Crossover: Tying Drawing and Embroidery Together

This is a work in progress, and it is taking a long time. But one's life work hopefully does take a long time. I have told you quite a bit about my Calendar Project, and I have a lot to say about craft when it comes to me attempting to translate what is in my head into a tangible thing. This began in music school with hours of practice to be able to produce the sound I wanted on demand. Same with fashion: from idea, to 2-d to 3-d with movement, flattering to the particular figure, and drawing the eye in a line away from and to..

So what does drawing have to do with sewing? It has to do with me wanting to execute that blurry vision in my head that needs to be in physical form. A bird on a corset. Drawn in thread.

I had no intention of writing today, I was just going to keep pecking away at these projects that are new, but feel like I've been working on forever until I came across my friend Diane's invitation to write about exploration for Tara Swiger's Exploration Party, and this was exactly what I am working on, but quietly in the background in hopes that it will be done sooner than later. I have ideas. I just feel the need to get them out the way I picture them in my head, or better than the blurry vision in my head. This means trying out new things to expand the possibilities for the best crafted and pleasantly unexpected outcome I can get. 

fixing the holes

once in a while i will get a crazy idea born out of some twisted idea of necessity. part of this is a fixation with repairing much loved things. a good long time ago, i received a vintage faux fur coat as a gift. it became my primary winter coat. and one day there was a hole in the lining. i patched that hole with a crazy quilt fan block i pieced together from some random scraps. the outside of the coat was fine, but the lining was disintegrating. over the next couple of years as the lining continued to fall apart, i continued to patch up the holes. finally, the coat itself started to fall apart. it had its last hurrah during last summer's trip to the desert.

i acquired a new vintage coat last year. it is a lovely 1970's leather coat with powder grey shearling trim that my friend chris helped me buy from a guy in a bar who looks exactly like prince. it is a truly lovely coat, and the lining was intact. was. i pulled my coat out of the closet and discovered a HOLE in the lining. being that the saddest part of letting my old coat go was all of the time i spent adding crazy quilt patchwork to the lining. so i chopped it out.



an i spent a good part of today sewing and embroidering the old patches over the holes.



so begins my slippery slope. maybe someday someone will manufacture a lining that won't disintegrate, but that would be too easy.