Sari

I bought this sari on ebay earlier this month. The colors and the block printing were the main reasons I decided to bid on this. The picture is from the ebay listing - the colors are close on my monitor. Click on the picture to see block printing details. There are a few stains on the sari, the listing warned the sari was used and therefore could have stains and other flaws. I have no idea what I am going to do with this fabric. I don't think a sari is a flattering style for me. I will probably hang the fabric where I will see it often until I get tired of looking at it or decide what to make with the fabric.

Deflected Double Weave

I just finished a class in Deflected Double Weave. I have several samples from others as well as the samples I wove. The draft for my second sample can be downloaded in pdf and wif. I will get pictures of samples posted.

Projects

I finsihed weaving a chenille shawl for my niece the last week of February. I am waiting for DN to decide if she wants a cream shawl or if she wants me to dye it another color. I ordered some rayon seam binding on Friday to finish the ends. I used some tricot to finish the edge before sewing a narrow hem on a chenille shawl I wove for my Aunt last spring. It really turned out nice for a no-fringe finish.

I am alomst done with the royal blue dress. The lining is done and the dress just needs the bottom hemmed and a final press.

I started a sample with 2 white rayon boucles, 1 smooth white rayon, 2 black rayons and a unknown cellulose black yarn in the warp. The 2 black rayons are small (20/2 I think). I am using the smooth white and a black rayon yarn for the weft. I am finally using the 2 bobbin shuttle I bought at SOAR 2+ years ago.

Progress and National Wear Red Day

The blue dress is finally moving along. The waistline was a bit of a pain to get even. The pleats were pretty easy (pleats are done as the skirt is pinned to the bodice). The facing is done and will be sewn on before I go to bed. That leaves the sleeves and the hems. I want to enter this dress in the PR One Fabric - Wool contest that ends Thursday. I am looking forward to wearing this dress.

I won't be wearing the dress on Friday. Friday is the annual National Wear Red Day. Heart disease is the number 1 killer of women in the US. National Wear Red Day was started to raise awareness of this often silent epidemic.

Fiber Diet

My stash is too big. I am officially on a fiber buying diet. This is inspired by a thread on PatternReview's message board. During the discussion some of us talked about some wonderful fabrics we have in our stashes. It was suggested we call it a 'Fabulous Free Fabric Feeding Frenzy'.

I have added a in/out list to the sidebar to help me stay on the diet. Saturday I am going to a workshop by Linda MacPhee sponsored by the local ASG chapter. ASG members who have attend her classes in the past say she is great and has lots of embellishment ideas. They also say she will have patterns, fabric and embellishment supplies to sell. I will need some good willpower (or is that won't power?) on Saturday.

Last week I started a dress from the wool gabardine I bought last month. I am planning on entering this dress in the 'One Fabric - Wool' contest on PR. The bodice underlining (5mm silk habotai) is cut out as are the pieces that I am underlining. 3/4 of the underlining is basted to the wool.

I have also been working on dyeing rayon challis to match a fuchsia pink wool skirt I made last month. I am debating bleaching or over dyeing my second attempt. I really like both fabrics, they just don't match the skirt. I think it is past time for some samples.

New fabric

I spent Christmas with family who live west of Portland OR. People who sew and live close to Portland are lucky, they have wonderful fabric stores. I stopped at The Mill End Fabric Store and a Pendleton Outlet (conveniently close to each other) on my way to the airport on Wednesday. I happily wandered around Mill End while deciding what fabrics to buy. Available suitcase space was an issue since I bought 2 cones of bamboo at Woodland Woolworks on the 22nd. A quick stop at the Pendleton outlet and I had more fabric than would fit in my checked luggage. 2 pieces of fabric became my 'personal item' to accompany the carry-on containing the laptop. All the fabrics have been pre-washed and are ready to sew.


From left to right: red and navy wool plaid from Pendleton; white rayon shirting; magenta rayon gaberdine; black and white rayon challis; royal blue ambiance lining and wool gaberdine; and white, purple, black and red wool plaid.


Both wool plaids have a wonderful jacquard pattern. This picture is a close up of the red and navy plaid. The red is darker and almost a blue red - the picture does show the weave structure well. The other plaid has the weave structure.


I really like the stars in the white rayon. The fabric is all white, the slight grey tint to the stars is a side effect of adjusting the picture to show the pattern. I haven't decided if I will dye this fabric or leave it white.

Both the wool plaids will become shawls. The Pendleton outlet had a wonderful shawl made from a soft wool with a commercial fringe sewn around the edges. I have black fringe for the white/purple fabric.

The royal blue will become a dress with a seperate lining. The seperate lining and dress shields make it so I can wash the lining more than the dress. This saves on ironing which is means I will wear the dress more.

The black and white rayon challis will be overdyed multiple colors. Only the white areas will show the dye. This fabric doesn't yet know what it wants to be when it grows up. The magenta rayon will likely be a 2 piece dress.

The really amazing part of my visit to the Mill End store is the purple wool gaberdine and microfiber dress silky I didn't buy.

Fall leaves and snow

Saturday it rained and snowed in northern Utah. I spent several hours in Heber. When I left just after 4, the rain was turning to snow. I had planned to go the long way home and enjoy the Alpine Loop again. I debated for a few minutes and decided I would turn around if the road was bad. I got out of the car a couple of times to take pictures but it was cold enough most of the pictures were taken from inside the car. Most of the trees had some snow, from a distance the it looked almost like a icing glace on the fall leaves. There was some mist that added to the beauty.

About halfway up the east side of the loop, I turned a corner to see a moose in the middle of the road. I slowed down and the moose left the road. By the time I got the camera out and on, the moose was out of sight. It would have been nice to get a picture.

Sunday after church I again enjoyed the Alpine Loop. Except for a little snow in some shady places and on the tops of the mountains, there was no sign of Saturday's snow. These 2 pictures were taken of the same group of trees, one on Saturday, the other on Sunday.

Have spindle, will travel

This weekend I again went to enjoy the beautiful fall leaves. I took a walk with my camera around my neck and the camera bag around my waist. The camera bag held my keys. Some of the time it held my spindle, some of the time I was spinning. When I returned to the car, I put the case on a big rock to take this picture.

A pocket for a pump

Several years ago I had a denim dress with side seam pockets. I opened the seam inside the pocket just below where the pocket attached to the waist.
It worked great to have my insulin pump in the pocket.

This summer I decided to make a dress with a waistline seam and remembered the denim dress. On the right pocket I turned a hem on the seam inside the pocket just bigger than my pump. The rest of the pocket is sewn the normal way. This dress has slant pockets but the idea would work with inseam pockets as well.

The top photo is the outside of the pocket. The bottom photo is the inside of the pocket. You can see into the pocket through the pump opening, some of my black insulin pump is visible in the pocket. This will be a feature on any dress with a pocket from now on.

Both pictures really are of the same dress, when I edited the photos so it was easier to see the details, I didn't check that both were still the same color. The actual color of the dress is between the 2 pictures.

Alpine Loop Pictures

I have been doing a few fiber things, just not blogging about it.

One of my favorite places to enjoy nature is is a local scenic area called the Alpine Loop. The leaves are starting to turn a bit early this year. Spotten.org has a few of the 297 pictures I took last weekend. The clouds were beautiful so the last 2 pictures are of the sky, not the leaves

Warning: Total file size for the pictures is about 1 mg. On dial up this will be slow or very slow.

Fabrics needing a pattern/design

I went stash exploring last weekend and found these fabrics. Unfortunately, they don't know what they want to be yet ;-) though the floral and the purple want to stay together. All are woven lightweight cottons or poly/cotton blends.

The floral is 40" wide. I have a 1 1/4 yd piece and a 3 yd piece. The light purple is 60" wide. I have 3 1/2 yds.

The navy on white print is 58" wide. I have 2 1/4 yds.

Success with pleats

I finally have a blouse pattern with forward shoulder seams and pleats that I like. The best part is it fits. Last fall I tried making such a pattern with flat pattern drafting with no success. Enter Matilda, my too small dress form with a padded cover that is the same size as I am. I draped the pattern on Matilda and cut the blouse with large seam allowances. The collar I took from a commerical pattern. I made a matching 8-gore skirt.

Apology

Until tonight I didn't realize there were comments waiting for me to approve them. I changed the blog so comments aren't moderated. I apologize to those who posted comments that were then ignored. Thanks for the feedback!

Show Entries and Rayon Chenille

My weaving guild has a show “Utah Fiber Celebration” this spring. Here are pictures of the scarves I entered. For more about the show, check out the article in a local paper.

The scarves in the basket are square silk scarves I dyed. The other scarf is a rayon chenille shadow weave scarf. This was my first finished chenille piece. It is so soft after wet finishing.

I have since woven 2 plain weave rayon chenille scarves. The first was woven with the silver used in the shadow weave scarf. I didn't take a picture before I gave it to a friend.

The second was woven with white chenille. After wet finishing, I plan on dyeing the scarf. I have a shawl on the loom and warps wound for another shawl and 2 scarves.

Tie-dye t-shirts

I dyed t-shirts for my brother, sil, their 6 children and the exchange student living with them this year. The children picked the colors without knowing I was going to dye t-shirts for htem. When they picked blue, green and red, I decided to do a spiral with red in the middle with blue and then green on each side of the red.

Here is a picture of the family with their t-shirts on.

Displaying dyed items

Saturday I had the opportunity to display some of my hand-dyed items as part of an art display at my church. The picture is one I took of the display. The bottom left is some silk scarves. The pink on the table is a silk scarf and some rayon I low water immersion dyed. The turquoise/royal blue and the while/purple are silks I shibbori dyed. The top at the back is a clothing blank from Dharma I low water immersion dyed.

Hand Dyed Fabrics

These fabrics are impatiently waiting to be sewn. The pink fabric is rayon challis, the aqua fabrics are silk charmeuse and silk noil, the purple fabrics are silk noil and sandwashed habotai.

New Clothes

Last weekend I bought a pretty cotton print for a skirt. When I got home and started looking for material to make a blouse to go with it, I found a turquoise linen/rayon blend top and skirt I cut out several years ago.

I then had an idea (dangerous I know) and took a picture of the print and digitized a leaf from the print. I used the embroidery machine with some thread that is almost the same color as the turquoise material. The turquoise top has several leaves across the shoulder/neck area. The turquoise skirt has several leaves up one side.


The leaves show better on the top than the skirt in the photo.

New Blog

Just started the blog to record the fiber stuff I am doing. With fiber hobbies of dyeing, spinning, weaving, surface design, sewing and designing patterns, I have many more ideas than I do time.