The Apron That Turned Out To Be A Dress
At the India Flint workshop last week, everyone made an apron out of a men’s white dress shirt. I was following the instructions, like everyone else, and then I had an idea, which led to other ideas, which led to an apron that people thought was a dress that I had made on some other occasion and just brought to the workshop! So funny!
First we all cut up the shirt by removing the sleeves. We then cut along beside the buttons and button holes on either side to make straps for the apron. Like I said, I made it more feminine with other folding details, bustle, etc. I then dyed the whole thing in logwood (well, karyn offered to dye it for me in logwood), and then I took one of my samples that I had dyed during the workshop with various local plants and flowers, and with a running stitch and some embroidery thread, created a stripe down the middle of the apron.
Karyn posted a picture of the final product here. I think it turned out really pretty, even if it doesn’t look like an apron…
2 Comments
that’s what i like about offering this approach to reconstruction, that everyone comes up with a different outcome
may i add also that while some folks chose to bring logwood and cochineal to class i would not choose to use them myself.
i like to utilize bio-regional colour sources. logwood makes me particularly uncomfortable as a tree has to be cut down in order to harvest the chips for the dye [they come from the heartwood] – but who am i to tell you what to do?
all that aside, the application of plant dyes is [possibly] deceptively simple, everything offers some kind of colour, tis just a matter of knowing how to coax it out
and how to get it to affix to the next substrate…
it’s so pretty ayalah!!!