January 12, 2011

whoa, I almost forgot what year I was in.

Larengitis + copious amounts of snowfall= lots of sewing

This dress, still nameless, got the chop. I cut out her neckline and added a loose knit white neckline from another old sweater. This gives it a little more shape. I also sewed on a crocheted table linen across the chest, it has this circular center that I find really interesting. I may even do some embroidery around it later. The back of the dress got some decorative wool sweater aplique. There is good contrast happening between the brown and the white. My camera has been on the fritz, I am trying to fix it. I promise pictures will soon follow.

Still no name for this dress. There are several that keep poping up in my head but nothing has really declared itself. I find the open possibilities at this stage of the creative process really interesting... like the choices I am making now are just kind of random, what I feel like adding... then later the marks I sew respond to that inital randomness, but somehow it feels less random, more intentional.

Now that I have made the first moves, I am pumped about the next one.... it is already brewing in my head.

January 12, 2010

Do I cut it?! Do I let it stay? Oh the conundrum. This dress is so comfortable and it will stay comfortable if I make it that way, but I guess I must make something happen. I have larengitis so no more talk, only action, well only sewing.

January 10, 2010

Still in my brown dress. It is soooo comfortable, sooo warm and so without embellishments. I am embracing the simplicity of this dress while it lasts. Still feeling just a little under the weather, I really haven't had the energy to make big changes to this months dress. Tomorrow is another day....

Do have to mention that I left the house in a hurry this evening and in my expedited rush to get to the store I grabbed a pair of jeans to put on. When I got to the grocery store I felt odd, out of place and I looked down and realized I was not wearing the dress. I felt so casual, it was awful.

January 7, 2010

Since I was home in bed sick all day, I got to wear the new dress for approximately five hours. It is brown, cashmere a Gloria Sachs, New York body dress. A friend who came to dinner said it reminded him of an Amish sack. Judging from that comment there is really only one way to go with this month, up and up. It felt so good to not to put on Evangeline today.

Wylie Sofia Garcia
www.wyliegarcia.com
dressthatmakesthewoman.blogspot.com

January 6, 2010, Evangeline

It is hard to know what to say about today.  I woke up and felt ready to start fresh again.  Evangeline has become a little bit of a burden, she is so showy and difficult to get into as a wrap around that I am thanking myself for choosing to make several dresses instead of wearing just one. 

 

Evangeline has had her moments though.  I will miss how towards the end she made me feel like I was getting dressed up for the circus or carnevale.  I will also miss the instantaneous festive feeling I got when first putting her on in the morning.  I will not miss how the wrap around part came right below my bossom and how towards the end of the day my life was being squeezed out of me. 

 

I feel good about where I am leaving Evangeline.  She started off so fresh and young and has seemed to age greatly as the month went on.  The small rips and tears became weird and unfinished and over mended spots, but it turns out they are some of my favorite patches on this dress... maybe because they were given so much attention early on. 

 

Now for the anatomy of Evangeline:

 

Evangeline started off as a simple silver/grey dress that my mom bought me two years ago from Banana Republic.  It all started with a blue silk scarf given to me by a friend.  It was her mother's scarf, and held little significance until I recently found out that her mother passed away a week ago... the scaf was so old that with each wash it kept fraying and ripping, each day i kept mending it, neglecting the other parts of the dress. My futile mending became a rather approprate metaphor for the month...sometimes we have to just let it go.  A long braid was stitched on the left front creating something reminicent of a British Naval Officer and this got me thinking about regalia and how what I am creating with this project is a type of personal regalia. A small gold KingPin pendant was stolen from a childhood christmas bear and added to the front of the dress.  A wool scarf from my mother was added to the sides for extra warmth.  The gold and blue edging of an old Sari that became Evangeline's hem was a gift from a dear close friend in New Orleans.  When I look at it I think of visiting her and touching her pregnant belly (due any day now) the memory still makes my eyes mist up with amazement and joy.  There are felt petals from another friends art.  White embroidery from the cuff of a cashmere sweater, embroidery from an old table cloth no one wanted to buy, and there is green silk from Beijing that I haggled for five summers ago.  The red sequins came from my mother-in-law and the black sleves came from another dear friend in Baton Rouge who I sometimes think of as a mother.  The fleur de lis along with her Namesake were the last items to be added to Evangeline. 

 

Evangeline, who would have thought so much maternity would make you who you are?  Perhaps you aren't so different from the Evangeline in Longfellow's poem.  Perhaps the "love" and the "light" that is saught after goes beyond just a search for peace.  The phrase "Motherland" is starting to turn over in my brain... perhaps the search is for a place of comfort or even further, a place to belong? 

 

Evangeline, details

Evangeline, Details

Evangeline, details

January 6, 2010, Evangeline

January 6, 2010, Evangeline

January 5, 2010

I am so relieved there is only one more day with Evangeline. I have been exercising like crazy in an effort to get by on my loophole. I think everything was going great until the tulle was added for New Year's Eve. Before the tulle, there were lots of questions and compliments about the project, now there are just crazy looks and a lot of staring. I guess when you wear tulle on the outside of a dress for several days in a row you become "that tutu girl." I get the hint. So one more day to go, an evening of sewing lies ahead, and a whole lotta thoughts need to get flushed out between tonight and tomorrow.

December 31, 2010, image

Added Tulle!  Added sparkling beads! Added Glam for New Year's eve... this image was taken bright and early in the morning right after I got out of bed and tied Evangeline on... again I am feeling like I am sewing a personalized form of camoflauge... or native costuming... hmmm I like this idea....

December 20, 2010 image

Yes, Evangeline and I are painting the windows of my studio here.  After I got back to Vermont, Evangeline started to feel less glamourous.  A white sweater was added to her (seen here) but it felt like just a sweater under a dress, more grunge rock,less chic.  I feel like I kind of neglected Evangeline when I got home.  I needed to relax and she wanted to be out there.  So I wore her, but I wore her around more private spaces... 

I am a Roadside Attraction

December 21, 2010 images

This is where I started to feel like Evangeline wasn't quite cut out for the cold. I may have been in short sleeves here, but I was so cold.     

December 17, 2010 image

Feeling small standing at the Menil Museum.  I went to see the Tony Smith Painting and Drawing exhibit... the drawings he made before he was an architect.... wow... there's hope yet.  

Wall Embroidery by my Great Grandmother, Ida

I have always loved this portrait hanging over my grandmother's bed.  I never knew that my Swedish Great Grandmother made it.  I was so delighted and excited to discover this.  Look at how she used the sequins to make the breasts... sequins!  I realize that maybe what I sew and why I sew is genetic...and that the overlap of emroidery and cultural design between my Mexican and Swedish sides are not so different.  This was so enlightening and such a highlight to our vacation down South.

more pillows

I love this last one, look at how awesome the overlap looks.

December 16, 2010 images of pillows

December 16th image

Went to my Mormor's house to have dinner.  This is me and Evangeline on her patio at sunset. While at her house, I discovered that my great Grandmother sewed. (an image is soon to follow.) I also noticed how marvelous the stitchwork and patterns were on a set of pillows on her couch.  Even as a little girl, I loved these pillows, turns out she and my aunt made them together.