Projects in progress:
1. Embroidered shearling coat
That. Is. Gorgeous!!
Thank you! It will also be great entertainment value for money, since I certainly won't finish it until NEXT winter. (mixed feelings) I have been researching my family's origins in Eastern Europe, and the bits of 'found heritage' are coming to life in this coat, in rather a meaning-rich way. I was originally inspired by the Russian sister's coat in Season 1 of American Gods.
Further detail in case anyone cares:
My grandfather was born in a place that is ethnic Hungarian (language spoken), but now located in Ukraine. So I am drawing from both cultures, because neither was conveyed to me or dad ('what do you care about the old country? You are American, you have everything here!') I love embroidery and graphic design, and both cultures are rich in it.
Embellished shearling coats were worn in pictures of early 20th c immigrants (that'd be my family) from the region. I found a fake one on Ebay (lighter, cheaper, less mummified) that I liked the cut of, but it buttoned in a modern way. So those trees are "visible mending" to conceal the buttonholes. I used trees because I needed a horizontal bar to cover the buttonhole, and it's very Magyar(Hungarian), from as early as the country's founding pre-1000 CE, to have a series of horizontal bars, supporting buttons and loops.
The trees are embroidered in white wool, because whitework embroidery predates colored (though I also love the area's felt applique, just saving for something else I think), and white is associated far back into the mythology with deity and sunlight. I also thought of trees in each season because there were 4 buttonholes needing to be mended. (There's actually a fifth under the collar, but that location made no sense for a bar/button combo, so it has a mandala/moon combo on left and right side.) I found cast oak acorn buttons for the 'root' of each tree.
I'm presently knitting i-cord for the button loops, and after that plan to spin/weave a piled fabric for the collar - as if it were a piece of traditional shaggy coats called Hunia from that region. After all of that, the coat will be wearable - but then the back feels kind of plain...I might design a Tree of Life (also traditional) for the back, which will take all of next winter to embroider, for sure.
^^^I AM NUTS. Why can't I put this kind of awesomeness into a web design sideline?