Crochet My Heart

With all this research in shibori methods and technique, I have officially reignited my interest in Japanese culture since my high school days.

I'm considering re-taking Japanese lessons again. Being able to read katakana, hiragana and chinese (not in proper kanji), has been useful with all the Japanese books I just bought, but I lack understanding (I've a very small pool of Japanese vocabulary) in what I read, especially words in hiragana.

So yeah, maybe back to Bunka it is for me? Ponder, ponder, ponderous. But, priority first goes to a serger. My granny (who used to sew the most beautiful qi paos) says I can have hers (and she would actually teach me! Oh!), which has been sitting there in a corner of a room for a long time now. This is most excellent news, except for the fact that she says it might be a little faulty as it's so old now. I haven't gotten a chance to play with it yet, but I'm crossing my fingers that it isn't as bad as things could be, and that maybe a little servicing will help fix its' bugs.

::

Well, here's some sewing I've been busy with in the past 2 weeks:

If you remember my fox dress, I kinda ended up, hm, not liking it.

So I decided to bring the length up and converted it into a top. This way, it makes it a lot more versatile, and I can pair it up with jeans/shorts/skirts.

The fox print also put me off lino printing for a bit, as it was such a labour intensive print.
I moved on to hand-painting instead.

The design was finished and dried in less than an hour, which was highly refreshing!

With it, I created an over-sized mid-sleeve dress.

Yet, the project I had most fun with, was the definitely the one where I experimented with itajime shibori!

With no scraps of wood around (actually I do, but I don't have a hacksaw) and buying wrenches, thinking they could work just as well as C-clamps (bad mistake), I ended up using lino and rubber bands..

All the while, I was thinking, this would definitely be another failed project. I mean, just look at that. You can't get anymore experimental that this.

 But, surprise above surprises, the method actually worked!

I'm extremely well-pleased with how the dress came out! 

I'm so excited with it that all I can think about is how I want to do more and make it better!