hoodie pattern finally
I made the pattern for this hoodie around Christmas time .. finally got around to creating the illustrations and putting together the instructions page.
zip-up hoodie with pockets: pattern and instructions
My project time lately has been entirely taken up by designing the wedding invitations. They look kick-butt.
san jose first night
Steve found a little gallery in San Jose a few weeks ago, and last Friday, we went together to visit.
Anno Domini had 2 exhibits. The first was Jennybird Alcantara's fantastically colored and composed paintings (see a whole bunch here). A lot of animals, body parts, arteries, and big-eyed people.
The other exhibit in that space was eh ... but I got to make a fun little painting. The artist spent the whole time sleeping in the center of a platform while people painted around him. I think we were supposed to represent his dreams and be influenced by the environment? Dunno. Kind of college-performance-arty feel to it. With really loud bad music.
Steve wanted to run off with the quail painting instead of leaving it there.
Then we went to the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, where they had a really interesting body of work by Jean Ray Laury. Bright colors and organic shapes. No photos allowed, but I got lucky that no one was around when we first walked in and snapped 2. Sneaky!
She has a really good sense of humor .. one of her pieces was inspired by seeing a magazine article about rising obesity next to a bikini ad, and so the quilt was made of all these chubby ladies in teeny bikinies.
pucker up persimmon
I want to make this in a huge poster size some day. Pictured it while driving home last week, with a biiiig inky black tree and bright spots of persimmons. Teeny tiny girl should be almost invisible, in the corner. And her expression is not quite puckery enough.
I realized what's wrong with the peasant skirt — the proportions are all off, and it makes me look stumpy! I shouldn't have shortened the 2nd tier, it cuts me off right in the middle. Darnit. Next time, I'll stick with what's draped.
peasant skirt done
Finished it last week, added easy/lazy velcro closures today. I ended up making the hip area in egyptian cotton, tiers 2 and 3 out of the eyelet, and a band between 2/3 in the egyptian cotton.
It ended up a lot poofier than I'd expected. Maybe the fabric was too light/crisp to drape nicely? Or maybe that band was a bad idea (holds it out)? Or maybe I just didn't have enough fabric to make it super wrinkly.
I had fun with Photoshop on the image .. figured that since I was emphasizing the wrinkles and details, might as well make it obvious by leaving the black around the skirt. I like the cutout effect.