Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Summer Pool Project...

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...

4 comments:

Pigtown*Design said...

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.

I am so impressed with your sewing skills. I can knit - a bit, but not sew.

Thanks for a fun read!

anne said...

I like it very much. Isn't it difficult to do all this work on denim?

Debra Dixon said...

Very cute skort but what is more amazing is that you can wear something from 2 years ago! Just kidding.

I 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.

Vicky aka Stichr said...

The old hippie in me thinks this is groovy groovy groovy!

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