Haven't added as many stitches today. I'm still working on the same general area.
scraps of ikat, indigo shibori and stitched in the boro manner
Shibori wrapped cotton dipped in the indigo vat and stitched onto this evolving boro inspired jacket
Stitch a Day 2017, Day 22
Another good thing about this project it that it lets me use up the bits of shibori that were less than successful. Things that really don't look like much in whole cloth become much more interesting and abstracted when they're cut up and sewn onto something else. And let me tell you, the shibori process is such a tricky one that I've got lots and lots and lots of fabric that needs to be chopped up & abstracted!
Oh yeah, and this begins the fourth week of the challenge! I've made it this far!
overdyed, stitched scraps by Carlyn Clark
Stitch a Day 2017, Day 21
I've been focusing energy on this little corner for the last few days. Some days I stitch a lot, others not so much. But I am getting something new every day, and bit by bit the back is pretty well filled in.
scraps of cotton, dipped in the indigo vat to overdye and then stitched together in the boro manner
Stitch a Day 2017, Day 20
I've started turning up the bottom hem on the back to letting it catch as I stitch. The back is really, really close to being finished. I can't remember if I've already noted this or not, but the woven stripe, second from the right is from a piece of handwoven cotton I picked up in the water village of Zhujiajiao, about an hour outside Shanghai. The shop is owned by a husband and wife who weave all the cloth and sell it from the shop. While I went to Mandarin school and tried my best to learn the language, I didn't have anywhere near enough to get their story, which I would have loved to learn. I really wanted to know how long they'd been there, where they'd learn to weave. Here's a photo of them measuring the very cloth I used on the back of my jacket. I used the bulk of it to cover an upholstered headboard, but of course saved every scrap. I know wish I'd bought much more, and may try to find someone to go back for me and see if they're still there.
Buying handwoven cotton stripe in Zhujiajiao, China
Day 19 of the Stitch a Day challenge by Carlyn Clark with layers of fabrics patched onto an old jacket in the boro style
Stitch a Day 2017, Day 19
Zooming out even further than earlier day's photos (possible because I've added more scraps) you can see a bit of the original fabric of the jacket. It's a very unremarkable cotton twill in a very unremarkable brown color of a very unremarkable weight. I've pulled off all the studs and buttons which were an unremarkable Liz Clairborne logo'd brass. The back is getting close to being completely covered with fabric.
Stitch A Day 2017, Day 18
Zooming out a bit from yesterday's photo you can see I've gotten some pieces attached and then couldn't help myself and added some fill-in stitches. As I worked I wondered what thread the ladies of days gone by used when mending. Did they match the weight of the thread used to weave the cloth? I've been reading Longbourn, by Jo Baker, a modern novel written from the perspective of the staff in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. The book opens with a scene of the maids doing the laundry, and refers to the endless stitchery tasks they were required to perform. The decorative ribbons and trim often had to be unpicked from the gowns before laundering and then stitched back onto the dresses. One of the things I love about the meditative process of hand stitching is that it allows your mind to wander and ponder and imagine.
Overdyed vintage cotton hand stitched in the boro tradition by Carlyn Clark
Stitch a Day 2017, Day 17
Further proving the fact that never throwing anything away can be a good thing, this scrap is left from I stitched back in high school, circa 1974. I remember the fabric distinctly, but what it became has faded. I was big on patching and repurposing even then, inspired at first by the Neil Young album cover from After the Gold Rush released in August 1970.
Neil Young's After The Gold Rush cover. Patching credited to Susan Young, Neil's first wife.
The music and the fashion were very inspirational to us. My across-the-street-neighbor was so enamored of the look he requested I stitch up his very un-holey Levi 501's to replicate the style. Sadly, I didn't whip out my Brownie and snap a photo. It was difficult days. I would have had to have had film, attached one of those bulbs that flashed once and then had to be tossed, take the pic, wait until the rest of the roll was used, get my mom to take me the processing shop, wait two weeks while the film was processed, get my mom to take me back, and then hope the photo had actually turned out, which it often didn't!
Just like my Brownie camera
Neil Young wearing jeans patched by his wife, Susan
I did my own take on the look by taking a pair of another neighbor's discarded Levi cords and turning them into a skirt by cutting them off short, opening the crotch and adding scraps of fabric. I love the stitching process so much that I kept going and going and ended up with a maxi-length skirt that had a trumpet shape. Again, no photos, and sadly, I gave it away.
So, as always, my work is imbued with memory. I just don't often spend the time documenting the memories with words.
Boro inspired stitching using hand dyed scraps of cloth overdyed in the indigo vat by Carlyn Clark
Stitch A Day 2017, Day 16
Things were looking a bit too blue so I found a scrap of fabric my daughter had dyed that had the pinks and purples she favored as a young one. I'm continuing to block in the shapes on the back of the jacket which is requiring some discipline, since I really want to get on with the decorative stitching.
I revisited the Cooper-Hewitt website to look more at their Make Do and Mend images.
Darning Sampler, 1836; silk embroidery, cotton foundation; 24.1 x 23.5 cm (9 1/2 x 9 1/4 in.); Bequest of Gertrude M. Oppenheimer; 1981-28-208
The ladies of the day went to great lengths to make the work decorative, or to at least blend in quite well. I imagine they were practicing these patterns so that they could patch fabrics so that the patches would hardly show. Very inspiring!