car wash skirt

Car Wash Skirt

Car Wash Skirt by Tracey

Pattern, draped by Tracey

Fabric, Wool Tweed, B&J Fabrics

Lining, Silk Charmeuse, Susan Khalje Couture

At least once a day, I feel like Sisyphus. If you need a refresher on mythology, Sisyphus was the guy who was doomed to push the boulder up the hill, only to see it roll back down again. I think many moms feel just like that, some of the time. When asked, “Hey, what did you do today?”. I say, “Well, let me tell you, I pushed this boulder all the way to the top of the mountain. And man! Was it hard work!”. To that, they reply, “Uh, you sure about that? Is the boulder you are talking about the one sitting at the bottom of that hill?”. Yep. That’s the one.

That’s one of the reasons why I make my creative life a priority. For the times, I’ve cleaned my butt off, but there are still dirty dishes in the sink, or all of the clean laundry seems to be spilling over the dirty clothes basket, or my son rips the toilet paper holder out of the wall (true), I need to be able to make progress somewhere. So, I head to my tree house (which is what I call my sewing room), and get to work on a project.

The car wash skirt project threatened to topple my whole system because the progress I was making was about the slowest in my history of sewing. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got no problem with slow sewing, but this was like watching the grass grow! My pace was so frustrating that it took a Herculean (mythology again!!) effort just to finish. And after about 10 months, give or take, I finally did. Phew!

This skirt is packed with couture details. The wool tweed is quilted with the silk charmeuse lining. The interior pieces were joined using a hand sewn fell stitch. I put in a petersham ribbon waist band and the zipper was installed using a prick stitch sewn by hand. Now that it’s completed, I’m thrilled with how it turned out and I’m already starting to forget all the time and force of will it took to get it done. Just like child birth! We moms are programmed to forget the pain. And when I look at my gorgeous angels, I don’t think at all about the effort of bringing them into the world. Or not much anyway.

Next week, I’m off to Baltimore for another couture sewing workshop with Susan Khalje. I can’t wait!! I’m busting out some lace I bought in Paris. See you soon.

Hi Everybody! It’s so good to be back! As we approach the end of the year, it’s probably inevitable that I review what we have done here at Featherstitch Avenue, and figure out where we want to go in the future. When I started the blog, I wanted to give myself deadlines and a framework for my creative life. It’s too easy to ignore my artistic side with all the pressures and responsibities of family life. Looking back over the year, I am somewhat amazed at our productivity! I don’t fully understand how that happened but most of the credit goes to the blog. Now it’s time to make the blog work for me again. I’m ready to really challenge myself and break through some creative blocks that are in my way. The projects I’m going to take on require skills that I’m still learning and I will need A LOT more time to complete them. It’s going to mean some changes in the way we present things, so expect to see a few tweaks here and there. My productivity will be down in quantity, but hopefully way up on quality! And of course, Santiago will be there to photograph it every step of the way.

First up! A car wash skirt! Call me crazy, but I love this skirt. It’s all about taking something very lady-like and zapping it with a rock-n-roll edge. Now that’s a trend I can totally get behind! With this project, I get to apply the education that I’ve gotten from Julien Cristofoli in draping and Susan Khalje in couture sewing. Using Christian Dior’s version as inspiration, I’ve sketched out what I’d like to try. (To see more inspiration, go to my Pinterest page here.)

Here’s the fabric that I’ll be using. I’ve had this in my stash for years. And while I really love it, I haven’t been able to get my head around using it because it felt a little too girly for me. But taking this fabric and essentially shredding it is going to give it enough of a punk feel that I think is going to make it feel more like me.

Photography by Santiago Vanegas

Next week, I’m going to introduce you to my dress form and we’re going to do some draping!!

One more thing before I go. As many of you know, I was in Paris at the beginning of the month. I have been sitting here at my computer typing and deleting, and typing and deleting, trying to process the horrible events that occurred. The truth is, I don’t know what to say. The only thing I know for sure is that I am heartbroken for the people of Paris and everyone affected by the attack. My thoughts and prayers are with them.

Mother’s Day

Working at the Car Wash