Saturday, June 12, 2021

Ready for Coat Class





Today's the first day of the 2 day coat class I'm taking with Rachel D. Clark on zoom with one of the quilt guilds I belong to, South Bay Area Modern Quilt Guild. Here's my stack of fabrics that I'll be working with. I've long wanted to get the chance to take a class with her, and I'm super excited.

Yes, making a long coat right at the beginning of summer is kind of bad timing for me. I'm already onto the tank tops and shorts routine at home every day. But getting the coat started in class and learning how to actually finish it. I suppose it will give me plenty of time to get into the details and finish it over the summer so that the coat is ready for me to wear when it cools off in the late fall. 

My thoughts today while I was pulling the fabrics listed on our class handout is that I want to do a coat mostly of one color, I'm calling it "Shades of Grey" in my mind. I love color color color in my quilts, but I don't necessarily want to wear that much color. Turns out all the shades of grey are pretty colorful ranging from true gray to blue gray, mauve-ish and green-ish too. 

I have this bag made out of recycled newspaper and I've always loved the look of it, the verticality, the thin strips, the variation in the greys. I'm going to keep this idea in mind as I work on the design.

Rachel suggests having a theme when working on a garment like this, so this one just came to me and I'm going with it.

My theme for the coat will be YES. As in: The Woman Who Said Yes Because She Wanted To Not Because She Thought She Had to. 

AKA:  The Woman Who Said YES For Her Own Reasons

I might piece the word yes into several main "blocks" that will be in prominent places in the coat, center back, one side of chest, etc. Or embroider or print or...

I might hand print the word Yes all over the lining fabric in black fabric ink in all the different font stamps that I have.

I also might go even further and use my leather die tools to stamp out YES on grey leather for closure at neckline and cuff accents.



2 comments:

Jaye said...

I love the idea of Yes! I would suggest making it subtle so people have to work a little to see it. You know, giving them a little present when they come closer.

I am amazed at that newspaper bag. Is it laminated or anything? The verticality is really cool.

Julie Zaccone Stiller said...

Oh yes, it's going to be as subtle as I can make it. The newspaper bag is not laminated, it has a sort of very fine netting over the surface. I've never used the bag because it seems like ti would wear out pretty quickly. I think it was probably intended as a gift bag, not a day-to-day tote bag.