Aurora's Dawn - From Concept to Creation

My sister's wedding dress began with a sketch she had drawn, and her idea of a gradient orange from light to dark. I knew just which hand-dyer to look at, as she has 60 different gradient shades in 2 different fingering weight bases. So I was able to choose just the perfect colorway, Apricot, in Black Trillium's Lilt gradient. I had used her Lilt for our first Ficstitches Yarns Kit Club last year, and knew the silk blend would provide lovely drape. I was at Black Sheep Gathering a couple weeks after my sister got engaged, where I bought 3 gradient kits of yarn and coordinating beads from Bead Biz. 

We had found a sewing pattern of a similar shape to her sketch, but in the end I only used the waistband pattern piece as a reference to get started. Once I had completed the waistband, in a stitch I felt would give the core of the dress some structure, I told my sister to choose how I should proceed.

Having designed several garments, I knew that I could choose one lace pattern and shape it to fit her, OR I could try piecing together different flowers, leaves, and doily patterns in the Irish Crochet style -- which I had never done before, but had been wanting to try. With complete confidence in me, my sister told me to go for the crazy lace, although by then, I only had 2 months until the big day.

Since I did not know a lot about Irish Crochet, I started with my friend Kathy White's The Go-To Book Of Irish Crochet as well as a few other motif and Japanese doily books,. Before committing to motif lace, I made up a few pieces in the lightest shade of yarn, and began stitching them together. I knew I was on the right track when I realized that the pieces I had already would be perfect for one side of the bodice, and I just kept going.

I loved the idea of following a bunch of other people's patterns for motifs and seeing how I could piece them together, especially looking for patterns of leaves and flowers that would lay flat to create a smoother fabric. With a fall wedding and shades of orange yarn, my sister especially wanted to include lots of leaves, but I also found that doilies and snowflakes worked well.

I soon decided that as long as I was going to do this, I should make every single motif different! I ended up with 8 different books as reference, was soon creating variations of what I found in the books, and eventually made the motifs up as I went along. I learned a lot about how different designers start and write their circular motif patterns, and which ones worked best for me.

Having 3 small balls of each of the 5 shades in the colorway made it easy to crochet on the go (and I mean everywhere). I would work up a motif from each end of each ball for up to 6 motifs in a shade, leaving them attached to the balls to avoid wasting yarn. Then I spread them out when I was home, see how they might fit together, and start pinning them to the slip on her dressform, which I had my sister adjust to her own measurements. I was constantly surprised how well the shaping worked as I connected the random pieces and shapes together, filling in the spaces between with interconnected chain loops.I figured the dress would be as long as it was going to be, until I ran out of yarn, or time. Whichever came first. 

After several years of needing to write patterns for everything I make, allowing myself the freedom to try various patterns, play with how to make it all fit together, and see it turn out even better than I had imagined was remarkable. We made a few changes from my sister's original sketch due to the limitations of working with yarn, but she certainly seemed happy with the results. This was certainly a labor of love, but I hope to find reasons to do more of this type of designing in the future, freeform rather than structured. 

For more pictures of the finished dress, check out yesterday's post. I have been told that the photos do not do it justice, so this month, "Aurora's Dawn" is Going On Tour! The dress was on display a couple weeks ago in the Bead Biz booth at Madrona, last weekend in the Black Trillium booth at Stitches West, in a couple weeks we will be doing a Trunk Show/Book Signing/Make'n'Take at Happy Knits in Portland during the Rose City Yarn Crawl, and we will have booths at various PNW shows later this year.

Rag Rugs and Sock Monsters

Lots of hand-stitched felt details

Last week I volunteered in my son's class to help with a special project in honor of Thanksgiving. First I helped the children braid together strips of fabric, and later we helped them stitch the braids into little rug coasters. This was meant to teach the children about native crafts the Wampanoag Indians might have done, while improving hand-eye coordination.

I explained to the children how people would use this technique to make their own rugs out of old clothing before there were carpets in most houses. But I had better watch out. Now that the teacher knows I am "artistic", I suspect I will be asked to volunteer for future creative projects.

Little sis had to get in the pic!

I have crocheted a lot of rugs and baskets with fabric strips, but never had the patience for braiding and sewing. Although perhaps after this project I can get a hook in the hands of my 7yo son if I suggest we make a rug. After sewing a book and then the mini-rug in school he was inspired to "practice sewing" this marvelous Sock Monster, after many years of not wanting to try. Then he spent the holiday weekend felting this Fairy Camp. Check out the details! He hopes it will entice fairies to come camp in his bedroom. He is so creative, but has not been as interested in fiber arts up to now, so I am very excited!

Getting My Craft On!

A Very Crafty Week:

Saturday - Scrapbooking, all day event. Finally got back to working on my Wedding Album, set aside many years ago when I tried selling Creative Memories and worked on other albums using CM materials. Hoping to finish before my 15th wedding anniversary in June, and finally get my baby albums going.

Monday - Birthday Party Invitations, green cards and envelopes, add a little vellum (easier to print on) and polkadot ribbon ($1 per roll at Big Lots). Print cute poem written by Carissa, cut to fit, punch a few holes for attaching to card with ribbon and just because I thought they should be holey. And they were ready to mail.

Tuesday - Seedball Making Workshop with Griffin. He kept his hands remarkably clean for rolling dozens of little balls of clay, compost, and wildflower seeds. Organized by Urban Abundance. Cannot wait to try this with the MOMS Club Garden Club.

Wednesday - Craft Night, a friend hosts a monthly get together. This month there were people scrapbooking, knitting, crocheting, making valentines, and I started cutting fabric squares for party favors. I love this monthly chance to craft when I do not have to organize anything of even clean my craftroom.

Thursday - Bean Bags and Egg Shakers, party favors for Willow (and Liam)'s 1st birthday party next week, made mostly from recycled materials. Bean Bags made from cute Dr. Seuss fabric with corduroy scraps from my friend over at Sunshine Salad who makes the rockin' patchwork pants my son wears almost every day. For Shakers we used recycled plastic Easter eggs in three sizes filled halfway with rice, popcorn, or beans (to make different sounds).

Friday - Fleece Blanket Making with MOMS Club. This is our second year making No Sew Fleece Blankets as part of the Remembering Rowan Project for Foster Kids in Clark County. This year the MOMS Club of Camas is putting together a donation of sweatsuits and other necessities for the kids in foster care. We will donate the blankets and all in April for Foster Care Awareness Month. Kits for making the blankets frequently go on sale for at Joann's, just $10 for a handmade blanket to warm a child in need.

Saturday - Yarn In, crocheted all day, more Shakers and stitching horns on a hat. Only a brief break to run Willow home for a nap, and pick up a few of my crocheted hats and playscapes to show off. I got a lot of encouragement for getting my designs published...

This Week - Many many party preparations, cleaning, and making Valentines! The crafting never stops!

Learning to Quilt - Blanket Project Phase 2

Early last summer, the MOMS Club of Camas, WA began phase 2 of the Remembering Rowan Blanket Project. One Friday night, the lovely ladies of the Clark County Quilter's Outreach Program brought their talents and tools to a local church. They provided everything including patterns, sewing machines, irons, rulers and cutting tools. All we had to bring was our donated fabric and ourselves. They taught us a simple "Windows" pattern which started with 9 12"x12" squares.
During the course of just one night, 6 of our MOMS Club members to made 9 simple quilt blocks, which we could then sew into small baby quilts for our next blanket donation. Some of these newbie quilters had never even sewn on a machine before, and yet we all were able to get our blocks sewn together.
We continued working on our quilts once a week throughout the summer. We had a fun weekly playgroup, working on our quilts and drinking mochas while our kids played in the sprinklers, fed the neighbors chickens, and picked our blueberry bushes clean. Our kids had so much fun together that we often found ourselves quilting and hanging out from 10am to about 3pm.
Due to the fact that 1 of our group moved away and 3 of us are pregnant, we did not quite finish our dozen or so quilts in time to donate on Rowan's Birthday in August. But it has been a great project which has inspired me to start a Monthly Craft Club for all my crafty mom friends, as well as Phase 3 of our Blanket Project: No Sew Fleece Blankets starting this month!

The Bunny Cometh

Every Easter we spend the weekend at Norwescon a Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention held in Seattle. A somewhat odd tradition, but Griffin still gets his Easter Basket (in the hotel room) and an Easter Egg Hunt (in a hotel conference room with toadstool pillows to hide eggs under).

I got to attend a lot of interesting panels on writing, costuming, and a few crafty projects for the kids. But the best panel of the weekend was the Monster Mash. Where I took a perfectly good bunny, lopped it's legs off, and hand-sewed on the legs of a pastel fuzzy lochness monster type creature, added on the pointy tail and sparkley belly from said creature (Griffin noticed the sparkly belly first thing Easter morning). Then the trunk of an orange elephant, sewn on upside down. And the picture was before I finished the orange wings...made from the hair of a Power Puff Girl!

This "Bunny Monster" appeared the next day in Griffin's Easter Basket, along with 2 new crocheted playscapes (pictures coming soon!) and several books. Mimi, who led the Monster Mash, posted more pics of the crazy monsters created by my cohorts. She collects bags of old stuffed animals from thift stores & hosts Monster Making Parties at her house - I love this idea. You never know what you will get!