Philosopher bird and Paul Valery: applique textile made from leftover sewing scraps on tea-dyed 1960's cotton shower curtain

 

Parts and pieces, patterns and dreams

Here is the finished top of a summer spread  (a blanket without the batting layer for warmth) made of leftover scraps and old clothes 

Interesting to compare it to the  photo below and see what I kept and what I changed in the original design.  The biggest change came about as soon as I saw the mock-up photo-- I didn't like the high-contrast, spiky design of the lower right corner, so I replaced it with the tea towel and some smaller pieces of fabric.

  

From the beginning I planned for the large floral rectangle to be in the upper left corner-- I sleep on that side of the bed, and I want it under my heart when I'm napping or over my heart when I'm sleeping beneath it. Coincidentally, in the process of assembling the pieces, it turned out to be a kind of hinge, the last large piece I put in place that pulled the rest together.

Another initial idea was a large, light open space

which ultimately settled not quite in the middle.

I was thinking of courtyards-- protected open spaces for contemplation and reflection.

.. like this one at Poblet, a monastery in Spain.



Aerial views of farmland came to mind

as I was cutting and sewing strips of fabric.  

I thought a lot about landscapes and sleeping and dreaming, and 

 the landscape of our dreams  (I take a lot of notes when I'm sewing) and how the random assembling of parts and pieces of fabrics, each with its own specific pattern, texture, associations, and history is a lot like dreams-- we can identify each of the parts, and even describe the order, saying "this is next to that" or "then what happened next...", but not necessarily understand why they are together in one place. They just are.


  

Much like dreams, the arrangement of the parts may not make sense but it somehow does function as a whole.

 ..and from construction of dreams to actual construction... between having a pretty good eye for almost straight lines, I didn't use a ruler much, but when I did, the floorboards came in handy as reference points.  Using the "order" of my immediate environment to create order in what I make, as a point of connection-- I like that.

Old clothes and fabric scraps-- a summer spread (in progress) made of linen and cotton

Here's a bedspread I'm working on with a little more than half the pieces sewn together in random blocks.
It's made of old slip covers, old clothes, vintage tea towels... to name just a few. I want it to be fun and beautiful, but it's also important to me that it be durable and washable, not so precious that I can't flop on it to nap or read.  Cargo pants scraps-yes, silks-no.
I didn't start with any plan-- just threw together a color palette I liked and started cutting shapes and sewing strips together.

Trapezoids kept popping out-- Macchu Picchu seems to be buried somewhere in the linen roses.

also thoughts of Richard Diebenkorn's "Ocean Park" paintings .




and Gee's Bend quilts haven't been far from my mind.

I used the strips between the puckered woven stripes of this shirt.

and here's the tea-dyed cotton shower curtain that just keeps giving.

Old cargo pants

and tea towels with a little window-pane pizazz.

Poppy robe- finished

Overall I'm very pleased with the way poppy robe came out.  I like the simple shapes of the sleeves,  the asymmetrical wrap of the neckline, and the combination of large and small prints which contrast botanical and geometric patterns. I also like the optical effect of the big loopy lines and solid shapes of the poppies with the fast, flickery movement of the diamonds.

For the lapel,  I used red cotton batik with a design that reminds me of peacocks.

It's designed like a classic wrap dress with two attached belts at each of the front panels

and a side slit under the arm.

I decided on a cotton tartan weave for the belts, a leftover from one of my sister's projects that reminds me of her, and of our shared love of sewing.  In terms of the patterns, I like the contrast of the woven grid with the printed diamonds.  

One nice thing about the wrap-dress design is that it  holds the panels in place without an interior tie or button, which creates a neater fit than a basic belted robe,

and makes it feel a little more like a "dressing gown" , 

like this one that I like so much from Horrockses.

I really love that there are poppies running crazy all over me.

The double wrap design also allays my fear of degenerating into a version of Eric Stoltz's character in Pulp Fiction.

Given my background in architecture, 

it's no surprise that I approach sewing as series of small construction projects made up of parts, pieces, and attachments. I like to consider details, such as the placement of the rectangular top stitching (above) where the belt attaches to the panel . This looks like no big deal, and in a way it's not, but the offset stitching is strategically placed to avoid creating bulk.

That idea worked out well, but others, such as using the selvage for the, hem didn't.

The thought here was to expose the copyright and design credits along the bottom of the robe, but it came out too long; the first time I headed up the stairs I nearly broke my neck, so I'm afraid the hem will have to come up at least a couple of inches.

Time to wrap this project up. 

The pattern, which is made of pieces of old cotton sheets, is full of revision notes for next time,

and there are notes to organize from my sketchbook.