African mudcloth fabric belts

For Project Okurase, I'm making these reversible belts out of mudcloth from Ghana. The darker fabric is the mudcloth; the other side is made out of a gorgous cotton print from the same village. You can flip the belt over for a completely different look - great with jeans or a long flowy skirt. The belt hoops are actually shower curtain rings! These belts, along with fabric cuff bracelets, will be sold Dec. 5 and 6 at Unique LA. Stay tuned for more project photos for this non-profit organization.

The reverse side...

Duvet Cover and Shams

I love this fabric! There are 10 inside button closures at the bottom of the duvet, and 4 button closures on the back of each sham. This took more work than I care to do again, any time soon...!

Curtains

Here are some photos of grey linen curtains I made for a client.

Yoga Bags for Project Okurase

It's so exciting to actually be able to create something that might really make a difference.

I was approached a few months ago by Rhion Magee, product developer for Project Okurase (see the website: www.projectokurase.org) to help design yoga bags out of fabrics, beads and other materials created in Ghana. The idea was to create a prototype that can be recreated by the women of Okurase (a village in Ghana) on donated pedal-powered machines (the village has no electricity). The proceeds from the sale of these bags will go directly back to the village, into a recreational training facility.

I was given a suitcase of various, multi-colored African pants (which were sewn incorrectly and could not be sold), and rather than discard the pants, I was asked to design a yoga bag from a pair.

So...you are looking at our first prototype, made from a size small pair of pants. I used every inch of pants I could use, including the drawstring! The bag has a pocket on the side, beaded closure, a strap made out of webbing and then covered with the fabric, and a 22-inch zipper from Joann's. For the corded piping, I took a shopping bag apart and used the handles, which I then covered with bias strips from one of the pant legs.


Stay tuned...I'll be making more and you'll be seeing them online, soon!

I needed just a basic white tee, long enough to reach the top of those annoying low rider jeans that we all wear these days (!) So I found a pattern by Sandra Bettzina that fit the bill. I made this shirt from a large scrap of very soft cotton, and it's so comfortable!

Vintage Vogue dress

This dress is made from a vintage Vogue pattern, and it's basically a ready-to-wear size 4. Hand-gathered, serged seams throughout, and an 18-inch zipper in back. The fabric is a 54% hemp, 43% organic cotton, and 3 % lycra knit, and it was custom dyed at LA GenTex. One thing I learned from this process: Hemp STRETCHES.....It was taken in three times to get the size right.

Knit knock-off

My friend Jaime asked me to copy an old knit dress which had been laundered a few too many times. She brought me this light blue lightweight knit fabric she picked up downtown. I took her old dress apart and traced all the pattern pieces. (Not so easy, since the knit had stretched beyond recognition is some places!) Anyway, this took forever, but it worked. She wore it this weekend and said it was very comfortable.

The gathering was done by hand. I didn't see any way around that, the way it's constructed. The upper half of the dress has self-facing. There's no zipper in back; she just pulls it on over her head.

The original dress had no hem, so we attempted that (as you can see in this photo). We opted later to add a small hem to prevent curling.