The Fabric of Time

When I offered to repair a friend's shirt that had a large hole in the side, he asked me if I could embroider a stag on it as well. This is a very unconventional way to repair torn clothing, but it is unique and fit exactly what the owner wanted. I'm not good at embroidery, so it took a long time. The fabric is very thin, sheer polyester and did not show markings very well, but I managed to draw the outline with a pencil. Then, I used a chain stitch to embroider the design with standard cotton embroidery thread. I added the arrows freehand. I also repaired or replaced some of the original embroidered designs on the front as this much-loved shirt has seen years of wear and tear.

I made this shirt for a friend who gave me some weaving lessons and a 4-heddle table loom (!!!!). He requested a generic mid-19th century shirt that he could use for a range of time periods when giving weaving demonstrations. I chose to make a square-cut shirt inspired by 18th century styles, which, in retrospect, was probably not a good choice for mid-18th century, but it's passable. I used sturdy 100% cotton, machine sewed the long seams, and hand stitched much of the finishing.  Here's an underarm gusset with hand-sewn flat-felling on the seams. Interfacing on the shoulders to cover the armscye seams and add reinforcement 1/2 inch hand sewn hem Another view of the hem Triangle gussets at the side vents near the hem--adds strength and stability Cuffs with stroke gathered sleeves--these are very 18th century, but look so nice that I wanted to use the technique for this 19th century shirt. Still accurate, but maybe machine sewn cuffs would be

Actually, I did not dye alone, I dyed with my friend. I had never dyed yarn before, so my friend taught me how to dye using the painting technique (I think???? It involved using plastic bottles to saturate sections of the yarn). I did not intend to make Christmas-themed yarn, but the raspberry and teal colors ended up looking very festive. I wasn't too pleased with it because I am cranky and don't like Christmas. I'm kidding; I just think Christmas colored craft supplies are farcical. I decided to knit socks, since this yarn is wool sock yarn, but then I decided that I did like the yarn after all, so I unraveled it and started knitting a hat. I liked the yarn enough that I wanted it to be visible instead of hidden on feet. I used the Sockhead Slouch Hat by Kelly McClure, available on Ravelry: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sockhead-slouch-hat This hat was very easy to make, but a bit boring as it is mostly stockinette stitch on small needles. My aunt b

Today's sewing endeavor is not very interesting, but I wanted to share photos because it was such a satisfying project. We've had these director's chairs for at least 20 years, and the fabric parts of them were faded. One of them was ripped and couldn't be used anymore. My mother said we should throw them out, and I said no, we just needed new inserts. I immediately retreated to my sewing room and whipped up these new seats. The canvas I had wasn't as heavy as the red canvas, so I doubled the fabric. It was such a quick, easy project; I probably finished sewing the seats, cleaning the chairs, and assembling everything in two hours. The seat backs are a little loose, but I can fix those quickly later if it's a problem. I'm really proud of these chairs even though it was unskilled sewing.

  This 18 th century coat and waistcoat sat around for a few months while I was immersed in my first semester of graduate school. I really struggled to keep up with sewing projects, so as soon as the semester ended, I threw myself into sewing. I managed to complete both the coat and waistcoat in a week! I’m so proud of myself for just getting it done. I enjoyed these projects very much, which is gratifying because I often get intimidated and lose motivation. I guess I knew how to do everything and therefore didn’t feel anxious about working on it. These photos are of the completed projects. I hope to eventually get pictures of the owner wearing them. I had a mock-up of a size 44 waistcoat, but I don’t remember what I made it from. It might have been a commercial pattern, or I might have drafted it or copied it from a coat that I made as I had been making several coats and adjusting patterns for them. Anyway, I met up with the gentleman for whom I made these pr

Graduate school interferes with what's really important--sewing, knitting, weaving, tatting, etc. I have actually been crafting here and there, but rarely sharing pictures on my blog. I realized that I never shared these pictures of tape that I wove last year, so here they are! I have woven more tapes recently, but have not taken pictures yet. All of these tapes are made with 16/2 linen thread. This green and white one is about half an inch wide. It's not copied from or inspired by an original. Next, here's a brown, orange, and tan tape. It is inspired by one in the Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center. The original red cotton with white and blue linen used as apron ties. It is item 1916.01.05, online at http://schwenkfelder.pastperfectonline.com/webobject/83534E81-6AF2-4CAE-ADE0-332276277360. This red, white, and blue tape is copied from a Schwenkfelder tape; catalog number  2006.14.09 at http://schwenkfelder.pastperfectonline.com