Creating with purpose

As I explode with ideas for creating new fiber art projects I occasionally touch down to reality and think, “what am I going to do with this?” I’m rapidly running out of wall space and need to think through, “where will I put this next one?” It doesn’t make much sense to rescue materials from deep within my stockpile, spend countless hours transforming them into pieces of art, and then stack them against the wall, or shove them back in a closet. Although I haven’t yet reached the point of selling any of my work, maybe that will come soon –as soon as I learn how to part with them!

The most obvious answer, at least for now, is to make useable, functional pieces. And that my friends is how my embellished jean jacket came to be.

Some months ago, I bought a new jean jacket with the intention of tarting it up with a little embroidery. I got side tracked with other projects and I let the jacket take its place in my stockpile, until I came up with an idea to combine several projects and techniques. In keeping with the idea of being inspired by everyday beauty, I make note that for me beauty in nature is rarely limited to one element. Most often, it is a combination of colours and textures and sights and sounds.

I’ve been embroidering and sewing, but recently became interested in collage and block printing, so I decided to pull it all together. I just happened to have a beautiful block print of sheep on linen (warned you more sheep would be coming), and in my treasure trove stash, believe it or not, I had several pieces of silk.

One sheep print on a piece of cream linen was my favourite block print. The linen seemed best suited to picking up the ink, and its natural fiber lent itself to the pastoral theme.

I chose two different lengths of fabric. The first was a blue and purple abstract print on silk acetate. This particular fabric has been used several times throughout the years, as scarves and sheaths of one sort or another. Its circular pattern and brushstroke texture remind me of a cloudy sky. The second, a length of sari silk, combines all my favourite colours and suggests the foundation for foliage and light in a pasture.

These three pieces were perfect to make a central focal point in the back panel of the jean jacket. I laid out the sky, sheep and pasture over a layer of cotton batt and began the embroidery and embellishment phase. During this part of the process, I always let the fabric speak to me and ‘sew as I go’.

In this case, the clouds needed pinning down–achieved with circles of boro stitching, pulled together with white linen thread. The sheep needed only minimal highlighting, done with the subtle addition of linen thread to tack down the fabric, drag down the clouds and accentuate the texture. The sari-silk pasture called for bright colours of cotton thread to bring out the flowers, foliage and light of the grassland.

Now, to make the rest of the jacket ‘fit’ with the elaborate back panel.

First up, the collar. I really do love the colours in this piece of sari silk and I decided to use it to tie together the front and back of the jacket. I fully covered the undercollar with the silk and then folded the border print over to the front of the collar to highlight the collar’s edge and bring colour to the front. I used the bright cotton embroidery thread to anchor the layers, to embellish the design and to highlight the textures.

One of the tricks I like for jean jackets is adding an inner cuff of cozy wool. The fabric gives a better base for embroidery, making it a bit flashier when turned back, but also making it toasty warm when folded down and buttoned. I was really trying to keep this jacket from getting too busy keeping the back as the highlight, so I chose to use design repetition and picked up the circular motif and colours from the sky to add pizzazz to the cuffs.

A final touch. To bring the front collar, cuffs and pockets together I added a very small bit of floral embroidery to the front pockets and outer cuffs.

Although these things never seem to be finished, and I may add bits here or there, for now this functional piece is ready to wear! No frame necessary, no dusting to be done. This is a piece of art with purpose. Hope you like it!