Sunday 1 July 2018

another upcycle

I bought a jacket for $6 from the local Vinnies 3 days ago (for overseas readers that is the "St Vincent De Paul Charity Shop". A Catholic Church business chain that resells donated clothing, furniture and household goods)

Here's pictures and some brief explanation how it was altered. I've displayed it over my dress design "Rings of Saturn", a pattern I haven't published at this point (along with 50 others....drat)


front of upcycled jacket by Pearl Red Moon 2018
Firstly, I stenciled and painted directly onto the jacket with florescent green textile paint.

I wanted to make the jacket wider in the torso because I like garments with lots of swing, so opened up the right side seam from cuff to hem with the intention of adding a triangular gusset from underarm to hem. This was quite challenging because the jacket had channels at the hem and waist for drawstrings making it very tricky and messy to unpick them.  So I decided not to open the left side and to add the width gusset only in the right side.


stenciled fabrics


The picture above shows fabrics I stenciled to cut patches to add to the jacket. The large top piece is a coarse cotton calico printed with lime yellow and black. This fabric has a coarse weave and frays very readily. Lots of the natural fabric was allowed to show through the prints. The blue below it is the same but I painted the background all blue and stenciled with red over it. The picture below here explains how I embroidered over the red print with red stitching to make it very textured. The intention was to use this piece in moderation as a highlight to break up the predominant black and green.





top of the jacket showing large patched that were applied


In the picture above you can see how I used a strip of the red blue over the top of a large patch and buttoned it down with a red button. All the stenciled patches were appliqued on with red stitching.
I also made the bead embroidered necklace.


right side

back

Back of the jacket showing the width gusset sewed into the right side. A number of large rectangle patches are appliqued to the back above the hem and a red/blue patch in the bottom corner. The stencil with the squares is a hand cut one....so, so simple. Its about 6 years old and originally cut for when I stenciled the verandah floor in my house. Multiple uses heh! In between many of the squares I appliqued little square patches. The paintwork is intentionally crude as I wanted to create a sort of "graffiti" spontaneity in the finished effect.


left side, white thingy dangling off the cuff is my sales tag which I should have taken off

Left side of the jacket. A thin strip of the red/blue stencil to accentuate the cuff edge. Note the red stitching around the pocket bag on the side front and red button on the vent pocket opening.



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If you are interested in buying an artwork or booking a commission, please email me at pearl@upstairs-art.com.au