Skirt-spiration

While on holiday, I purchased three books. Unusual for me is Vogue Knitting's Shawls & Wraps. I'm not a shawl person but picked it up at The Stitching Post in Sisters, Oregon because of the not so old lady sample they had on display. Perhaps knitting is only on a short hiatus. Now that I look at the book again, it's tickling.

There's been a lot of commentary about Lynda Maynard's The Dressmaker's Handbook of Couture Sewing Techniques. It may not be couture like some people are defining the term however, it's a book about easier ways to get that expensive look. Just the possibilities for eliminating facings alone are worth the price. I've been reading it over and over.

Alabama Studio Sewing + Design is the third book by Natalie Chanin about the clothing produced by her company. In the forward, she discusses the risk of writing a book about her technique and how the end result was not being copied but a greater understanding of the unbelievable amount of work that goes into each hand sewn garments and the ethics of the company and why that equals the prices these garments sell for. I wish I could afford to support her belief that artists deserve to earn a living wage. I certainly agree.

I visited the website looking for some skirt-spiration before starting work on my piece from the workshop. This long embroidered skirt above is $2,280.00. It's handstitched and beaded. The images are amazing. I have no intention of putting that much work into mine - LOL - but I liked the casual elegant look of it and of...

... this paisley skirt - $1,680.00. Two commonalities are the visual and tactile texture. That always attracts my attention.

It's the same with the Check Maxi skirt by Nicholas K. There's a lot more fabric involved in this skirt, especially through the hips and that's not my best look but I love the high front, low back, sweep of the hem and the check reminds me of the tucks I stitched into my fabric - my see through fabric! I'll be lining this skirt - LOL.

The workshop was mid June. It's been six weeks already and not only am I still inspired by everything I learned, I'm only just now getting to this skirt. And I think that's a good thing. Emotions that were running high at that point have had a chance to simmer and settle. When you're taking a workshop, the possibility of emulating the instructor's style is really high but the further you get from the actual class, and the more you listen to your own intuition and incorporate what it is you know about your preferences, the more likely you are to create work in your own style. At the workshop, I individually stitched each tuck into the eight panels. Tucks are part of my signature style and show up frequently in my work.

Diane's lectures were - in part - about how she creates fabric from fabric that goes on to become the absolutely most amazing garments. Her method is step-by-step very similar to how I create my art pieces. That so inspired me that I started free-forming a piece thinking I'd drape and pin and create just like Diane. Here in the studio, I have had time to wonder why reinvent the wheel because I cut the wedges with...

... Burda 8213 in mind. This is one of my favourite skirts. The style suits me and - as you can see - it has the same feel as the Alabama Chanin garments and as the ones that I showed earlier this week worn by Isabel and Beatrix. When I put the wedges on Millicent and started trying to pin them to size, that just seemed ridiculous because I still had these shapes in mind so...

... I pulled out the pattern and cut the basic shapes intending to sew the front together as is and add more detail to the back but the more ideas I processed - with lace, and pleats, and flounces, and ____ - the more the thought of overkill kept coming up. It seemed that stitching the tucks was enough and adding more and more details would detract from that visual texture. I stopped trying to do more to the main pieces and now have them and the lining sewn together. I'm ready to add the waistband and the zipper and after that, I'll explore details around the hem and the idea of a high front, low back. That feels more comfortable.

Above is a pile of serger scraps. All afternoon, my artist kept chattering on and on about how we could do something with these and I kept saying no we have enough potential and she kept listing endless ideas and bouncing up and down. For a while - as I stacked and saved them - I thought she was winning and had visions of baggies of scraps stuffed into every corner of the studio since I already kept the lace serger scraps from June. How many serger scraps would I end up keeping? And then she quit. Not in that huffy, I'm not talking to you anymore, kind of way but in the okay, you're right, let's make something else, kind of way way. THANK GOD!

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - the ability to do me