School has me pretty busy lately working to understand the moulage. I’m at the final stages with both mine and my husband’s second drafts and I should be able to take them to slopers next week. It’s all pretty exciting but it can be mind-bending work at times. I like to break up these head-y moments with a little creative experimentation. Last night I took out my drafting paper and Tomoko Nakamichi’s Pattern Magic books and played around with adding bows to garments.
I ended up following the directions for the knot dress from book 1 and adding the bow to (none other than) the Sorbetto. I wanted to see how it sewed up and being low on muslin (not to mention that it would be pretty stiff for the draping) I found some scraps of cotton voile.
When I make this “for real” I’m going to redraft the bow manipulation to drape from the sides (I simply eliminated the bust dart) as well as the arms. It’s just a little too much at the top and doesn’t look balanced to me. In addition, I ended up with about 1 inch of fabric leftover near the “knot ease”. You can’t actually see it but if I were to use a fabric that frayed (like this cotton voile!), the edges wouldn’t be finished. I’m not entirely sure where this extra bulk is coming from though, so it’s proving to be a difficult problem to solve.
This project had me thinking about an exhibit at the Museum of Craft and Folk Art from earlier this year. The exhibit showcased the work of Sister Corita, an artist, teacher and activist. There was one particular piece that really caught my attention that I wanted to share with you. I find myself thinking about these rules and how they reflect what the creative experience means to me. Recently, Rule 4 has become my mantra.
The Rules RemadeJenifer K. Wofford (wofflehouse.com)
2011 Commission
What are you experimenting with lately?
