While waiting for some books to come in from the library to inform my nascent knowledge of handsewing, I decided to just play around.
Yesterday I tried my hand at pintucks …
and today I pulled out a tub of clothing with the unifying characteristic of being made from sheer cloth. While some of it came from the thrift store, most of it came from my closet and my daughter’s closet. Which is to say, it never made it to the thrift store …
I’m not much for the terms “needlework” and “patchwork” when it comes to the “work” part … I’m more about playing around with cloth.
So I have an idea to make a boho shirt. At first I imagined doing it in patched squares, but that sounded too much like … uh, work. So I decided instead to randomly tear long strips of sheer cloth and patch them together …
with the result being this after a morning’s worth of playing around …
A little shy on length, but that should be fixable.
Then I saw this on my Instagram feed …
Exactly what I’m talking about … except my vision is a lot shorter and has sleeves … ha!
I'm Going to Texas (version 2.0) 
LA – no end of possibilities when you have imagination, skill and a tub of options – beauty. B
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about that tub … it was neat and tidy, everything nicely folded when it first came out … so you get some idea of my modus operandi
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What fun! I’m so intrigued by the recent rise of interest in hand sewn garments here in blogland. I love your potpourri of stripes and look forward to the wearable that will result.
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ironically, it’s not as if I didn’t already have other works in progress …
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Well done! I love the huge variety of fabric prints 🙂
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I can’t bear to let go of clothing, even when it no longer fits … so there’s been quite an accumulation as I’ve never been quite sure what to do with gossamer cloth
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I really love those pin tucks! Just today I was stitching random pieces of paper together on the sewing machine, creating a larger ‘page’ from which I cut and made an envelope! Same same but different. This is going to be a cracker of a top – I look forward to seeing it done!
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thanks for your inspiration … I have been quietly envious of your garments when they show up in pictures on your blog
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This is going to be so pretty with your mix of fabrics and stitching skills. You’ve reminded me of the first dress I ever stitched by hand- it had pleats, darts, and buttonholes all the way down the front. Unfortunately, it was quite fitted and after having babies certain parts will never fit again!
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well, I’ve had a minor setback, now mulling whether this might be ill-advised … hmmm
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I have faith in your skills and persistence! You can do it!!!
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Where are you stuck?
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as the patched cloth has grown, it’s starting to bubble in not-a-good-way … I need to rethink the cloth that I’m using and also the ideal widths …
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Couple things I would try… one would be to add another layer of fabric, something like a thin muslin or harem cloth and stitch your decorative cloth to a base. Another thing I am wondering if you have some of the fabrics cut on a bias, that would probably make it bubble. Here’s my inspiration I’ve been looking at:
https://www.instagram.com/p/5F4x_GIfKq/ and I just remembered this: https://elbetextiles.com.au/blogs/news/patchwork-clothing
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harem cloth sounds like a great solution and I have plenty of it … as for cutting, I’m not a fan, so all the cloth so far has been torn into strips … thanks for the links … you’ve been incredibly helpful!
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So a couple thoughts… you might have some fabric that is on the bias even if you cut it from strips. I think that would cause bubbling. One way to avoid it would be to use a base layer (muslin, harem cloth) and sew the decorative fabrics down and then cut your pattern. I tried leaving a comment this morning with some links for you but I think there was a filter that caught it as spam. I’ll post them on my blog for you the next time I write about sewing….which will probably be soon. I am on a roll. Haven’t found the book I am looking for yet.
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funny thing about those earlier comments … they got caught in a “pending” folder, which has never happened before … go figure … anyway, I released one of the two so others can enjoy the links
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I used to make all my clothes. On the machine. Hand stitched is so different. And they seem to last longer…
Always loved the details like pintucks, how hand stitching encourages detail. Patience.
Can’t wait to see you model it!
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I just checked out a library book by Merchant & Mills that claims to include “hand sewing techniques” … of which there are some, but the vast majority is machine sewing … it may be time to look at some vintage sewing books, although they tend to assume a substantial amount of foreknowledge
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Yes, many think of handmade clothing as machine made
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I’ve remembered another book that might be a good resource…I will look tomorrow and see if I can find it.
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Looking fab! I did a scrap top Pojagi style once as it was fairly sheer. Loved it until it fell apart.
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that was part of my concern as I stitched this … I had chosen lighter cloth to make the small pieces and realized it wasn’t going to hold up well on a pillow top …
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