apron and pockets

I really really need to remember to take before pictures!!

I started this apron in 2010 after the workshop with India Flint in Switzerland. It was a way to mark the stepping into the botanical dyeing world. I would adorn this while doing any dye work. Its kind of my uniform I suppose. It is also my first, very experimental piece of a completely handmade garment.

Last year, I made a few changes to it buy adding an opening to tie up where previously there was none. (Excitement of the making can often distract from thinking of functionality).

Recently I have felt the need for more pockets and again a better, easier way of wearing it.
So. I added extra panels on the sides, strips to tie at the back nicely, an extra length on the back for not particular reason, and of course, pockets. And although I am sure it will keep evolving, I am quite pleased with it as it is now.

It seemed appropriate to add a piece from the workshop that inspired the apron. This one is a grape leaf I think.

Wool pocket with Eucalyptus and plum cherry print. 

The shirt I am wearing underneath is one of my favourite plain tunic shirts. Last December it started to look a little too plain. And extreme boredom caused me to pick it up and add some stitched details to it as well as darts on the front and back. How the fact that it was one size too big, had eluded me, I have no idea.

pointy pencils

I havent owned a pencil sharpener in.... I don't even remember how long!
And I have been thinking of and forgetting to buy one for the last few weeks.
Finally fed up of blunt pencils, I decide to go old school. Sharpening pencils with a cutter blade!
Aah! The joy of pointy pencil leads!

(I really should have taken a 'before' picture, shouldn't I?)

This activity is henceforth added to my list of calming, meditative things to do.

tales of the cloth crazy

Earlier in the year, I had realised that I wanted to incorporate more fabrics found, saved, pre-owned or waste thus up-cycling them, especially cloths with stories, into Entanglewood's products. As much as I love making my own eco-printed ones, I have always loved cloth. Considering the issues with textile waste and also the amazing fabrics already out there, this seems like a sensible step to me. I hope my application of such fabrics encourages others to consider the potential in textiles found, passed on or even lying dormant in one's wardrobe. Those that hold a memory or tell a story are especially worth salvaging.

Needless to say I am going a little Cloth Crazy, searching for used fabrics, offcuts, old garments etc. Which, by the way, is kind-of amazing! Although a few days ago while 'playing around with ideas, I had fabrics coming out of my ears!

 I found a source for to-be-recycled fabrics and oh, how could I resist these...

Quite delightfully, I discovered Orimono Blue at the Selvedge Spring Fair. Orimono Blue sells fabric pieces, kimonos, boro-boro textiles and beautiful objects thoughtfully sourced at Japan's flea markets.
And again, I could not resist the beautiful indigo piece and this gorgeous silk in rusty colour, all naturally dyed and complete with the Japanese newspaper wrapping!

www.orimonoblue.com

Others of my kind, the fabric lovers, will know that a good bargain on off-cuts and good cloth cannot be resisted. These days linen is having an effect on me. The bottom fabric is beautiful linen-wool end-of-roll piece, the middle is a linen off-cut. But the top fabric here is not a linen nor an off-cut though it deceptively looks like it. 

It is indeed Horse Hair! And I am so pleasantly surprised and glad to have found it, I just had to get it. Cannot wait to experiment on it! I wonder if it will behave like wool?

A small collection is slowly building up of old saris from my mum and aunts, fabrics I had purchased when studying Fashion in India since 2002 (see, this goes back a long time), also borders I have collected over the years. In the image here is a silk with elephant print bought from Rajasthan 2010, and the lilac satin from Mumbai 2005(?). Just because I liked them. 

And I have been working on incorporating these. Here's a sneak peek at the experiment for a new product.

 

Perhaps you would like to see the real thing at one of my events in the next few weeks...

I am back at Spitalfields market, London on 20th April, 2013

But the one I am really looking forward to is the Morden Hall Country Show, 4, 5, 6th May, 2013. This is my first country show and there seem to be exciting entertaining events like birds of prey, re-enactments and craft demonstrations. 

http://www.oakleighfairs.co.uk/morden/

And I will be returning for Made in Clerkenwell Summer from May16-19, 2013 at Craft Central, London

http://craftcentral.org.uk/summer2013

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