WIP - sketching ideas

Here's a glimpse of what's currently on the worktable. I've been doing sketches for what I want to paint on the front silk panel of the dress. Japanese/Chinese inspiration seemed appropriate (I'm probably drifting far away from historical accuracy, but you know what I think about it vs. the joys of the creative process), and I needed something to tie the dress back to the (planned) hat's decoration (which was gathered to match the former Provence plan), hence the bird design. My dressing gown and a bracelet my grandma made decades ago provided some immediate inspiration.


The scanned fabric from the dressing gown. There are dragons on it too, but I decided against dragons (it was tempting though).


By some miracle the living room table was free for me to set up my mess. It looks like the embroidery frame will make its first practical appearance as a painting frame... My grandma's bracelet is sadly a bit hard to photograph. (And I don't have much time for fancy set-up pictures anyway, I'm runnign far behind ont he sewing schedule)

Why is water wet ?

The gutta on the silk won't dry fast enough.
The newly shaped hat won't dry fast enough.

I have no other choice but to work on the mantle....
And stress, besaue I have to go in twenty minutes and won't be back until errrr... late. And the same goes for tomorrow. And I have forgotten to buy hooks and eyes tape, needles for the sewing machine, and buttons.

Crap crap crap.

You can't win 'em all - 2

Silk Painting vs. Martha : the painting won !

To sum up the disaster, let's say I didn't get the effect I was planning with with the gutta, and then I burned the fabric while trying to fixate the colors.

The good news is, I only did one small part of the design as a test, in a corner of the fabric I knew I could cut off if necessary. So the front of the dress has been washed (to remove pencil marks), is now hanging to try, and will get gathered and sewn up tomorrow. It might somehow get me out of the time crunch I'm in.

Weirdly, since I can't work on the dress, nor on the still wet hat (had to re-form it when it was almost dry), despite said time crunch I now have the body and the sleeves of a mantle. Which, by some mystery, can't be buttoned anymore (ETA : found it, dumb cutting mistake). Anyway, I think I'm too short on time for buttonholes, so I'll just need to be creative about closures. Or visit my favourite fabric and notions dealer.

I feel strangely relieved... maybe I shoudl take a picture of the mess for posterity ? I sur eneed to keep the designs, the birds were pretty !