I.P.C.A. Midnight Magic Contest

The Independent Pattern Company Alliance sponsored a contest featuring patterns designed by the Alliance companies. The theme was Midnight Magic.  I chose to use a pattern from Dana Marie Designs called The Modern Poet Blouse. The shapely lines of this blouse inspired the tuxedo style jacket made from medium weight wool. I extended the length and reshaped the hemline to reflect a modern high/low curve. The versatile collar variations drew me to purchase this pattern a few years ago and I enjoyed creating an asymmetric folded Ultrasuede version from the Kimono style band.

The title of this entry is Steampunk Flor de Luna. The moonflower blooms at night when the magic of the moon brings it to life. This piece is meant to show how the beauty of the universe will continue as the gears of time grind to eternity. I purchased the moonflower designs from embroiderydesigns.com and the gears from urbanthreads.com. Using my Bernina Designer + embroidery software I broke apart the designs and rearranged the parts and pieces so that the vines and flowers were intertwined in the gears and growing through them. I pulled individual parts from the digitized designs and resized, mirrored, reshaped and altered them before incorporating them back into the piece, then skewed the whole design to make it appear more abstract.   Metal gears, beading and real watch parts are hand applied to add texture and interest. The back detail at the waistline includes a clock face with a special brass button.

I have been a member of the Olympia Chapter of ASG since 2005.