The jacket is one I made for my husband's 35th Naval Academy class reunion. I wanted a new jacket for the dinner dance and I agonized all summer over what I wanted to do. I couldn't come up with any ideas for a new design. In August of that year we went out to Boise, Idaho for my in-laws' 80th birthday celebration. As we were walking down the hall to our hotel room I noticed the pattern of the rug and I registered that I really liked it. But, it was late and I was tired from the trip. The next morning I really looked at the pattern and decided I needed a picture of it. So, we took a picture of the rug. Fortunately, no one was in the hall to see my husband taking this picture!
This is the rug and what became the inspiration for the jacket. Really, it's just a typical hotel rug, but I liked the layered squares and the curving lines. When we got home from the trip I decided to see what I could do to use the rug design to create a jacket. I always begin with the fabric, and actually, sometimes the fabric becomes the inspiration. I decided to use some Burmese silk that was in my stash for a main fabric. I loved the copper color, and since the dinner was in October I thought it would be a great color to use. I had some smaller pieces of the silk in burgundy and orange, so they went into the mix. I found some gold cotton fabric from India that is woven with metallic threads. I really like this fabric because it's got the metallic sheen without being an in-your-face lame. And, it's easier to work with than lame. I had already decided that the curving lines would be bias tape made from the fabrics I'd chosen. I had a knitting ribbon that would coordinate with the fabrics. So, I dug that out of the knitting stash. From there I just started putting the pieces together. I needed a lining fabric, and, again, found what I wanted in my stash. It was a quilting cotton that had colors coordinating with the outer fabrics and I stamped it with some leaf stamps and gold ink. I like to put details into the lining. It's a fun to know there's some little detail inside the jacket.
My jackets usually come together as I work on them. I have a general idea of what I want to end up with, but things evolve as I go. In this case, the surface design was easy because I using the rug design as inspiration. As I was working on the jacket I decided to make bound button holes instead of stitched ones. That led me to the buttons. I had the beautiful dichroic glass buttons that were perfect for the jacket! They were the first buttons I had from my friend Terrie Voigt, and they were perfect! They were square, same copper color, and they had orange squares layered over the copper! I couldn't believe how great they matched the rest of the materials. I knew then this was going to be a successful design. Sometimes I'm not sure about that, and I have lots of leftovers to prove that my ideas don't always work out. I suppose that's a risk of not really planning everything out a head of time. But, I have a hard time doing that. Ideas keep coming as I work on a project. Like the beads you can see in this picture. I decided it would add some texture, and satisfy my love of adding beads to things! So, I scattered different sizes and shapes of beads over the appliqued squares. I liked the jacket so much that I decided to enter it in the 2007 Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival. It was accepted and actually won a blue ribbon! From there the jacket made the journey to Belle Armoire and the article! It's been such a great journey. I love this jacket. I've enjoyed wearing it and I hope you have enjoyed it's story. Thank you for visiting today.
