• About
  • Projects
  • Articles
  • Contact

julielivingstone

~ It isn't always about getting what you want. Sometimes it's about wanting what you've got.

julielivingstone

Tag Archives: Koos van den Akker

Inspired by Koos van den Akker

18 Sunday Jun 2017

Posted by julielivingstone in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

design, Koos van den Akker, machine embroidery, recycled, wearable art


This tunic is my first foray into recycling with stretch fabrics, which I find presents a whole array of new challenges! These are not knit fabrics, but stretch wovens, which I happily picked up in the op-shop because I liked the print on one, and the others went with it. I paid no regard to the stretch factor! This was a garment I started at the first meeting of the Wear To? group of the Embroiderers’ Guild earlier this year.

I more or less self drafted the pattern, and I say more or less because I actually cobbled it together from a couple of commercial patterns, and kind of filled in the gaps. I made a muslin, which fitted not too badly, and went ahead with the recycling.

I chose to make the tunic using a colour blocking technique, but instead of dividing the pattern pieces up using straight lines, which would be more usual, I chose to use curved organic shapes. I actually derived these from the shapes on the printed fabric, I just took a photo of the fabric, printed it out, and then sketched the shapes larger onto the muslin. Then I cut that up, and used it as a pattern to cut the sections of the tunic.

A combination of inaccuracy when cutting out, and the stretchiness of the fabrics, meant that when I stitched the pieces together the front of the tunic didn’t lie flat. Even when it was lying on the table it looked as if somebody was inside it. I held it up against myself and it looked even worse. It was largely the olive green pieces, for some reason they had grown, and I figured that somehow I needed to shrink them again. I certainly wasn’t going to unpick the seams and re-cut them, so what to do? Some others at the workshop came to study my problem, and the suggestion was made that I just stitch some tucks in that piece of the garment to take up the fullness. That seemed like a good way out, so I made the tunic as flat as I could on the table, and pinned tucks into it which reduced the lumpiness. Then I whipped over the tucks using a variegated embroidery thread to turn them into a decorative feature.

I continued to put the rest of the tunic together, but still felt it needed something else. I had an image in the back of my mind of a garment made by Koos van den Akker, with machine stitching in a random zigzag pattern over the seamlines. So I threaded up my machine with two different colours of thread at once, and went over all the seamlines with free machine embroidery. I quite like the result – I’ve tried channeling Koos’ work before with very limited success, but I’m happier with this effort.

Even though I’m reasonably happy with the result, I’m still not sure it’s a garment I would wear in public. I did wear it yesterday though at another workshop with the same group of people, but the great thing about such workshops is that people will comment with interest about what you are wearing, and don’t look at you strangely when you say ‘I made it myself’.

Advertisement

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Op-shop couture

06 Thursday Oct 2011

Posted by julielivingstone in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

asymmetrical, clothes, design, Koos van den Akker, op-shop, quilting, reconstructed, recycled, TS14Plus, upcycled

I started looking for reconstructed and upcycled clothing on the net, and never dreamed how many hits I’d get. So many people are recycling clothing into all sorts of new fashions, and most of them are way more innovative than I would be. Try Googling reconstructed clothing, or recycled clothing, and you will find all sorts of inspiration. There are things to buy from other people, and ideas for things to make yourself.

I wanted a new outfit to wear to the editing workshop, and decided to create one myself out of op shop clothing. I’ve shopped op shops for years, first out of necessity when money was very tight, and more recently from not wanting to be a conspicuous consumer. It doesn’t hurt that it can still be way cheaper!

I went op shopping, and challenged myself to find what I needed in just one shop. Eventually I came away with one black top, one patterned, and one plain which picks up the colours of the pattern. I feel I ought to call the colour apricot, or salmon, but really I guess it’s orange! These are the tops.

The black one is going to be the base, I’m able to get into it but it’s a little tight, so I plan to cut it apart, and use the other two tops as decorative ways to put it back together again. Also I’ll lower the neck a bit, so I can wear another plain top underneath it, with sleeves for warmth. I really like some of the upmarket fashion labels I’ve seen in stores, with asymmetric clothes, and each garment having three or four different fabrics in it. Like these at TS14Plus clothes, and these Koos van den Akker designs from the Vogue pattern catalogue. I also did an image search on Google for Koos van den Akker, and came up with lots of ideas, although the flamboyance quotient of most of them is too high for me. Browsing through the images led me to several blogs of other admirers of his work, and eventually to the book, Couture Collage, which I am teetering on the brink of buying.

I’m hoping to end up with something inspired by these images, without the price tag. My base garments cost me $11.50 altogether.

I started by cutting down the front of the black top, on a diagonal line. Then I cut a strip of the pattern fabric to finish the raw edge at the neck. I cut pieces of both fabrics and pieced them together to fill the gap between the two edges of the black top. Next step was to try it on, and I found that I had cut a little too far, and the V of the neckline was a bit low. I needed to construct something to put in to fill the space.

As often happens, inspiration came from nowhere in particular, or more accurately from one of my quilting books which was lying on the table. I decided to make a small patchwork square to stitch over the gap. I made a kind of uneven log cabin block, starting with a triangle instead of a square, but cut the finished block to a square, so it is completely asymmetrical. The finished square was a bit unruly in terms of having nice straight edges and corners, so I stitched it right sides together with a scrap of black lining, then turned it right side out. I think the technique is called ‘bagging out’ in the trade.

This little exercise highlighted how much easier it would be to do this kind of garment construction with a dress form. I’ve never had one, and never really felt the need, but when you are making the garment up as you go along I think it would be really useful to have something to put it on so you could see how it was shaping up, literally. I shall have to look out for a second hand one, as they are pretty expensive new. I know there are ways of making your own custom fit, but I don’t feel like investing the time at the moment, and mostly I’m not looking for a perfect fit in these garments.

Having fixed up the neckline I had only to stitch the lower part of the orange top around to the lining of the base black top. The orange top already had a nice lettuce edge on it, and because it was a wrap style with two layers at the front there was enough of the edge to go all the way around the hem of the black top. A bit of finishing off, and done, albeit at 7.30 on the morning of the workshop!

I was pleased with it. When I came home, however, the blonde dog was so pleased to see me that she jumped up and caught one of her claws in the slightly lacy black fabric, and made a hole in it. Next time I wear the top it will have either a contrast patch, or possibly a pocket added to it! It’s also occurred to me that maybe I should create some printed or woven labels to sew into my own constructions – another side project. If I’m going to keep posting pictures I need to make an effort to take better ones too.

Tags

Recycled reconstructed upcycled clothes Koos van den Akker Vogue TS 14 plus op shop design asymmetrical quilting

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

Like this:

Like Loading...

Blogroll

  • Learn WordPress.com
  • Live to Write – Write to Live

Back Pages

  • July 2018 (1)
  • November 2017 (1)
  • August 2017 (1)
  • June 2017 (2)
  • March 2017 (1)
  • October 2016 (1)
  • September 2016 (1)
  • August 2016 (2)
  • March 2016 (2)
  • February 2016 (2)
  • January 2016 (3)
  • August 2015 (1)
  • March 2015 (2)
  • February 2015 (1)
  • January 2015 (3)
  • December 2014 (2)
  • November 2014 (4)
  • April 2014 (2)
  • November 2013 (2)
  • October 2013 (1)
  • July 2013 (1)
  • June 2013 (2)
  • March 2013 (1)
  • February 2013 (2)
  • January 2013 (2)
  • December 2012 (3)
  • November 2012 (3)
  • October 2012 (4)
  • September 2012 (4)
  • August 2012 (1)
  • July 2012 (1)
  • May 2012 (1)
  • April 2012 (4)
  • March 2012 (2)
  • February 2012 (3)
  • January 2012 (3)
  • December 2011 (3)
  • November 2011 (5)
  • October 2011 (4)
  • September 2011 (2)

My Tags

Anthony Trollope Art Deco article ASG asymmetrical ATASDA Australian Sewing Guild blog blogging book books challenge Christmas clothes clouds colour commonplace book competition content craft creativity design dogs drawing electric embroidery fabric fashion illustration fence freelance Fremantle garden horses ideas inspiration in every issue Jeeves Koos van den Akker labrador language learning machine embroidery magazine Margaret Preston Mozilla novels op-shop origin of phrases pattern PG Wodehouse photography phrases project property quilting reading reconstructed recycled Roald Dahl sayings ScribeFire seo sewing skirt Threads magazine transfer dyes Tris Hussey TS14Plus upcycled water weather Wooster Wordpress words workshop writing

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • julielivingstone
    • Join 36 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • julielivingstone
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: