{"id":344,"date":"2015-03-28T13:07:20","date_gmt":"2015-03-28T20:07:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.schafenfreude.com\/?p=344"},"modified":"2015-03-28T13:07:20","modified_gmt":"2015-03-28T20:07:20","slug":"number-37","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.schafenfreude.com\/?p=344","title":{"rendered":"Number 37"},"content":{"rendered":"

When my copy of Traditional Stripes and Lattices<\/a>\u00a0arrived, it became bedtime-browsing for quite a few weeks. \u00a0It’s chock-full of inspiring photographs and one in particular caught my eye – Plate 37. \u00a0This, truly, is what made me fall in love with the underlying structure (M’s and O’s) and gave me a whole new way to think about it. \u00a0After looking and thinking and looking and thinking,\u00a0I knew I needed to try and recreate it or it’d never let me alone.<\/p>\n

The book gives no information about any of the\u00a0fabrics beyond a photograph and fiber\u00a0– everything shown is made from cotton. \u00a0Since my only goal was reproducing the pattern, I chose to work with a yarn that’s like an old friend – 8\/2 unmercerized cotton. \u00a0I’ve woven literally hundreds of yards using this yarn. \u00a0I know how it finishes, how it moves and I also happen to have a rainbow of colors right at my fingertips. \u00a0This is most assuredly\u00a0not<\/em> the yarn used in the original textile – it would have been a single rather than plied yarn for starters – but that wasn’t what I was after. \u00a0I wanted to see the pattern, that was enough for a first experiment.<\/p>\n

Step one was figuring out what colors to use. \u00a0Close inspection of the photo showed me that I needed two blues (original yarns were almost certainly indigo dyed – and multiple dips can give an array of shades of blue) and two golds\/yellows. \u00a0I pulled out cones that looked likely and made a wrap.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The darkest blue, in both the wrap and the pattern photo, looks black – but its actually\u00a0a deep navy. \u00a0Winding the wrap gave me a sense of proportion for the warp and that big expanse of natural would become a light blue when woven off with the blue weft. \u00a0With that in mind, I started deconstructing the drawdown.<\/p>\n

What makes this fabric so appealing to me is that it breaks the convention for this structure. \u00a0Close examination of the photo shows that the float length varies not only from block to block, but also *within* a block. \u00a0Two ends, four ends, even eight ends – all within a block. \u00a0And, even more wonderful is that blocks and floats aren’t the same within a stripe. \u00a0Here – this is what I mean (click to embiggen):<\/p>\n

\"Structure\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Have a look at the gold stripe about a third of the way from the left edge. \u00a0See how it’s split? \u00a0And see how the pattern block actually stretches to include the two white ends right next to it? \u00a0And it’s partner on the other side is the *other* block! \u00a0Now look at the wide dark blue stripe in the center\u00a0– it’s also split, but this time down the middle into the two blocks. \u00a0Just wonderful. \u00a0Assymetrical symmetry. \u00a0Patterns within patterns. \u00a0And all those floats distort what is otherwise a very regular textile. \u00a0When taken in as a whole – it’s actually a plaid. \u00a0Every time I look at it, I see another thing to\u00a0love.<\/p>\n

The wrapping and subsequent weaving was January, 2014. \u00a0I put on a long, narrow warp with the idea of making a kimono or other Japanese-inspired piece of clothing and quite quickly wove it off. \u00a0Just about 10 yards (post sampling) which gave me about 9 1\/2 yards after washing. \u00a0Unsurprisingly, the fabric was heavy and bulky – not something for a lightweight shirt, but quite well-suited to a jacket. \u00a0Since I couldn’t immediately figure out what to do with the fabric, and the structure was really inspiring me to keep going, I set it aside while weaving off a number of other pieces. \u00a0I knew that a little aging wouldn’t be a bad thing.<\/p>\n

Fast-forward to March of this year (2015) and another impending deadline for my garment study-group. \u00a0I had a wool singles fabric on the loom that was\u00a0nearly finished, but knew that I wasn’t ready to cut and sew that up without making a few muslins, so good old Number 37 came off the shelf. \u00a0And, along with it, came the “Padded Jacket” pattern from Folkwear’s<\/a>\u00a0Japanese Field Clothing<\/a>\u00a0collection. \u00a0I modified the pattern to use the sleeves from the Hippari and make use of the full-width of the fabric. \u00a0I also had an\u00a0Indian plaid cotton that would work wonderfully for the lining. \u00a0Over the course of an afternoon \u00a0I\u00a0managed to get everything cut and then I broke my arm<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, all came out as well as possible and I was back to sewing within two weeks. \u00a0After a full day of work, I managed most of the assembly:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

All that’s left at this point is cuffs and the neckband. \u00a0Getting to this point proved to be a bit harder than expected – changing out the sleeves meant rethinking the assembly steps and I made an error in cutting out the lining. \u00a0Rather than upsizing the lining so that the pieces matched my too-wide handwoven fabric, I cut it true to pattern and that made dealing with the lining a bit dicey. \u00a0But, nothing that couldn’t be dealt with.<\/p>\n

Now it’s done – and I couldn’t be happier.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I think the scale of the pattern works well for a jacket; a smaller repeat might become too busy – or it’d work well as an accent rather than for an all-over garment. \u00a0In true Japanese style, I made no effort at pattern-matching the center back seam:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

and the sleeves are just serendipity. \u00a0I like the way the stripes build up at the side seam though that’s mostly hidden. \u00a0And, even though the original called for a layer of batting between the outer fabric and the lining, I elected to leave it out because the outer fabric was bulky enough. \u00a0Good call.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I also moved the tie from the center of the neck opening to the side as well as lowered it so that it’s close to the waist rather than under the bust. \u00a0The length is nearly perfect. \u00a0When I make another, I would consider adding an inch or two.<\/p>\n

I learned a ton making this piece. \u00a0From fabric all the way through the construction of the garment, the entire\u00a0process kept giving me new ideas as well as opportunities to improve my skills. \u00a0I know I’ll wear this for a very long time. \u00a0Not only because I love it, but because it’s made to last. \u00a0And I’m not over you yet, Number 37. \u00a0Now we’re best friends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When my copy of Traditional Stripes and Lattices\u00a0arrived, it became bedtime-browsing for quite a few weeks. \u00a0It’s chock-full of inspiring photographs and one in particular caught my eye – Plate 37. \u00a0This, truly, is what made me fall in love … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,22,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books-and-reading","category-sewing","category-weaving"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.schafenfreude.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.schafenfreude.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.schafenfreude.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.schafenfreude.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.schafenfreude.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=344"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.schafenfreude.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":347,"href":"https:\/\/blog.schafenfreude.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344\/revisions\/347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.schafenfreude.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.schafenfreude.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.schafenfreude.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}