spot on

Due to industrial action at RMIT yesterday I ended up doing an 11 1/2 hours teaching on Wednesday. My voice has still not recovered. So yesterday, when I normally teach, I got to have breakfast with a friend, run a stack of errands and get a couple of hours in the studio. I also managed to spend a bucket of money on supplies. I love spending money but I get that post-spend panic afterwards and need a good lie-down and a sharp talking to myself that I needed to spend money to make money. When you are self employed with an income that fluctuates from week-to-week (let alone day to day) it is sometimes very nerve wracking on the money front. 

But the money has been spent....... 

Some went on new wool fabrics for jackets and pleated skirts. 

Some went on shibori to stitch as patches on said pleated skirts. I spent an lovely 1/2 hour unpicking in a pile of Haori I had bought. I love the way the stitches pop as you rip the seams apart. It all has to do with the silk thread and handstitching. Whenever I am unpicking kimonos and haoris I am always amazed at their construction. We seem to think we have invented re-cycling but this type of garment construction is amazing. The width of the fabric is always maintained, except for the section cut out for the neck, and sizing and shaping is created simply by folding in and stitching up the excess. This means the garment can be unpicked and re-used and re-modeled time after time. Even the front lapels are created by folding the full width of the fabric in and this extra allows the lapel to be self stiffening (no jokes intended there). 

When I unpicked the front of this haori I discovered there were initials 'shibori-ed' into the edge (strangely in western script......).

Anyway I better stop blabbing and get ready to start my day. I'm off up country (another morning away from the studio) to pick up gloves and run more errands.

It's foggy here so it will be cold and misty up there. 

Must remember coat, hat and gloves.