Dealing with stains - An upcycled Paganoonoo Patti blouse with a trick, plus tablecloth garment

Sometime you find a great textiles, but with stains. 

These two starting garments may not look like much, but both are beautifully soft.  The embroidered one is linen and the other cotton. 

The linen has a slightly iridescent quality.  

The cotton one simply will not wrinkle. 

One of the things I love about upcycling is that you know exactly how the fabric will behave because it's already been cleaned many times. 

The color combination is a subtle play on this one shade of green.  

I liked the combination so much that I broke my three fabrics rule and just used these two starting garments.  

I decided to upcycle the garments using the Paganoonoo upcycled sewing tutorial for the Patti blouse as I wanted to show off the embroidered linen in the back panel. 

 What you don't see is the stains on the linen garment, grease spots and slight bleaching in some parts. 

I decided to make a feature out of the problems. 

On the cuffs an embroidered stitch is placed around the lighter spots. The shapes are organic and I really like them as a "feature". 

The color of embroidery thread is deliberately chosen from the other side of the color wheel to create excitement. I added a couple non-functional buttons for interest.  

I also used fabric pens to add in dots, making it more like a patterned fabric. 

The same (upcycled) buttons are on the front.  I did not have the smaller size buttons so I used orange thread on those buttons to tie in the color. I also repeated the dots down the placket.

The grease spots are hidden in plain sight by wide circular bands around the stains using the fabric pen. Looking closely it is really impossible to see the difference in color between the stained parts and the rest of the fabric. 

I ended up with a much more interesting garment than it would have been without the stains as features.  Plus I really ended up with a third fabric through the embellishment. 

Love the shape of this blouse?
Make your own! Our tutorial instructs you on how to add hip room to a standard men's dress shirt. No pattern needed.

 Paganoonoo upcycle sewing tutorials are available on Etsy. 

Get 25% with code HIDESTAINS

Used this technique again on a vintage tablecloth:

Happy upcycling , Michelle Paganini

Sedona and the color wheel

We are in Sedona, one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.  The soil is a luscious orange/red and the plants lean towards a sage green. 

I've been reminded as I look at the landscape what a powerful combination colors on the opposite side of the color wheel make.  The landscape practically vibrates. 

George, as usual, has been taking stunning shots so I can share this amazing phenomena with you.


























When planning a color blocked upcycle garment you'd like to be an attention grabber, use colors from the opposite side of the color wheel.  

 These photos barely do justice to seeing the colors in person.  I've seen southwest color combinations many times but feel like I've never really understood them until now.  

This fall colored beauty is from the Patti Pattern.
The front is straight off the pattern design.

In the back I could not resist a bit of Origami-like work incorporating a tie (pre-washed of course).  Note on the far left there is a collar point sticking up.  I really love the overall effect.

 A Judy Flower adds a bit of interest to the front. 

 

This particular version was made for a very tall friend, over 6 ft., who has a difficult time finding clothing on the right scale. The back is dramatically long on this version.  It is also purposely asymmetrical.

The pattern gives instructions for how to modify the length of the drop in the back to short, medium, long or in-between.  

Seasons changing!

We are in the middle of a terrible drought in California.  Trees are in distress, lawns are brown and it's been very, very hot.  

So...when it rained for a short time a couple days ago I shouted YAHOO!  And now the weather finally feels like there is a bit of Fall in the air. 

So today I have on a flannel shirt (yummy) and lentil soup on the stove (double yummy).  I'm thinking about what pattern to work on next.

I don't know about you but flannel has been catching my eye lately. I've been dreaming of a nice comfy calf length dress, a variation on the Peggy pattern, done up in red flannels.  With a pair of boots I'd be all set for football games, holiday events, and running errands in style.  At home with slippers - perfect for TV and hand stitching.

So, that is my target.  A dress with the upper part like a Peggy blouse and a special twist on the bottom.  

More use of advanced illustration class skills

George and I are working on a graphic for the Puyallup 2016 Sewing Expo.  It's possible I may be a speaker (yeah!) and I need to send in a graphic for the catalog

 in case I get in.  

Update 17Nov15, I'm in!  I'll be teaching and have a booth. Look for the final image in the Expo catalog to find my class.

Ann Sagawa, my contact, suggested a combination of Paganoonoo pattern, starting shirts and finished garments.  Great idea!

George, with his extraordinary photography skills
captured all the elements.

However when the graphic is shrunk to the catalog size 
(smaller than this) the shirts get a bit lost.

So I decided to try an outline around the shirts and blouse.

which helps some... but still seems to blend in a bit too much.

So I thought a background from the opposite side of the color wheel might help.  It does, but is a bit too light.

So I darkened the background just to get the feel
of how it would look.  I also darkened the line around the pattern. I like it.  

Here is the whole progression.  The background probably would not have occurred to me without the training I received in Advanced Illustration last semester.

And yes, this is almost as much fun as coloring!

Here is the final version.  I printed all the elements out at the highest resolution possible.  I then cut out each item on the outside line.  Those images were positioned on a piece of blue wallpaper from FABMO (in addition to fabric they have wallpaper and tile samples). It was then scanned, turned into a jpeg, and then cropped.  

Hopefully Paganoonoo will be at Puyallup and I will meet you there in 2016!

Antoine, Guest Blogger from Vavavida, Artisan Sourced Jewelry

Being ethical is capital

Hi, my name is Antoine owner of Vavavida and I am honored to be able to share my story here. Michelle’s mission for social justice and passion for social entrepreneurship are very much aligned with mine. Both she and I work hard to bring you beautiful, fair and sustainable fashionable products with a story to tell.

Let me tell you the story of a girl I know. Sana is a young woman from a rural and very poor part of India. Being a woman in the rural, severely underprivileged northern part of India is difficult, to say the least.  India ranks 158th out of 168 countries on the gender equality index. 

For Sana growing up, opportunities were bleak so she left school and went to the city as a tween to work and help her family survive. She joined her father and a group of mostly female artisans in a metal casting workshop in the heart of Old Delhi and started working as a jewelry maker for local tradesmen. It’s a physically demanding and delicate job in the best of circumstances. It requires a great deal of skills and hard work over long work shifts. The shop where she worked was small, poorly ventilated, cramped with other artisans and generally unsafe and unsanitary due to a lack of equipment and funds. They were routinely mistreated by their clients, forced to working in unsafe conditions for minimal wages and pressured into delivering tight deadlines. 

Unfortunately, this story is a very common one in India. But where Sana’s story differs from most others is that she was able to find a solution. In 2009, Sana searched and found an Indian importer-exporter of fair trade jewelry with a base in Texas who appreciated their work, skills and designs. 

Sana and her colleagues decided to change their business operations and partner with the importer on a permanent basis. Since applying the fair trade principles to their business model, their lives and livelihoods has tremendously improved. After a few short years of constant personal and professional growth, they were able to take the next step in sustainability and created an evening education program for their members. Sana is now enrolled in that program and she will be the first woman in her community to go to college. She plans on gaining the professional skills that will help her to one day take over her aging father’s place as the head of this successful co-op. 

The reason I know Sana and her story is because we work with her and her family. Although Vavavida does not have a production facility, we work with many artisan co-ops across several continents by purchasing their wares and retailing them. This is why we do what we do. We want to make this success story the rule.

Many studies have demonstrated the importance of women’s access to education for the success of a community. With Women Equality Day just behind us, it’s important to remember that about 70% of the world’s poor are women. In countries like Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, women and girls make up around 70% of the apparel sweatshop workers and are often treated as property rather than as human beings. The Noble Peace Prize winner and Pakistani education activist Malala took a bullet to the head because she wanted to be independent and was outspoken about her right as a woman to go to school.

Breaking away from this situation and replacing it with empowered and educated women may be the most important thing we can do to help a community, a nation and the world grow. Even though women are the most affected by poverty, they are also more likely to raise a community out of poverty. Many developing countries stunt their ability to thrive because girls and women are mistreated, preventing their access to basic education. Sana’s success is a reality and fair trade can be part of the solution.

The simple act of purchasing products from companies that promote women’s rights and education can have a tremendous ripple effect down the line. 

I encourage you to change your shopping habits and be mindful of tag on the item. 

Nowadays, looking good and changing someone’s life for the better has never been so easy.

Nick and Nora PJs sacrificed for dog scarf

It is national dog day today!  

My husband is a cat lover but I prefer dogs.  
Hmm... unconditional love v.s. "You may exist in my presence.....for now" is an easy choice.

In honor of national dog day I have a project to share.  
I was thrifting (surprise!) the other day and found an adorable 
Nick and Nora pajama top. 

I can always spot Nick and Nora PJs because the graphics are so great.  I bought the top thinking I could embellish a scarf.

I've been finding really nice viscose and pashmina scarves at my local Goodwill lately.


So while we were driving to LA a few weeks ago I harvested the dogs using pinking shears.

It looks like a dog chewed it, LOL.

Then I hand sewed the dogs onto a white viscose scarf
 using a running stitch.

Totally adorable.
The small circle is to cover a stain on the scarf.





Love it with  black outfit.

I'm going to have to step away from the computer and go out in public to show it off!  Happy National Dog Day!

Fruits of Advanced Illustration last semester

Last Semester I had the pleasure of taking my second illustration class with Professor Kathleen McCarney at Canada College in Redwood City, CA, USA.  I've been using what I learned to revise my pattern covers and make sure there is some uniformity between them. 

Here I am revising the Patti Cover. It initially had flat renderings 

and I want a bit more lifelike representations.

I generally start with a photo.  

Which I then reduce to a line drawing.  It can look quite different than the photo but I find it helpful to start from a photo.  Here I added in some shadowing for a more 3D look.

I then started to audition color combinations

Not liking the blue and brown much.

This combo wasn't bad.

The pink and brown is a bit more appealing to me. The numbers written on the pages are the pen color numbers.

The final (I thought) version.
Then I realized it was too long,
not representative of how
 the pattern would turn out.

So I shortened it. Subtle
but more accurate.

It is wonderful to have control over the process. Some of you are laughing because you know I am a control freak, albeit a messy control freak.

The downside is it often takes a tremendous amount of time before I am satisfied with a drawing.  Thank goodness for the training I received!  The more I exercise my skills the faster I become and hopefully better. 

No I'm not actually at the beach now, but in honor of the (almost over) summer I've posted one of my favorite ever vacation photos from a couple of years ago.

We were in Mexico, warm sand, lovely breezes and the hotel cooked up a fish feast.  

I found this lovely dress at Goodwill right before I left.

It was on this trip that I started seriously thinking about an upcycling business.  A friend strongly encouraged me and I felt like I was not ready yet but it got me thinking about what it would take for me to be ready.

Thank you Pamela for your vision for me.  Thank you to all my other encouraging friends and family!  

In progress, the Rebecca shirt dress

I've always been partial to shirt dresses. 

I think they look great. When I feel cranky about what to wear a shirtdress is my go-to item. I feel polished and they are comfortable and easy to wear.

I've been experimenting for a future pattern (The Rebecca Dress).  So far I like knee length which looks good with flats.  I don't know about you but I can't do heels anymore. 

I'm using sleeves for the skirt and most of the sleeves are not quite long enough to go from waist to knee so I'm supplementing the length at the bottom.

Check out the price on the shirt!  ($5.39)

Most dress shirts in my area sell for between $5 and $9.  So for a three shirt dress - $27 max, such a deal!  

Upcycle sewing is green and economical. Plus, you get a garment that is unique, almost guaranteed. 

Happy Upcycling!