Month: January 2024

This Puzzle Coat is a simple T-shape with odds and ends of  fleece fabric 'filling in the blank' of the T.  

I continue to like how this kind of fleece drapes, needs no finishing on the edges (flows better without hems or serging or stitching), resists moisture (which often passes for rain in Victoria), is warm without weight,  layers wonderfully, does not scratch or itch or cause me to sneeze,  washes and dries quickly, can be scunched into a string bag or stuffed into a suitcase and pops back without a wrinkle, can multi-task as a pillow,  housecoat,  blanket,  draft stop at door or window,  bathmat,  towel., chilly-grandchild -at -parade comforter.  Etc.

Some fleece is made from recycled bottles.

The colours are amazing and do not fade.

I've never had it shrink.  Or stretch majorly out of shape.

The button hole for the button ( crocheted from fishing line and stuffed with bits and pieces of the fabric,) was simply a slit and it has worn well across the months.

The coat was un-closeted as a point of reference for intuitive,  freeform construction and I got a bit carried away discussing it now.

Here are the skirts.

 

Not fleece this time but linen.  Lovely linen.  I love linen.  It breathes and it flows, but flows  with restraint, unless it has been worn often enough to achieve a patina of familiarity.

The pieces are all 'pelts' cut from garments discovered as fibre archeology pieces on garage sale/church bazaars/thrift shop digs. 

 Hand painted Zimbabwe cloth was happily discovered as a length of cloth;  this triangle was left over from an Origami dress I made years ago and it has been waiting on a place to present.  It anchors the airey fabric which was cut from a Value Village dress to make it tunic length;  the narrow widths of material were stashed away and now provided the swing aspect I wanted from knee to hem.

 

Freeform clothing evolves and encourages a person to come up with the vision and then allow the material to participate in the creation.  It is a form of listening.  I am often amused and amazed by the 'voice' that occurs, by the sudden and unexpected change of direction.

Oh, not that a skirt suddenly becomes a vest (but that has happened!) – more that the piece that gets put here, horizontally,  doesn't feel quite right, and when one stands back (or goes and has a cup of tea) and  simply waits, the hands seem to move forward without thought and move the piece vertically and turn the garment so that the blue piece (not the green!) gets moved forward and overlapped from this side to this side and …. so it goes.

(re-post from February 28 2011)