Ahh, Summer is here and it's that time of year when we spend lots of time outside. We're traveling, we're biking, we're taking our 11 year-old son to the pool...
Unfortunately, this constant motion affects my productivity on my silk embroidery. Pool water and silk fabric just don't mix...
In the Summer months, I need projects that are fun, portable and can withstand sweaty palms and the occasional splash.
I just dusted off my pool project from last year and was so delighted to see it again. I started this a few years back when I had taken an online class from Susan Sorrell through Joggles. This piece began as a pair of shorts on which I began some freeform embroidery.
I used DMC floss and started with the pink dashed line...that led me to make the purple swirls, then the yellow spikes, etc. Now, I see a need for green leaves everywhere and who knows where else my needle and thread will take me. I love the organic nature of this piece and that anything goes and it's OK...
Last summer, I opened up the inseams and made my shorts into a skirt. Now, I really like it. And this pink polka dot "flip" was just the thing I needed to cover up for the fact that the skirt didn't come together evenly in the back.
We spend a lot of time at the Patapsco State Park which is right down the street from where we live. There is a waterfall there and so I thought I would add it to my skirt as well. After all, the jeans were my hiking shorts before they became my pool skirt project. I think I see a fish jumping in all that churning water...
And I think a bird is perched just below this flowering branch...
And I love this mosaic paisley motif I created just because I was playing...
I had little bits of that beautiful fabric left over from my sewing. I snipped it into small mosaic pieces and then sewed it down with invisible thread with my sewing machine. I think you'll see that idea again.
So why not start a project where you can let the process guide you versus you guiding the process? Oh, the places you'll go...
Hi... I found you on French General and noticed that you're "local". How fun to read about the things you're doing locally. I didn't know that the bridge swim was this weekend. I guess the heat was the main story.
ReplyDeleteI am so impressed with your sewing skills. I can knit - a bit, but not sew.
Thanks for a fun read!
I like it very much. Isn't it difficult to do all this work on denim?
ReplyDeleteVery cute skort but what is more amazing is that you can wear something from 2 years ago! Just kidding.
ReplyDeleteI picked up a denim dress lately that I plan to machine embroidery shortly & maybe I might even do a tad of hand embroidery. Luckily for me, I don't have to worry about swim parks anymore. My embroidery is very protected! Back in the days when it wasn't, I did cross stitch.
The old hippie in me thinks this is groovy groovy groovy!
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