Finally my own bloomers design

I've been working on making up my own pattern for bloomers with ruffles.  I had tried making a few other pairs that I discussed earlier, but I didn't like the gathering at the knee and the bow tie in the back.  Tying my pants up behind my back is a little fiddly, so I decided to try other options.

This pair above is made from a wonderful blue black hand dyed cotton I bought during my quilting days.  I designed a wide leg cropped pant, decorated with two rows of double edged ruffles and no gathering at the knee.  The ruffles are hemmed on both edges.  (That's a lot of hemming!)  These have an elastic waistband which makes them much easier to take on and off than a bow in the back.  Super comfy, too, but they're a bit big on me, so I've listed them for sale.  I also added some pockets with piping on the edge because I can't successfully leave the house without pockets in my pants.

The problem with an elastic waistband is you still need extra fabric in the waist to get them over your hips.  You can remove the extra fabric by adding a zipper instead, but up until this week, I didn't know how to sew a zipper.   For MONTHS, I've been trying to learn how to set a zipper.  I keep reading instructions, but hadn't actually tried to do it. Finally,  I decided that if I started with a lapped zipper, I could sew anything.  So, I found a pattern for a lapped zipper, and after following the pattern with some scrap cotton, I found that the pattern didn't produce a very stylish result.  I found at least three errors.  So I spent a full day designing my own pattern off of the faulty one, until I got everything to line up properly.  It took my 5 iterations to get it just right and ready for use.  Since the green fabric isn't stretchy at all, I also decided to add a bit of elastic in the back of the waistband.  For this reason, my sister dubbed them "buffet pants." 

The green pair of bloomers include the lapped zipper, back darts, ruffles, and two front pockets with piping.  I also added a little tag with my name and the fiber content because it's the law if you want to sell clothing that it be labeled with fiber content.  Who knew?  I'm thrilled with the workmanship on this pair.  The details are very nearly perfect.   But, they're still a little big on me, so I'm selling them in anticipation of making myself a perfectly fitting pair.

Topologically Equivalent Surfaces in Felt for the Math Nerd in You

This is a set of 4 topologically equivalent surfaces that I just listed. Each surface has two faces shown in the two colors of felt, and each surface also has exactly two edges, shown with button hole stitching in green and black.

All of these surfaces can be THEORETICALLY* deformed into any of the other three, but you might have to allow the surface to intersect itself to do it. In mathematical terms, each of the four surfaces is homeomorphic to the other three since they all have Euler characteristic -2. Secondly, three of the surfaces are isotopic to each other, but one of the surfaces is not isotopic to the other three.  The one with the three-fold spiral is the odd man out (rightmost piece in the first photo).  You can see that this one is weird since the black edge is a trefoil knot.   That's how you know that you would have to intersect the suface to deform it into the other surfaces.  Each of the other edges on all four pieces can be deformed to a circle without crossing itself.

*Note, you can't physically deform these felt models to make the other surfaces.  You have to imagine or visualize how to do this.  

The Euler characteristic is calculated by drawing a map on the surface and counting the number of faces, edges and vertices as V + F - E.  For 3D polyhedra, the Euler characteristic is always positive 2.  For example, the cube gives 8 + 6 - 12 = 2.  The tetrahedron gives 4 + 4 - 6 = 2.

I made these by wet felting pure wool over a cotton base, and when they were dry, I hand stitched the edges with cotton yarn. These little sculptures are stiff enough to hold their shape, but flexible enough to be folded. Three of them can be arranged to sit in at least two different configurations.  It's hard to measure how big these are exactly, but they range from about 2 to 4 inches.

Harlequin Playa Coat Using McCalls 5092 Pattern

I finally finished my blue and green playa coat.  This is the first fake fur coat that I sewed entirely from scratch.   This coat is based upon McCalls 5092 in the medium size (size 14-16), but after making a muslin mock up, I found it was HUGE, like a cape. I  took out somewhere between a quarter and a third of the width of the fabric in the skirt.  I also narrowed the underside of the dolman sleeves considerably because dolman sleeves and backpacks are not a good combination.  Plus, I haven't liked dolman sleeves since 1989.  I like the way one can flip up the collar for when it gets really cold.

The fabric is a wonderfully soft, and somewhat stretchy, poodle-like fur that is probably nylon or some other synthetic.  The lime green lining is pure silk, which also lines the pockets.  To make sure the seams will last, I used French seams on the lining and I binded all of the seams of the fur with twill tape.  Because I wanted really big green buttons, I made them myself out of some scrap wood in the garage and some leftover green house paint.  Each button loop also has a second loop from which I can hang glow stick bracelets.  I can't wait to wear this on the Playa!

Beading another Kepler's Tiling

Today I ran across this article on "five-fold symmetry in crystalline quasicrystal lattices."   This figure of one of Kepler's famous tilings got me thinking about weaving beads.  I noticed that if I placed one bead on each pentagon, a little thread should hold them together nicely.  In search of a larger patch of this tiling of Kepler to guide me, I found this page on "aperiodic tilings" by Steve Dutch, and his fourth figure fit the bill perfectly.  (Thank you Professor Dutch for letting me post it here.)

The photo below shows the same patch of tiles rendered with size 11/0 seed beads and thread.

 My bead weave shows one bead for each pentagons in Dutch's illustration, plus I added exactly 10 extra shiny purple beads (red pentagons) around the perimeter to smooth out the edges and make the weave more circular and less scalloped.  Notice that this weave has holes in three different sizes.  The smallest holes (with 5 shiny purple beads) are the 5-pointed stars.  The medium holes have 10 beads around, and thus correspond to the decagons in the tiling, and the large holes are the double decagons.  This patch of beads measures about an 1.5 inches across, and when I smoosh it down, it lies flat.  I'm not sure if it would continue to lie flat if I enlarged the patch.

What I learned:  I learned that these matte brown and shiny purple beads look a bit funky together, but I was inspired to weave so I didn't think too much about what I pulled from my bead box.  Mathematically, I learned that this set of Kepler's tiles can be arragned in several different ways, including a nice periodic striped one that I had never seen before. (See the fifth figure.) This beading technique will also work with the fifth figure, but I haven't tried it yet.

Beaded Beads with Golf Balls and Tennis Balls

My boyfriend drilled some golf balls and tennis balls for me so I could weave them into beaded beads.  The top one with just golf balls is an Octahedral Cluster, and the one with tennis balls too is a Double Rose Window.  These are big and heavy!  What I learned: Weaving with large heavy beads is a heck of a lot harder than weaving with itty bitty beads.  Gravity is not my friend here.  Using a big bowl to hold my work in progress is very helpful.

Beading Classes at Naturally Jennifer

The good folks down at Naturally Jennifer Beads and Gallery in San Luis Obispo, CA have graciously asked me back to teach some classes.  I have a wonderful and faithful group of students there, which means I have to bring new designs and materials whenever I go there to teach.  Since it's out of town, I always go for two weekend days in a row, and I thought it would be nice to make a two day course instead of entirely different stuff on Saturday and Sunday.  So I'm designing patterns around common themes so students will learn a specific design on Saturday, and how the technique applies to other designs on Sunday. Here are the SLO details.  I'll post photos later this week.

Saturday, March 27: Herringbone Toggle Clasp and Cable 10:30-4
Sunday March 28: Herringbone Advanced Class: Beaded Beads 10:30-4
Canceled: Saturday May 22: Honeycomb Star Weave 10:30-4
Canceled: Sunday May 23: Star Weaves Advanced Class 10:30-4
September 4, 5 TBA

For those of you in the San Francisco Bay Area, here's info on my upcoming workshops at Beaded Bliss.

Here's more info on the March 27/28 classes.

Herringbone is a classic bead weave that is very versatile.  Typically, herringbone is woven with an even number of columns of beads.  This Herringbone Toggle pattern shows how to weave just 3 columns to produce a neat and narrow cable of seed beads.  We show how to add larger beads into the weave, captured and outlined by the 3 columns.  By creating angles at the larger beads, we can close a piece of cable into a square to make the loop for a toggle clasp.  You can weave the toggle directly into a necklace, or add a flat strip of herringbone with just 2 columns to capture a jump ring, and finish the clasp.

The underlying herringbone pattern is very regular, and can be repeated to make triangles, squares, pentagons, and so forth, in any size.   You can also weave long lengths of the herringbone 3-cable into necklaces and bracelets.  The pattern gives detailed instructions for the straight cable with captured gems and  both parts of the toggle clasp.

In the Herringbone Advanced Class on beaded beads, you will see different variations of beaded beads and pendants that can be made with the herringbone 3-cable.  Explicit instructions will be provided for the Hour Glassy beaded bead, but students will be encouraged to try other designs for beaded beads, pendants and earrings shown in the pattern, with the instructor's help, of course.

Crochet and Knit Textile Cuffs and Collars

I posted four new listings in my Etsy shop.  See my textile section for more information and photos.

Cuffs XI

Collar VII Necklace

Collar VIII Scarflette

Collar IX Lariat