Archive for
Do you remember my needy friend? I just came across her again, so I thought I’d take more pictures. Just because, you are so pretty!
There wasn’t time to take any photographs of pillows this afternoon. I was just looking out my bedroom window and imagined the view as a pillow fronts so here are some pictures.
A sweet 15″ x 12″ pillow that I made from a fragment of a 19th c Ottoman towel for Pat McGann Gallery. I did a coordinating front band with linen back. These kinds of towels would have been used in the Turkish Bath, hamam, by wealthier patrons. What is amazing about these kinds of Ottoman embroideries is that they were worked so that the front and the back are the same so that there is not a back side. This fragment is almost naive compared to the detail that can be found in some examples. There was a good article about these towels and the hamams in Turkey in World of Interiors awhile back, if you can find it.
A pair of Swat Valley Embroidery Pillows that I made for Pat McGann Gallery last week. Cotton on Cotton.
These are a pair of pillows that I made awhile back for Pat McGann Gallery. The vintage hand embroidered panels are from the Swat Valley, Pakistan–an intricate silk embroidery on cotton.
 |
| Click it to make it bigger; it’s fantastic. |
This pillow is 23.5″ x 16.5″ and I am crazy over it. I can’t even say why except for the many steps that took place to make it. If you want to make your own, here’s what to do:
1. Find avocado green crewelwork of sprays of flowers c 1974. at Revival in Los Angeles.
2. Think it’s the ugliest thing you have ever seen, and be unsure as to why you are buying it.
3. Leave it sitting around your apartment in pile of textiles for several weeks, look at it occasionally and think, That thing is ugly.
4. Decide one day to bleach it and see what happens.
5. See that after about 6 hours it has turned a bright orange color. Because you forgot about it, notice that it did not bleach evenly and do not worry about splotches. It’s like resist dying.
6. Put it back in pile of textiles for several months and think you have made it uglier.
7. One morning decide to do something with it, stare at it a awhile, hoping it will speak to you and turn it on the reverse side and cut away all the yarn knots and clip away long stitches — this takes about an hour — until it starts to “feel right.”
8. Applique scrap fabric in circle like shapes on the back side (which used to be the front side) and cut away what is underneath.
9. Back the fabric so the yarn won’t pull out further, since you have cut away all the support knots.
10.Pick coordinating back fabric of a light lavender and gray silk lining to cover the backing material, add a vintage turquoise zipper.
11. Cut and sew together.
12. Add pillow insert- zip shut.
 |
| A large vintage silk charmeuse scarf here– 8 layers of silk |
 |
| cut into 1″x1″ squares |
 |
| Pinned |
 |
| Until sewn |
 |
| The scarf is from the curtains (upper right) that I made out of scarves (btw 2 years is about how long your silk curtains will last unless they are lined) |
 |
| Variation of color is due to sun fading the silk in the window over the past 2 years. |
 |
| The colors are quite pretty |
 |
| Result: 18′ of passementerie & a weekend of fun. |
 |
| Hand sewn to horsehair ribbon |
 |
| with 5 colors of vintage thread. |
 |
| DIY; knock yourself out. |
On Friday I thought that I would become a passementier so I set out to make my first sample taking photos on the way to share the process. Of course, I have been fond of making tassels since I was a child so I thought I’d expand a bit. Strictly speaking, this is a rather primitive form considering where one can go with it. A time consuming exercise. Now I must get back to the pillows.
This morning I looked at these pillow fronts –c1970 fabric–that I had not yet finished and thought, Row of loops across top! I added them. Thought & Action. They make me want to twirl around; spin them by their many loops, and do a little pillow dance.
This pair of vintage fabric pillows are part of a group that I designed and made for the new online shop Iron & Tweed, which BTW will be up first of April 1 if it all goes well. This is a vintage Indian cotton fabric which is not woven as one piece of complete colorway but individual colorways sewn together to create variation in color. It has the same 1970’s linen/cotton back that I’m totally crazy about right now. Not to mention the buckskin loops and vintage appliqued flowers patches.
