I was like, aha! STEGA. This is my chance.

I had a whim a while ago for [...]]]>

treasure map

I entered a competition not too long ago, it was to create an “art to wear” type design for Barbie through the Toronto Fashion Incubator. The prize was a cool 10 mill. I mean 10 grand. Serious stuff.

I was like, aha! STEGA. This is my chance.

I had a whim a while ago for a simple top with Stegosaurus like sleeves, basically spikes going down the arms. So I designed an outfit for Barbie on this premise- called her “Sunstar” Barbie. It was my opportunity to create my Stega masterpiece, and with purpose to boot. The inspiration [I had to make up] was something along the lines of “Barbie gets a hard time, a lot of the time. From Moms. From Feminists. From Feminist Moms. You know, everybody loves to hate Barbie, give her flack about her unachievable proportions, her being a bad role model for little girls. She is often acquiring another career to appease her critics, to make her more of an independent woman who is in charge of her own destiny.” Something like that, we all know this to be true. So my gal, Sunstar Barbie, is the antithesis to the criticism. She’s all about being the unapologetic center of attention, the centre of the universe, actually. She’s rockin in the free world, strutting her stuff, a happy, fun, shiny star.

I am not a magnificent artiste, so I sent this representation of the design to my friend fashion illustrator/blogger extraordinaire Danielle Meder, to turn into a masterpiece for my entry.

And here is what Danielle put together- amazing! I would totally buy this Barbie for my daughters. I didn’t want my design to have anything to do with sexiness, or even beauty (in the Barbie sense). I guess. But this Barbie is a dynamic, individual of a woman that I want to know more about. Total manrepeller.

And then, I didn’t get into the finals, unfortunately. They were picking 25 finalists for an ultimate showdown on the runway. I was mucho disappointed for an afternoon, but I got over it pretty quickly. I realized that most of my disappointment stemmed from the fact that I really wanted to make the design. So I was like, that’s cool, I’ll just make it. Although I of course thought of a million reasons why I didn’t get in- Too obvious? Not complicated enough? Did I insult them with my Sunstar Barbie explanation (which I guess is really, Inyoface Barbie) Do they hate me? And so on.

While I was waiting to hear if I got in or not, I had a flash of insight into the pattern I was going to draft to make it. And it was going to have . . . . NO SEAMS, or no overarm seams anyhow.  This is exactly the kind of thing that I get really excited about, I love a one piece pattern.

Here we go on a lengthy tutorial- but first-  here is the final product (more pics at the end too) I have to say, I kind of love it. I made it out of a really heavy t shirt knit, the stiff and stretchless kind. I guess you could call it a beefy tee knit. I feel like ranting a little about how sick I am of flimsy knits. It’s so fast fashion. This shirt will probably *gasp* get better with wear and age. It’s like the leather of knit cotton. And I could do some amazing stuff with this fabric, pattern wise, because although it is a knit- it has a backbone.

STEGA!!!

Stega: How I Made It With Only One Piece Of Fabric

I opted to just draw the pattern right on the fabric. Rather than work with a 2 metre square piece of pattern paper (brutal!). I used a dolman pattern I had as a place to start from. The top edge of the fabric is a fold.

patterning

One half drawn, and ready to be folded and cut.

one half drawn

Cut and laid out, with two alternate necklines. The top can be worn with the V in the back or front.

laid out

 

I opted to fuse the overarm area where the spikes will be, to give it more substance and stability. Here it is fused and marked for sewing.

sewing lines marked

And here are the lines sewn. Notice the U shape.

sewn

So next, I carefully slit into the tiny space between the two sewing lines and made a tiny Y shape into the corners at their interior. Which gave me this. I have already added a wide wrist facing here as well.

getting closer...

But, the boxes were actually too tall! DOH! So I had to put a seam in their upper edge after all, this would be eliminated  second time around though. Oops. So here is what they looked like after that-

pre-flip

So I’ve already sewn the shirts seams that hold the back to the front and it’s time to flip. I flipped it right side out and ever so carefully work the squares out without puncturing the ever so tiny seam allowances between them. Then, I took the corners of each square and pushed them back in towards the center, creating a triangle. Voila! That’s it. I tacked the two corners together on one but found it was actually kind of unecessary so I didn’t go any further with that operation.

getting a nice press

The really exciting thing is that I think this pattern making principal could be applied anywhere on a garment. It could be an interesting way to control fullness and add shaping, by grabbing sections of fabric here and there, and then doing this to it. The spikes could be tiny, or huge. . . there are so many possibilities to play around with the idea.

 

Here are a few more pictures of my new top! Love it! If anyone else wants one, I’ve got it listed on Etsy (just for the hell of it.)

It is called merosine (derivation, mer, [...]]]> I get a lot of traffic to this blog from people coming for the paper bead making instructions, so I’d say the crafty jeweller is definitely out there,  working for the weekends. I thought I’d share this article from The Girls Own Annual Vol. 46 (1924-25) about making jewelry from fish bones.

It is called merosine (derivation, mer, the sea, and os, a bone) but upon googling merosine I came up with nothing relevant so I’m thinking they might have made up the term specifically for this article, and maybe the idea also never really caught on. . .

The art was developed by a young woman named Helen Rosher, and  it was one evening “during the domestic occupation of dissecting a cod’s head for the cat’s dinner that the possibility of turning to some decorative use the curiously shaped bones that form its structure occurred to Miss Helen Rosher.” If only the can opener hadn’t been invented. How many strokes of brilliance have we missed?

The results are pretty intriguing, and the concept is something I could imagine some young, modern jewelry designer running with. Imagine these in colour, lovely. 

Unfortunately the article is vague in specifics, saying, “How to cook the fish so as to produce in the bones exactly the requisite degree of hardness became the first step to be conquered, for experiments quickly revealed the ease with which the bones might be reduced either to brittleness or undue softness, so that they would prove unpractical for protracted use.” But it doesn’t actually say how to do that. And same goes for the “disinfection process” which “would once and for all remove all traces of smell and yet not interfere with the natural transparence and delicacy of the bones. . . “ but yet again, no specifics. I am sure one could easily figure this all out with a little experimentation. Boiling water. Bleach. Formaldehyde? Wood varnish? Nail polish?

She does say that cod is the best fish to use as it is “more fertile than any other in furnishing bones of a suitable nature“.  So the next time you’re de-boning a cod head for your cat’s dinner. . . why not make some jewelry?

cute

I’ve got a pretty bad case of ‘pregnancy brain’ these days. Meaning, I can’t concentrate on anything.  I’ve got a mile long list of things to do before the baby arrives- selling fall 09, packing up my studio, fastidious cleaning and organizing of my house, making half a dozen [...]]]> Okay, enough with the quilting already!!

I’ve got a pretty bad case of ‘pregnancy brain’ these days. Meaning, I can’t concentrate on anything.  I’ve got a mile long list of things to do before the baby arrives- selling fall 09, packing up my studio, fastidious cleaning and organizing of my house, making half a dozen casseroles to freeze (haha I’m such a loser). . . and all I can seem to do is quilt! 

Anyway- one of them is done! Yes, one of them- I decided to make two instead of one. I realized that the actual quilting of the two layers together would never work with such a similar pattern on each side. My quilting method of choice is “stitching the ditch” of the block piecing, and it would be impossible to line up the pieced sides together, and the ditch stitching would be super off on one side and it would look like crap. So, I opted for a flannel back, a couple of colours pieced together. I put two layers of polar fleece between the front and back, rather than the traditional batting. I have a lot of the stuff from making Caninjas, and I am following the buy nothing rule. And besides, it’s fluffy and warm.

So- voila- quilt # 1.

I call it “Daiquiris By the Fire”

yummy

refreshing

The most time consuming and difficult part of the day was choosing a pattern and picking the fabrics. I have amassed a large collection [...]]]> Today is my birthday! yay! On my list of ‘things to do that would be dreams come true’ is making a quilt. So that’s what I did- well, I started one anyhow. 

The most time consuming and difficult part of the day was choosing a pattern and picking the fabrics. I have amassed a large collection of craft and technique books over the years that I pick up for cheap from thrift shops. I perused the quilting ones and decided on a log cabin style- which is essentially squares built by sewing strips together, one at a time. It’s a simple design for a first timer like me.

love my reference material

One side of the quilt will be mostly varying black and white prints with a tiny bit of colour in the centre, and the other side will be varying shades of coral-peach-purply-pinky colours, similar to a sunset in summer. The unifier at the end will be black. I am sticking to the rules- as in not spending any money with anything I make over the next six months.  Luckily, I have a thing for vintage cotton and had a bounty to choose from.

the raw materials

I couldn’t have done it without my rotary cutter.  The thought of cutting all those strips by hand makes me feel a little sick inside. I spent about 3 hours sewing the first 16 blocks of the black and white side today. It was a pleasant time- a mindless task for a lazy afternoon. Here they are, layed out in their future formation.

I see coziness in your future