Applique' Away

I had the BEST time today, working on the applique for the front of the felted wool jacket.  The hours passed and I was in the zone. 

This is how I started.  I traced applique' designs to freezer paper.  Ironed the paper to felted wool, and then cut them out.  The freezer paper sticks really well onto felted wool.  Here's some leaves, ready to be cut out.

I hand basted the pieces in place, and then used the Feather stitch  and heavyweight Sulky thread to stitch around the designs.  I added vines and "whatnots".  Here is the front, with the applique' finished.

I will do some beading.  Not a lot, but I'll put a few beads in the flower centers and maybe some on the leaves.  Maybe I'll work on the beading tonight.   My plan is to run the design over the shoulder and let some leaves and a couple of flowers trail down the back.  One sleeve will have some applique on it also. 

I notice that a lot of you hit the latest pattern sale.  I did too.   I didn't buy the new Vogue patterns, although some of them are really nice.  Most are too young for me (alas, but true), and wouldn't fit my lifestyle anyway.  But, I will be reading your blogs and hoping to see some of those fancy dresses on you.  You see, I live a most chic and fun life, vicariously through you!

Here's the patterns I bought.

Carolyn made Vogue8623, and I thought it was so elegant, with it's big collar and pleat in the back.  It has a retro feel to it.  Simplicity will be on sale at Jos the 12th through the 15th.  I'll be there.

More  later.

Felted Jacked with Seamless Piecing Day One

Our first day of class was terrific! Needlework and Textile Guild of Michigan had Barbara Skimmins today and tomorrow to teach her "seamless piecing" method using felted wool. The day began with a lecture and trunk show of her fabulous art garments. After lunch, we began our class.

Our wool fabrics were supposed to be pre-felted for class by washing in hot water/cold rinse and lots of agitation until felted properly. We were to have a muslin, fitted and sewn together. The instructor had us draw a design on our muslin. Here is my sleeve.
I made a teardrop shape. There are similar shapes drawn on the other pieces of the jacket. We took the muslin apart and used it for our pattern to cut out the jacket.

Next comes the fun part. We are going to cut design elements out of the jacket pieces, leaving a hole . As if you were cutting dough with cookie cutters. Only out of our fabric. Scary huh! Cutting a big old hole in a beautiful piece of wool! I will cut that teardrop out of my sleeve. The hole will be "plugged" with another piece of wool in a different color. It will be sewn into the hole using decorative stitching with heavy thread. Thus--"seamless piecing".

The teardrop shape will not be just one piece of fabric, but several pieces patched together like crazy-quilting, with decorative stitching.

So far, so good. My jacket is cut and ready for the embellishment process tomorrow morning. There were 20 people in class today. Twenty ladies who definitely know their stuff. These are all seasoned sewists. It was a great day. I am so looking forward to tomorrow.