Filmore West Top—Complete

If there is one thing this project taught me, it was patience, 'cause things kinda went wonky as the work proceeded. Biggest frustration was sewing on the narrow banding that frames the black rose panel. Those long strips of knit fabric, despite being pinned to the fabric every inch(which caused another nightmare, as the thread was always getting hung up on the pins as I worked), walked, skooched, wriggled, and worm-crawled with every stitch. Then, after they were all finally locked down (I gave up trying to make them ruler-straight), the panel fabric started to pull loose and curl out from underneath the framing strips. First I tried doing a small running stitch around the inside edge of framing strips, trying to stabilise the panel fabric underneath. That helped...sorta...but didn't solve the problem. So, I added a running stitch all around the edge of the panel fabric. Again, it helped, but the problem never got totally solved. I suspect the first time I wash this, the two pieces will pull slightly apart and show the raw edges. At this point, I don't care. I decided it could just be part of plan...yeah...plan...at least, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

 Center panel partly top-stitched, and the framing strips pinned in place.


This was also one of those projects where the original design idea got changed as I went along. Pretty much each time I tried the top on I tweaked something. The last change I made was to cut off about five inches from the bottom, rather than gather up the sides, as I had planned. That was another situation where, standing in front of a full-length mirror and playing around with the shirt while on, made me decide it looked way better shorter, than just gathered. Whack...off with the five inches.

What would I do differently? For one thing, I would iron the center panel and framing strips onto Heat and Bond to stabilise them, iron them onto the shirt, then do the top stitching. It would solve that whole curling, walking, and pulling away problem and make my life much easier for next time. Also, in looking at the stitching around the rose, which I did in free-form swirl patterns trying to match the swirls in the binding material, instead I think I would just do the running stitches to echo the outline of the rose. As it is now, you can't really see the swirl pattern. It just looks like random quilting stitches that don't make any sense. Lastly I would make the shoulders narrower, so there would be less fabric bunched up under the ties. 

Purposely, there are no beads or sequins on this top. Just the four buttons, which I found while looking for something else in my button stash, and thought they would work well with this. I wanted this top to be different in look and feel from the other altered tops I have done. Less glitz, more hardcore. For whatever reason, I think it has a vaguely military aura about it. Maybe it's the colors, and the fact that the swirl pattern looks a bit like camo? Not sure, but I'm okay with it. In fact, I like it a lot.

Here is the finished top on Inara. Under it is a plain black long-sleeved T-shirt, which is how I will wear it during the winter. With tank tops under it during the summer.

Materials list: Two mans T-shirts from the Goodwill, one rose stencil from the Goodwill, knit tie cord from an old hoodie, four buttons from my stash, button/craft thread, regular all-purpose thread.

Filmore West Top

I found this T-shirt with the "Filmore West " name on the back, and I assume what was a fairly Hippy-esque design on the front but was so faded I wasn't sure. My first thought was, could this T-shirt actually have survived in someones attic since the 60s-70s? Probably not, but the idea was intriguing. Anyway, when I saw it, hanging in the forlorn ranks of other cast off shirts at the Goodwill, I had a flashback to my own Hippy days—painted clothes, painted face, lots of beads, freakout dances with giant pulsing blobs projected on the walls—you know, all the fun stuff. At the time, I never made it to San Francisco or the Filmore where all the hot bands played, and by the time I graduated from High School it was being touted that the age of the Flower Child was already dead. But still, I found this silly T-shirt that brought back a lot of silly, and I'll be honest also scary, memories. For $2.00 I bought it, with no clue what I was going to do with it.

Then, not long ago, I came across another Goodwill shirt with a swirly design that I liked. It was also only about $2.99, so I bought that one. 

Add to this progression the fact that I recently caved and started a Pinterest page, with lots of boards full of ideas, and we get to this current project, which is a bit different from the things I have done so far.

Here are the two shirts I am using. First decision I made was to ignore the design on the front of the Filmore shirt and make the back of the shirt the front. I have already cut the sleeves off the Filmore shirt.

I put the Filmore shirt on Inara (my dress form) and started playing around with draping, which I had never done before. At one point I basted in tucks around the waist and put pleats across the shoulder seams, but when I tried it on, I didn't like the way the shirt hung and knew if I kept it that way, I would never wear it. So, I ripped out all the basting and tried just tying the shoulder seems to get the drape. That worked a lot better. With that idea in mind, after cutting the neckline a bit lower, I cut binding from the patterned shirt and sewed that to the neck and armholes of the Filmore shirt.  Instead of using embroidery thread to sew on the binding, I used doubled button/craft thread, which I actually liked working with better than the embroidery thread. Unfortunately, it comes in a limited choice of colors. I used the button thread because it's not as bulky, and I didn't want the stitching to obliterate or distract from the pattern on the shirt. As it turned out, from only a short distance, the thread disappears.

The front of the shirt was going to need some sort of design, but I didn't have anything that really look "Hippy" and in any case, I didn't want to go that way. I wanted something more urban, rock, or punk rather than Hippy or "crafty." I wanted edgy. Which made me remember the stencil of a rose I also bought at the Goodwill, for only a dollar.

On one of the cutoff sleeves I stenciled the rose, in black. The rose will be cut out in a rectangle (you can just see the lines drawn with soap on the material), and then bordered with the patterned shirt material. The whole piece will be appliqued onto the front of the Filmore shirt.

After I got all the binding sewn on, I tied up the shoulder seams with a piece of cord I found in my stash of stuff, in a color that worked, and tried the shirt on again. I liked it, and knew the applique of the rose would work great. While I was still standing in front of the mirror, I hiked up the sides in preparation for taking the shirt off, and stopped. I really liked the way the shirt draped when I pulled up the sides just a bit. That will be the last thing I do to finished the top. This is meant to be layered over other shirts, as the armholes are a bit big and would show my bra if I wore it alone. Which is fine, because I originally wanted it to be something I could layer.

So, that's the Filmore West Top—so far. This should go together pretty fast, and since the weather is rainy and cold, I'll have lots of time to work on it.

Dia de los Muertos

Today is Day of the Dead, so here is one more piece of amazing jewelry to put you in the mood. This  is by Victoire de Castallane for Dior.

Pretty awesome, doncha think? I read it as, "All is vanity." Diamonds won't save you from your own mortality. But, however you view the piece, it's a beautiful work of the jewelers art.

Happy Halloween

This beauty showed up on my timeline on Facebook, from a site called Diamonds in the Library. It is a Sante Muerta pendant by Lydia Courteille. I think it is awesome. And the next thought I had was, how do I get something like that on a T-shirt? Zom, an Internet friend, suggested a drawing printed on fabric, then beaded and stitched. All the little gray cells in my brain started dancing around in my skull with ideas, thinking of ways to make it happen. I will have to do some research on printing on cloth, as I have never done that, but wow, the possibilities are endless!

In the meantime...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Crown Bolero Almost Done

I finally got the binding sewn on the Crown Bolero, which gets it pretty close to being done. Then again, I guess "pretty close" is a relative term, as I intend to bead the binding, and that usually takes quite a while. However, I won't start on that until next week, as I want to wear the bolero this weekend, and there is NO WAY I could bead all that in time, and I don't want to wear it with just one sleeve beaded, or half the front done. It will be fun taking it for a test spin and seeing how the double layer differs from my other boleros, which are all single layers.

So, here it is,  minus the binding beads, which will be the same small purple and gold ones used in the main body of the piece. I really liked the way this one turned out, and I like the heft of the doubled fabric, so I am sure I will make another one. These boleros are kind of addicting—little blank canvases to play on, and I can wear them with almost anything.

Crown Bolero: AC pattern, Goodwill T-shirts, stenciled, stitched all by hand, reverse appliqued, and beaded.

I will wear this over tank tops and skinny long-sleeved T-shirts, and with jeans. I don't go to that many fancy places, so all of these boleros get worn with my everyday wear. Otherwise they would all hang in my closet gathering dust.

Fall

Every Fall I go around our place and take photos of the turning leaves, even though here in southern Oregon we don't get the vibrant colors that those living on the east coast do. It's really fun to stand under an oak or ash and shoot straight up through the leaves, which end up looking like stained glass against the blue sky, since the sun is shinning through them instead of directly on them.

I have mixed feelings about fall. On the one hand I love the lingering warm weather and the change in the light. However, it also signals that winter is close at hand, which means four to five months of fog, gloom, rain, and snow. Winter makes Sharon a very crabby girl.

In the meantime, while the sun still shines, and the sky is still that beautiful electric blue, I hike around taking  pictures, wishing in my heart of hearts that the Fall weather would hang around until, say, Spring, and we could skip winter entirely. Probably piss off all the skiers, though. Ah well.


Looking up through the Madrone trees growing on the hill behind our house.

Ash tree leaves.

 

Oak leaves.

 

Oak branches covered in moss.

Moss.

 

And one more of a native oak tree against that awesome sky.

In a Hermit Kind of Mood + Playing with Vintage Clip Earrings

All of September and the first of October were really busy weeks for me. In September I attended the first Gathering of the Amazon Mounted Archers, which took place at the Flying Duchess Ranch in Arlington, Washington (more about this event and the SCA one will be posted on my horse blog site, Equine Madness. The link is given above, on my header) After initially feeling completely overwhelmed by the caliber of women I was riding with, and after getting over a meltdown of insecurity one night, I pulled up my big-girl panties and got on with it. A nice pep-talk from two of the women certainly helped, but the bottom line was, I had ridden up with friends and was basically trapped until the meet was over. I had to either pull myself together, or stand aside while everyone else had a fabulous time riding and shooting.

This issue of being overwhelmed was not caused by anything any of the other women did or said. They were all great, and very supportive, but I am more of an introvert, and tend to be a bit overwhelmed when in a room of extroverts, all laughing and joking and having a great time, especially when I didn't know over half of them. They were all much better at mounted archery than I was, since I have only been doing it seriously for one summer. Some of these women compete internationally and have been doing mounted archery for years.

But I got over my feelings of being overwhelmed and outclassed. I told myself that I could still have fun, even if I was the worst archer there, which after the scores of the competition were toted up, I was, coming in dead last. But by that time it didn't matter. I had fun. I met a lot of wonderful women, and am looking forward to next year, when they all meet again here in Oregon. It will be even better for me, as I will have another summer of practice under my belt, be riding my own horse instead of a borrowed one, and will be riding on a course I am very familiar with, as it is the home course of the Rogue Mounted Archers, to which both my husband and I belong.

So for all you who bother to read this, here is what I do when I'm not doing some kind of artwork, making jewelry, or sewing. I ride a horse at a fast gallop and shoot arrows at targets.

Me and Jebe, my borrowed mount (he is wearing war paint), do a back shot. I love that the photographer timed it so that all four of Jebe's hooves are off the ground.

After getting back from the Amazon meet, I had about a month to prepare for an SCA event due up on Oct 4-6, that also included mounted archery. I was in charge of that part of the weekend activities, which included, along with regular target archer, a mile and a half hunt, where we shot at animal targets...all of them made and painted by me. Fortunately, all the targets I used last year and had stored in the attic above our garage were still good. But for me and Robert, it is a big job putting all these targets up, marking the course, and getting everything ready for the riders coming in from out of town, then going back and taking everything down again. I also got tangled up in some politics and personal issues with people over this event, which didn't make my life any easier. I am highly allergic to drama, but got sucked into it anyway.

So I jumped from one busy, emotional event to another. By the time the SCA event was over, I wanted to do...nothing. A big, fat nothing. I didn't want to ride, I didn't want to shoot, I didn't want to work outside, I didn't want to talk to anyone other than Robert. I wanted to sit on the couch with my cat and read a book while drinking copious amounts of tea. Part of that feeling lingers on, but I am slowly pulling out of it. Slowly. It was almost like I needed to detox, which sounds terrible, but that's exactly how I felt, and to a certain extent, still feel.  So, lots of tea, lots of reading, and lots of private time to myself.

Which brings me to playing around with vintage clip earrings. I have had a stash of them for quite awhile, picked up in bags of other stuff at thrift or antique stores. Some I used by cutting off the backs and adding them to beaded necklaces or bracelets. I recently acquired a few more pretty ones from an Internet friend. Most of the nicer clip-ons sit in a little bowl on top of my antique dressing table, looking very sparkly and fun, but I hadn't really decided what to do with them.

Here they are out on my deck, so they will show up better in the photo.

Here are a few of the ideas I came up with on how to use these little gems, which you can usually find quite cheap. The two sweaters are high-end, pure cotton ones I recently found at the Goodwill for $4.99 each.

I have already worn the taupe sweater with the little clips, and will take the purple sweater out for a spin soon. The next way I wore the clips was to help hold down the front of one of my hand-stitched and beaded boleros. They tend to flip open sometimes, so I clipped the fronts to the straps of my tank top and it worked beautifully and added a bit of sparkle.

 

Oh, and, um, apologies for the cat hair. It's impossible to get all of it off, so...sorry.

Lastly, I clipped one into the hat band on my old felt fedora. I think it looks great.

 

This particular earring (also shown on the purple sweater) belonged to Robert's grandmother. There is only one of them, the other having been lost who knows how long ago. I love the color and flash of these old rhinestones. 

So, there are my ideas on how you can play around with these fun old earrings. I'm sure I'll think of more ways to use these sparkly bits of eye-candy as time goes on.