Friday, August 23, 2013

BedSack Frock

Yay!  I am making progress on the BedSack painter's style frock that I started a few weeks ago.  I was in a holding pattern for a while due to decisions regarding design.  I was really trying to keep in the neutral color range and colors just kept intruding into my plans.  Here are some photos and a few things I have done so far....




This is the frock with sewing done except for buttonholes.  You can see a little discoloration but this will not be an issue after I do some over-dying.


In this second photo, I show a close-up of the tall skinny pocket I added just for my reading glasses.  I have patched in some fragments of lace trim and leftover quilt scraps to make it a little more fun.

 



If you iron the shiny side of freezer paper to the back side of the fabric it will adhere and stabilize  so that you can paint of draw or write verse as I have done.  This happens to be a poetic sort of thought I had years back as I gazed out over a small mountain meadow as dusk was settling over the valley.  I thought I had enough room but got too expressive toward the end of the last of it and so it is not so perfect..

"Like bubbles in a glass of champagne, fireflies arose from the tall grasses of the meadow and twinkled away into the dusky twilight."

To complete the thought, I added machine and hand embroidered grass, and some rhinestone sparkles to simulate fireflies.  Here is the hoop I used for both the machine and hand work.  It is essential to keep the fabric taut so the stitches will not pucker the fabric.  There will be more updates as I move along with this garment, but I do not expect to be in a hurry with it.  I think it will be a work in progress for a long time to come.


Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Semi-Circles

Just a quick update for those of you readers who may by some remote reason be interested, here is an evolution of what the Bloom knitting is doing...

These semi-circles will be for the hem edge and I think that I will be using strips sewn together for the body.  So, I will knit these upward in straight rows until I get to the length I want, and then they will be pieced together.  I am planning the body to be all green, but one never knows until it happens!

I just came from the fabric store a little while ago.  A touch of cool weather reminded me that my loved too much quilted silk jacket is going threadbare in oh so many places.  I picked up some fabric to trim over those bare spots and keep that jacket going for maybe another 11 years.