One of the first oneshirts that I made is available for purchase, being featured first in the Mothership Studio Tour on April 1st and 2nd, 2023. This oneshirt was featured in this blog post on making shirts from fat quarters.
The shirt is gently used and will fit a size 18-22.
Content: 100% Cotton
Care: Machine wash cold, non-chlorine bleach, line dry, do not dry clean
Piecing together bolt ends provides a fun challenge
I was in love with the floral in this shirt, but there was less than half a yard.
Two yards of the red shirting would have to be enough to piece with the floral. Each shirt requires 2.5 yards of fabric if there is no piecing, but with piecing, it can use less.
The oneshirt is adaptable, lending itself to tunic length and a variety of sleeve types. However, changing the neckline involved some additional planning. In order to complete a project involving Telemark style an embroidered collar and sleeve cuffs, a new version of the patten needed to be created. However, as long as inexpensive muslin was being used, why not produce a oneshirt that could be worn for itself?
Heritage Red Muslin is named for the Heritage oneshirt it was built to plan, but stands on its own as a dressier version of the shirt.
This onshirt was made from sale scraps that I purchased at the Quilt Basket in York, Nebraska. This oneshirt was featured in this blog post on making shirts from bolt ends.
The shirt is gently used and will fit a size 18-22.
Content: 100% Cotton
Care: Machine wash cold, non-chlorine bleach, line dry, do not dry clean
I purchased a strip of fabric featuring ladies faces and, during a making binge in the early pandemic time, used the scraps from Clementine to this oneshirt, being featured first in the Mothership Studio Tour on April 1st and 2nd, 2023.
The shirt is gently used and will fit a size 18-22.
Content: 100% Cotton
Care: Machine wash cold, non-chlorine bleach, line dry, do not dry clean
On to the next painting, this time of the back of Origin. I must admit that it has been several weeks since I painted the front and ideally, they would be painted “back to back”, so to speak, to keep the colors consistent. I found myself puzzling a bit, trying to remember which of my paints I had used the first time, for the front.
I started watercolor about 2 years ago and started in ernest with the delivery of the Daniel Smith Extra Fine Essential Introductory Watercolor set to our cottage in Nebraska. I took advice I found in the books in the San Marcos Public LIbrary to heart, that the very best materials will produce better results. I quickly purchased a secondary color set that included Undersea Green, Quiacridone Burnt Orange and Carbazole Violet. But it was Daniel Smith Cascade Green that made me fall in love with watercolor. The granulation of the color in water, the blooms and how quickly the shadows of trees emerged from the spreading paint, suddenly watercolor stopped being “weak tea” compared with oil and acrylic and became a living moving force. Watercolor is like putting a saddle on a water dragon, holding on for dear life while the spirit spurts across the sky.
In the case of this specific painting, I have used a Yellow Ochre that is left from a watercolor set I had purchased in Vancouver while at a conference in 2016. This was a MungYo set, from South Korea, and has been dependable and durable, although not as inspiring as the Daniel Smith paints. I also used Schminke Prussian Blue to represent the chambray and used Daniel Smith Cobalt Teal Blue as the green linen. These two colors are brought back into the batik as well as the Daniel Smith Carbazole Violet, Cascade Green and Schminke Indigo.
Origin
I am glad I have photos of the actual shirts and I don’t mind being the model in the photo, but I would prefer to have this painted record of my work, an additional layer of creativity, rather than the start image of me, in a shirt, standing in front of my camera.
In a nod back to my previous 100 Day challenge, I am also planning on doing some digital textile design that I can use to print more unique fabrics inspired by my Oneshirts. This is where the watercolors of each shirt will come in handy. I started by scanning the painting of the front of Origin and then used the offset filter in Photoshop, plus the cloning tool and some paintbrushes, to make an endless repeat drawn from the painting.
And so this..
became this..
which looks like this when applied across a larger space.
This fabric is not necessarily the one I will pay $18 a yard to print, but it demonstrates the concept. I am upcycling design ideas, not just materials.
Now that I had the taste for piecing and applique, I looked around the cottage and found a yellow linen duster that belonged to my mother-in-law. A petite woman, it would not fit me in any case and so I deconstructed it and took a scrap with me to the Quilt Basket to find some batiks that would make it go far enough to be an entire Oneshirt. A cheerful honeycomb and some light florals were just the ticket.
Some people are shy of yellow, thinking it brings out the yellow of their skin, but I think I look just fine in yellow. If the Oneshirt project is meant to be a detachment from forecasted trends, I can choose colors that meet my needs, not the ones that drive people to buy new things.
Either side of the front of the jacket I was upcycling featured some embroidery, with trapunto and silver beads. I carefully cut around the wing shaped embroider and transferred it to the front and back of the oneshirt I am calling Honeycomb.