Design Outside the Lines 2024

I'm feeling grateful and creative, satiated with ideas to try in my sewing room. Yes, I just returned from Diane Ericson's Design Outside the Lines retreat in Taos, New Mexico. This year she invited Paula Kavorik, another stellar and generous textile art teacher. And, did we ever have fun!?!

First, there is Taos, a small town that seems to remain a small town decade after decade. My earliest memories of Taos are skiing with my husband and young children and having breakfast at Michael's. But I am fairly certain my family of origin camped there back in the 50s or 60s. Michael's is still there but I did not have an opportunity to eat there because I was staying at the magical Mabel Dodge Luhan retreat center where breakfast takes center stage.

Mabel Dodge Luhan was a colorful person and a great supporter of the arts. The property continues to this day to have that vibe. It invites creatives and travelers from near and far. This year, in addition to the dozen or so of us with Diane, a group of yogis were passing through following their own retreat. They sang to us each morning before breakfast, not because they are good at singing, but because singing makes them feel good. I am quoting their leader. Truthfully, their voices were lovely. And I definitely felt better for having heard them. 

While we were with them, Hurricane Helene ripped through their home in Ashville NC so their singing was mixed with fear, tears, and still hope. We sent them home with traveling mercies and prayers for their loved ones.

While in the workshop, I focused on Diane's River Tunic pattern. I had made one in a light weight denim, which I like, but I wanted to make another one while there and ask Diane to guide me in new directions with it. She sees it as a blank canvas. After nips, tucks, and finishing, I am pleased with the result and ready to try something more myself.

I made her signature overlap at the neckline, in both the front and the back. It adds interest, brings in the neckline, and produces an interesting pleat.

By folding up the hem in the front, a sweet little pocket was formed. We folded up the back hem to balance the overall silhouette.

A few more tucks were added to the back to add a little shaping, and now, I like it quite a lot.

The fabric came from a unique shop in Taos named Common Thread. They carry household linens, some yardage from India and other places, some cool but plain linen garments, and a plethora of gorgeous scarves. I have a weakness for buying scarves when I travel. Somehow I resisted that.

The household linens are great for garments. Diane always brings some that she has made with their household linens - always artful and inspiring.

I bought the green fabric last year at Common Threads and cut out a basic River Tunic right before coming to DOL this year. It was ideal for this project with Diane because the two sides are identical. 

This year I bought another fabulous piece at Common Thread that will become something and show up in this blog sooner or later. 

Fun fact - my iPhone camera labels this *artwork.*

Paula Kavorik brought something new and wonderful to this year's DOL! She is an artist who draws with her sewing machine. She is also imaginative and a truly gifted, seasoned teacher. If you ever have a chance to study with her, do not miss that opportunity! In the meantime, follow her on IG as yellowbrickroad.

Sometimes I get have to make *something.*

I am sort of addicted to Paula's process right now. I have little control but I am intrigued by what can happen if I just relax and gently move the fabric forward and backward, as well as to the left and to the right. Paula's mantra is "maintain the horizon." It is tempting to move turn the fabric around and around, but I'm gradually seeing the benefit of maintaining the horizon.

Paula encourages the development of this skill with drawing exercises. I do love those and play around with that every evening while watching the news. So satisfying. My eye-hand control with the sewing machine is still a far cry from my eye-hand control with a pen and paper, but practice makes progress. And that is good enough.

Drawing:

Now I am feelling the call of my sewing room.

I am still sewing

I am still sewing. And making. Maybe I am making more than sewing. Here it is August, and, for the life of me, I cannot remember if I made anything from start to finish during July. There is no July blog post.

Wait! I did make something. Printed pants. But I have not worn them and I need to figure out why. Oh, yeah, they make me look fat. Yes, I know that is a cliche. I will pull them out and see if I can *fix* them.

The pattern was my tried-and-true fitted pants pattern, the Eureka, from Fit for Art. It still fits me in the challenging places. And it is easy to adjust for weight fluctuations.

The fabric I chose is a firm cotton Japanese print from deep stash. It has a pretty selvedge so of course I tried to incorporate that. I may have to rethink that, as I believe one of the issues with this piece is the hem length. I was going for a cropped length, but perhaps this is just awkward.

I will make it work, if only because I love the fabric so much. It is a deep navy with a muted print. It is solid navy on the other side - no bleed through of the print creating an ugly and wrong side.

These are definitely comfortable, so what gives? Maybe it needs pockets.

In other sewing/making news, I have taken two classes. One is the Sashiko Summer Slip-ons class, an online class offered by Tatter Blue and taught by Sanae Ishida in two sessions. There was an optional kit that I ordered. 

Sanae Ishida is delightful and the folks at Tatter are lovely to work with. 

That class concluded a week or two ago. Yesterday I finally finished a second slip-on, completing a wonky pair. 

They feel insubstantial. So I added a pair of arch supports which makes them stay on, more or less.

I have enough supply from the kit to make another pair. But, I am not sure if I will. The first one I made was entirely (well, exceipt for one mistake) like the provided instructions. That is, it was made entirely by hand. The sole is faux leather. Sewing it to the shoe top is definitely the only challenging part of the whole process, especially around the heel. My hands hurt when I finished.

So, now, several weeks later, my hands have heeled. I have completed the other shoe in the pair, this time, by machine. Using the machine definitely saved my hands, but it was still quite difficult to attach the tricky heel portion. I definitely should have added some stay-stitching and clipping there before trying to sew it.

The machine saved my hands, but it is quite difficult to control all the layers with a machine. If done by hand, it is easy to see if the layers are shifting and move them back into place.

So, if I make a second pair, it will be hybrid. I will make it by machine up to and including some important stay-stitching and clipping around the heel. But I'll sew the heel by hand. Maybe. We'll see. I am beginning to itch to make a garment. It has been too long for my mental well-being.

Meanwhile, my second class is another wonderful online class with the magnificent Jane Dunnewold. The title is Complex Compositions. I have been wanting a way to learn more about artistic composition. The principles apply to all sorts of arts and crafts.

This class with Jane, like previous ones, lasts several months with lots of videos, hand-outs, Q&A's, as well as an online community for sharing work and questions. It also includes a good deal of homework. It is not required but, knowing how I learn, I keep up with it for the most part. It really does help me remember stuff and then integrate it into future projects. 

The Jane Dunnewold course is not sewing but it sure is fun and definitely challenging.

So that is what happened to July!

Sewing, not Seeing, Red

Christmas prints on cotton, some with a little gold sparkle

A dear elderly - that is, older than me - friend keeps cleaning out her stash and giving me quilt cottons. Though my quilting activity is low, my traditional quilting activity is non-existent. Recently she gifted me a stack of red Christmas prints. I said Thank you.

Now I do love red. My dear sainted mother used to say that red is her neutral. When it's cold enough, I wear a long red wool coat bought at Talbot's decades ago in her honor. Red has a special place in my heart.

My local ASG has issued an art-inspred challenge to sew something - anything - inspired by Klimt's well-known Lady in Gold. The story behind the painting, particularly as portrayed in the movie staring Helen Mirren, is riveting and inspiring. I read a bit further about the painting and became curious about the dress the Woman in Gold wears in the painting.

Emilie Flöge shown here with Klimt

Emilie Flöge is the clothing designer behind the beautiful garments worn by those Viennese women in Klimt's colorful paintings. She has a storied past that piqued my interest. She was a companion of Klimt's, a hippie in her own time, a free spirit. Her designs are works of art, detailed, exquisite. 

Back panel

Her personal choice of clothing led to my response to the ASG challenge. I imagine such a linear dress as the one above might have been seen as radical in her own time. And Klimt is dressed similarly. You can see more of her designs here.

I chose a favorite pattern from Folkwear: 104 Egyptian shirt. I have used this pattern at least 4 previous times. There is something appealing to me in its rectangular lines. My most worn version is in an interesting white linen weave. Extended full length, it is called a galabia.

104 Egyptian shirt from Folkwear

By combining so many red prints, my hope was to get away from the Christmas theme. Some of the pieces were 1/2 yard; a few were a full yard. I cut them into 8" x 18" chunks. I created fabric, sort of, by sewing them together along the short ends, making one very long 8" wide strip of fabric. There was no plan to the order in which they were sewn together, except to avoid sewing identical fabrics together.

Center back panel of the Egyptian shirt

I chose the 8" width based on the size of the front and back pieces in the Egyptian shirt pattern. Along the way, I wondered if I needed to break up all that red print, perhaps with something like a black and white print piping. That did not work out - it looked more like Little House on the Prairie than it did Turn of the Century Vienna.

one of the sleeves

This pattern introduced me to the idea of flipping an exagerated facing to the outside of a garment. I have used that idea many times since on tops. I especially like the lines of this particular facing flipped to the outside. It reads exotic. I imagine that Emilie liked exotic. Perhaps this traditional Egyptian look would have appealed to her. 

For the facing, I used a remnant of red silk dupioni, sashiko-stitched in vertical lines. I backed it with cotton batiste. Once I had completed the garment, I thought to check to see how the shoulders lined up. Of course, I needed to do a little after-the-fact sashiko correction.

I added an interior back facing of the red print quilt cotton so that the back side of the cotton print does not show when it is hanging. I am pleased with how it looks hanging on the wall of my sewing room. 

The Egyptian shirt pattern resembles the lines of the Fit for Art Tabala Rasa pattern, another I've used multiple times. It also resembles the Sterling pattern from the Sewing Workshop. Good design is present in all cases. This traditional design includes clever and easy pockets in the side panels. 

My long-term plan for this piece is to use it as a summer weight robe. While at Shakerag this summer, my sweet roomie demonstrated the need for such when she accidentally locked herself out of our room following a shower in the communcal bathroom.

This piece already has a few stories sewn into it.

Stitching as Drawing with Susan Brandeis

Although it has been a couple of weeks now, I'm still coming down from the high of my time attending Susan Brandeis' class at Shakerag in Suwanee TN. In fact, I'm not sure where to begin this post.

my dorm - Watts - small, basic, just right

The material included in this class tapped into two creative paths - hand sewing, for sure, but also I was pulled back into drawing, sketching, painting. I work on the latter in fits and starts, whereas, stitching is something I do almost every day. Stitching is my daily practice. The days I miss out on sewing are often in danger of going sideways. I really really try to fit it in.

Some people run. Some people play a musical instrument. I sew. Or sketch.

Susan Brandeis is a seasoned and enthusiastic instructor. Her materials are meticulously organized. Her pacing is considered and measured. And her work, whether it's personal or commissioned, is deeply inspiring.

Susan with one of her pieces in the Shakerag gallery

I was wait-listed for this course and had just about given up. I purchased her wonderful book, The Intentional Thread, and told myself I'd just work through her carefully laid-out exercises on my own. Then I got a call from Claire, the Shakerag director. Halleluiah! 

Susan prefers teaching this class over two weeks. Though we had only one, I think it was just right for me. We did not follow the book strictly speaking, but I understand how the book works now. I feel like I can pick and choose some of the book's exercises more effectively now.

I left with just the right amount of information- and inspiration-overload. And, as she pointed out in correspondence with me, I'm realizing that my dual creative paths are more closely integrated than I had thought. That is, as I stitch, I can now see the sketching influence. Likewise, when I sketch, I see the stitching influence.

I don't want to say this class changed my life, but it was certainly life affirming in the creative sense. In some classes, I feel drawn to do exactly what the teacher does. Not so, in this class. Somehow, magically, Susan communicates techniques and creative process in a way that starts with where each student needs to start. She effectively presents material to the class as a whole and then individualizes it as we work.

For now, I continue my stitching practice, bringing my sketching bent into consciousness. And I have some very specific sketching *skills* I'm developing. This more technical direction stems directly from the individualized instruction I received from Susan.

detail of Whispered Words, by Susan Brandeis

What a gift it is to have a creative life. I feel so very lucky. Dear reader, if you ever have an opportunity to work under Susan's direction, do it! 

And a shout-out to the folks who work so hard to make the Shakerag workshops happen for 3 weeks each summer. For example, the food was fabulous. I had to have a little talk with myself mid-week: no, I do not NEED to have dessert at every meal. 

The gorgeous weather allowed for outdoor eating under the grand old trees. And what a great time that was, visiting with students from other classes. The students in my class were also delightful and interesting. 

And the nightly lectures by faculty were icing on an already rich cake of art. The Wednesday night *Open Mic* was impressively entertaining, including Marc Brandeis's piano performance as well as Sheryl St. Germain's reading of "Things My Mother Always Told Me" from her book, Let It Be a Dark Roux. The spontaneous dance performed by Claire and James was fun too!

I skipped swimming in the lake - the fish are attracted to my white-bread parts and bite me. I wish I had gone on the hike and done the yoga. But that's OK - I'm hoping for a next time. 

Now it's time to stitch and draw.