More Books & Some Sewing

I ordered a couple books last week, and received them Friday. Both of them are a little off the beaten track for me, and one is strictly inspirational.

I noticed Creating Sketchbooks for Embroiderers and Textile Artists

by Kay Greenlees some time ago, and since I have been thinking for some time about what I could do to improve my skills in recording and developing ideas, I thought this might be helpful as well as an interesting read. I'm taking it slowly and trying to really absorb the ideas, which are myriad, and so I'm not through it yet, but so far I'm pleased with it. It's a little more skewed toward the art side of things, but that's okay.

The other book is Embroidery by Federico Rocca. It's an amazing coffee-table size book that shows many examples of couture garments with embroidery as well as some embroideries from the archives of the embroidery studio featured. The designers are all or almost all Italian, and there are some things that have captured my imagination. I'm thinking of embroidery of all kinds now, although it's not something that's featured heavily in my wardrobe to say the least. The book has some ideas that are very non-traditional, and others that bring to mind ways to use them that are not too over-the-top.

I've been working on the darling free Cape pattern from the latest Marfy catalog, and it's turning out really well. I'm using a heavy wool coating from Pendleton. It's a melange of yellow and pink, which sounds odd, but I really loved it when I bought it, and I still like it. It was a cut piece 2.5 yards, and I only bought one. I realized that really wasn't enough for a coat, which is what I wanted to make. Of course they were out by the time I got back, so it's been waiting for its pattern mate to find it, and it finally did. It's at the upper left of this photo, and I think the pockets are just the cutest thing.

I'm using a printed poly moleskin for a lining, which is nice and warm, yet light in weight, as the wool is quite heavy. I have it all together except for the spot where I turned it. I've been hand prick-stitching the edges with a pink/yellow variegated cotton quilting thread, and the effect is nice. It shows a bit, but not aggressively. Now I need to decide on buttons and whether I'll do the side closures as shown or some other way. Bows are coming to mind, but I'm not sure that's what I really want.
Here's the wool.

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