Jacket Class at Marcia's Studio Day Three

Today was a busy sewing day with two drop in guests. Inspector Suki began the day in Donna's chair and spent a lot of time indoors to her dismay as there was a big black dog visiting which she didn't appreciate. Marcia began work on an apron for the upcoming RAFA booth at the Clothesline Festival.
Caris brought in her beautiful "big apple" vest which she made from a packet of fabric purchased at the City Quilter in NYC. She is looking for a "big apple" button to decorate the front.
Donna made a lot of progress today. By the end of the day she had the fronts and sleeves all finished and was wrapping up the back.
Caris models her gorgeous silk jacket. She only has handwork yet to finish.

Marcia holds up her finished apron. It was made from pieces constructed at a Nancy Crow Workshop.

Varda models her jacket still in the "pinned" stage.
Nancy Hicks dropped by to model the gorgeous vest made during the last class. The photos don't do it justice.

Beth Brandkamp, showing shooting the photo, also dropped by to work on sketches for an upcoming workshop she is taking with Ruth McDowell.

Liz almost has her jacket pieces completed. There will be green bands around the neck front and back.

Another Great Day at Marcia's Studio

The day often begins with "show and tell". I brought some "confetti fabric" which I have been making recently. These are 1/4" squares butted together and sewn with a gold metallic zig zag.

They are sewn, not fused. I have been putting the finished squares together to make "fabric".

Beth brought a fabulous piece of Marimekko fabric from Finland.
I also brought some Miao embroideries from China.
I purchased these years ago at the so called "dirt market" in Beijing and plan to incorporate them in a jacket.

Pat Berardi has her jacket from my last jacket class almost finished. We all loved it.
Inspector Suki dropped by to inspect Beth's pattern.
It apparently required a little more intensive effort on her part.
My cow jacket begins to take shape.

Pat spent most of the day quilting this fabulous quilt on Marcia's longarm machine.

Beth added a silk lining to her jacket from the last class.

The cow jacket back is about finished.

The flowered band on the red strip is a beaded band from Solola Guatemala. It was intended to be part of a belt but will look wonderful here.
The sleeves begin to take shape.

And I start work on the front.

The New Cow Jacket and Seminole Patchwork

After making jackets with tiger, zebra, geisha, frogs, halloween, chicken, and sewing ladies themes it was time to turn to another topic. Since I live in "farm country" the idea of a cow jacket came to mind. As it turned out cows are not very popular with fabric designers. Even dressed up with poppies and barns. They don't even seem to get more respect in groups.
Sometimes they look like they are having fun. Or do they just look worried? Its hard to tell. Cows aren't very emotional.
To "jazz up" my cow jacket I decided to add some seminole patchwork. I used to use a 1" scale patchwork but now have switched to 1 1/4" The 1 1/2 inch version seems too big for jackets to me.
I don't make my seminole in the traditional way which has "ripped" fabric instead of cut with a rotary cutter.

I sew the fabric in rows, cut the individual strips and then sew them back together. After finishing off the ends it is ready to sew into my garment.
I began making the red version for the cow jacket shown on the left. I quickly saw that it was "too red" and abandoned it for the moment. I then switched to a red/black/green version which I like much better for this project. With seminole you never know how it is going to turn out when you plan the strips. It is always a surprise.
I think I will just wait here until things calm down again.