience for someone with claustrophobia!! Anyway it was very early in the morning so after it my daughter (who had taken me) suddenly expressed a desire to try making a patchwork cushion in a sort of Cath Kidston style! So we went to find a fabric shop in Bath - we found a lovely shop called Country Threads (link HERE). We spent quite some time looking at fabrics and I explained that patchwork should be precise and is not necessarily a quick fix idea (she is like me - impatient - wants the end result now without the working). Still she convinced me that £28 worth (Thanks Mum !) of lovely fabrics later she would do this properly!! And if not I would have the remainder of the fabrics anyway!! The lovely pile.... to start off with she did draw out an idea but that was abandoned (no surprise there) for a lets just do approach (like her mum :-)) So she chose a few pieces from her charm pack and cut them, arranged them ... and joined them - this is where we finished yesterday, as we both have a day off work today she is coming back to carry on.So far, so good!!

In the meantime I dyed some fabric to match for backings (the pink below is much lighter in real life for some reason the pic makes it look red). Here is her piece on one of the backings - you can see some of the ribbons we also bought to decorate the edges. I think she might be hooked (or at least I hope so). The other reason I think this is because I received a text early this morning to say she has logged into my ebay account and is watching 80 (yes 80) sales of fat quarters, charm packs and jelly rolls !!!!! NOOOOOOOO what have I started - a Stash Collector??!!. Even if it does not go further she, like me, is beginning to drool over fabric!!

Muse 4 Colour editing

Whilst working last night on fraying more squares I realised that I have too many pieces of the wrong colour - by that I mean either too bright orange or too pale blue - so it looks like I am going to have to dye more. One try by over dyeing some paler blue with grey I thought I might get a sort of darkish blue/grey - well I was very wrong - I have got JET BLACK - this photo does not show it properly but I have really dyed JET BLACK - what a miracle that is !! Of course, they are no use in this project. By the time I finish this project (Whenever that may be) I will have quite a few spare pieces - they will have to form another project !!

Next step

The next step... I made a paper border for the black squares so that I could lay out the printed squares once they were cut - had to check the gap size.. Then it was time to cut the 16 squares and lay them out. I did not realise that it would be so hard to come up with 16 different ways to cut a square into 4 pieces. I wanted each one to be different and decided no curves.It took ages (with no pre-planning) but I think the end result is OK :-). Then whilst sorting out some other fabrics - I had an idea for yet another project and wanted to see if I had the fabrics I want, I found a dyed background fabric that is very similar in colour to my squares - OK so I like the colour combination and probably dyed lots of this colour combination in the past!! Perhaps once I have stitched the squares onto the black I should then have a coloured border? The squares do also look good on the cream of my carpet. What do you think?? Coloured border or not? Let me know your thoughts - for the moment I need to make a small sample to test out thread colours!