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.
Just a bit on each side of the front.
Like flower beds with brick walkways between.
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.
The fabric for this shirt is from the collection designed by Yoko Saito for her Centenary 25th collection.
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
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Rose of Ultramarine
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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.
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.
My adventures in piecing Oneshirts is also driven by problem solving to use what I have in the best manner. Linen Lawn is a good example of this. The soft floral lawn comes from a collection of fabrics that I salvaged from my second paternal grandmother, Annabel’s home when we packed her up for the move to assisted living. I drove home that time from Paduca, KY with a car full of fabric, which I quickly burn tested on the dock of the local Salvation Army, leaving behind a stack of synthetics and carting off the precious natural fibers. Having a stash of heirloom fabric proved to be a bit stressful. How could I cut up this beautiful fabric and what could I make from it that would last as long as my memories of my grandmother Hustvedt? Here the Oneshirt comes to the rescue. I honor the heritage in this fabric by making longevity a requirement for the design: longevity in style because it does not reference any fluctuating external trends and longevity in function because it is resistant to my fluctuating size.
Of course, there was another problem in this shirt, which is that I made a mistake in the cutting. Trying to make the lawn go as far as possible, I didn’t notice that I cut the second side facing the same direction as the first. These sides begin in the front and wrap around me, with a seam inserted for the pockets and the sides and then meet around the gusset in the back. The back “wing” is taller that the front because it has to wrap up and over the shoulder to form the top of the armhole. Also, the back is on a bias (not quite true bias) so while it extends a bit further over than the front, it isn’t a match. So, I used scraps from the heavier light green linen I had on hand from an older adventure making a wrap skirt to “fix” the top of the front of one of the pieces to make it like the back. This is why there is a solid green wing on one side and why the edge is pieced, creating the off center green stripe.
I used the scraps I had to cut to make the second piece work as an applique of birds on the shoulders on both sides.
The result is a Oneshirt that is more complex and individual that is would have been without this mistake and one that gave me inspiration to piece the next shirt to include an applique.
