I've been doing little bits of a lot of different things lately -- which doesn't add up to much progress in any one area!
I've done a little knitting on my granddaughter's sweater. The pockets are knitted now but some sewing on one of them still needs attention. The button bands are also complete. I have stalled on the sleeves though. I'm just really not in the mood for knitting and only occasionally force myself to pick it up.
I've been getting a surprising amount of enjoyment out of simpler things lately. Like mending the worn knees of my son's work jeans.
During the patching a little Boro stitching may have spontaneously happened. He doesn't seem to mind. In real life his black work jeans are much darker than they appear here so the stitching isn't so noticable.
Inspired by the success of patching his jeans I picked up a really inexpensive pair of artificially distressed and ripped jeans from Winners. My intent is to play around with doing some decorative Boro on them. I might add additional embroidery or other embellishment as well, as the mood strikes.
What I didn't take into consideration is that the "skinny" jeans have a lot of stretch to them and I'll have to adapt my method so that even once stitched they will still retain their ability to expand and contract. I'm using a doubled piece of stretch jersey for the patch and I'm stretching both it and the jeans in an embroidery hoop, which is not traditional for Boro, which is usually just hand held.
And finally I DO have one finish! The fabric for this simple v-neck t-shirt with 3/4 sleeves has been cut out and laying in a heap in my sewing room for months. I finally got around to sewing it up today. I've made this pattern, #2805 Women's T-Shirts, by Jalie before and it always turns out great.
Oh! I nearly forgot to include the cross-stitching! I've been doing about an hour's worth on the train picture every morning as I have my coffee. No progress photo of that though, it's very slow going and updates will be few and far between.
2 comments:
i love your Boro work. Where did you learn to do this - or did you just look at photos and say "I can do that" ?
Boro is really just perpetual patching to extend the life of a garment indefinitely, Gene. It's done by hand and most often with a running stitch. I don't remember how I actually learned that part of it. There are no real rules to Boro and pretty much anything goes.
The fancier stitching, anything that looks more like a pattern, is Sashiko, and I picked up much of that from "The Ultimate Sashiko Sourcebook" by Susan Briscoe. If you are interested in learning more it's a wonderful book that I highly recommend. Many traditional stitching patterns, from simple to intricate, are documented.
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