Sharing time with other artists by Connie Tiegel

 Making a jacket with the jacket queens:

After 4 days of sharing retreat time a small group of retreat participants decided they wanted to do more together during the year. Two of the gals got together and proposed making a simple jacket that would fit all of our figures and look stunning on all of us. We were dubbed the “jacket queens” and eagerly watched for emails that would give us dates to meet and work on our projects. 
The first step was to secure some kantha cloth from which to cut our patterns. Most everyone looked on the internet and found their cloth. I decided to make my cloth from my own stash. I sewed together a bundle of indigo dyed fabrics I was gifted about 20 years ago. For the lining I chose some hand dyed blue silk charmeuse

 Bubble gauze was chosen as the batting so the drape of the fabrics would remain true. I stitched my 3 layers together for a couple of months and finally had a 48 inch by 60 inch piece of layered and stitched fabric ready to cut to pattern.  The “jacket queens” got together to cut out the pattern and plan the sewing, learning new stitching methods, and options for the finished look. I used a combination of machine stitching and hand stitching of French seams to complete my jacket. After 4 months we had a gathering to show off our work. Everyone had approached this same jacket with different ideas and each jacket was distinct to the maker and all beautiful. I happily wear my “jacket queen” jacket to as many occasions as I can.