Thursday, February 2, 2012

Creative Fabric Project

Today I was in a mini fashion-show-of-a-kind for everyone who participated in a January workshop on creative uses of fabric and patternmaking, so I thought I'd share my final project here. Most of us spent the three-day workshop learning how to make a particular skirt from Tokomo Nakamichi's book Pattern Magic. Nakamichi's pattern-making process was really inspiring to me, particularly in the way that she encourages prototyping sculptural, 3D patterns with paper and then recutting the paper to form new pattern pieces. The skirt pattern we were working from used the same technique as Nakamichi used in this dress, the otoshiana (or "drop-hole").


source

So I set out to make a skirt with a drop-hole. I constructed it out of denim, since I needed something sturdy to hold the shape of the skirt and that was the heaviest material I had in my stash. While I've sewn clothing from patterns before, this was the first time that I ever drafted a pattern (given only the dimensions in a book), altered it to fit me, and turned it into a wearable garment. A really good learning experience, I think!

Dress with Speaker

And then...well, the drop-hole in the skirt looked to me liked it needed to have something coming out of it. So I added a speaker cone in the hole, and a pocket to hold a little amplifier circuit, batteries, and an mp3 player. So now I have a skirt that can also play music. (A very, very heavy skirt, because of the weight of the speaker). A bit silly, perhaps, but it was a fun project!

Dress with Speaker

Dress with Speaker closeup

10 comments:

Terri said...

What fun!  Do you know the blog Handmade by Carolyn?  She works with patterns from this same book...

Penny-rose said...

I think this is so cool - I love it!!!!!!!! Well done. 

Kristin & Megan said...

I'm in awe and jealous of your skill!

Melanie said...

I found your link through Rags Against the Machine. I love that skirt! You've made a piece of wearable art. Really inspiring.

Clair said...

Wow, this is so crazy and creative!!

Sorry I didn't get a chance to say good bye last night. It was great meeting you. Hope to see you again!

Sarah Morgan Shepherd said...

Oh my gosh, this is so wonderful!

Casey said...

Hi Elly,
So nice to meet you the other night. I had so much fun at the event. 
Cool skirt, I had never heard of this "drop-hole" before, but it looks like the perfect home for your speaker, lol.
Best,
Casey















Girl
in the Poodle Shoes

Elly said...

It was great to meet you as well!  I'll definitely have to keep my eyes open for the next Boston Blogger event.  :)

Elly said...

Thanks so much!  It was lovely to meet you as well.  :)  That was a really fun event!

Elly said...

Thanks so much!  :) 

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