Art Fair Outfits

The Superfine Art Fair in Seattle was a good excuse for a road trip!
Here, however, I'll review what I wore...

It seems I relied on the kindness of strangers for my outfit shots.
I guess I forgot that sometimes I'm a fashion blogger. 

in @gottfried_megan's IG story

The Opening night I wore my favorite tunic. I always feel great in this.
In 2019, I stitched this together in transit for my brother's wedding! So glad I did! 

Paired with green space-dyed Fabletics leggings.

photo by Katie's daughter

Day 2, Katie stopped by. Katie lives in Birmingham, Alabama. I've been in Feng Shui cohorts with her for the past couple of years. This was our first meeting IRL.

I wore my vintage 90's shirt that I found on Poshmark and leopard leggings from Fabletics.
The gap in the art grid was a fake sale. I thought maybe viewers were intimidated by the full grid, and I removed a piece.

in @superfineartfair's IG story

Day 3, the Noon - 9pm marathon day.
I wore the antique kimono fabric tunic, which is another favorite.
I added sleeves to this a few years after first sewing it. Best move ever.
I don't remember which leggings I wore (because I'm actually writing this post in November).

I don't remember who took this... maybe my art booth neighbor?

Day 4: the African wax cloth tunic, purchased in Providence, RI way back in the '80s.

The cotton fabric is super soft now. Same leggings as Day 1.

And the art?

This was the only instance the Scrappy Squares were seen as a complete set the way they were intended to be hung.

I made a sale! The grid was broken for real this time.

Which one sold?

Shelbee!

art blog post about making this

Shelbee had the honor of being featured in a Style Imitating Art challenge by Shelbee herself!

For the fair, I dressed in all my favorite colorful tunics/tops to help me feel good in my skin and radiate confidence.

And then I managed to leave them all hanging in the closet where I was staying! Idiot test failure! (Idiot tests are what musicians do after a gig to make sure they don't leave any gear behind).

It took me 46 miles to realize my error.

Fortunately, my Seattle friends quickly sent them back to me. Favorite garment crisis averted.

Linking up with...

Shelbee's On the Edge

Black and White and Scrappy Squares

My posts are all about the Scrappy Squares these days, aren't they?
Can't be helped, they're top of mind, as I do all the prep for the 50|50 group show they'll be in.
Here's my "Title" page:

click to embiggen

I did do one totally black and white Scrappy, the "Leo" 

Instead, I want to highlight the "Stephanie", for which I destroyed two skirts:

"Stephanie" was named for a certain person who wants a certain fabric used herein.
Stephanie is on socials and keeps her ID on the downlow, hence no link. 

One of the skirts, before destruction:

It's fraternal twin, in a more deconstructed state:

sometimes, in the frenzy of creation, I forget to take the "before" shots

So, what's the back story on these skirts?

I got them both at a place in Venice called DBA (that resold designer discards like Ross, but not a chain), sometime when I was already working at "The Panty Factory" (my nickname for the day job, designing prints for underwear and loungewear). Maybe 2006? The floral caught my eye as a potential panty print, the dot, well, polkadots! They were only $12, and a nice 100% cotton percale.

When I stopped wearing most of my skirts (too many cupcakes), I put the dot skirt up for sale on Poshmark. The floral never got posted, not sure why.

And then the Scrappy Squares got hungry for fresh textiles, and, riiiiiiiiip went the skirts.
As I said in the previous post, everything is fair game in Scrappy Square creation!

Linking with
Shelbee's On the Edge
Rena's Fine-Whatever

Stripes in Peril, part 2 Striped Chambray Skirt

 Not much left of this one!

It started life as a skirt (underskirt?) that Tony Young designed for a Mentor Project with Guess Jeans in 1987. I won the auction for the outfit which also included a cropped jean jacket (still have!) and a denim overskirt (sadly became badly mildewed during a roof leak eons ago and tossed).

[need sketch. sorry]

I redesigned the top of skirt by eliminating the waistband and shirring and instead formed inverted pleats and backed them with a muslin facing. The styling was reminiscent of my most favorite striped skirt from high school.

I still hardly ever wore it. Maybe the stripes were too preppy?
I was going to list it on Poshmark, but when taking photos, I noticed a lot of stains. It went into "The Pile", there was a lot of usable fabric in it.

Perfect for Scrappy Squares!

Linking up with

Shelbee's Edge of the Week

Stripes in Peril, part 1 Striped Lounge Pants

All the stripe garments I've destroyed for Scrappy Squares, part 1.
It's not "Goodbye", it's "Hello new art".

I'm in my final week of creating one piece of art every day for 50 days.
Titled "Scrappy Squares", these are weavings made with textile scraps using a rug knotting technique. At this point, almost any textile in the house is fair game.

The first to go, before the official series even started, were my COVID Uniform lounge pants. The spandex had died, the legs grew about 4", and I was tripping on them. 

not exactly the same pants but you get the idea

Stripey, link to artwork details

I paired the stripe with another pair of lounge pants for the first piece in the series:

Wendy, link to artwork details

Other pieces using the black and white stripe:

I still haven't used up every last bit (I had two pairs of them). I'm holding on to the cut pieces with the pink overlock. Well, to be honest, all the pieces:

Preciousssss......

Linking up with

Shelbee's Edge of the Week

I Match My Art!

I'm wearing 2/3 of the textiles used in this:

"Anne" Scrappy Square, 7.21.2021

The rayon black/white circuit print tunic is an old favorite. It has many a story to tell.
I found extra remnants to use in the Scrappy Square.

The rose print skirt/pinafore (which I hastily safety pinned to the tunic for the first photo) was almost completely sacrificed to the Scrappy chopping block. It never worked as a skirt:

2012
back view here

It will work as a summer pinafore!
I could have sworn I have more yardage, but never found it, so I gradually tore strips off the hem for the Scrappy Square, preserving as much as I could of the skirt-soon-to-be-dress.

Many garments are falling victim to the Scrappies. I've started ruthlessly raiding my Poshmark Closet.

Linking up with

Shelbee's Spread the Kindness

Furloughed! Am I using my time wisely?

Yep, it finally happened.
Over the the past few months, my paid hours at the day job have been steadily dwindling
2/10 - no more than 19.5 hours/week (was 32 hours/week prior)
6/21 zero

sigh

So what have I been doing instead?

Scrappy Squares!

test models

"Wendy" the first official piece for the 50|50 Exhibition

This is an ongoing project that officially started 6/28/21.
Each artist juried into the show will be creating one new piece of art on 6x6" panels for 50 days.

I'm rug knot weaving textile scraps onto the panels.
Here's what the back looks like:

The exhibition will be at Sanchez Art Center in Pacifica, CA, 9/10 - 10/10/21

All the art will be uploaded on my Art website on a daily basis. Click here to see them all!

The Big Blanket Mend

I decided to join two old twin "horse blankets" that are both full of moth holes into one.
As always happens with things I repair on the coffee table, Mr Lou thinks it makes a great bed.

note how he plants himself exactly where I'm sewing

Fluevog Shoe Art

I have sketched Fluevog shoes going on four years now.

Uploading the art to Redbubble and Spoonflower helps garner some income.
Happy to report that all of the 2021 sketches and repeats are available on both sites.

Now working my way through 2019's sketches.

There's more, but I think that's enough news for now.

Linking up with

Shelbee's Spread the Kindness