ToDo/NewDo: Ethnic, Up-cycle, and Surface Design with Anna Walden

Getting It Done! Completing Projects

Anna Walden, Point Loma, California

Anna has been completing projects. Here are a few recent ones.

First is a pair of Harem Pants made in plaid cotton flannel according to the instructions in the diagram.  I made them smaller because my fabric was narrower but it turned out to be a good decision as they would have been too large on me.

Second is the Sweatshirt Dress, a up-cycle project. I cropped the sweatshirt, added a skirt in a Liberty knit borrowed from a dress pattern, made the collar from the leftovers, again borrowed.  I drafted the sleeves in Garment Designer and appliquéd the lace using HeatBond and sewing machine.  

The top below is from the Garment Designer pattern I made for the Kuba top project I made this past Fall in a Textile Design class at Mesa College in San Diego. When I made that project, I incorporated fabric that I had dyed using an Ice Dye method. When cleaning up recently,I found the extra fabric, and I sewed it up.  I love this top.  

 A Little About Anna
Anna is a Psychologist and an active textile artist. Most of her creative time is spent sewing or knitting, and ow she has thrown in various forms of surface design. She has published numerous knitting patterns and was part-owner of a yarn company in years past.

Kimono in Kyoto, New, Rental, and Resale

The kimono is alive and well in Kyoto. You commonly see people wearing them on the street, albeit a small percentage of the crowd, yet it is a pleasure to see the variety and the people wearing them.

Kimono at Fushimi Inari Shrine

The Obi at the back

As it turns out, one doesn't really know if the person is a local, or a tourist, who has rented a kimono for a day. There is quite a business here, where you can no only rent a kimono, but you can have your makeup done as well.

Kimono Rental Store

Love the polka dots!

Option for Hair and Make-up

And of course, there are kimono resale stores. Check out the kimono I purchased for about $9.00. According to the shop keeper, this second-hand kimono is made from silk and is about 70 years old. It's in my current favorite color! Orange like the shrine walk above.

Note: 
The resale kimono shop is on Sanjo street, within 20 meters of Exit #2 of the Higashiyama metro stop (on the Tozai line).

Frida Kahlo Exhibit and Costume

Frida Kahlo

While in Toronto last week, I was delighted to be able to visit The Textile Museum. They had two amazing exhibits: Artist Textiles: Picasso to Warhol, and Frida Kahlo, Through the Lens of Nickolas Muray with traditional Mexican costume from the Textile Museum.

Sadly... no photos of the Artist Textiles exhibit, which was fantastic!!! But there is a book. It was amazing to see how artists from the 40's and beyond took their paintings to the cloth.

Artists' Textiles 1940-1976

Jul 16, 2012

by Geoff Rayner and Richard Chamberlain

The second exhibit was on Frida Kahlo and her friend/companion, photographer Nickolas Muray. 

There were numerous photos taken by Muray and many that I've never seen before. 

Muray and Kahlo

To complement the photography, the Textile Museum pulled garments from their collection that represented the clothing typical of Kahlo.

Below, are a few of my favorites.

btw... there is a great library of books at the museum, and a wonderful librarian who assisted me with my research.

The Textile Museum

55 Centre Ave, Toronto, ON M5G 2H5, Canada

+1 416-599-5321

http://www.textilemuseum.ca/home

Heavily embroidered ensemble

detail

detail

otton blouse, with European Origins

Detail Shot of top

What I'm Working On..

There are various things that are in the works. I'll be announcing a few Cochenille things soon, but I thought I would share with you what I have been doing as a wrap-up of my sabbatical.

I have been working on the creation of patterns of ethnic of garments or accessory items from around the world. These will be presented in a Student Handbook which will be used in my Ethnic Costume class this coming semester.

Here you will see the pattern for a Child's Hat from the Mien Yao tribe in Asia. I purchased the original hat in Thailand. It has now been measured, sketched and a pattern pulled.

There will be 25 patterns in total by the time I am done. It's a lot of work, but I am enjoying it.

Turbans...

A turban is a standard headdress worn in India. Fabric lengths up to twenty feet are wound and engineered on a man’s head to protect him from the sun and heat. The thickness of the turban serves to insulate the head and prevent the hot sun from penetrating through the thickness of cloth.

The specific fabrication, and the style in which the turban is wrapped serve to identify the region, and often the village a man is from.

Today, we visited the City Palace Museum in Jaipur (India), and one of the guards was gracious enough to demonstrate the wrapping of his turban. He unwound his finished headdress to show us the length of cloth which was close to twenty feet. He commenced the wrapping process by holding the tail of one end of cloth in his mouth (in reserve for later). Then, he proceeded to wrap… and wrap… and wrap, using up the length of cloth. As you can see below, he finished the process and tucked the held end in place, and allowed an extension of approximately 5 feet to dangle down his center back.

The entire wrapping process took less than a minute. You could tell that he had done this before!

Lithuanian Dance and Costume

On a Sunday afternoon, October 19th, I sat with a cup of coffee, thoroughly enjoying the quiet that surrounded me. I decided to look through a few of the flyers that I had picked up at the tourist office in Verona, and was pleased to discover that a Lithuanian Dance Group would be performing down in Piazza Bra later in the afternoon. So, I organized the remainder of my day so that I could go to the piazza, watch the group perform, and hopefully be allowed to photograph their costumes. What a stroke a luck, as this would fit in with my current research on World Costume.







The dance ensemble performing is known as Zelmeneliai. The founder of the group and ballet master is Aldona Maseniene. The Zelmeneliai is a dance training school for boys and girls from the age of 5 to 18 who attend in their free time. Both children and parents dance and they learn about Lithuanian folklore, scenic dances, classical dances, ballroom dancing and the dance of other nations as well. The name Zelmeneliai derives its name from the process of how a farmer sows a seed into the soil and hopes for a good harvest. Parents take their children into the group and hope that dance will aid them to grow up healthy, kind-hearted and beautiful.

When I arrived in the Piazza, it was crowded and full of activity. Everywhere you looked, you could watch families strolling, walking through the various booths that were set up to promote the local area and other parts of Europe.

It wasn’t hard to find the Lithuanian group, as their costumes were striking; full of color and intricate handwork. I introduced myself, and asked if anyone spoke English (as even my basic Italian wasn’t going to help me in this case). I met Gintautas Saulis and through her, permission was granted, so I set to work. I was in heaven. The group was composed of men, women, young adults and children.

Suddenly, there was a flurry of activity, and the next thing I knew, the group was preparing to perform. The dancing began. I have never witnessed folk dance of this type, and I photographed as much as I could. Their dance was a mixture of ballet, waltz, polka, and other steps. It was graceful, and poetic; one could often understand the story being presented. The costumes, as you can see from the pictures here were simply beautiful.



Men’s Costume
The men wore black coats, fitted to the waist, and cut with a fantastic pleated skirt (see how it swirled in the dance). The coats had stand-up, embroidered collars. Other costume pieces consisted of gray ankle-length pants, white shirts, plaid waistcoats, and various types of colorful neck cloths. Black hats and vibrant waist sashes provided the perfect finishing touch.










Women’s Costume
The costume of the women varied, according to the region of Lithuania from which it originated. Beautiful white blouses with varying cuts were worn under a waistcoat (vest) Most of the vests bodices were solid color, although a braid trim was often used. A skirt (generally striped or plaid) was worn over petticoats and typically, a white apron completed the ensemble. Most aprons utilized amazing handwork, typically pulled thread-work and embroidery. The head dress of the women was the most unique part of their outfit. If you look at the image here, you can see the variety.







Children
Costume worn by the young people mimicked the adults. Yet, the boys’ jackets were brightly colored (as opposed to black) and the vests of the young girls were generally dark and laced up the front. the head caps of the young girls were unique. They were crocheted.

I arranged to meet with members of the group the next day, so I could give them a copy of all the images I took. They definitely looked different in their street clothes! They were lovely, and I am honored to have been allowed to photograph them, and to be able to give back to them, in exchange for the lovely images I have brought home with me to share with my students.

I have said it before, and I am sure I will say it again. The amount of love, care and handwork that goes into folk costume of the world is boggling. We must cherish the textile arts that are part of our heritage, and always keep them alive.

Thank you to the Zelmeneliai Dance Ensemble for sharing with me. Their contact is arkada@takas.lt

Ethnic Costume Research...

As I am readying to head back to San Diego, I am sad to leave, but thrilled to have had the experience of studying world costume in Europe. I have spent days in amazing libraries, browsing through books, hand-painted fashion plates, and other sources of imagery. Imagine looking at hand water-colored drawings of Italian folk costume. I have been allowed to take digital images of these, to share with my students.

Some of these libraries are in old, old buildings. For example, in Venice, I spent time in the Biblioteca di Palazzo Mocenigo. This was an amazing building, and their collection of fashion books is outstanding. I could have easily spent another week. In Verona, I spent time in the Civic Library (Biblioteca). Most of my time was in the "Reserve" section. In both cases, one filled out a form for each book, and it was hand-delivered to your table. I have also visited the fashion library at Polimoda, the fashion school in Florence.

All collections were amazing. I was honored to utilize them and felt very reverent as I was allowed to carefully hold books as old as 150 years. Thanks to all the staff who assisted me.
Below you see the biblioteca in Venezia (Venice).

Technique: Pleating Technique used in Tirol Tracht (Folk Costume of Tirol, Austria)

Thanks to Sabine Lintner and Christine Miller of Trachtenwerkstatt for showing me this.

This pleating technique utilizes a special fabric called “gabeln”, which is a fabric printed with a grid. The marking lines were approximately 1/2 cm. wide by 1 cm. tall. Note: that gingham could be substituted, but gingham is generally square.




Step-by-Step
1. Stitch or overlock your fabric onto the base fabric.

2. Using a needle and thread, baste a line of stitches on the wrong side of the fabric, using the gridded gabeln as your guide. Leave a long tail.

3. Repeat this for as many lines of basting as you deem necessary for your task.

4. To create the gathers, on one end of fabric, grab the tails of allyour threads, and jointly pull them. Do not cut the tails. You can leave these for later, as an adjusting device. (Note: that in Tirol costume, these tails are neatly knotted and tucked inside, so that they can be used to alter a garment later, to make it smaller or larger, as the need arises).

5. Smooth out the pleats that form, so that they are parallel.

6. Stitch to a band or other stabilizing structure.


If you like, you can embroider on the right side of the garment (as in smocking techniques) to embellish the surface and hold the pleats in place.

Technique: Rosenrueschen Trim (Ruched Rose)

Thanks to Sabine Lintner of Trachtenwerkstatt for showing me this, and for doing the step-by-step instructions for us.

This is a trim, made by constructing and sewing a tube of fabric, and then, pleating it. After the trim is constructed it can be attached to a surface of a garment to embellish it.

1. Cut a length of fabric, twice your desired width plus 2 x your seam allowance.

2. With right sides together, sew the tube lengthwise.

3. Turn and press.

4. Using chalk, mark every 1” on the strip (or other length, depending on how deep you want the pleats.

5. Using an iron, press in the pleats, These are box pleats. See the picture for detail.

6. Carefully lay the folded band onto the sewing machine, and stitch a line down the center and over the folded pleats. This line will secure the pleats in place.





7. Using the illustration as a guide, folder two edges together, and with a needle and use a whip thread stitch to permanently attach them. Continue this along the length of trim.

8. Attach the grim to your garment.







Note: If you like, you can attach the trim to your garment as you stitch the line that holds the pleats together (Step 6).

Other Interesting Austrian Garments

Here are two more interesting Tirolean pieces that I saw at the Trachtenwerstatt.
In the images below, you can also see a woman’s hat from a different region of Austria. Note the long velvet bands that hang down the Sabine’s back, from the hat to her knees. The hat is made of black velvet cotton (we call it velveteen in the U.S. and Canada). The underside of the brim is fully embroidered with gold covered thread (which is traditional in the past, but now a metallic thread is used).

In the second image, you can see a vest that was hand knit by Christine and is modeled by Ursula. Christine used primarily garter stitch to create the body of the vest. Yet, with the simple stitch, she has added a lot of wonderful details which include the trimming, the embellishment at the front, and the absolutely great cable-stitch inset at center back, which is actually a wedge that is pleated (like a box pleat) into the opening. A clasp holds the pleat somewhat closed in the lower end of it. Isn’t it great!