The Springtime change over!

Check out this pink and sherbet orange sweater!

Spring is just around the corner, even though the robin in the last post is still waiting for all the snow to go away! I have moved most of my wools to the side and have pulled out all my cotton and cotton blend and poly blend knits.

This change of season also means a change of style and color choice as well. Good bye to the soft heathers and marled oatmeals of the winter wools and hello to the pastels and brights of the warmer seasons.

Check out the green ruffles!

The styles need to be lighter, maybe shorter, and often sleeveless. But the flowy swingy styles are still great for letting the spring and summer breezes tickle your skin!

I am sold on sweaters through the entire year. I love the loose cotton knit during the summer as much as I like wearing the cozy wools of winter. Knits are always comfortable, forgiving and just a little more dressed up than my sweatshirts! Check out my shop for the new summer items that have appeared in the last few days. more will be !through this week.

I love this long flap front!

One of my new favorite styles for transitional weather is the wrap front sweater. it overlaps in the front, hangs loos in the back. It can be pinned with those brooches we are always looking for excuses to wear! Or it can flap back like lapels... I will be wearing them over my capris and linen skirts this summer!

SHEEEEES back!!

Sorry I have been neglecting all of you for so long... I have become a facebook addict (my fan page), and so that is where I have been posting lately, but now I am going to start back here!

I have just added a couple of new pages to this site. If you go up to the top of this page and click on "Notable Projects" you will see a collection of pictures and descriptions about some of my more unusual projects. The other addition is the "Upcoming Show Schedule". Here is where I will be listing the shows that I will be in over the next months. Hope I get to see many of you at some of these shows!

I have also been involved with the political upheaval that has been happening in the State capitol in Madison, WI. This is my hometown, and the capitol is my favorite building. So many of my friends and family have been and will be affected by the strange laws and circumstances happening here, that action was required.

But this last week, I saw my first robin. Walked the trail for the first time since the snowmobiles have left. And saw the first green sprouts of spring.

Hope. Even though Japan and Lybia still loom large under last night's full moon, here is hoping for hope and renewal.

Viva la [design] Difference!

 During my recent visit to New York, I spent a lot of time just looking about. One of the things that was so evident is how much more specialization a place can offer when there is a large populous. In the Midwest, or other places of less dense population, there is the same spectrum of tastes for aesthetics and invention, but businesses and entertainment venues that cater to the ends of the spectrum can be scarce because the numbers to support them are small.

My last post addressed this from the "abundance" side, but it also applies to the design side.The hotel I stayed in was the Pod Hotel. It caters to the more independent trendier traveler who appreciates good design, but also is frugal! Right down the street was the Waldorf Astoria, with a very different aesthetic and function.

I found them both to be great examples of wonderful design for a specific part of the aesthetic spectrum. They are examples of businesses that need a customer base who looks for the specificity they offer. The Marriots and Hampton Inns can survive most anywhere because, while they may not have anything that would make them unique, they do provide an aesthetic and service that is both functional and useful to a huge number of people, but only in the dense population centers will you find the Pod - where people are still willing to share a bath and have small spaces in exchange for contemporary design and a global feel or the Waldorf Astoria, where opulent exclusivity reigns.

This same can be true for so many things, fashion, entertainment, food, etc etc... You guys in the city have such a great choice... but, as my husband said, you have to share it with about a million other people! One day I saw Bon Jovi playing (Today Show) on the Rockefeller plaza and that evening heard a Requiem concert in a cathedreal, more ends of the spectrum!

Loved my visit, but sure am enjoying the quiet and the landscape today! And for my abundance and specificity there is always the internet and Travelocity! "I'll be back".

Abundance in NYC

I am visiting NYC and am overwhelmed by the abundance of inspiration and just stuff!!!
Bolts and bolts of fabric on floors and floors of store at Mood Fabrics,  Bins and Bins of thread next door. Down the street aisle after aisle of zippers, buttons or snaps... and upstairs windows hint at the armies of mannequins and dress forms hard at work!

A visit to the F.I.T. museum showing the new fashion trends in Japan and Eco friendly fashion through the years. Walking down 5th Avenue. Marketing on Times Square.

Amazing food design in Chelsea Market. From the cupcakes to the lobsters... all are beautiful!

And that is only day 1 and 2!!!!

jill2day at work...

I have been in high production mode lately. I am getting ready for shows in Chicago (December) and Chantilly, VA (end of January) as well as the holiday season on Etsy. Boy has it been work and fun... Here is a little peek into my day(s).

I head down to my studio each morning and line up Nellie, Doris, and Evy (my three dress forms) and we get started. I have shelves of previously bundled sweater parts. So I decide what this particular day should be... a red day? a tweedy neutral day? or a multicolor fun day? Once my color appetite has been identified I grab the appropriate bundle.

I then spread the parts out and look for a starting point. Sometimes it is a unique collar structure, sometimes it is a pattern that has a particularly intriguing color combination, sometimes it is a unique "hand" that the fabric has. The I start sculpting the parts and pieces together. I don’t use patterns, because each reclaimed sweater is different and has different idiosyncrasies that must be honored and exploited! If I am using an existing bodice or neckline, that may determine the size… and which of my ladies gets to go first. If I am using color as my starting point, I have to decide what ratio of each of the different fabrics will go into the scheme… and sometimes hunt through my stash for the little extra dash of purple that wasn’t in my original bundle. Slowly but surely, the dress forms go from naked to covered with pins and pieces. During this process there is a great deal of stealing from Nellie to give to Doris, and the like…

Finally the ladies are prepped. One then steps up to the serger machine. The machine is threaded with the appropriate color(s) and the sewing starts! A seam here, a tuck there, a replacement here, a new idea there, the garment is still morphing through this process.

At the end of the day, or the next day, or the next… the garments are sewn.

Then it is onto the “proofing”… into the washing machine while I hold my breath. They tumble about in the Dreft detergent and the hand wash cycle for their allotted time and then on to the dryer for the delicate dry cycle. Most make it, some don’t. One of the hazards of using reclaimed fabrics is that it has had a previous life… if there were wear spots or tiny moth holes that didn’t show up before, they will be gaping after the wash cycle. Threads that were cut short grow in the agitation. And some stains actually appear after washing!

Once they are out though, they are soft and have a cohesiveness that just didn’t exist before the individual pieces had this shared experience! Then they are tagged and rechecked, photographed, described and then listed on Etsy or packed up for a show.

Then it is time to find them homes and get them on their way to their new life! These photos are some from some of my latest "litters"! Spicy is a great coat inspired by the color combo in the print panels. Bay is a shorter jacket that where the existing bodice and collar was the starting point.