Design Outside the Lines, Day One

Entrance to the work room area.
Building that houses the work room.

This is interesting.

Day one of DOL is done and my mind is unable to shut down. I'm hoping that posting a quick summary of the day will allow me to sleep.

There are three aspects to the format of DOL.

First, there are the morning classes. After a hearty breakfast prepared by the lodge cooks, we sit in a comfy room and Marcy and Diane alternate lecturing. So much information is presented, so many garments and ideas shared, that it would be a lot to absorb with even half as much info. The phrase "drinking from a fire hose" comes to mind.

Loving Diane's Trippens!

The second aspect is demos.

After the morning classes, we enjoy a delicious lunch, also prepared by the lodge cooks, and the rest of the day is spent in the work room. Diane and Marcy perform various demos (today's demos included silk screening, stenciling, and tricks of sewing with bias, though I might be forgetting something). Both Marcy and Diane are completely open and generous with their information.

The final aspect is free time to work on our individual projects, or run into town, as needed.

I didn't feel ready to run into town today, so I focused on a skill that is waaaaay outside my comfort zone - stenciling. I am a person who is comfortable with pattern manipulation, fabric collaging, and fitting myself. I am pretty comfortable with needle felting, embroidery, fabric dyeing. But the more traditional artistic pursuits, drawing, painting, sketching... not so much.

Nevertheless, I feel that even I should be able to master stenciling, or at least achieve competency. Following Diane's advice, I cut samples of several pieces of fabrics in light and dark colors, selected a couple of stencils, filled my plate with blobs of paint, and got started.

This was not as easy (for me) as it sounds. By dinner time, I had created some stenciled fabrics, but was feeling frustration with the results. I even considered switching gears and moving to a project within my comfort zone, but I resisted.

Diane, sensing my mood, talked me down. She pointed out some ways I could move forward with the samples I had already created.

Her suggestion of using them as piping just might give you an idea as to the quality of my experiments. :) But it also shows her brilliance, because they were pretty darned good in that form.

I had an enjoyable dinner with some of my hall mates, followed by some good sewing conversation and sharing, and things are looking up. Diane emphasized in her lecture last night that "to get a different result, you have to do things differently", which is pretty astute. Growth happens outside of the comfort zone.

I can't imagine a more supportive environment for this sort of experiment.

P.S. By the way, thanks so much for all of your kind comments! While it's true that my room does not have wifi, the lodge has wifi in the very comfy lounge in the main building.

Design Outside the Lines, Getting There

Getting to DOL in Taos is half the fun. I don't fly much these days, so maybe I'm just not remembering, but I think my early morning flight to Albuquerque was one of the most beautiful I've ever experienced. Sunrise over the Sierras (it is the Sierras, right?), amazing cloud formations over the desert. It mades the invasive airport scan (hello, there!)... worthwhile.

The primary reason I choose such an early flight is because I've never been to New Mexico and I wanted to allow as much time as possible to check out Santa Fe. Landing in Albuquerque and driving to Taos is a 3-hour trip, and Santa Fe is just about in the middle of that drive, so I had to take advantage of the opportunity.

I squeezed my Santa Fe experience in about 4 hours. First I checked out the mother of high end RTW boutiques, Santa Fe Dry Goods. This is the place where you can grope a petrified Great White shark tooth necklace (by Monies) for over $1k. (Seriously, about the size of the palm of my hand - I had no idea a Great White shark tooth could be that huge.) Among other things, this store carries a very nice selection of Trippens and, yes, Trippens were tried on, drooled over and petted, but not purchased.

I also enjoyed a (more affordable) boutique I stumbled into that does not have an online presence, Zephyr. In there I found a scarf that needed to come live in San Francisco. I had a quick, but delicious lunch at The Shed, a historic restaurant recommended by the very nice people at Zephyr, and famous for its chili. So of course I had to have some and, burn it did. The meal was delicious.

After a quick tour of downtown Santa Fe, it was off to the fabric store, Santa Fe Fabrics. What a great fabric store! From current novelty knits, to gorgeous Pendleton wools, from Japanese brocades, to African hand dyed pretties, I was very impressed. It was a bit overwhelming, so all I purchased was a very nice organic cotton canvas in four colors - they had quite a color selection. I thought I might use some of these at the retreat for stenciling, screen painting, or the like.

Finally, I wanted to quickly check out Canyon Road, which Marcy recommended on her Facebook page. Canyon Road, about a mile from historic downtown Santa Fe, reminds me of Carmel, but southwest style. A street packed with side-by-side art galleries, it is a visual feast for the eyes - loaded with wonderful sculptures in front of most every gallery.

I, myself, prefer Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock
When I look at these sculptures, Bonnie Raitt's "Let's Give them Something to Talk About" plays in my head.
Mother...
... and Daughter

Having experienced "The Condensed Visit to Santa Fe", I rushed to Taos. It begins as a long drive through flattish desert, then you ascend into the mountains. This is when the drive becomes quite scenic. My GSP lost it's mind for a bit, so I arrived late for dinner, but not too late. We had a wonderful group meal and then moved to our "classroom" for our first gathering to learn what's what and who is who. I can already tell that this is a group of impressively creative folks.

And maybe this is the time to mention what I packed for DOL. In the end, I brought very little. After meeting with Diane Ericson in Ashland, I decided to go minimalist. The best advice she gave me was to "bring what excites you." That made a lot of sense to me. I brought a few pieces of basic, unadorned fabric, some interesting findings, and beads. I brought a few pieces of FabMo samples that are part of a collage project I want to make. I brought the beginning of an Alabama Chanin project. I brought 4 or 5 TnT patterns. But I have no definite plans on what I want to work on.

After our gathering, we retired to our rooms and I enjoyed talking with my completely delightful roomie, Gwen, who had some very impressive projects to show me. I'm hoping she'll let me post a picture or two.

I'm not sure I can post much during the retreat, especially as my room does not have wifi, but my insomnia kicked in tonight. And I am very happy to report that Gwen is not a light sleeper. ;)

What the Heck? A Knitted Donut Collar

You might ask, what the heck, Shams? What is that thing?

Fair question.

When I was in Ashland a week ago, I decided I needed an easy knitting project, primarily because it is suggested that you bring an easy handwork project to Design Outside the Lines.

At Web*sters, they didn't have enough balls of yarn for the project I wanted to make, so I switched gears. I picked up this "braided cowl" pattern, but the yarn to make it would have cost over $80, so I switched to another yarn, of a smaller gauge. I also switched to smaller needles. In the process of making this change, the resulting knitted fabric became more dense, and less flowy. The "cowl" became more like a collar.

I like it, but it's not the same beast.

I decided to call it a "donut collar". It looks a bit strange over a black tee, but I think it would look nice over a black coat or jacket, in cold weather. I have more yarn left, and am thinking that maybe I need matching cuffs. ;)

You can read more about it on my Ravelry review, Shibui Knitted Donut Collar.

I received only one request for the free ticket to Artistry in Fashion, which is in less than a week. Therefore, it goes to Sewphie! I will be mailing it soon. I am so sorry I have to miss this year!

On Facebook, Marcy is already posting pictures from New Mexico. You might be able to see these without being a member of FB, I'm not sure. I'm not leaving quite yet. I still have a few tasks, such as work, taking DD2 to the doctor, packing.

By the way, I enjoyed watching the Emmy's this evening. My favorite dress was a Vivienne Westwood worn by Tina Fey.

Ashland Meetups

With Diane Ericson

I just returned from a quick trip to Oregon.

I like Oregon!

The reason for the trip was to deliver DD1 and her "stuff" (which filled my van to the tippy top), to college. But I combined the trip with some fun. On the return drive, I spent two nights in Ashland, OR. The last time I was in Ashland, I was 20 years old and attending the summer Shakespeare festival. I am happy to report that the town of Ashland is just as cute and charming as it was over 30 years ago.

While in town, I had a couple meetups!

With Mary and Teresa. Ignore my closed eyes and blurry torso. :)

First, I met Mary, of Bibioblog and Teresa, of Camp Runamuck for shopping and lunch. Both of them drove no small distance to meet with me, which I really appreciate. We had planned to meet at the town square, but I arrived early and checked out all three of the quilting stores in Ashland. (Who ever heard of 3 quilting stores within a few blocks of each other?)

After visiting all three, I returned to my favorite, Fabric of Vision, which has a thoughtfully chosen selection of non-quilting fabrics and some very interesting trims and notions, at very reasonable prices. (The other two stores carry quilting fabrics exclusively.) I was making some very well considered choices, when who should wander in, also early, but Mary and Teresa!

We sewists are so darned predictable...

Mary shopping at Fabric of Vision

(Before I forget, if you are looking for the jumbo hook and eye tape that Marcy Tilton used in her recent short jacket pattern, Fabric of Vision carries it in both silver and brass (on black tape), and it's something like $7 or $8 a yard. She also sells other very interesting tape trims, gorgeous ribbons, Japanese double gauze, hand dyed wools, beautiful voiles... Heck, it's impossible to list everything, but she carries some very nice treasures. A small but well curated collection. I suspect they would be happy to take phone orders for the jumbo hook and eye tape...)

The treasures that came home with me. The fabric resembles shibori, but is not. It is highly textured like shibori. The label on the bolt, from the supplier, called it "Boucle" but it is not "A" boucle. It is very cool and when we returned from lunch (yes, our fabric shopping lasted so long we had to break for lunch) Teresa wanted to buy a piece of this but it had sold out in our absence. You can also see the two interesting tape trims that I bought. I already had the jumbo hook and eye tape. Lunch in the courtyard at Dragonfly (highly recommended) Myself, Mary, Teresa, and Sandy, owner of Fabric of Vision

After all three of us exhausted our checkbooks at Fabric of Vision, we wandered into various shops along Main Street (so many nice boutiques and shoe stores...), ending up at The Web*sters, a well known yarn store. I wanted a little knitting project and Mary and Teresa obliged my whim. I am very familiar with their online yarn store, but was surprised to discover that the brick and mortar also carries some high end boutique RTW clothing and jewelry. This distracted us for awhile and I could have easily gotten into trouble with all the beautiful art to wear pieces and jewelry. But I have to save my pennies for Taos, so I resisted.

(Before I forget, my other recommendations in Ashland are Zoey's Ice Cream and Great American Pizza Company. Yum.)

Diane Ericson also lives in Ashland and we planned to meet up at the Ashland Art Center where she has a studio. We managed to miss each other, so instead, we met at dusk for a walk in Lithia Park. Lithia Park, designed by the same guy who designed Golden Gate Park, is one of my favorite things about Ashland. I was so happy to have a chance to finally meet Diane in person and chat as we strolled around the gorgeous park on a warm summer's eve.

If possible, after talking to Diane, I am now more eager to get to Design Outside the Lines in Taos.

So that's it! Twenty hours of driving in four days and I'm back home, back to a grumpy cat who demanded food and then disappeared in a huff, and back to work.

Launched.
Note bed caddy. ;)

Bed Caddy and Artistry In Fashion Giveaway

DD1, who is going off to college very soon, wanted a bed caddy to use at college. (Seriously, some colleges haven't started yet.) At first she wanted to buy an inexpensive, plain, muslin-colored canvas version, but I demurred. I told her I could make one quite easily.

Hah. Famous last words.

I decided to use some fun rain coating fabrics, just because. At first I worried that I made it too small. Then, I made the set of 3 pockets three times. After the second set of three pockets, I gave up on the project and set it aside. It sat for weeks.

But DD2 was hoping for a bed caddy and I decided to try again. She saw the first try and said that it wasn't too small because she mostly wanted it to hold her planner (this kid is addicted to the old style planner in spiral bound form, despite the fact that she has an iPhone) and some pens/pencils, etc.

For the third (and final) set of pockets, I used slightly elasticized bellows pockets, similar to the one I used on my smock.

The other thing I did, which my daughter really liked, was to add a secret pocket on the back side. This was pretty easy since the caddy is lined.

It's a bit hard to tell, but the pockets are 3D.The outside fabric is a quilted raincoat fabric. The polka dot fabrics are flocked raincoat fabrics.The secret pocket on the back side.Loaded. Lightened to show detail. The pocket on the lower right contains a black colored journal which is pretty hard to see against the black background fabric.

Artistry In Fashion Giveaway

Photo Courtesy of Susan Krimmer Designs

Artistry in Fashion approacheth!

If you will be in the SF Bay Area on Saturday, September 29th, I urge you to come. They have been advertising some of the fabulous vendors on their Facebook page.

It saddens me that I have to miss it this year, as it conflicts with Design Outside the Lines. But the good news is that I have a free pass to give away! If you would like the free pass, please leave a comment, stating explicitly that you would like it. I will do the drawing in 5 days or so.

It especially saddens me that I have to miss the launch of my friend Sue's first show/booth at AIF. If you do go, make sure you stop by to check out her beautiful hats and to say "hi" for me. Plus, I want pictures.

Despite the fact that I can't attend AIF personally, I'm hoping to solicit pictures/comments from folks who are attending and I will blog those.

Spring 2013 NYC Fashion Week

I just got back from the newstand to buy a copy of this week's New Yorker for this fabulous cover.
I admit that I enjoy New York Fashion Week, even though I have never stepped foot in New York during that craziness.

As much as we may hate it, resist it, deny it, what happens in these various fashion weeks affects what we all wear, in that it affects silhouettes, fabrics, colors, styles, and patterns that are made available to us all. Even though the RTW and runway clothing is not designed for my age, weight, or style, I find it interesting to watch the new designers and see what they are up to.


One of the ways you know that it's Fashion Week is that the Sundance Channel revs up the activity of the show "All on the Line with Joe Zee". (I blogged about this show last February during Fall 2012 Fashion Week.) Over the weekend, the Sundance Channel had a marathon of the earlier seasons of "All on the Line".

The new season started tonight and it was an entertaining show. Joe was working with two young men who own the line "Unruly Heir" and, wow, it's easy to understand Joe's impulse to smack these guys, at least the entitled rich kid whose father has sunk hundreds of thousands into keeping the business going while his son partied away and his big head grew larger. (Many of these small designers seem to be funded by wealthy family members.) While I would never want to actually compete in the dog-eat-dog world of fashion, it's fun to get a glimpse of the process.

You can watch, at least for now, the first episode of the new season on the Sundance Channel website.

NYC Fashion Week

If you want a peek at what's going on in Fashion Week, there are several ways to go about it from the comfort of your home. Most people know about style.com which has videos of the fashion shows.

I also like The Cut, which is the fashion section of NY Magazine. They maintain a runway page with links to runway videos, still shots (for most runway shows, they show the front and back of the garment on the same page, which is nice), and, in some cases, back stage material.

For example, did you know that Diane Von Furstenburg teamed up with Google to include, in her runway show, special glasses that contained cameras? You can read about it on The Cut.

The other site I monitor is Tom and Lorenzo. I've been reading their blog for years, back when it was called "Project RunGay" and they have ascended to dizzying heights for fashion bloggers - they often sit in the first row of a fashion show, in the realm of Anna Wintour and celebrities.

Georgia O'Keeffe and the Artist Smock

Tick tock tick tock. It's getting closer to the craziness that is my September, one of my favorite months of the year. (I was one of those annoying kids who liked going back to school.) I love September, but this is an especially busy one.

Thanks so much for all of the input on preparing for Design Outside the Lines (DOL). I feel much more focused now. However, rather than actually prepare, I have been indulging in my form of procrastination.

I sewed.

I decided I needed a smock.

What a rather ugly word. Smock. Smock. Smock. Is that a horse coming down the cobblestones?

I do not own an apron or smock of any kind and I am planning to participate in some messy-ish activities at DOL. Rather than bring any disgusting, worn out garments I would usually wear for a messy activity, (or a leaf bag in which I would cut a neck hole and arm holes), I decided I needed a smock.

A flattering smock.

Margy sent me some URLs of reasonably priced smocks, including some inexpensive hairdresser-type smocks. But, no, I have fabric, I have patterns. And nothing I could buy would be remotely flattering.

I started with the same Adri pattern I used for my "casually elegant" jacket. I made a few modifications: reducing the CF overlap so it's a regular overlap, converting the neckline to a round shape, drafting neckline and front facings, and lengthening the hem by 20". I used bust darts in the armscye and at the side seam, but none in the waist area.

At first I planned to loosely gather the long sleeves at the wrist, then I decided I'd rather leave them plain so I could roll them up. I added deep side slits so walking would be easy.

I wanted pockets. At first I drafted a gathered pocket similar to the one Margy used on a recent jacket. But I didn't like how they looked - the proportions were wrong. I had very limited fabric remaining, so I used an elasticized bellows pocket and only one, on the left side because I'm left handed. It felt suitably funky.

The black fabric used for the gusset is from a scrap of knit - from a project I can't even remember.
For the closure I used 7 snaps. These are size 24 (5/8") snaps installed using the SnapSetterwhich also requires the size 24 adapterto use the size 24 snaps. On their How To Use Tools FAQ page you will find instructions on using this tool, including a video by Nancy Zieman. It's quite easy! I last used these snaps on my Au Bonheur raincoat.

At 7am this morning it was me, some hardware, and a hammer. Very therapeutic.

You can see the double darts, especially on the right. I pin those on the body to ensure proper fit and sew the darts and then side seams, almost at the last.
The fabric is an inexpensive striated woven 100% cotton from fabric.com. I bought it over a year ago and I just barely squeezed out this smock. If I were to make this again, I'd used a "slipperier" fabric, because the cotton woven grabs the clothing I am wearing underneath. I wonder if there's a silicone spray that would make it easier to wear...

Georgia O'Keeffe

I mentioned I am interested in Georgia O'Keeffe because I'll be in her stomping ground at DOL. I ordered two books, which arrived yesterday.


Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Collection
I bought this table top book to see a wider variety of Georgia O'Keeffe paintings and drawings. I was mostly familiar with her flower and her skull/bone paintings, but Diane Ericson had told me that she had some amazing landscapes and that the unusual colors she used (in the sky, for example) really depict the colors you see in Taos. I looked through each page in this book and found myself most drawn to her trees, particularly trees she painted while in the north east. It figures, I am such an autumn girl at heart, much more than I am a high desert girl.


How Georgia Became O'Keeffe: Lessons on the Art of Living
I have to thank Brenda, who left a comment on my last DOL post. She mentioned a book she had recently read called "How Georgia Became O'Keeffe" by Karen Karbo. I checked out the reviews on Amazon and wasn't sure about the book, which is described somewhere as a self help book. But I think that description is inadequate.

It is a chatty, informal book about Georgia O'Keeffe's life filtered through Karen Karbo's views and anecdotes. It's like reading a friend's opinions and views, if she were very cool. It contains "life lessons" that she draws from Georgia O'Keeffe's life, which is, I guess, where the "self help" description comes from. It's more loosely written than a conventional biography, and she gives plenty of historical context to show how and why Georgia was such a unique character. Here is an example towards the end of the book:

O'Keeffe never lost her spunk, or her conviction that what she was up to at any given moment was somehow less important because she was older. This was also true of her fellow extreme seniors Katharine Hepburn and Coco Chanel. ... Like O'Keeffe, they were skinny, busy, and irritated until they declined a bit, then died. They were active, didn't eat a lot, and followed their interests. They never let anyone tell them what to do. They were always a bit pissed off. I can only assume that this is the real recipe for longevity.

I can relate to this, especially the grumpy bit.

I started reading in the late afternoon yesterday and finished last night in the wee hours. Very entertaining and I feel like I now have a meaningful glimpse into Georgia O'Keeffe, the person. As a bonus, the author described staying in the Mabel Dodge Luhan house in Taos, where Georgia stayed back in the day. It is now a hotel and conference center and where Design Outside the Lines is held.

This book is the last in Karbo's trilogy of books "about kick ass" women, the other two being about Coco Chaneland Katharine Hepburn.What a great idea!


Now, if I were really channeling Georgia O'Keeffe, I wouldn't have bothered with a smock. While she did sew her clothing, even her underwear, she was famous for painting in the nude.