A Fool for Fabric

Sunday, March 9, 2014

IKAT

I have always been attracted to ikat designs...it's an instantly recognizable type of weaving..
"The defining characteristic of ikat is the dyeing of patterns, by means of bindings, into the threads before cloth construction, the weaving of the fabric, takes place. "

In my textile-oriented travels, I have seen ikat weavers in India, Southeast
Asia, Central Asia, Indonesia. In Chiang Mai, Thailand, I went to a cooperative
called Studio Naenna, begun by the woman who was leading us on a private textile tour of VietNam, Laos and Thailand. I watched the women dye the threads and then weave them in various ikat patterns...

I was able to buy several pieces of fabric (one shown in this post, which I unfortunately RUINED). I finally gathered the courage to try again, with this
lovely design.

I was smart enough this time to use a TNT pattern, M5433 (OOP)

to make this long jacket...

I made the pants, too, out of a lovely drapey denim-y fabric...I think I might like the jacket better with slim black pants... I lined the jacket with a silky satin, so it goes on easily, and used an oversized hook and eye tape I picked up several years ago. I also added a mandarin collar, which seemed to be just the thing for this fabric.

I'm joining the Very Visible women over at Not Dead Yet Style today, where Patti

provides us with a place to be seen!

P.S....I have a new favorite shoe brand...

This is the Yoko Wedge, by Fly London...cute, no?

Sunday, March 2, 2014

RAIN!

For those of us in drought-stricken California, the last few days have brought us 4 inches of rain, a blessed gift, although not enough to bring us out of the current 3-year record dryness...

Instead of going in my studio on Friday, I sat in front of the window and reveled in that glorious downpour.

I have been doing a lot of cooking lately...from my favorite Jerusalem cookbook, of course...

Baby Spinach Salad with Dates and Almonds

Very good, with unusual flavors...

Lamb Koftas with Pomegranate Jam and Tahini

Outstanding...the Pomegranate Jam is wonderful and could be used in many ways

Roasted Broccoli with Tahini Garlic Sauce

This one is from the NYT, also Middle Eastern. Very Good!

Friday, we went out to lunch in the pouring rain...I got to wear my new Polish

Gray Fedora, which I'm using to link to The Style Crone's monthly Hat Attack...

The lovely Judith shares her love of hats with us all...

Back to the studio today, where I'm working with a special fabric from Thailand which I've had for 10 years...

TTYL...

Monday, February 24, 2014

SICK LEAVE...

It's been THREE WEEKS since my last post! After the triumphal unveiling of my Isobel Marant wanna-be, I was exposed to the latest cold/flu/etc. and came tumbling down to real life, only worse. I don't get sick very often, for which I'm
exceedingly grateful, but when I do, it's a doozy. Anyway, I'm almost back to what passes as normal, and have some things to show and tell!

When I was in Santa Cruz in January, I bought some beautiful fabrics from Harts. Among them was a very interesting black knit with irregular "bobbles" on it. I was auditioning patterns for another jacket I want to make, and used this fabric with Vogue 8893, a Clare Schaffer jacket. The bobble fabric was a bear to sew, but I love it and I love the jacket...it's like a soft, very stylish cardigan.

I used plain black ponte knit for the bands. The collar sits away from the neck a little bit, and is very flattering.

Although I won't use this pattern for the jacket I have in mind, I'm delighted to
have discovered it, and I'm sure I'll make it again.

I also made another KS 3601 tunic out of a very lovely cotton fabric I got at
F&S Fabrics in West Los Angeles when I was down there several weeks ago. It's a black/ivory window pane check;the
hang tag read 100% cotton, but it does not wrinkle, washed beautifully, and reminds me of that very high quality wool challis that used to be available. It was a dream to sew and I have a couple of yards left.

I am wearing one of my favorite pairs of earrings, ever...

Once upon a time, many years ago, I collected, among other things, doll eyeballs (trust me, you don't want to know WHY) and my friend, the artist Charlotte Valestra, made me a snappy pair of earrings. I named them "don't it

make your brown eyes blue" and I love to wear them and see the look on people's faces when they see them. Yes, I'm weird....

Since it's still Monday, and I'm still visible, I am linking to Patti's Visible Monday

and joining more than 115 other visible women, SOME of whom must be weird, too...

Monday, February 3, 2014

ME 'N ISABEL...

For the last several years, I've been drawn to the designs of Isabel Marant, the very popular and trendy French designer. Her clothes have a slightly bohemian
vibe, and she has been described in the WSJ with "her trademark look, which can be described as equal parts rock 'n' roll, California surfer girl and insouciant Parisienne." Then, in her Fall 2013 show, I saw this:

This is called the "Jayna" wool-twill studded jacket, in black wool with silver-tone brass studs, cabochons and faux pearls. Like this:

I knew that making something like this would take far longer than I expect to remain on this earth (all those gorgeous things are sewn on by hand)...and it was over $3000, so I wasn't going to buy it anytime soon. But I couldn't get it out of my head.

I had a few things going on at the time (wedding, Iran trip, etc.) so I was slow to get started. My friend Sharon, from Communing with Fabric, made a snazzy LBD with studded shoulders. I followed her process, but she wound up with sore shoulders from the force needed to apply the studs, so I decided I wanted to avoid that. A little research on the internet and I found Prisms of Light, an Etsy shop that had a great selection of hot-fix studs. And then, with a little more research, I found the tool I needed (LOVE tools...) at HotFixQueen. Do you have any IDEA how fun it is, in my little rural Post Office, to receive a package from
The Hot Fix Queen? Hahahaha....

Armed with all the photos of the original jacket I could find on the web, I made a boxy, cropped jacket from my old friend, B5526, using a wonderful very heavy weight ponte knit which Sharon had found for me at Fabrix...it has a kinda abstract design (some people think it's like a camo) in gray on a black background...the reverse side is plain gray.

Besides looking good, the weight of it seemed to me to be perfect for a studded jacket which MIGHT turn out to be somewhat heavy. (I discovered that I really should have interfaced the entire jacket, as the weight of the studs pulled the
fabric out of shape a little).

I did a lot of experimenting with various stud designs on the sleeves...

and finally came up with something that pleased me. Yes, folks, those are some
MIRRORED squares mixed in with the 3 sizes of domes and the pyramid shapes.

Now began the time-consuming part...placing the designs on the jacket, one section at a time, hitting each stud with a 20-second hot fix tool blast, then putting the finished section into my Elna Press for several minutes.

Dave got a photo of me slaving over a hot iron...Actually, the process was rather meditative and I enjoyed it...I listened to The Luminaries, by Eleanore Catton, on Audible, and also re"read" American Gods, by Neil Gaiman, also on Audible.

Here is a picture of the jacket on Ethyl...with the basic border plus the sleeves...

and here is a picture of the finished shell, ready to be lined...

So...the lining was a b..ch, due to the stretching of the shell where the studs were placed; this meant that I had to fiddle with the lining, particularly on the sleeve lining, which needed gussets to fit the shell. To make a long story short, I
put the lining in THREE times, and would never allow anyone to see what the sleeve lining looks like...

For numbers geeks, I put in a total of 806 studs...

So here are some pictures of the jacket on ME...

There is a special birthday luncheon for a friend on Wednesday, in Los Angeles, where I will wear the jacket. As long as I travel with the HOT FIX TOOL and some spare studs in my purse, I should be good to go... One of the advantages of this jacket is that wearing it counts as weight-bearing exercise...

TTYL...

Friday, January 24, 2014

CATCH UP, PART 2!

Here is the REST of the story...

I have sewn 3 items of clothing recently...this is the jacket that I made for, and during, the workshop that Shams led several weeks ago...

It's M6293, OOP, which Shams made, that inspired the workshop. See hers here:

I totally fell in love with this jacket and her amazing recycling job for the Fabric Mart Challenge. I used the same pattern, but changed it a little. One of the things I wanted to learn at the workshop was how to do the spiral piped sleeves.

Voila!

The fabrics I used were ones from my stash from long ago. I lined it in a silver lame rayon from Emma One Sock. I have gotten quite used to using luxurious fabrics for linings, even if no one sees them but me!

The pants I'm wearing are another Lola Pant from Style Arc. They are in a drapey rayon/Tencel gabardine and are very nice in this fabric.

I also made a little tunic in my TNT M6607 at the workshop...I needed a pop of color!

The fabric is a burn-out velvet from Harts Fabric's online store.

I'll leave you with some more photos from our Amazon trip...

One of the most beautiful parts of the trip was going down a "black water" tributary in our little skifs...the water, which is very rich in minerals, is black as can be and acts as a perfect mirror for the banks and the sky. I think I could spend a lot of quiet time there...