I wove a coat

I have just finished sewing together this coat:

I wanted to make something special to wear to the opening of my solo show- The Oracle of Stillness: Weaving Coherence in the Chaos.

I’ve been weaving this fabric on many different looms for about 5 years!

I worked my chops off to finish the last length of it, and then agonized over what on earth I would make with it…. a vest? a tunic? a shirt? a smock? a tabard? ack….

Finally, I settled on a coat-ish, duster-ish, big shirt-ish sort of a thing and cut out slopers and spent a whole lot of hours basting it together, trying it on, pinning new seam lines, basting them, snip snip snip

over and over and over until I was happy with the shapes:

I played around with fitting the various pieces of fabric onto the slopers

And, then eeeeeeeeeeeek I cut out the shapes! Hmmm something horrible has happened to the colors in the photo below… sorry about that!

Then -the long slow process of hand and machine stitching all the fabric components together…

I don’t like the raw edges of hand woven fabric, so I cover them with bias tape:

and hand woven narrow bands:

Every seam is sewn at least 3 and often 4 times (and of course, I zig zag stitched all the raw edges before doing anything at all).

It’s a slow and pleasant process- very meditative and contemplative.

And, of course- it has pockets! Pockets are essential!

Here’s the back:

It’s a very simple construction of an easy going and comfortable coat/duster/big shirt that I plan on wearing for years.

But first… to the opening of my show on Friday night at Harcourt House Gallery in Edmonton.

Hmmmm…. what to wear under it? Probably basic black shirt and pants, but jeans are tempting, too….

I am pretty sure that I have enough of the fabric left to cobble together a vest, too…

just not this week!

Here’s the link to my show: Harcourt House announcement

Jim and I just got home from the final ‘tweeking’ of the show, and I am so happy! ❤