capelets! apparently good for sharing secrets!
For the fall collection I made three capelets and they are, I do believe, my favorite pieces, plus they appear to be really fun to wear! The first one that I made is the one you see pictured on Imogene here, with the chartreuse silk bow and brown velvet hood trim. I made it from a vintage bedspread. The bedspread was quilted and stopped me dead in my tracks at the second hand store. It was this bedspread that started the whole fairy tale idea. Visions of the curtain clothes from The Sound of Music kept coming to me. When I got it home and spread it out in the sunshiny light, was when I realized that the bedspread had seen better days. Many, many better days it seemed, lying in the same exact position on the same exact bed, because you could see where it had been creased and the fabric was really, really worn in those spots. The saving grace was that apparently the bed must have been against one wall because there was an area, along one whole side, that wasn't faded or worn, and that was where I began snipping! I lined the hood with a velvet ribbon which had a nice effect, but I didn't want to do the binding on the front and bottom edges in the same ribbon because I thought it would detract too much from the design on the fabric. I ended up making bias tape out of some of the same material which was a pain because it involved first un-quilting the bedspread fabric, and then stitching together strips cut on the bias. In the end, I loved the way this capelet turned out. Its in the shop but there is a fairly large sized part of my heart that hopes it goes unnoticed and unpurchased, which would free it up to be worn by Imogene all winter:). The second capelet, shown here on Imogene's close friend, is also absolutely darling, although it almost had me quitting mid-construction. I made it from a vintage curtain which was in perfect condition. I lined the hood with some fake wooly fleece. It has a certain ice princess feel to it. The cape itself is lined with a really nice wool suiting. What does it for me on this capelet is the silk bow. (The ladies blouse which the silk came from also offered a ruffled collar and sleeve cuffs which will undoubtedly find another purpose soon- gorgeous!) I also stumbled across a package of three very large antiqued metal hook and eye closures at Joann which I used at the neck opening. That way you can secure the capelet, and then tie the bow so it looks right!
This is the third capelet and it is really striking with the blue bow against the gray damask type design fabric. The really great thing about this capelet is that the tablecloth that it was cut from seems to offer some wicking properties that allows liquids to bead up on it- how perfect is that for the rain? Since I lined it with the wool suiting, it also stays fairly warm under there.
now for the concerns..... you might like to settle in... or finish reading this post when you're finding yourself feeling philosophical and empathetic. here goes. since the launch of chinny chin chin, the blog, and chinny chin chin, the clothing line, i have gone through all these different iterations and permutations and evolutions and just plain changes regarding the scope, format, image of everything. basically, i blame it on etsy. no, just kidding, but selling my craft has definitely lent my crafting a whole different dimension. sometimes i love it and sometimes it feels like my artistry has been tainted. it definitely feels vulnerable to list items in the store and price them. its one thing for people to compliment my kids on what i make for them, but its quite another to try to figure out how much someone else would pay for the same thing. i mean, who knows? maybe they tell my kids they look cute because they just like my kids. then there is the time issue. i don't have a whole heck of a lot of it. and my time sewing is precious to me. i love the learning, the creating, the constructing. even the shopping for fabric at thrift stores and fabric stores is my total pleasure. but when i look at how many hours i rack up behind the machine before i finish a more complicated piece, it is nearly impossible to think of charging what would be a reasonable compensation per hour. on the other hand, the thought of limiting what i make to simple, and more importantly, quick, projects is also not appealing. god bless those men and women who do make it possible to get cute clothes for cheap (sometimes i stand in complete awe at the sales rack at old navy), but i can't really volunteer my time so that other people can get what i make for as cheap as they could buy it at a store. so what is the happy medium? then there is the image thing in general. mike and i like to think about where all this could eventually go, and although i do love to dream about it, some of the nitty gritty has me a little stunted lately. i guess its the whole branding issue. its asking the question, 'what is chinny chin chin?' mostly, i think that my clothes reflect me, and my tastes, but that is always changing too. I am so deeply influenced by the changes in season for one. and i get sick of making the same thing. i actually have to force myself to use up considerable amounts of my fabric stash before heading out for more. what i like is always changing. then there is this huge conundrum to me regarding the proprietary nature of crafting. like who's idea was it anyway? i feel like i often see work that other designers are doing, and realize its so similar to mine. then i second guess my originality. then i second guess my fixation with being original. knowing that as common members of society, we are all exposed to the same inputs through the same media, is knowing that as artists, we are likely to come up with similar stuff. even more likely in a rapidly growing but yet fairly small online crafting community. which then makes me worried about offending anyone by seeming to 'copy' them. loads of times i have the same innovation as i discover elsewhere and then i am practically paralyzed about what to do. make it? not make it? make it for my family but not to sell? and i really hope not to incur any of the same stress on anyone else by the way. if you have the gumption to try your hand at any of the ideas that i have, i would rather that you do just go ahead and try and that possibly we become crafting friends through the shared experience. part of the 'copying' issue is trends too. i like to make things that are fashiony. well that means reinterpreting pieces or styles that i see around. i like to add my own changes, but still i can't claim any of it is truly original. but i don't want to make wacky, 'wow-i-have-never-seen-anything-like-that' stuff. to that end, i do like "mining" a lot of my fabric from thrifted sources, because it lends a ton to the originality and moreover it adds a 'layer of existence', a term i saw on Melissa's blog which just struck me so deeply. so i guess i feel pressure to keep my blog 'branded' now that i have an etsy shop. kind of ridiculous i know because when you list on etsy, your stuff stays on the first page for all of about 2.5 seconds, reaching thousands of viewers i'm sure. but i feel worried that if i am going to grow the business, i will have to keep the blog 'pure'. especially with the prices i am asking. i am assuming that people who buy the clothes will visit the blog, at least once perhaps, and they will want to see the theme continued in other iterations here. so what happens is that i am totally stunted by that. i haven't shown any of you the robot sweatshirt or the projects my elementary school students are working on in my handsewing class, and why? because those things are tangents. larks. not the direction i hope to take chinny chin chin. but they are loads of fun and would be fun to share. and then there are the little stories about the common struggles of being a mom and a teacher and a hobby sewer, that i love, love, love to read about on other blogs, but feel confined to do so here. plus there are the pictures of the kids that i would love to post more of, but who, (besides you mom:)) wants to come here to see my family photo album? i don't know. but i hate posting once a month just to keep things looking professional. so brace yourself, because you know what...? i think i just convinced myself to post about whatever strikes me and that might just mean posting way more often! maybe everyday in november like this new and lovely blog called wiksten-made .
