Saturday 10 November 2018

second make for November

I've just finished this jacket literally a few minutes ago. It started off as a black polyester waist length waterfall front jacket bought from the local charity shop for $5. I turned it inside out and with a combination of hand and machine sewing appliqued fabric pieces all over the outside, now become the surface. The sleeves were cut open along the underarm seams to facilitate working flat on them.

For the appliques I raided my big collection of indian textiles and chose lots of lavish silk fabric and embroidered braids. A lot of the embroidered pieces are embellished with metallic embroidered thread along with glass beads and shisha mirror details. Most of the fabrics I collected myself in India in 2001 when I spent 8 weeks travelling all over on a solo backpacking tour.

The original light polyester fabric of the jacket has become the inside lining and the finished jacket has become heavy with the amount of metallic thread embellishment and glass beading that has gone onto the surface. I added a lot of sashiko hand stitching to "integrate" the various multi coloured pieces and the jacket took 3 days, or approximately 24 hours of labour intensive work to complete.









Sunday 4 November 2018

November Kimono Coat

Monday I was at Muswellbrook Hospital again getting my right eye poked by the fabulous Dr Eugene Hollenbach. His deft prodding with the scalpel has restored 20/20 vision to it, so it's acuity now matches the left side and I'm no longer the visually challenged artist....Cataract surgery is a modern, everyday miracle being achieved for thousands of us that I'm so grateful for. 50 years ago I would have endured a fairly rapid decline into blindness and lived several decades in sorrow for my lost ability to be a VISUAL artist.

I went back to work in the studio on Friday and this lovely full length kimono is my first make for November. It's completely made from upcycled fabrics, many which I've stenciled. There are also some elaborate patches with reverse applique motifs.