The Map to Ideas

People who are not actively creative always seem to treat creative types like they are some kind of mutant creating army. “Where do you get your ideas?” , they ask, sometimes a little snarkily or they will say, plaintively, “I’m just not artistic”. They’ll say, sometimes belligerently, “Where do you find the time?”, implying that if only they had a few extra minutes a day, they too would be doing artwork, but they are too busy and very important, thankyouverymuch, not lazy and lolling about paintingsewingcookingdreaminslacking like the somewhat suspect artistic types.

I used to actually try to explain where I got my ideas when asked, until I realized that this was a rhetorical question: they did not really want to know. Very rarely in those pre-internet days did I meet a kindred spirit who were really and truly interested. ( It’s no fun feeling like a mutant; in self-defense I’d say “From Target” or a museum, as if ideas weren’t everywhere available to everyone, if they would only look.)

One Sunday  I was looking at Karen’s blog and she had a link to this skirt.

It was Jean-Paul Gaultier's Spring 2013 Collection, and it was the Most Beautiful Skirt I had ever seen. I loved the colors the patchwork, the fabrics...I thought, "I could do something like that." That’s where ideas  come from. They come from other ideas. It’s like a chain reaction. That’s why you shouldn't hoard ideas, you should try them out, use them, do them, set them free. I realized that I could do something like this skirt, but it wouldn't be like his skirt, it would be mine, my view and my art, because my ideas would grow from his ideas and interpret them into my art language..

I totally love this jacket:

.

After studying it, I realized that is is a simple jacket and I could totally re-create a version of it.
And now you'll know where I got my idea.

P.S. I confessed previously to loving reader comments. I also love bad reviews. If you like them too, read this one. My favorite lines:


Maybe the overwrought Real Housewives "vibrancy" of this presentation was the latest manifestation of that impulse. Or maybe it was a canny acknowledgement of the fact that, right now, there is a couture client somewhere in the world who lives for a gold python trenchcoat.

I would like to note that I see  the python trench coat is a "statement " about Veblenesque goods, Mr. Cranky Reviewer. It's Art.

Laurel Sewing Contest

Remember how I told you yesterday that I was sewing the Laurel Blouse? If you like to sew and love contests and winning fabulous prizes,(who doesn't?) you should sew one too!
Details here, pattern, of course here.
I can't enter because Little Hunting Creek is one of the Sponsors! You could win a $100 gift certificate to The Little Hunting Creek Company! You could win your choice of Colette Patterns, Indygo Junction Patterns, Amy Butler Patterns, Vintage Patterns, quilt Patterns, Interfacing, tools...all sorts of cool stuff.
Check out the details here, and then start sewing!

On the Border with Laurel

Laurel in Top form

My new Colette Patterns Laurel Pattern has arrived ( Available here, if you'd like one too)and coincidentally, Sarai has posted a variation with an eyelet border, which would also work quite nicely into my March Border Print focus. Tracing the pattern tonight so I can cut one as soon as I can find a few minutes. (work! It gets in the way of my sewing.)
Here is a line drawing:

Sneak Peek

 Here's a first look at one of my projects for February: Make something with silk month. I worked on a few things; this is just one of them. It's not completely mounted yet, but I thought I'd let you see so you know I didn't flake out.
To the right, Etta assists in final touches for my mixed media piece entitled  Zero Bound, in Dr. Krugman's honor 
I'm mounting it on a stretched canvas, so I can hang it on the wall. I need another set of hands and more tacks, when I'm finished I'll show you how it's done.

This piece had a long incubation period. I made those teeny tiny log cabins starting in 2002, after I saw an article by Kayla Kennington in Threads Magazine on making miniature paper foundation-pieced quilt blocks. I had never done it before, so I tried it, made these 10 blocks and promptly lost them. (They are very small.) When I was making my January scrap quilt, I found them, and while playing with them, thought they looked like a graph of GDP Growth during austerity in the UK and Europe (I live with Economists)  (This may be the first time in history that economics, art quilts and Dr. Krugman have been in the same blog post.)
The piece includes silk charmeuse, silk dupioni, silk noil, Japanese silk paper, Japanese chirimin cotton, antique kimono bits, silk rayon brocade, linen, cloth of gold, gold lame, silver lame, quilting cottons, assorted other fabrics, and even a little cat hair.
I had a lot of fun playing with silk.  I liked working out of my comfort zone.
I'm now ready to move into border prints for March.
What are you working on in March?

Scary Patterns: Applique of Doom Edition

 Some time in that dark fashion decade known as the 80s, some pattern designer at Simplicity created this jumper, dirndl skirt and simple jacket and decided that it needed appliques of animals. yes, you read that right: cows and pigs and kitties and flowers. On adult women's clothing. (Shudder)

And lest you think you could make these items without the cutesy-poo appliques, a sternly worded directive is on the pattern back that states:

 All garments are designed to be decorated with appliques as shown on front of envelope.

Was Simplicity prepared to send a roving band of Fashion Inspectors out into America, checking for cow and pig and kitten appliques?

Border Dispute

There are two kinds of border prints and the Vogue layout is wrong for both of them.

 There is this pretty Malaysian Batik, with an allover floral pattern and a border on one edge

There is this zebra print with giant zebras in the tall grass om one edge, and the leaves of grass on the other. These are what I will call one border prints.
There are two sided border prints, like this one:,with a border on both selvedges.

These require different layout strategies.
For the one border prints, decide where you want your border: top or bottom. This will determine how you will lay out your pattern. My zebra print is directional, so I don't want upside-down zebras on my chest :bottom it is. The Malaysian batik has no up/down, so it could be either way.
Or you could get creative -who says borders have to be North or South? They could be East West, like we see on Colette's Crepe.

The pictured Vogue has a two border print, but the layout they show assumes one border. It would be incorrect for both kinds. Here's why: See above how they use a single layer, and have all of those small pieces all along the border? They are doing it wastefully. Some of those pieces are linings and won't be seen, so if you were laying them on the border you are wasting fabric. One collar, and two front yokes and one back yoke can go in the middle, as can the belt.. So one 5, two 3s and one 7 can go up in the non-border zone. Move those pockets and the front facing to a middle, non-border zone. Or use a different fabric for the pockets - who will see? I laid this arrangement out on my batik and it was 3 and 1/4 yards- a far cry from the almost 7 yards that Vogue was calling for. Now if I have a border at both sides I can move those small pieces above the big pieces on the left and save even more fabric. Maybe Vogue has an unlimited fabric budget. Most people don't Border prints are both rare and sometimes expensive, so why waste a thread of them if you don't have to? It is unfair to new sewists to give this kind of sloppy layout. They don't know. My mother drilled it into my head that wasting fabric - wasting anything for that matter - was a sin, so I am unable to waste an inch. That's why I have so many large and small scraps. But I digress. You can make this dress for much less fabric than they say. The best way to determine your fabric needs is to get the pattern, make your fitting adjustments (I always have to shorten the sleeves and the skirt), trace any extra pieces that are cut twice and then lay it out on some sample fabric and make sure you have all pieces accounted for. Then measure that, and get that much plus a little bit more, for insurance.I usually get a half yard or one yard extra. Just in case.
I hope that explained my method and please let me know if I didn't answer your question.
If only all border disputes were as easily resolved.

On the Border

I had been waiting for the Vogues to go on sale because I wanted to solve a pattern mystery. Most experienced sewcialists know about how much fabric certain things take, so if they just happen to find themselves in the proximity of some awesome fabric, they know how much to buy. For example, I know most pants take about 2 1/2 yards, of 45 inch wide fabric, so I'd buy three yards. Or two yards for a blouse...You get the idea. So I would expect a dress like Vogue 8847 to take around 3-3 and a half yards of 45 inch wide fabric, less for 60 inches wide. Maybe a border print would take more, but not that much more. The back of the envelope said this:

Fabric widths given in inches.
SIZES	8	10	12	14	16	18	20	22	24
DRESS AND BELT A
45",60"*/**	57/8	57/8	6	61/4	63/8	65/8	63/4	67/8	7

Vogue is clearly messing with our heads, because we aren't making a ball gown here. But when I was able to read the "suggested" layout, all was revealed: They have you lay out the pieces all along the border print, even pieces that don't matter. You are using three yards or less of fabric and wasting the rest! Lesson for the day: never trust the fabric estimates on the back of the envelope. They should be considered guidelines, or in this case, hallucinations. Is this just one more instance of quality at the Big Pattern companies going to hell in a hand-basket? First they take the measurements off of the back of the envelope, then they tell us to use purchased bias tape to finish the necklines of silk blouses, and now this. Vogue, you're on thin ice here. Have you ever encountered a pattern that gave such wrong-headed advice? Examples, please, and show your work. I'm off to lay this out correctly, just to see how much it really takes.