fabric affair show & tell - Anne & Nancy Challenge

The Anne & Nancy Challenge

One day during the summer of 1999, I wandered into Fabric Affair as Anne Colvin Mosher and Nancy Schneider were finishing up a round of fabric rearranging. They had uncovered a large collection of Bengaline fabric that was not getting sold, so they challenged me to make something out of some of it.

I love a challenge, so went home with dreams of Bengaline dancing in my head. As I had done a Christmas stocking the year before using pin-weaving techniques, I elected to incorporate that into this project, so as to get as many colors as possible into one thing.

I chose cool and jewel-tone fabrics, and commenced tube making using the FastTurn tool. Several months later (it gets boring after ten or twelve tubes) I had a large bag full ready to start. I pressed the tubes flat, then wove them over a drawing of the various jacket parts I wanted to have woven.

I also quilted solid blue colored bengaline to Hobbs "Thermore" batting in a diamond shape quilting pattern, and made bias piping out of one of the weaving colors. The quilting was my first experiment with "basting spray." While it doesn't stick readily to slick fabric like bengaline, once I got a heavy enough layer applied, it worked. This made it possible to avoid pin holes all over the jacket parts.

I had chosen a pattern from Lois Ericson's Design and Sew line - #312 Jacket Elan. I altered the curve of the front to be more of a straight line from the center front to the button position near the shoulder. (the pattern itself has a rather dramatic curve. I feared that it would result in a "gapping" problem, hence the alteration. I think it made the button line look better as well.

Plans had been made in December to enter the jacket in the Master's division of the Wearable Art competition in the 1999 Dallas Quilt Celebration. However, even though I had the pin-weaving and the quilting completed in February, I still didn't have fabulous buttons for the jacket yet.

I was going to spend my spring break in the San Francisco Bay area, hanging out with my e-mail pal Ken Porter. While there, I felt it was imperative that I visit the more interesting fabric emporiums, including Britex, Satin Moon, Mendel's Far Out Fabrics, Kasuri Dyeworks and Stone Mountain & Daughter. I hoped I would find some possibilities there. As it happens, I did - the pewter buttons on the jacket were bought at Britex. I feel the crossed "swishes" sort of reflect the weaving pattern.

I got the jacket itself more or less completed for competition about an hour before the deadline to turn in entries for the Dallas show. While it didn't win any prizes, I'm very proud of the results. Then, I entered it in the International Quilt Festival's wearable art division. Their rules call for an "entire ensemble", so I found some polyester crepe in a blue that was very similar to the blue used for the solid portions of the jacket to make a pair of "pajama style" pants. I also made the small shoulder bag. The shoulder strap is made by twisting together two shades of blue rayon rattail and four shades of ribbon floss. The bag, like the jacket, features pinwoven bengaline tubes, quilted solid blue bengaline, and the remaining button from the San Francisco foray. The ends of the straps are frayed apart with beads and/or knots at varying heights for a slight touch of "glitz."

It was juried into the 1999 IQA show, but did not win a ribbon. However, it did snag first place in the "Wearable Art" division at the 2000 State Fair of Texas Creative Arts competition. Photo below.

(972) 234-1937, (972) 238-9125 FAX
E-mail - Judy Mack, Cheryl Cummings, Sales Staff

If you have problems with any of these pages, please notify the Web Czarina.