duck bucket sewing

We did an overnight trip to MassMOCA in North Adams, MA, a few weeks ago, and I fell completely, COMPLETELY in love with Sol Lewitt . I sort of vaguely remember seeing a few of his pieces at the Art Institute of Chicago as a kid, but it was neat to see such a huge retrospective. Posting some photos here as textile inspiration for down the road (not sure for what yet) -- mostly so I can find them without having to dig for them. I died laughing at his sometimes very specific and sometimes not very specific instructions -- some of them incorporated into the drawings. "The twelfth point is located as far as I can reach toward the center of the wall with my right hand while holding my left index finger at a point halfway between the upper left corner and a point halfway between the midpoint of the left side and a point halfway between the center of the wall and the upper left corner and a point halfway between the center of the wall and the mid...

Okay! This is a UFO from last year, originally planned for MPB Day but bailed on at the last minute in favor of New Look 5352 . Let's see if I can remember how it went together. McCall's 6926 is one of those wacky patterns where you have two choices: 1) the very easy t-shirt with three pattern pieces, or 2) the very complicated woven blouse with three types of fabric and a lining and a split back yoke and narrow hems everywhere. Guess which one I picked? I made view B. I wanted the lace but wasn't a fan of the scalloped edge. (Reminds me of this Kathryn Brenne pattern  I'm thinking about making up. The skirt has three, THREE, pattern pieces, and you could probably knock it together in an afternoon. The pants have eleventy squabillion pieces and ten thousand steps. Of course I want the pants. OF COURSE.) So anyway, 6926 went together pretty easily. I used silk from Liberty acquired on a trip to London a few years ago and lace from Winmil Fabric...

We did an overnight trip to Providence, RI earlier this week. Providence is one of my favorite day trips. It's so quirky and interesting, partly because the Rhode Island School of Design and Brown are there, and there's a lot of nifty art and architecture and stuff for textile geeks. (Yay!) It's a pretty easy commute from Boston -- just over an hour on the commuter rail. Also it's very walkable and pretty. The seagulls of Providence welcome you. Here are a few suggestions in case any sewing-type people are interested in going there. Most of them are (unsurprisingly) RISD-related. RISD Museum:  Good textile/costume exhibits, and a whole dedicated textile study space on one of the upper floors, which you can browse through if it's not occupied by a class. Also, they almost always have a Ralph Rucci piece on view, which are really fascinating to see close up. This time around, they had this fantastic coat: It's hard to see, but the insets are a...

The two back panels are nearly done. Here they are (not joined yet). Overall, I like the way it's coming together, although I need to do some cleaning up: Not thrilled with the close-up, and still not sure how to create clean edges, aside from fussing and cleaning and snipping a lot. Maybe this will be my practice dress. I stenciled the first front panel today with the airbrush. I'm still torn on the best possible stenciling method -- Sharpie, spraying or sponging Tulip fabric paint, etc. -- but even though the airbrush is a pain in the ass, it seems to have the best results. Some stuff I learned along the way: 1. Stencil placement is super-duper important and hard to get right. You also don't want too much of the same colors/shapes at the edges when you sew two panels together. I learned the hard way with my first Alabama Chanin skirt , when two of the leaves on the front panels butted up against each other, making one large, misshapen leaf. ...

Vogue 8877 is a UFO from last year. I wasn't thrilled with it, but decided to finish it up and wear it around the house. Here's the line drawing. I made view A in size medium using Alabama Chanin scrap fabric. It calls for purchased bias tape to finish the neckline, but I just turned it under and stitched. I also left the bottom hem raw. As you can see, it's ... huge. Especially in the shoulders. Comfortable, though. And of course the neckline's not laying flat in this picture. I swear it does when it's on. Pros: Stash buster! Possibly the easiest t-shirt pattern ever. It's only 3 pieces: upper front, upper back, and front and back, and you can probably guess how it goes together.  Loose and comfortable. Cons: Huge. Like, really huge. I originally got this because I was interested in making the woven version with lace shown in the photo, but now I'm not sure. I might try another in size small, and I think stenciling or embell...

It's done! Bit of a windy day. Obligatory looking-into-the-distance-with-hat picture: My posture is terrible, I know. This is Alabama Chanin's DIY Verd Unisex T-shirt kit  in size large which my awesome husband gifted me for Christmas. I fell in love with the design as soon as I saw it on their website, and visited that page an embarrassing number of times over several months. When my husband said, "What do you want for Christmas?"  and told me to update my Amazon wish list, I put it up, then took it down, put it up, took it down, put it up, took it down....because it was expensive and definitely fell under the Big Present category for us. Finally I took it down. But by then, he'd already seen it and ordered it. He's the best. So! Here's what you need to know if you're interested in ordering this kit: 1. It's worth the price. The pieces are perfectly -- and I mean perfectly -- cut and stenciled, no mean feat given the pla...

Blogger decided to discontinue my template, I guess. So here's the new one. I spent the last two days cleaning up my sewing space, which always seems to happen in January after the flurry of Christmas sewing. The room is about the size of a large walk-in closet, and it's also where I keep presents, work-related stuff, etc. I'm still struggling with how to store everything.  I also created an Etsy shop  and added some patterns (mostly Vogues).  Planning to put up some back issues of Burda and Threads, and a few pieces of vintage fabric. Back panel #1 of the Alabama Chanin dress is coming along: Close up: It helps (???) that the weather is just about to crap out on us. (I love you, New England, except from January-April.) There's not a lot to do in the evenings except read and binge-watch TV. And sew. My one concern so far about the dress: The top layer of fabric seems to be contracting a little as I sew. Hope that doesn't affect the ...