Hallo dearest Needleworkers and Lovers Of Good Clothing!
This is my latest dress that took me an age to make, and which got stuck in multiple cul-de-sacs before completion - as you'll see below! I sooo enjoyed carrying my mannequin up to the top street when it was completed this morning, and photographing its details and overall impact. The colours sit so nicely against the cobbles and marble door-frames...
However, it sat on the dress form in a few weird and wonderful experimental compositions, before I got really stuck into it a few days ago - and it finally all came together. It amazes me how my skills eventually make good on a dress like this, when it feels a wee bit impossible at times (and at other times, very impossible!) - it is such a joy to find JUST the right tweak to make it sit nicer, or to hide a clunky part.
I did a lot of this piece on the sewing machine - my wee old Brother blue stitching beast - powered by my Ecoflow powerbank (from my wee solar panels), and listening to podcasts around freebirthing, Bitcoin, and clothing; the latter of which was a recent episode by the Articles Of Interest folks on Fountain App. It was a particularly fascinating episode (I always love their sharings!) this one, on religious clothing.
Though listening and not watching any images, it reminded me of how inspiring I find anything religious-clothing-related: I adore costumes that have a serious edge to them; utilitarian and ceremonial, for authority or doctrine... I have enjoyed very much many TV series and films that have powerful costume with a spiritual or religious theme, like recently I rewatched The Young Pope series. I love being able to see the meaning both in and behind the clothing, and this reminds me to be more confident in my own intuition about what I am creating.
There is a certain level of seriousness, and spirituality, domestic alchemy, daily ritual and the stitches that go into the kinds of garments and linen that makes up a home (or rather, used to make up a home). If you know me a little, you may be aware of how much I love old linen, old cotton pillowcases, aprons, sheets; sifting through them, choosing to take one or two (or ten!) home, and then aligning them with other items, to make a new, sacred, beautiful, useful robe or dress or suchlike.
This dress was made from three previously-purposed items: a hand-sewn cross-stitched table cloth (torn along one edge), a pair of red linen trousers, and the back of a large cushion cover (often found in markets near here); it almost was made from various other pieces of nighties, and some more colourful details, but in the end it came together rather elegantly, I think, in this trio of items harmonised into One.
At first I couldn't figure out where the red-bordered decorative part wanted to sit: should it be a short or a long skirt, or a dress?? It went up and down, got pinned and elasticated, and then it settled at last in this form. I actually began with one thick elastic back to the skirt, but the cheapy elastic I bought wasn't stiff enough to hold the shape, and it doubled over. This made it look cheap, and I decided in the end to do a much more laborious job and add three layers of thinner elastic to the back of the waist; it looks much better!
Once I had that basic shape of the skirt, and once I'd discounted the idea of this beautiful top-of-a-nighty that I'd cut up to make the bodice part, I took apart the red linen trousers and started to play around with how a top might sit. I loved this, how it formed at first into two sort of wide sleeves, but then once the waist was more elegant with the belt I made, it became clear that the sleeves wanted to be gathered up. I took two small scraps from the trousers' hem, and tied them simply around the top of each of the shoulders - it was a real marvel to me, how this brought the whole form together and made it a proper dress.
Before I got to that stage, I had also thought about making epaulettes, as I had two small squares of the cross-stitching that had been taken off the edges of the tablecloth. They sat very nicely on the shoulders, but it did start to look too costumey - at least for how confident I am right now about putting my clothing out into the world. Hehe - maybe next year. I did already lay out a more eccentric experimental composition on the bed, with a cloth that has a religious statement on it - in similar style, hand-stitched in red, in German, about trusting in Jesus. It might be going to far, to wear something like that in a very conservative Catholic town/ culture, but I love how it is a jolly statement and could be worn quite sincerely, to celebrate a kind of quirky spiritual point of view, worn on one's sleeve, as it were (though actually, on one's skirt). Not sure if it would fit for aperitivo hour, but maybe during the big wine festival, or as a performance costume, if I get on stage and sing at any point soon...
But yes, the religious or spiritual aspect of an item of clothing, is so intriguing to me: how only ordained or special folks high up in a hierarchy (under patriarchy) get to wear really special clothes and to express 'themselves' through costume. I sense that I am edging more towards what would be classed as costume, in my clothing undesigning. And this thrills me: the idea of not a frivolous or superficial 'party' costume, but a fun, serious, meaningful and extra special item of clothing for everyday wear that is also practical and long-wearing, comfortable and funky.
