Couching – Daryl's Blog

Working Really Hard…

First, a huge thank you to all of my sewing friends who have stopped their lives to make masks. I feel hugely guilty I’m not participating, because, as I explained in the last post, I don’t have any materials, my daughter used them all a couple months ago for Australian Marsupial pouches for all of the injured critters in the fires. I’d have to go out to the store to procure supplies and that would really defeat the point of hiding at home. My daughter was able to find a small pack of elastic in the bottom of a craft bin, and used some scraps to make masks for us. She has a fine metal’s bench and rolled floral wire for the nose piece.

And so I’m working harder than I’ve ever worked, or so it seems. The big news is I actually managed to, after running a test by a bunch of trusted sewing friends, launch a pattern today. I started with the simplest one I have, to see how this all works. I edited the directions and the intro to the pattern about 19 times. To the point where I just didn’t care anymore, which is a dangerous place to be, I can assure you. So for better or for worse, you can purchase the PDF download of my bias top. More patterns to follow.

The pattern is available for purchase here, and the directions, which will continue to be free, are now on my website. It is easier there to keep updated. And while I was there, I redid my Extra’s page, because the amount of stuff on it was becoming untenable. Found some fun stuff I had forgotten about, like this essay I did on making paperdolls as a kid.

I’m always open to opinions and edits. Obviously the pattern will work for commercial fabrics, but I have always been a handweaver who works with the handwoven community, so yardage requirements are specifically for handweavers. We are working on the 500 vest now, as I write, that’s the one with the armhole band. We are into the fourth round of edits.

Meanwhile, we are fixing puzzles like crazy, I always have one up in the living room. The latest one, a lovely gift from my sister, is really challenging, I’m sorry to say not my favorite. It is all shades of grey. Dalmatian puppies. Except for a couple little areas with pink feet. I much prefer color. Lots of it.

I finished my dress. This was a challenge as well. Just about everything in my life right now is a challenge, but we weavers are made of stern stuff, and we know how to pick up a shuttle and carry on…

I want to say it takes a village, and after my last blog post, and how I wasn’t sure how I felt about the leather, one of my long time friends, Sheila O’Hara, extraordinary weaver who wrote the book on weaving contemporary Jacquard, before digital Jacquard looms became available, casually commented, “Why don’t you embroider on the leather?” Yeah, no. Embroidering on leather would be really really challenging, because you can’t sew into leather easily, usually it involves pliers. BUT… I could couch yarns, like the kind I wove with… This was a nail biter, I did samples and tests, but small ones, I didn’t want to waste the precious leather, and once I started in, there was no going back, you can’t rip stitches out of leather because the holes will show. This was quite the nail biter…

I’m so happy with how this turned out. And the closure on the back worked out brilliantly. One of the couched threads as it came off the back neck, I was able to crochet into a loop, and couch it back on to cross the upper back again and end up back at the neckline. Oh, and the dress has pockets!

The dress fits like a glove. It actually isn’t supposed to, but I’m packing on a little weight here, because all I’m doing is eating and sewing and sitting on my butt by the computer rewriting directions and intros and cover pages. I really have to go back to online yoga, since my local yoga studio is shut down for the quarantine. And stop eating cookies and drinking wine…

And so I was able to cut out the many pieces to make this motorcycle vest in the leftover fabric from the dress and the leftover leather.

I still have almost a full skin and a half to do something fun with.

I’m having fun sitting and sewing, and the 16″ metal separating zipper arrived today from WAWAK.com.

And so dear readers, I hope you stay safe, more than 2300 people have died in NJ, many of them first responders, EMT’s, hospital staff, store employees, police officers. I hope where you live it all seems overblown. I can assure you, it isn’t here. We are a dense state, and are suffering for it.

Play with yarn, do whatever it takes to be as distracted and productive as you can. I’ve actually started to pick salads from the garden. There is something renewing about that. Stay off never ending news, it is really really painful. For those of you making masks, I bow down with respect.

Stay tuned…

Wednesday Already?

Where did the last few days go? A blur of holiday gatherings, family fun, outdoor gardening, and playing catch-up!

First, the crab fest. This is for all of you out there who have never experienced a good old fashioned Maryland Crab Fest. My mother’s entire family is from Maryland, and we grew up, attending family weddings and funerals, always followed by the crab fest. It was an event! I have fond memories of my Aunt Joy and my mom chasing crabs all over the kitchen trying to stuff them in a pot with Old Bay Seasoning to get them steamed. My sister, who now provides the crabs, buys them by the bushel, from a local merchant who steams them while you wait.

So here we are getting started! Dump the crabs on a table covered with newspapers and dig in!

And here I am working hard! Note: I did NOT drink all that beer, and OK, it was a bad hair day, but I was “down” the shore, salt air and breezes, and hair isn’t important in a crab fest, you definitely don’t want it hanging in your face!

I managed to clean up my out of control studio, and catch up on many many emails, and follow up on some much needed correspondence. The inbox on my desk is overflowing (my inbox for my email is out of control, but that’s another story), but that’s normal for the end of the month, as Friday is my bill paying day, all the paperwork for the month gets sorted and filed, and dealt with! I hate bill paying days, but must admit, it is nice to see my inbox with nothing in it for about 24 hours.

I’m making slow progress on the jacket, sidetracked by some fun creative adventures, yesterday morning I judged the Middle School Invention Contest, along with some old friends of mine, retired teachers, and had a blast interviewing these 5th-8th grade would be inventors. There are some pretty talented, outside of the box thinkers coming up in the world!

My neighbor’s daughter, who is graduating from HS, and going on to college for the arts, is interested in learning about garment construction, and engineering garments for the body. I’m thrilled, since quite often I hear, “I love to design clothing, but don’t have a clue how to sew…” As a matter of fact, that’s one of the biggest issues on the new Bravo TV replacement show for Project Runway, The Fashion Show. Most of these designers can’t seem to sew. One actually was quoted as saying, “I have people for that”. Anyway, this lovely 18 year old neighbor, has attempted garments from non traditional materials for her AP Sculpture class, and does actually recognize the wisdom of having a bit of a background in garment construction and engineering. It isn’t enough to know how to use a sewing machine. Garment Construction is a bit like architecture, except the covering for the body has to move and perform and fit the structure (body) underneath in a way that a wall of windows and steel doesn’t. Same idea, different application. So my 18 year old neighbor spent some time in my studio yesterday afternoon learning some of the basics.

I’m playing around with the ways the Sandstone Layers Jacket needs to be finished, I’m happy with the Hong Kong seam finish for seams that are pressed out flat and open, like the center back seam.

The side back seams are handled like a welt seam, where one layer of seam allowance is trimmed back, and the remainder of the two seam allowances are pressed to one side, finished off, and topstitched. Except in this case, I used a partial Hong Kong finish to keep the look consistent, pressed to one side (so I actually had to do the Kong Kong finish upside down on the side back seams), and couched from the front. Topstitching gets lost in a handwoven fabric, any tweedy fabric for that matter. So I make more of a statement by using my cording or couching foot to feed a thicker yarn, preferably one of the weaving yarns used in the original fabric, and stitch a shallow zig-zag from the front to keep it in place. I couched embroidery floss on the Arctic Sky Jacket if you remember.

The couching foot shown here is on my Janome 6600 Professional. I love this machine!

And here is the finished seam from the front!

It is cold and rainy here in the north east, so that leaves me with less garden guilt and more studio guilt!

And for Something Completely Different…

Well, I accomplished a lot today, none of the things I was actually suppose to do, I got distracted…

I did get the scholarship applications judged, that was a tough one, all the students were equally qualified. I’m glad I wasn’t the only judge. And I did spent a few hours getting all the work caught up for my guild programs for next year. But that was yesterday. You see, last Friday night, my church had a service auction, and I donated one of the scarves I made in Barbara Herbster’s class the week before, and to my great surprise, there was some furious bidding, and the scarf actually sold for $135. I talked to the woman who bought it afterward and she told me she was prepared to go to $200. So thanks Barbara, for a beautiful warp, but it really got me thinking… And thinking…. And thinking…

Sidebar: I did craft fairs from 1979 – 1989. I’ve been there, and done that. I have such a distaste for the whole affair, total burn out. I enjoyed the people, and the lifestyle, for awhile, but making stuff, lots of stuff, to sell, putting a price tag on creativity, trying to figure out the market, spending every weekend of your life sitting in your booth selling your soul, well, let’s just say that I swore, no matter what happened in the future, I’d never, ever do a craft fair again…. And I also said, I’d never, ever, ever sell my work again, put a price tag on it, and some of that is sort of understandable because what I do best is clothing, and once I make a garment now, I’m largely done with it, and it is nearly impossible to reproduce what I make, even if someone where to pay me handsomely for it. Making handwoven clothing in production is no picnic, which is what I did for 10 years, I bought huge amounts of yarn wholesale, put on no less than 30 yards at a time, (weaving it off in one day), spent huge amounts of money on booth fees, spent ridiculous hours making stuff to sell, filling orders, running a business, and everything else that goes along with that lifestyle. I had no life.

However, I was so enchanted with the scarves I made in Barbara’s class, mostly because she opened up a new way to look at color and blending, and using small amounts of whatever is on the shelf to make it work, which Barbara really does do best, and I got to thinking, really thinking…

So I basically got the jacket cut out, because it was laying across my floor and I couldn’t walk in my studio until I got it cut out and off the floor. I got all the tailor’s tacks in, and played around with interfacing. I also experimented with seam finishes and topstitching. I tried couching with a novelty warp yarn, and it really does define the seams. And I’m hoping it is pretty flexible.

But the whole time, I’m thinking, thinking…

So, I finally gave up, and started poking around the studio, pulling yarns and skeins, and cones, and bits of stuff, because you really don’t need much here, to put on a warp for another round of scarves. Oh boy was this fun…

So I stared at the pile for awhile, and played around with a draft, and wrapped a card to see if I could get a clue how this would look. Barbara just grabs yarn and starts winding. I’m not nearly that confident, but I can see how after awhile, this would be a great way to warp, and I can see doing this for yardage…

I had a number of variegated yarns, and some novelties, but the one thing I didn’t have was any of the flat tape yarns that Barbara used for the supplemental warp. I didn’t want to duplicate the scarf I did in Barbara’s class, after all, that was her design, but I liked the idea of having supplemental warps in some key places, and I actually found a small swatch of a knitted tape, which I carefully unknitted and washed, and then painstakingly pressed to get it to return to its flattened state. I had about 14 yards, which would work for this warp.

I’m also intrigued by the possibility of combining doup leno with this technique, to provide even more surface texture, but I’ll experiment with that down the road… At this point, it is about getting something on the loom…

So, I grabbed my AVL warping wheel, I figured this would be a perfect use for it, because I’d be unloading it onto a sectional beam. So I could wind the warps as I had them on the card, and then every two inches, dump the warp under tension right onto the warp beam. I love this tool, it is a shame it is so expensive. I bought mine at a long ago Convergence when AVL first introduced it, at about half the price it is now. I remember waiting 9 months for it to come…

Once I finished winding two inches, I carried the wheel over to the loom, and slipped the end of the 9 yard warp over the back beam and hitched it to the cord for the section I wanted to wind on the warp beam.

I love this tool!

So, I have 2″ beamed in my 6″ scarf warp, and this will ultimately give me four scarves, and if I like them I can

give them away
add all four of them to my wardrobe
sew all four together into a bigger cloth and make a garment out of them
have a big ‘show and tell’ at my guild
give them away
donate them all to my church
I’m running out of ideas
OK, I could actually sell them.

My guild, the Jockey Hollow Weavers, has a fabulous sale in November. So far I haven’t participated because, gee, I refuse to sell my work. So, depending on how these turn out, I just might actually have something to sell this year. Stay tuned…

Meanwhile, the placemat exchange is coming down to the wire…

Score: Mom 7, Bri 6

Bri came into the studio tonight, and sat down and did another mat. The front beam is groaning under the weight of the 13 mats, it is a pretty small loom, and this is the one where the warp beam cracked, so I’m crossing my finger that the front beam holds as well. After Bri finished her mat, she had about a half hour to kill while she was waiting to leave for the High School, the spring band/choral concert was tonight. So she grabbed my camera, and shot some pictures of her latest obsession, finger braiding. She is making all kinds of bracelets from floss, which she keeps in a box and whenever she gets bored, the box comes out and the braiding begins. I had to share some of the patterns she has done, these adorn her wrists at the moment, and she had to photograph them on her wrists since she can’t get them off.

So there you have it, a productive day for the two of us, and one of the best High School concerts I’ve ever attended. I didn’t work on anything I was suppose to, but you know what? I had fun…

One more note:

I did spend a couple hours this morning alpha testing the new Weavolution site. It isn’t up for viewing yet, but this should be an awesome web connection for handweavers of all levels and disciplines, Tien Chiu is one of the principal designers for it, and coincidently her blog is one of my favorite must reads. She talks about the site on her blog today, and the team was mentioned in the last Weavecast Podcast. One of the features I’m playing with on this new site, is the ability to post a project, and the draft and all the specs. I got to thinking how I should be doing that with the pieces I’ve designed and executed since I started this blog. I’ve been thinking about that anyway, extracting all the entries for a particular piece into one document, with the draft and yarn sources, and providing it as a PDF in the extras section of my website. But for now, I spent some time playing with the Weavolution site, some of the early bugs are getting fixed, as we find them, but it is yet another opportunity to spend your days reading about weaving and getting inspired to get something on that loom, or if you haven’t joined the ranks of handweavers in this country, this will surely inspire you. I’ll keep you posted when Weavolution is finally launched…

A Quiet Saturday

I spent the day mostly at my desk, working on the next gallery page for my site. The house was quiet, the men are away skiing in Vermont, and my daughter spent the day working in a kennel. She loves the dogs, and caring for them, and always comes home quite in need of a shower! I drove her tonight to her friend’s house in a neighboring county, where she will spend the night.

So I’m alone tonight, and after I finished fine tuning the collar/facing piece, and getting it and the hem all basted in, I spent some time couching the lime green floss around the collar/facing edges. This is a bit tricky, I loosened the tension on the upper thread, and loosened the tension on the presser foot, which helped keep the couching from compressing and skewing the collar as I sewed around it. I had to first pre-thread the floss using a tapestry needle, up the front, through the underside of the collar at the start of the fold line, since couching is one sided, around the collar, and back through to the underside of the collar, continuing down the other front. That way when I put the special cording foot on the machine, I could break the zig zag stitching when I had to switch sides, but not the floss.

I took my hand sewing kit, and curled up in front of a pre-recorded episode of PBS’s Great Performances, King Lear starring Ian McKellen and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Obviously it was an unbelievable performance, and I was able to get all the hand sewing finished, the hem, the facings, and the backs of the buttonholes. The sleeves are next.

Pansies and Piping

Well it isn’t much. But I managed to brighten the dreary days of March, eager with anticipation of spring, measuring the bulbs as they poke their heads out of the damp earth. In anticipation of tomorrow’s rain, I did manage to get the deck boxes and a couple pots planted with pansies, a wonderful gift from my friend and neighbor, in celebration of my husband’s birthday over the weekend. Thank you Deb! Everything is so bare and cold, but pansies add a little bright color in mid March, the first color of the spring.

Of course you realize that a week ago, the deck looked like this:

I’m seriously crossing my fingers we are done with the spring snowstorms.

I worked hard on the website today, managing to figure out one of the things that was eluding me. I knew it was just a stupid click, somewhere, yet I sweated how to do this simple thing for days, and then all of a sudden, Wham! The proverbial 2 x 4 hit me over the head and you could hear the “DUH!” all the way to Trenton! Now that I figured out that little detail, I can start on the gallery pages, and get them moving along. I want to reprocess all the images I used on the original site, make them more uniform, and a little bigger in their thumbnail size. So lots of photo processing, finding the originals in the archives, oh goody, a treasure hunt of sorts…

I worked for a bit tonight on the jacket, getting the left side of the jacket sewn in. It fits like a glove. I’m so glad I added the additional two inches in length. I’m really loving the lime green piping, and when I looked at it on me in the mirror, I loved the way the belt brings in the jacket in the back. But I decided, after mulling over some of the comments from the original posting, that a hint of the color someplace else would be a great idea. I have some DMC floss in the exact color as the felt piping, so I took off the back belt, and couched the floss on, get this, I realized I didn’t have the right color thread, couching only works if you have the same color thread, so I rooted around in a drawer, and voilá, there in the back was a very old wooden spool of poly thread, in the exact color. Go figure…

So I couched (which means a very narrow zig-zag stitch over a cord or yarn, in this case I used floss, aided by a little foot that has a groove to feed the cord or yarn). I plan to use this couched floss to topstitch the collar and the top of the sleeve cuffs.

I love the wavy movement of the felt piping, it looks like the aurora borealis in the northern sky, and that’s the effect I was looking for, the jacket is called after all, Arctic Sky.