Miles of stitching later, here it is:
I didn't line or quilt the pockets or sleeves. I think it was a size small, maybe even extra small, a little tight through the shoulders, and the sleeves aren't large enough to put in lining. Plus I hate, absolutely loathe, working on sleeves: hard on the hands to try to get inside there.
Because the circles are different sizes, it's never going to hang symmetrically, esp. now. I have to learn to love that. Or not. It looks totally handmade when you put it on, like an introductory home ec project gone horribly, horribly wrong. I kind of like that a lot. The problem is that it's much heavier on one side than the other, so I always keep hitching it around on my shoulders. Bleah.
Even with the red lining and red stitching, it was still pretty gray to me, so I added red wool felt appliqués. It's some wool felt I bought and washed years ago, making it really lumpy and funky, which I love.
A heart on each sleeve. Trite—but colorful!
I was going to do a lot more lines of stitching on the red cross, but my thumb joint, the carpometacarpal joint that is failing and giving me huge grief lately, hated it, so I had to give up that idea.
Some couching with thicker cotton perle.
The pieced lining:
Here it is spread out so you can see the construction, to which I did nothing. This is why I had to get it and see what I could do: it was too odd not to want to play with it. Isn't that cool?
Clarice and Lennie say, "Ooooh, for us!" Notice no question mark there; there's no question in their minds that it *has* to be for them.
Would have been such a cute photo if she would have stayed still for me:
Clarice loves tents:
Wrinkles might mean a huge rat hiding underneath!
She'd better investigate:
Here she is now, preparing for a nap if I'll just leave her the heck alone:
And you wonder why my clothes are always covered with cat fur. Huh.
Right now I'm working on something I hate: patching and mending my ancient (vintage? antique? from the 1940s) silk and velveteen crazy quilt jacket. I love it, and I'd hoped I wouldn't have to wash it, but I did, of course. And even before then some of the patches (neckties, I think) were beginning to shred. So every once in a while I spend some time replacing the old patches (covering over them) with newer silk from thrifted garments and ties. It requires lots of pinning, which I hate: pins and I = disaster. But it has to be done so I can wear it without it falling completely to pieces.
Right now an old wool sweater of my mother's, one I actually remember her wearing when I was very young, is in the washing machine. Very groovy off-white heavy-knit cropped swing sweater she wore when she was dressed up. I washed it years ago to full it, but I tossed it in with a blue sweater, and it has an unhealthy blue-ish tint to it. So I put in a little bleach hoping to take out the tint and did a hot wash to tighten the felting so I can cut it up and make a bag out of it. We'll see how that goes; if it falls apart or something, that's OK: it was stuck in a bin in the storage building until last week, so anything is an improvement.
Today I also need to get out on the front porch and cut up more of the jeans from the half dozen bins sitting out there waiting on me. I want to get flat pieces of denim ready so I can use them. If they're still in jeans form, it's too daunting to try to figure out if there's enough to a particular project; I want to be able to go out to the storage building, grab a bin, and know I've got plenty of yardage. Seeing how there's almost 40 years of scraps and worn-out jeans and jeans people have given me, I have plenty. I just have to trim them into flat fabric. A little at a time, to appease the hands and fingers.
Thanks for coming by~~XO
No comments:
Post a Comment