Well – I’m hard at work designing – stitching – and then typing. My hubby snapped a pic of me at my old ironing board where I have my laptop set up. I have this down to a system: create – stitch – type the step I just did. I’m thrilled with it – as it will take less time in the long run, and surely be more accurate than ever.
Take a peek at these wondeful hand-dyed wool groups! Thse are new products that I will be able to offer on a continual basis – therefore GREAT ‘paint’ to use in my new designing! I also have selvage groups from the same place – and am having GREAT fun with them! See in the next picture how I pieced them together to create the front embellishment of this blue jacket.
Clipping into the selveage edge – see what can be done to create a flower! Perhaps needle felting on the inside? I stitched it onto a piece of black silk organza.
“Refined” will be a quick add-on pattern that gives 2 sleeve and 2 armhole silhouettes for really ‘refining’ that area of a sweatshirt for a better fit. Here are the sleeves as they come cut out of: left – the Authentic Pigment Sweatshirt brand and right – the USA Comfort Color Sweatshirt brand.
This is a jacket from “Refined” testing. It went together quite quickly. How different blacks can be! I tried to use this cut off collar from a sweater – but it was just TOO different. See in the last photo a glimpse of how it finally turned out.
The right side (as you look at it) stayed the same. I scrimped some strips of the same fabric to space out on the left side. I dyed some silk ribbon black – 3 days later, my fingers are finally back to their normal color! The bottom band became a mandaring collar. It features 3 GREAT solid black Crone Art fimo clay buttons. I realized when setting in the sleeves – that it was sew much easier to embellish the cuffs before the seam is sewn – but then the end look of that seam isn’t as nice… a trade-off I suppose. Anyway – all these things ‘blended’ the different blacks that were still ‘going on’ in this jacket. My dear daughter (25) said it was “nice looking – not that she’d wear it” , but still ‘nice’. O well…I wasn’t making it for her anyway!
So here’s the results of this first intensive week of work. From the left: Refined, then Unity – then Pathways – then Unity. Today I’m finishing that blue one, and then onto the final jacket for Pathways – the angled front one.
Oh – a trip to the yarn shop was great fun – Needleworks, and they have a store on eBay as well – you should check that out. The perfect yarn makes creating SO much more fun!
On a personal level, I don’t know why I am so lucky as to be doing this. I have friends who have lost a baby to cancer, just had serious surgery, and another dealing with being the caretaker for her hubby with Parkinson’s. I pray for them all – for the peace only God can give – as I work.
In Christ,
Londa
For Londa’s books, patterns, and supplies as described in her sewing escapades, please see Londa’s Creative Threads – http://www.londas-sewing.com