Monday, October 8, 2012

Saga of the Wensleydale Coat Vest


Here is the latest venture on the workbench...and it was a slog....long hours of felting, and then sewing, but well worth it, especially since it is for me.  I started being inspired anew by Terrie in Hong Kong, and photos of her lovely vests, so petite and doable...apparently I am
an amazon. Her vest looked so compact on the table, while mine took up a 4x8 piece of plywood to lay it out on....lol....and thinking I was making a short vest I ended up with a sleeveless coat which, in the end, was perfect....I do love surrendering to the materials and making them work for me.  This vest almost fell apart when I flipped it over to do the back, and I thought it was going to be a total loss....but perseverence furthers, and I kept at it, and it survived the saving.  I do run across this in many artistic endeavours...where I am working away happily, and oooooppppps something tragic appears to happen, and I think, oh, there it goes, no hope I have wrecked it, then breath, and think I will persevere, I hate this stage, but it seems inevitable so now it is almost part of the process for me.   I don't know if this happens to everyone, but it certainly happens to me every now and then, and when I do persevere, and "bite it" it ends up showing me valuable lessons in patience etc....so this vest too, took me through it, and it was a big hopelessness, as it was huge and weighed a ton....but it did pull through, and now I have a beautiful over vest for the winter months.  I trimmed out the armholes and the edges, and now just to make the right closure....
for the vivid details of the piece, I started with two layers of merino, then one layer of pelsul, and then the layer of the wensleydale curls...or the "golden fleece" as I call it, because I ordered it from england and it cost an enormous amount what with duty and shipping of 4 fleece. but well worth the money as I use it like crazy...love those long curls......
it will be awhile before I make another large project like this one....perhaps a yurt???? lol

3 comments:

Ginny Huber said...

I like how it looks and appreciate the outcome and how you got there! I, too, have times when it seems that the piece is ruined and the effort all for nought..and then it works fine. I love your four layers and the info..I've seen but not used Wenselydale curls..Theyare great to look at! As is, of course, your finished product. Will look forward to more pix and info..Congratulations ..and when I made a skirt this year for the first time, it felt like I made a yurt so yurt..I'll wait for that!

cedar said...

Tanks Ginny , now working on the closures, more decorative than useful, but hopefully they will add to the piece ...thanks again

Terriea Kwong said...

It looks REALLY good. We learn on the first piece and will do much better on the next ones. The curly fleece is wonderful.