ABO Top Inspired by Artist Ann Williamson

Thank God for talented people like Ann Williamson that can inspire us much less talented people.  I wrote about her work in an earlier blog.  Since my blog is so new it ought to be easy for you to find it.  I believe I called it, "Inspiration".  I just love her work.  She must have infinite patience to do all the applique and hand beading that she does.  Then there is the hand embroidery!  I would love to have her talent and her patience.  Unfortunately, I don't.  I can't draw worth beans, but I can copy.  I do know how to strip piece and while I won't be using kimono silks, I will be using good cotton quilting fabrics and lining it with fine cotton batiste.

 This is the article in Threads Magazine Feb/Mar 2012 that inspired what I plan to do.  I remember reading the article and drooling over the pictures.  It is available as an article on the Threads Insider Website.  If you are a serious seamstress, sewer, sewist, or whatever you call yourself, you need to read Threads Magazine, and be a member of Threads Insider.  At least be a member of Threads Insider.  You really get so much for your money.

Actually, this little artistic top will be the solution to a dilemma that I have.  You see the Marfy/MSS pants are made of a beautiful Tencel fabric that Joy Joy gave me a year or two ago.  It is a sort of an olive green color, which is most definitely NOT my color.  Joy bought the fabric at Cloth Merchants and washed it as she does every fabric she buys.  It came out of the washer fine, but when she took it out of the dryer she found that the color had crackled.  That means that everywhere there was a fold of fabric in the dryer it left a white line.  She was upset and called Cloth Merchant.  They generously refunded her money, but told her to keep the fabric.  She didn't know what to do with it.  She didn't want to throw it away, but she knew she wouldn't use it.  So, I told her to send it to me if she didn't want it and I would use it to practice embroidery on.  Well, my intentions to practice machine embroidery never were fulfilled. I always have lots of unfulfilled intentions when it comes to artistic endeavors.  Do you?

A few months ago, I ran across the fabric in my stash and decided I could dye it teal.  I bought dye at the local yarn store thinking since it was a "natural" fiber that was the proper dye. Yes, fabric dyeing is one of my unfulfilled intentions.  I should have read up on it again before I bought the dye as it turns out the dye I bought was for protein fibers like silk and wool.  The dye I needed was for cellulose fibers like linen and cotton.  Anyway, I read up on the dyes while my fabric was in the washer in hot water that was a beautiful shade of teal blue.  Unfortunately, the fabric came out a slightly bluer shade of olive green, that after being washed a couple of times to get out any extra dye is basically back to its olive green.  But the fabric had become very soft and the color of the fabric, including the crackled areas had become much softer looking so that it almost looks like a batik.  So, when the time came to make up the Marfy/MSS pants I decided it was the perfect fabric.  If the fit was off I wouldn't have wasted a fabric that mattered to me.  Although, come to think of it, I do have quite a bit of money invested in the fabric even if my dyeing didn't work.

 But then I needed a top to go with the pants.  So, last week while exercising I noticed the scraps of the Tencel laying next to a piece of a pink fabric and thought I could wear the pants with a pink top.  But I didn't want the sharp contrast of the pink top with the green pants.  My mind went back to Ann Williamson's work and I decided to strip piece the top.

I went to Threads Insider and found the article I had read and here is how she started so she could estimate the amount of fabric she would need. So I did that, too.  She probably cut slivers and sewed them up.  I will sew together a piece of pink to a piece of green and slice and dice and re-sew until I get what I like.  Then I will cut it out of the ABO pattern sew it up and line it with some cotton batiste that I already have.  Another unfulfilled artistic intention, smocking a baby gown.  (I have so many of those.  There just isn't enough time to do them all.)

If this doesn't work, I can always get the right dye and try again. 

The grandkids have arrived and I will have to get out of my sewing room now.  Sigh!  Never enough time in my sewing room.

Happy Sewing Everyone!

Hugs, Phylly