I feel I am making a little progress in this project and am inching towards completion, hopefully by Christmas! I had an idea, inspired by the beautiful pictures of antique kimonos that Sian posted on her blog
www.stitchloop.blogspot.co.uk, that I could use print and stitch to make virtual patches on one piece of cloth. The print and stitch altered the colour and texture of the fabric sufficiently to look like a patch had been applied.
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2.12.7dec 1 Virtual Patches
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I had mixed acrylic paint with an extender and fabric medium. Some was left over so I had fun printing another two samples to use it up (2.12.7dec 2 and 2.12.7dec 3).
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2.12./7dec 2
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2.12.7dec 3
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I also made a sample weaving strips of fabric. I used lightweight iron-on interfacing as a base, pinned sticky side up onto an ironing board. I pinned the warp strips at the top and wove the weft strips in, anchoring them with pins at each side. When finished I pinned the warp strips at the bottom too. I covered the whole thing with non-stick baking parchment then ironed it lightly before removing all pins and ironing thoroughly. I then tried a quick version of sashiko by machine stitching parallel lines in white. I made the stitching diagonal to contrast with the squares produced by the weaving. See 2.12.7dec 4.
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2.12.7dec 4
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I could have gone on playing with samples for long enough, but I thought it was time I turned my attention to the construction of the kimono. I taped sheets of newspaper together and used them to cut out pattern pieces. I made a sample kimono of plain dark blue cotton to try out the pattern and also so that I could pin various patchwork blocks on to see the effect. This plain kimono might make a lining for the finished article. (There is always the intriguing thought that the plain lining would make the kimono reversible from a patterned garment with a plain lining to a plain garment with a patterned lining.
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2.12.7dec 5 plain kimono
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Using the paper pattern, I laid out some dyed and stitched fabric pieces to make up the extension to the left front. (This allows the overlap at the front.) 2.12.7dec 6 shows it laid on the floor alongside the left front.
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2.12.7dec 6
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Next, I pinned some finished pieces onto the plain kimono and photographed them. They are not all completely in focus, sorry, but the small size of my studio and the large size of the kimono make it hard to get far enough away to photograph it clearly. I hope it is enough to give an idea of what it will look like. (When finished, I hope to borrow my photographer niece's studio.)
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2.12.7dec. 7
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2.12.7dec 7 trying to get far enough away from the mirror!
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