At last! Some craft!

This shirt has gone through a few transformations now. It was one of Paul’s shirts. The first refashion saw me taking the sides in, ripping the arms out and reset them as short sleeves, then beaching the whole thing.

But the fabric was a bit heavy for a summer top, especially as it was double thickness at the yoke. I decided to take the sleeves off completely in the summer just past. Before I had a chance to wear it, though, I decided to try some kantha-ish embroidery.

I was going to stitch all over it, but I found stitching on a single layer of cloth not as easy without a hoop as stitching into the top layer where there were two or more layers. It’s also much easier to deal with thread ends when you can hide them between two layers.

It was very relaxing. The stitching didn’t have to be perfect. Good tv stitching.

I like how it has come out. There’s a nice quilted texture to the areas I stitched.

And I suspect stitching over the whole garment would have taken long enough for it to go from a fun to a tedious project. This was enough.

I’ve been working on this since … well, I transferred the image to the fabric last June and blogged about working on it in October, so it’s been a while. Stitching something like this, small and all in one colour, is almost a perfect replacement for knitting socks – something I could do without thinking too much while watching tv, in a waiting room, during meetings, and travelling.

On the other hand, I don’t know what to do with it now. Though I rather like the idea of hanging a collection of skull artworks somewhere in the house, since I have some oil stick paintings in a sketchbook somewhere. In fact, it’s long past time I refreshed the collection of artwork I have in the workroom.

Hmm.

A little thank you gift for Ineke, the literary guest manager at Supanova:

Yesterday I attended another weaver group meeting at the HW&S Guild. This time the discussion was about tips and tricks. Lots of good ideas. It gave me a boost of weaving enthusiasm, so when I got home I wound up working out how to do leno with two heddles on the rigid heddle loom.

It got me thinking about my sources of inspiration. Groups, blogs, Pinterest, friends’ work. I wonder, sometimes, if I would do the crafts I do if there was no internet or people around to inspire me. Maybe I’d read, garden and paint more. Or maybe I’d find I needed something, and visit the library to find out how to make it.

I want to do more embroidery, and this brings up a very common crafty dilemma: what to make. We don’t have space to hang a pile of new artworks, pendants are fun and quick but I don’t need hundreds of them, and I’m not itching to attack the bed linen. What I’d like to do is embellish some clothing. These examples on my Pinterest board are along the lines of what interests me.

So one afternoon (with gloomy light thanks to bushfire smoke) I went through my wardrobe and pulled out garments that might look nice with, or be improve by, some embellishment. Then I opened the photos in Photoshop and played with the paintbrush tool to get a general idea for colours and position of designs.

This hemp vest and top, for example. I’m thinking a multi-coloured, flowery design or whitework:

Or this dress I made from a men’s shirt. I could add some feminine scrolly bits, or replicate the striped button band across the pockets, armholes and collar:

Perhaps this retro style dress needs some ladybirds on the collar and skirt, or tattoo style roses:

Speaking of roses, this jacket could do with a lift:

I’ve had these two ripply polyester tops from Motto for a while and I’m a bit bored with them. Nothing overly heavy would work with the fabric, but I like the idea of little french knots covering parts of them:

I love white shirts, but plain ones feel like part of a uniform to me. I’ve also been dying to cover a shirt yoke in colour. This one has mother-of-pearl buttons, so that put a sea shell theme in mind, too:

And this sleeveless top made from a men’s shirt begs for a subtle design:

Lastly, I have a black shirt dress that could do with a lift:

Now I’m eyeing my shoes, wondering if I could do something like this, or this or even this.