How it's going

You may remember my Changing my Mind blog post.  If you don't or if this is your first visit to my blog, click on the link to read what I'm talking about.

On to the update.  I changed my mind about using the torn squares and wondered about stitching gold lines to represent the Kintsugi style repairs.  I took a photo of the kimono, printed it out and drew on it.

 

Then I tried assembling the lining, the felt wadding layer and the outside layer.

Nightmare!  The three layers together were quite unwieldly and I couldn't get the seams to match up particularly under the arms.  Plus, I was pretty sure I would not be able to manhandle it through the machine.

(Are we allowed to still say 'manhandle'?  Person-handle doesn't sound right.  Apparently jostle, hustle and shove are all synonyms I could have used.)

Back to the point of this blog post!

First I drew lines with a Frixion pen to represent the broken shards on the outer layer.  I machined with a straight stitch so I would know where to stitch later.

I sewed the lining to the front and turned it inside out (outside in!) so the seams were in between the layers.  You know what I mean!

Then I satin stitched along all the lines sewing the two layers together

The Back

The Front

It hasn't been all plain sailing.  Several times I've had to remove a line of stitching and re-do it.  However I have finished one pass of the whole thing.  It just needs going over again.  And sadly there's something wrong with the left sleeve by the underarm.

Then just the cuffs and the collar.  'Just' she says.  It takes hours to wrangle the kimono through the machine. And I need to have a rest after 40 minutes of machining.

Still there's less left to do than when I started.

Thanks for being here today
Bernice

5 years on

How things have changed!  Roger and I went for a walk on Thursday and as people avoided eye contact and didn't return my hello or smile I thought back to 5 years ago when walking every day was all we were allowed to do, and despite social distancing everyone was friendly.

We walked from Harborne, a suburb of Birmingham, towards the city centre to Edgbaston Reservoir, round the reservoir and back to the start.

Most of the walk was along the Harborne Walkway which apparently was originally a branch railway line built for commuters from Harborne.

There were various bridges and tunnels along the way.

Eventually we came to the reservoir 

We stopped off at the little cafe for hot chocolate and then continued around the reservoir and back the way we came.

On the way back we noticed that one of the tunnels had an unusual construction.  The bricks were laid diagonally.  Not that you can tell from this photo!

Finally we made it back to Harborne where we had lunch at Damascena.  Very nice.

If you're in the Redditch area today, Becca and I will be at Forge Mill Museum for another Meet the Artists event for our exhibition.

Thanks for being here today
Bernice

Changing my mind

In a departure from my neutral palette I have been working on a teal and gold kimono.  It's intended to be part of my Identity series.

My original idea was to have squares of fabric on the teal as broken pieces leading down to the solid gold at the bottom.

It was my plan to put gold stitch to represent the Kintsugi type repairs.

I quickly changed my mind about the pointy sleeves as I couldn't work out how to make them.

The same gold coloured fabric at the bottom of the kimono is also being used for the lining.

I played about with gold relief paste on embossing folders as a possible texture to add.

I started adding the torn squares of fabric.

It was really difficult to work on it while it was hanging up so I tried having it on the table.

 

It was at this point that I realised that no amount of ironing or stitching was going to make this idea work and I needed to have a radical rethink.

 

Which I did.

 

But you'll have to come back next time to find out how I changed my approach to this piece of work.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice