finishing up and moving on...

the back of the jacket was finished yesterday...

stitched with some variegated threads and mixed some of that taupe and beige thread that was wonderful to work with. don't know what it is or where it came from but it was in my stash.

i know some of you like to see the back of the stitching.

stitched onto the jacket using a beige thread and stitched between the seems so it wouldn't show.

working on the pocket today...

i hand dyed all the fabric and a bit of tatting left over from the plackets.

UPDATE ON THE JACKET 5-31-2012:
the jacket is complete and i'm just adding the final pics so they will all be in the same place.

the only machine stitching done was when i added the pocket to the jacket. i added a stiffener within so the pocket wouldn't flop and it was too thick to hand stitch.

 

the completed front

the jacket is now hanging in the closet waiting for fall and cooler weather.
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i stopped in the thrift store this morning as all their clothing was 50% off. picked up a dress and a blouse that will be remade into something...the blouse is a large and the dress is a 2X so there's lots of cloth to work with.  got them both for $3.

cotton blouse with some nice cut work and cotton dress that will be perfect after some major alterations.

and the garden is doing really well...except of course for the indigo that is growing about 1/8" a week...but i'm not giving up just yet.

embellishing a shirt/jacket...

i've had this shirt for several years and hardly ever wear it. i decided to embellish it and hopefully will wear it as a jacket. all this started as a project in jude's contemporary boro class. i've used a crocheted doily that my grandmother made, some tatting on the placket that was given to me as a gift when i retired 10 years ago and some tatting samples that i made when i was trying to practice my tatting after not having tatted in over 35 years. i also used a vintage doily, that i picked up some place along the way, as a kind of label. the doily appeared to me as a field of trees as they would appear from up above...and as luck would have it is made up of 7 rings which is a number i have hooked onto. click on the images for a closer view.

the jacket front

crochet and tatted embellishments

vintage buttons

hand dyed cloth and some lace

a kind of dramatic label on the inside

i do plan on doing some patchwork embellishing on the back. the problem is to find a way to do it without all the stitching showing on the inside...thinking...thinking... hopefully i'll solve that problem and will be back with more pics sometime soon.

hope you're all having a grand weekend. the weather is just beautiful here in austin.