My old lunch bag made of oilcloth (a kind of lightweight vinyl) served me well for about a year, but even good things must come to an end!  In this case, oil from my hands disintegrated the vinyl grips, while occasional heavy lunches took out the bottom corners.  So I came home from work one day, shook my head, and pulled it apart to make a new one! 

An upcoming murder-mystery dinner, set in the year 1919, offers me an opportunity to pursue several desirable ends, viz. to dress my friend, to use up some stash, and to practice draping! 

Dressing my friend is like dressing my sister... when I care about someone, I want to dress them!  I think of Proverbs 31: 21: "When it snows, she has no fear for her household; for all of them are clothed in scarlet."  "Scarlet" is not a reference to color in this verse, but to the fine woolen cloth called scarlet in the Middle Ages, which was often dyed scarlet in color, but not necessarily.  So the Proverbs 31 woman isn't just dressing her family in red, she's dressing her family warmly as a sign of her love and a product of her industry.  Wrapping people in nice clothes is such a potent signifier, isn't it? 

Of course, if I can also use up some of my stash and reclaim my room, all the better!  And I do need practice draping clothes on a dress form. 

One day I looked at my undergarments and said to myself, "Self," says I, "I need a new petticoat...!"  

I have several serviceable slips, one crinoline, and a vintage nylon petticoat, already.  The vintage one is a joy to wear, a soft apricot color with a delightful froth of ruffles around my knees, but it's also torn and mended in many places, and is too long for a lot of my skirts.  (Luckily, I know how to make it work.)  The crinoline does its job, but without the lovely ruffles and softness I like.  What's needed is something like the vintage one, but shorter, to wear with my shorter skirts.  And I do have a stash that needs busting! 

So I dig around in my whites and pull out some white sheer curtain fabric, white lace from a wedding gown skirt, and white nylon tricot from an old nightgown. 

I have a friend with cervical spine damage who is always on the hunt for the perfect pillow.  She asked me if I could make one for her that had the following qualities:

• flat, not too tall or fluffy
• loosely packed so that the fill can be shifted around to make cradle for the head
• a kind of fill that doesn't get either compacted or lumpy with use

I hemmed and hawed, because she's far away from me, so I wouldn't be able to run the prototype past her, but then, at Fabric Depot's warehouse sale in February, I saw Pellon's Forever Loft(R) Latex Fill steeply discounted, so I bought it.  If it doesn't meet her needs, it was only four bucks and a night of work.  Plus, it used up a bunch of my stash! 

Today's post is about Yoko Saito's artwork, and about a skirt I made recently, from the same stash and pattern as the A-line of last week.  It includes a strip of bias-cut wool in very soft taupe colors, appliqued onto a darker wool using Yoko Saito's instructions, so I've taken to calling it my Yoko Saito skirt! 

Yoko Saito is a famous quilter.  Her work is very Japanese in its sensibilities: subtle colors, subtly combined, with impeccable stitching and attention to minute detail.  There are three elements which come together to make a Yoko Saito quilt really distinctive to me: the taupe colors; the complex and often layered applique; and the hand-quilting.  Doing an image search for "Yoko Saito" will give you a pretty good idea of her aesthetic; it's the kind of work that rewards close study.  Be aware as you look that Saito has many students and followers who replicate her style, so not everything you see is definitely made by her; but it represents her school of quilting. 

Several months ago, I had in my stash two slivers of cream-colored poly-satin.  If I had to guess, someone made a wedding dress with a gored skirt, and these skinny triangles were the leftovers.  I also had a few scraps of another satin, but this one less shiny, in the same color.  From these, I intended to create a shirt that would match my tulip skirt, and thus be a valuable addition to my wardrobe.  As to the actual result, well... it was educational!