Pirate Blouse

The Mission

I was commissioned by Judy to create a pirate blouse. She is a member of the group Les Dames de Perlage.

I live 1,437 miles away.

With photographs, emails and phone calls, a positive attitude, and mutual cooperation we were able to get the design and fit just right.

Click the link: Eventually it was in the news!

About the Dames de Perlage

http://wgno.com/2016/01/07/carnival-krewes-for-the-crafty/

The Inspiration

The Mock Up

As long as I got measurements and a blouse sent to me that fits well, I had enough information to ensure a good fit.

Samples of Email Conversations:

The pattern fabric is an old sheet hence the red color.

It is only pinned and there is no elastic. I improvised the corset!

Now is the time to make a decision or two:

Is the length and fullness of back okay or longer? Less full? More full? LENGTH IS GOOD. COULD BE A LITTLE LESS FULL IN BACK.  I DON'T WANT A HIGH NECKLINE IN THE BACK. I'D LIKE IT SCOOPED. HOW LOW? HOW FAR DOWN FROM THE TOP?

Back scoop - 4" from bottom of corset strap around neck. 

Fullness of sleeve, proportions and ruffle. OKAY?

 FULLNESS IS GOOD. LOOKS LIKE THE THE GATHER MIGHT BE A LITTLE LOW. I MEASURED FROM SLEEVE SEAM - WHICH I HAD MY FULL LENGTH AT 25" - AND WOULD LIKE THE TIE DOWN AROUND 16 1/2".  What do you mean by 16 1/2? Please measure the length from the neck to the gathers under the elbow and add two inches for the fullness of the drape.

Fullness of gathers at bust and neckline:

LOOKS PERFECT. YAY

It helped a lot to get these three photographs

Sleeve - not sure if I'm supposed to be measuring with arm hanging down or outstretched to my side. 

Hanging down - 19 1/2"

or

Outstretched - 22" 

Both include the added 2"

XOXO   

Close Up

Done!

arrived in the mail

What an honor to be part of the fun!

Judy's fantastic beadwork

Thanks to photographer Bill Lanxner for the amazing photos of the Dames in costume!
http://www.examiner.com/slideshow/dames-and-dudes-on-parade

SUCCESS! THE MARDI GRAS MUSEUM of COSTUMES & CULTURE

What Judy looked like at her NOLA wedding in the dress I made for her - a creative collaboration.
That's my brother the groom by the way.

Inside and Outside

Outside

This morning I looked out the front door and saw a pile of snow sliding off the entryway roof. It looks like a length of fiberfill.  With temperatures in the teens and single digits, I am glad to be inside, where I am in the middle of weaving a white wool warp. Seeing the work of nature in a similar style outdoors gives me the sense that nature is doing the same but in a different medium. It is creating in cold and I am creating in warm.

Inside

Hand Me Down Sweater

    

For three weeks in May, Milos and I hosted two visitors from the Czech Republic: Iva, Milos's childhood friend, and Marta, Iva's best friend and travel companion. Both come from Milos's hometown Vysoke Myto. Iva would have come to the USA alone but for one small consideration. She has a deep fear of flying. With nurse Marta - and medication - she could manage the trip. Milos remembered that Marta's family had a store on the town square, a fabric, notions and handcraft shop. Even better, Marta's grandmother ran an ice cream and coffee shop. We'd never met Marta. Her family stayed in Czechoslovakia throughout all the political changes. She married, raised a family, and eventually settled in Karlovy Vary, where she worked as head nurse in the spa. She studied English for the trip, but not enough for conversational fluency.
Iva's family was close to Milos's family over the years until the mid-1960's. Iva is like a cousin - all the kids called the other parents "aunt" and "uncle." During the last 25 years, we have visited "cousin" Iva in Prague and in Zurich, where she, her family, brother and parents lived for about 20 years between the 1968 Prague Spring era and the 1989 Velvet Revolution. Luckily for me she speaks German fluently, though her English is quite sketchy.
Three weeks is a long time for house guests, especially when there are language challenges. Besides our excursions to Washington, New York, Lake Placid and Boston, we spent many an hour looking at old pictures and watching family movies. One evening, while we were all somewhat glazed over from watching a long ski movie made on 8mm in the early 1950's, Marta noticed that young Milos was wearing a sweater she was sure her mother had knit. "Moje mama to upletla!"
"'No!" which means "yes!" in Czech, responded Iva. [Here I translate] "She made it for my brother Vaclav. When he outgrew it, mother must have given it to Milos to wear."
"And I still have it!" Milos left the room and dug through one of his dresser drawers. He reemerged with the sweater, now somewhat the worse for mends and wear, dark blue with charming stylized animals knit in bands.
I then dug out a photo from our 1989 trip to Zurich that shows Vaclav in front of an oil portrait of him as a child wearing the sweater.

            In an album from our 1989 trip to Zurich, Switzerland, there is a photo of Vaclav standing in front a painting of him as a child posing in the sweater.

            

On her first trip to America, Marta, in upstate New York, held a fine piece of craftsmanship now in the possession of a man she'd never met before, made some 65 years ago by her mother. She lovingly caressed the wool animals and smiled in recognition, but refused to hear of taking the sweater back. It had already been handed down to good hands.   

What HAVE I been doing? HOUSE WORK!

 I have been busy with home renovations over the past year... a different kind of creativity than my usual painting, beading, sewing, weaving, knitting, writing... Milos and I designed it together. 

I made many drawings (as did Jean) and over twenty short videos to document the process of adding a great room to the north side of our house. 

In between I have made bracelets, spun and knit, painted. 

My hands have not been idle.

Painting in the new room

Here is a sample of the kind of movies I created. This one shows the douglas fir floor installation.
A Douglas Fir Christmas

In order to render our 1950's cabinets more modern so as not to "swear" with the new interior look, I painted out  the knots. I felt like one of the Queen of Heart's men in Alice in Wonderland - painting the roses red. I think I have painted out about 100 knots! I used acrylic paint, but has to use oils for a few that had wood grains that were hard to blend into with the milky when wet acrylic varnishes. One of these days husband Milos and woodworker supreme will replace them all. But for now....

Link to video:
No More Knotty Pine

Before:

After:

I made three sets of new drapes and 14 new seat covers:

SEATCOVERS

old

new

my design seen flat

my design seen folded

DRAPES

cutting table

Drapes done

New Gallery Wall
now featuring six illustrations
from The Moon in the Morning

A thank you to Milos for all his hard work.
This will hang over the piano.
It is a rendering of his grandparents' home back in Czech Republic.

Irish Dreamcatcher

My friend Rita recently went to Ireland. For her bon voyage, I urged her to bring one of my Dreamcatcher necklaces - one I made a few years ago that nobody seemed interested in.  I used the Irish colors in the design. Rita liked it and wanted to buy it - I told her it would make me very happy to think that somebody in Ireland would receive it. Maybe you will find the right person and the right moment, I suggested. You could give it away - pay it forward. Rita promised me she would let me know if anybody noticed it or commented. 

Well, Rita returned with a wonderful story. She was on a tour of Trinity College with folk singer Frances Black.  Frances had been admiring the necklace that Rita chose to wear for the occasion. When  Frances complimented her on the necklace, they had a chat about Dreamcatchers - "They are for catching your dreams!" Frances knew. When Frances turned to speak to someone else, Rita quietly removed the necklace and soon caught Frances' attention. "This is for you!" With those wonderful Irish eyes shining she gratefully accepted. She then gave two CD's to Rita - a cultural exchange. Frances wrote me a note on one.

Frances Black on YouTube

Frances Black Website

Frances Black Facebook

The Moon in the Morning Free Download

If the world were sensible we would have 13 months in the year of 28 days each. Think about it. In that case, we would have to work in an extra day annually plus the leap year discrepancy every fourth year. What better time to do this than smack in the middle of the year. And smack in the middle is the first week in July. To celebrate, the novel is a free download July 2-6.

Here is a passage from the Moon in the Morning:

“Oh, this is probably silly, but it’s just that if we divided the year by thirteen – the number of days I mean - 365 divided by thirteen, the answer is 28 days, remainder one. Like February. Weird.”
“You did that in your head?”
Jean shrugged. “Yeah….”
“It would make knowing how many days are in a month a lot easier.”
“But what about the extra day? And the extra month?”
Bill started to write on a napkin. “If you divide 365 by 13 you get 28 and one thirteenth. That plus the extra day we add in leap years every four years to make up for the fact that it takes the sun 365 and a quarter days to rotate around the sun…”
“Whoa.”
“It isn’t that hard. If we used a thirteen month calendar, which incidentally would closely follow that moon cycle, but tried to fit it into the solar cycle, we would have thirteen months in the year but we would have to somehow average the extra day every four years for the sun and the extra day every year for the moon.”
Jean’s head started to hurt. Mary looked at Bill, puzzled.
“Hmm, I guess it isn’t that easy, is it?”
“No it is easy. Ve could have an extra day every year, like special holiday on last month, New Year’s Eve, or in middle of summer.”
“Like my birthday.”
“Sure. And den every four years duh holiday could be extra special and be two day celebration.”

Link to The Moon in the Morning at Amazon