Project 32: Skirting the Issue - Continued

These are the fourth and fifth in the series of skirts I'm making for my beloved friend K, who has trouble shopping off the rack due to decades of courageous struggle against Cushing's Disease. You can see the first three skirts here: Project 32: Skirting the Issue

Each of the pieces is inspired by a different aspect of my friend's life and story as I understand it. Number four is my comment on her history as a child of missionaries in the Andes mountains of South America.

Continuing within my triptych framework, I selected three prints again, but decided to piece together the first and second panels to suggest the peaks of the mountains against the night sky.

The print around the bottom should look familiar. It's the same one I used in the Seattleite design to suggest the perpetual clouds we all enjoy so much. This time, though, the clouds represent the ground of the composition with the mountain peaks and stars rising high above.

The fifth was a request from K for a warmer skirt made from knit fabric. Luckily I was on my way to the Sewing and Stitchery Expo in Puyallup when her message came in. There was an exceptional fabric vendor there from Evanston, Illinois called Vogue Fabrics and they had an excellent selection of textiles at prices I have not seen outside of Manhattan before.

I selected two colors of double-knit cotton jersey that had a beautiful hand and a lovely sheen to them. The photograph really doesn't do the colors justice. They really evoke the green and blue of crocus leaves and flowers. Of all the pieces, this one has the least narrative / editorial content, but it will serve its purpose and keep her boo-boos warm and toasty until the weather here starts to cooperate.

I used a two-thread flat lock stitch on my Babylock Imagine serger to join the upper and lower sections together. As promised, it produced a slender join with the needle threads visible easing the transition between the colors. If you click on the photo you might be able to see what I'm writing about.

The layers around the bottom edge were supposed to be more lettuce-edged than they turned out. Live and learn, I suppose! I do like the piece, but am starting to feel ready to move on to the final skirt, since it promises to be the most theatrical.