Well, I don’t suppose this demonstrates process in a strict chronological way. But it does show one thing I like about working digitally, which is being able to play with layers. As one would with different pieces of tracing paper in a traditional sense, you can almost have more fun with in a digital sense, in that you’re playing with colour and various states of being rendered.

Do I like the first image better? In a way I do find it more interesting. Less literal. Her hair implied instead of given. Her mouth highly rendered in comparison to the other components. Imagine creating portraits like this. How would those commissioning a piece react? It might be interesting to play with the layers of finished portraits some more, working backwards in a way, to come up with something different. More interesting? Hmm. Perhaps a future project idea..

This illustration was created for The Style Notebook. Rita Liefhebber is a Toronto designer, and former fashion editor at Flare magazine. Click here to read the interview.

Thanks to Carolanne, I am completely addicted to hand piecing! Though I suppose I could think of a few worse things to be addicted to..but I’m serious! I’m taking a hand-quilting class, and after the first class, I stayed up and finished my homework for the whole week that very night! So by the time class 2 came along, I had already finished 1/2 the piecing, and had started a second! When I got to class, everyone was calling me a keener! Pfff. More like addict.

Stay tuned, will likely share the finished projects sooner than later!

So the silk I bought for the skirt is pretty cinematic, right? (second photo)

With the help of the lovely Kristiann at The Workroom, I was able to finish the skirt I drafted this summer – so awesome. It’s a split tulip skirt and let me tell you, it was a lot of work. The fabric was easy to work with, but a little sheer. I used silk for the drape, and also because I would probably make everything out of silk given the choice. But as I had a bit of a Lady Di sheer skirt, backlit experience at Fashion Week back in March (don’t ask), creating a lining was important. Since lining the front wasn’t much of an option, I created a lining for the back panel only, which did the job of helping reduce the amount of light passing through the fabric.

The waistband was probably the most time-consuming. First I drafted a curved band that when straightened, was supposed to undulate elegantly. But it ended up looking a bit weak. So then I redrafted, adding knife pleats, which gave it more Valentino-like ruffles I thought.

In the end I was so happy to have it sewn together that I didn’t get a chance to iron the hem before the photoshoot, hence the wavy and flipped over a bit front panel in the last picture. But overall, pretty good for a first try at pattern drafting, right?

Progress on the Cog + Wheel quilt is being made – only a few more blocks to go!

I’ve started a new quilt! In July! Well, hopefully it will be finished by the time the weather turns around this fall. It’s from a Denyse Schmidt pattern called Cog + Wheel.

It involves a lot of curves. But is totally fun and I hope to make serious progress soon!

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…

Last week was full of experimenting with textiles! As I mentioned in an earlier post, the India Flint lecture entitled, Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost – Travels with a Dye Pot, took place a few days ago. I attended the lecture, and also took part in India Flint’s workshop at the Contemporary Textile Studio Coop. Which was fantastic.

I dyed silk and wool mostly, and some paper – all with local plants and flowers. It was quite fascinating. In the past, my (limited) experience with dyeing had been very structured – still amazing, but very organized and calculated. In contrast, this week’s workshop was not very formulaic at all. I mean, some knowledge was employed obviously, such as the importance of staying away from all things poisonous and so on. The experience was very individual, despite being in a group, each person using similar substances and tools.

In the end, we all walked away with: lots of fabric samples; a little book made with dyed paper, fabric, embroidery, and pen and inks (or stick and ink as it were); an apron; as well as a curiosity to continue wondering and experimenting.

I already have big plans for more natural dyeing!

I’ve had a small beading loom like this one for a number of years – my grandmother beaded many accessories in her time and passed the loom on to me. It didn’t come with a manual, but there were some books with project patterns. I’d just never gotten around to exploring it much; to be honest I wasn’t that interested…until now!

I love these beaded Balmain sandals (picture taken at, in my opinion, one of the best edited shoe stores in Toronto). I’m thinking, maybe there is something I could do with that loom! So last week my friend and textile designer Alana showed me how to use it.

Pictured above is her non-shoe-related work-in-process in green, brown and white, as well as the coral beads she used as a demo. I could see this getting a bit addictive – though time consuming for sure!

A little while ago I had the pleasure of photographing a few classes at the workroom, and this is a very edited selection of the results. The first photograph is of the test sheet of a pysanky student (wax on paper). I think the process of pysanky is quite beautiful. The first time I finished an egg, I immediately wanted to start on a new one because I had all these great new ideas!

The last two pictures are of the french-stitch cushion class. In this class I was a student, in addition to being photographer. The green and white print is Kristiann’s cushion. I wanted to show the lovely contrast topstitching on the corner of the cushion here.

The bottom photograph is of my fabric being measured. My cushion was so big we needed to clear off the sale fabric table for me to work on it! And I kept misplacing my yellow tailor’s chalk on that piece of nani iro because it totally blended in with the print – so funny! (have a look for yourself in the picture – spot the chalk!)

It was a really cool class, as I’d been very interested in the bright and colourful Roche-Bobois french-stitch floor cushions for some time and they are very similar to what you can accomplish in the class. The nani iro is still a work-in-progress for me (or a work-on-hiatus rather), maybe in part because I chose to make it really big. So it could be like the Roche-Bobois. But it’s ok because I’ve been working on other exciting projects in the meantime! Projects I will hopefully share with you soon!

Developing a skirt pattern is so much fun!

In the pattern drafting course at the workroom, I decided to create a split tulip skirt, that will hopefully look something like this (second from right).

Learning to pattern draft feels like going back to school – but in a good way! Like elementary school geometry or something. There is pivoting and basic arithmetic and even transparencies. These are my quarter scale models. I’m currently working on the full scale pattern and am looking forward to picking up some fabric for the skirt this week.

Will post the finished project when it’s complete!