I like the month of October for a lot of reasons:
Leaves changing
Apple cider/pumpkin flavored things
Its, like, chilly but not that chilly.
Halloween=Karaoke
It’s now the 31st (Happy Halloween and Blessed Samhain!) and it has delivered on all of these things. I was a bit worried that our epic drought this year would result in a lackluster leaf peeping season, but fortunately some September rain helped the trees show off some rather stunning color this month. Something about fall leaves is truly magical to me and it hits all my color palette sweet spots.
This month comes with some VERY exciting news AND a way you can get more involved if you so desire. I also share some special personal projects I’ve been working on and a Halloween playlist in case you can’t get enough of spooky season. Enjoy!
In this newsletter…
Exciting news about Patchwork! ✤ My finished fancy dress ✤ Bundle dyeing ✤ A quilt font with history ✤ Sustainable fashion documentary screenings
Patchwork News: We have a space!
I’m so excited to share the news that Patchwork Community Craft Studio has found a home! It’s still a few months until I’ll be able to invite you for a visit (whether in person or virtually) but thing are finally starting to pick up momentum. My goal is to be able to start offering classes late winter/early spring!
As I kick off this new adventure, I want to extend to you an opportunity to get involved in the process! Starting today, I’m offering a paid subscription option that will give you behind the scenes peeks and special perks as we work to get the space up and running, as well as additional perks once we open (like access to our lending library of sewing books, for example)
I’ll share the first behind the scenes peek next week and I hope you’ll join me!
A Fancy Dress - Completed!
In the 11th hour (well, at 8:30pm the night before an early flight) I finished my fancy dress that I outlined in the last newsletter and I think it turned out pretty good! It felt good to bring a vision to life! I’m particularly tickled by how much it actually looks like the sketch!
My dress for the wedding, a bit rumpled but looking chic. It is a green cross-weave textured fabric with a slight sheen, trimmed in silk piping in an abstract pattern of red, orange, gold, and brown. It is a boxy, drop shoulder silhouette with a fitted waist and lantern sleeves, featuring piping along the front seam and V-neck, as well as both sleeve seams. I’m wearing a thin gold chain and brass half circle earrings. My green marbled glasses with gold accents complete the look. (And yes, I do match the wallpaper!)
Unfortunately, I was occupied with wedding activities and I didn’t take any outfit photos at the event, but I snapped this picture around midnight back at the hotel room, muddy boots and all (it rained a ton that day so we all wore practical shoes).
Construction of this project was pretty involved. For some reason, the vintage fabric had a tendency to gather slightly when sewn on the machine, regardless of stretching or stitch length. This wasn’t too much of an issue for the main construction seams, but when it came to attaching the piping, it was a problem. Here’s the dress before realizing I needed to take apart the front seam and piping and add interfacing to keep the seams from puckering.
Hands down, my favorite part of this dress is the waistline construction. I like the look of a nipped in waist, but I am firmly against tight clothing. For this dress, I added shallow darts to help reduce bulk at the waistline and add shape around the hips, but left enough ease at the waist that I could easily get it on over my head (about 5ish inches). Then, I created a separate belt that was flat on the front with elastic in the back, which is worn over the dress and brings in the waist comfortably. I also added pockets, because what is a dress without pockets?
The dress laid out flat on the ironing board in progress, with the separate belt resting on top of the waistline.
The dress is also fully lined, which was a bit of a pain, but worth it as the shell fabric was quite itchy. A bonus to a wool blend dress with a full lining: it was nice and warm at the outdoor wedding!
Have you ever made your own fancy event gear? Made your own piping? Had to re-sew a major part of a project at the last minute?
Bundle Dyeing
Me wearing my bundle dyed rayon scarf tied around my neck. I’m standing in front of a grey ikat curtain and wearing a brown gingham shirt. Only the bottom half of my face is visible.
For my mother in law’s birthday, I decided to set up supplies for us to do some bundle dyeing with end of season plants and flowers. First, I took on the labor intensive multi-step process of prepping the fabric for dyeing (iykyk). Then, we had fun arranging plants and flowers, folding and bundling our fabrics, and steaming them to set the dye. I was quite blown away by the degree to which the rich colors of the flowers were captured on the fabric. I’m sure these hues will fade over time through washing and sun exposure, but in the moment we removed them from the fabric, they seemed even brighter than the flowers themselves. The prints that didn’t turn out as well got a last minute onion skin bath and turned a beautiful butterscotch color.
The well worn scarf, fold creases visible, laying on a hardwood floor. The scarf is white rayon with pops of orange and shades of yellow and olive.
For those who are natural dye savvy (or want to learn more) here are the details:
Fabrics were scoured in textile detergent and soda ash. Then, they were mordanted in 8% Alum Acetate and fixed using a wheat bran bath. Wet fabric was bundled with plants and flowers and steamed 15-20 minutes. The ones that gave the best prints/color were: Orange cosmos, dried marigold petals, baptisia leaves, sumac berries, annatto seeds, onion skins, goldenrod, queen anne’s lace, walnut leaves, black tea, and madder root. Most of these materials came from my backyard and neighboorhood. I really felt like we were capturing the essence of late summer on fabric.
While many of these plants are withering currently, I’ve been able to press and dry some materials and flowers for use out of season. (As a test, I dried some cosmo flowers earlier in the season, and they worked brilliantly in the bundle. I think they could also be reused.)
Have you experimented with bundle dyeing? How did it go?
A Quilty Font
A display of the ‘blocks’ aka letters in VTC Harriet, a font based on the quilt messages of the Underground Railroad. The image (from vocaltype.com) shows all the different quilt squares included in the font.
You may not know this, but I'm a big typography nerd and I especially love a conceptual and/or historical font. I recently stumbled across the typography work of Tré Seals (Vocal Type) and was particularly intrigued by a font he designed called VTC Harriet. It's a dingbat font (aka a font of symbols, like Wingdings) that features quilt blocks used to communicate messages on the Underground Railroad.
Fashion Reimagined
If you’re in the MA area and interested in sustainable fashion, you can catch a screening of the documentary Fashion Reimagined this Wednesday evening at the Woods Hole Film Festival at the Cotuit Center for the Arts. There will be a post screening chat with members of the MA and RI slow fashion community as well!
Visit this link to learn more about the film and get tickets for the screening.
This Month’s Studio Playlist
Click here to listen on Spotify (or use the embedded player below!)
So, this month, I decided to make a semi-spooky playlist for this time when the veil is thin. I suppose it’s a bit on the late side, but if you like extending spooky season as long as possible, this mix will take you drifting into November on an eerie breeze.
As always, thanks for reading! If you enjoy this newsletter, share it with a friend :)
I'M SO HAPPY FOR YOU, TAYLOR!!! And that font is dope!!