I completed and submitted my ‘entry’ to the swatchmal makealong, Breakin the Law. I was so inspired by the pattern, SWATCH, a celebration of upcycling and repurposing materials, with an Earth Day inspiration of promoting recycling in fiber arts by creating a new garment from swatches.

I don’t often swatch for my work, so I had fewer than a dozen to incorporate for my piece, but I added them to an old and abandoned ‘freeform fiber diary’ art project I did years ago. I took The Beast, a 2D wall hanging, and I re-jiggered it such that it could form the basis of a tank-style minidress, adding the swatches and some new scrumbles.

This garment’s got everything: crochet, knitting, weaving, wet felting, beading, buttons, wire, ribbon, safety pins, handspun, a leftover hexi from my Beekeeper quilt, bias tape, Mylar, plastic bag, veggie sacking, sculpture, ruffles, tubes, layers, signs, jewelry, rope, a tiny clothespin, pompoms, a boob with a pierced nipple - even a slice of cherry pie! And a piggy butt. Don’t forget the piggy butt.

This project was ALL about the process for me, and the ‘product’, the garment, secondary. It was an absolute pleasure (I can say that now that it’s over and the trauma of ‘birthing’ it is already fading, lol).

Link to MAL: SWATCH MAL

SWATCHMAL DIARY
5.22.20 Put a fork in me, I’m DONE! My dress of many colors is FINISHED!

5.15.20 Took an old plastic bangle bracelet and finally figured out how to crochet onto a ring (thanks YouTube!). Then I added a ruffle, as one does. Finally, I popped the bullion ammonite I did about a week ago in the middle - et voilà!

5.14.20 Last night I sat down to just PLAY with yarn; always yields both the most pleasure AND the most interesting scrumbles. What came out of my hook was a dollhat/volcano/nipple 3d thingbob and I love it. That’s the whole point, amirite?

5.13.20 Morning yarn doodling, fluoro bobbles edging. I suck at crochet bobbles (knit bobbles no problema), but I insist on blaming my poor bobbles skills on the shitty splitty yarn I chose to make the bobbles, not the fact that I couldn’t be bobble-bothered to look up how to make a crochet bobble. BOBBLES!!!

5.09.20 After a bunch of fits and starts, I am back to creating a dress! A gown, a pin-up mermaid sheath of yarny amazement! Same materials, but metamorphosed: the front is now the back, the white dress base and orange tunic are gone, and it is shapeshifting. I’ve been working on it a little each day, re-shaping, repairing and re-pairing, creating new components. It’s a lot of ‘try it on, stitch, try it on, adjust, try it on again’ — to infinity. It’s about the PROCESS.

4.29.20 Plan C: Tunic Vest! Today Miz Maus the Bat Dog helped with cutting the armholes by offering her moral support (I hate cutting fabric). Just what I needed. Next: reinforce armholes .

4.28.20 New plan! Turns out if you wrap a fluffy Amazon body in 15lbs of yarn ruffles and bobbles you get ‘blanket chic’, by which I mean I look like a sofa. A big, ruffled sofa. And not in a good way, not a comfy velvet number with oversized cushions for cuddling and sturdy arms to support you while you escape read through a pandemic. More like granny’s broken-down chintz loveseat that the cat scratched up on the legs. So…GONE is the cute a-line tunic that fit the dressform but not me, and GONE is the sheath dress that was going to be a nightmare to assemble and a fever dream to wear. Here’s to my 3rdx the charm idea: a tunic vest! Cross your fingers, fam.

4.27.20 Started pinning The Beast and swatches and other assorted yarny baubles onto the base fabric. With the materials I have to hand I think I have just the quantity to cover it. Keeping the bodice open for now, with plans for filling in later. Oriented The Beast approximately centered on the dress, with its bottom edge aligned with the hem, which means it wraps around the sides. The Beast now covers ~75% of the front and 15% of the back. As far as stitching everything to the fabric, 2 questions emerge: 1) drapey vs. taught, and 2) machine or hand stitch? Pleased with this ‘proof of concept’ stage.

4.26.20(b) In November 2006 I I joined a small group (5? 6?) of flickr fiber artists on a kind of ‘diary’ journey. Each of us pledged to create a piece, and to knit, crochet, weave, embellish, or
otherwise add to it, photograph it, and share it with the group, every day, for a year. Even though I crapped out after about 9 months, it was the first time I created ‘real’ art, and it was a transformative experience. It is the Freeform Knit and Crochet 365 Project (the ‘Art’ I referenced yesterday in my ‘accidental boob’ entry).

This is my ‘secret weapon’ for the #SWATCHMAL. I’m not a diligent swatcher, and when I do I usually unknit it and use the yarn, so I only have about 9 actual swatches to incorporate in my swatch dress. But this abandoned art project was in essence a daily swatching ritual, and for the purposes of the makealong I am considering it one giant collection of swatches.

To read more about my Freeform 365 piece (there are copious notes), the flickr set is here: Freeform 365 and it is also in my Rav projects The Beast

4.26.20 Giacomo (my mannequin torso) got a girlfriend - meet Barbara! A friend kindly gifted me her well-loved dressform and I finally refurbished her a bit. She’s a bit tatty (like me), she lists a bit (like me), and she looks svelter in the Spanx tank that needs two people to shimmy out of (like me!), but she’s a trooper (also like me). She is not as fluffy as I am, so I set about trying to put some meat and potatoes and adult beverages on her bones. My first efforts, as you can see in the last two photos Where she’s flexing her six(ty) pack, were not especially great. I mean, I’m lumpy, but not that lumpy! But in the end, she is beautiful in my eyes. Like me! Perfect for modeling BTL.

4.25.20 A Story… Once upon a time, I knit a boob. I knit a boob by accident! (No, really.) So I added it to a big ol’ fiber art project (more on that later). The project petered out, unfinished but glorious. It languished, unloved and forlorn. So I hung it on the wall, in the hall, and I called it ‘Art’. That’s short for Arturo, of course. Then one day Art got sick. Art began to develop holes in its beautiful body, and a really big, gaping one in its boob. Oh NO! It seems that Art had made friends with a neighborhood gang: The Moths. Dangerous crew, these Moths. Can’t be trusted in polite yarn society. So Art and his friends were shunned, hidden away in a BGB (Big Green Bag) and not seen again for years. Then one day, as sometimes happens, a BGB appeared as if from nowhere - POOF! - when something else entirely was being sought. Lo and behold, there was Art, in the BGB. But! Art was all alone. His friends, The Moths, were no more! No loss, that. Art was looking good, despite the hole in its boob, but was Very Lonely. Art really prefers being appreciated over living alone in a BGB. So OUT of the BGB came Art, and IN to the repair shop it went!

And that is the Story of how I came to be repairing my boob today.

4.24.20 I bit the bullet and joined Instagram so I can post to the MAL. (Username = colorbombvelma) I also dug out an old tunic dress I don’t much wear (boring) to repurpose as a base for my BTL; I think attaching to a fabric base will be easier than just winging it. Checked for fit in light of the covid 19 I’ve put on: it’s a pie- and wine-forgiving stretchy A-line, so we’re good to go!

4.23.20 I’m not much of a swatcher (more breakin’ the law), and when I do I usually unravel it and use the yarn. So I only have a handful of swatches to include (9). BUT…I have a secret weapon…