blogger counters

about archives


Wednesday, December 21, 2011
i made a dress from string @ 12:12 AM

I haven't written a single thing since October-- shortly after Boyfriend's birthday-- due to an onset of late-October midterms and the blind rush toward finals.

It happens. I'm graduating! Horray! etc.

I wove seven yards of fabric, dyed it and sewed it into a dress. It happened! It came out fairly well under the circumstances. (Read: I'd never sewn before, done batik or woven at such a length+width+high EPI). All things being equal, it went along without too many problems. For the sake of being precise I'm just going to vomit up information about the project now, okiedokie?

The pattern was Butterick B5605 and it was pretty complicated for someone who had never sewn a single thing before-- like, my previous attempts involved fixing small tears and reattaching buttons. I did not know how to sew in a straight line or how to wind a bobbin.

Initially I planned to do woven shibori, following along with a book by Catharine Ellis but the width of the piece I was weaving (35" at reed) & the overall length (7 yards) meant that all of the knots I was going to need to tie = a bad idea. Ikat, another method I've... well, DONE before...? I didn't feel like I could confidently create a pattern across the entire fabric that I'd be happy with at the end.

So, in a fit of frustration (sometime in November) I dropped $50 on batik supplies and went to town. It went pretty well. A few (stupid) tension issues that were caused by incorrectly rolling on the tencel the first time, but I just rolled all of my yarn onto my cloth beam and retied at the back-- the remaining yardage had no further tension issues.










Blah blah blah THE RESULTS:







naptime forever! I probably won't be weaving my own fabric with intention of sewing it into a dress again anytime soon, but the process was fun! I am mostly excited to resume weaving long rectangles (without cutting them apart...).

Labels: , , ,



0 comments

Post a Comment

About
i find myself amusing

Hello there! I'm Kelsey Keefe. I am twenty-two years old and think the internet is fan-freaking-tastic. I went to school for Art (Art History & Fibers/Weaving), but if there were a degree in "looking at and critiquing cat pictures" I'd be all over that. Doctor Professor Kelsey Keefe, head of Internet Studies. That'd be me. But alas, we live in reality where I read about two hundred different blogs and have a deeply rooted affection for Mormon Mom Blogs. Oh, and I weave. I have a cat, he has his own facebook.

       
warp beam