RickRack Upcycled

is  going to be at the new

Cambridge Open Market!

    in the Plaza at Harvard 

September 6th and October 11th

http://www.cambridgeopenmarket.com/

Come see all the latest pre-loved clothing made better

This Saturday in Lincoln Park!!!

 RickRack Upcycled Clothing will be there 

with New and Sale clothing.

Now  Men's clothing too!

A Gathering of Stitches

I'm very excited to be part of the teaching team at Portland's new textile arts center, A Gathering of Stitches. Maybe I can take a class too

.

They put up a very nice post about me and my upcycling
 http://agatheringofstitches.com/blog/2013/8/1/meet-our-teachers-suzanne-parrott

Lots of RickRack events coming up

plus upcycling classes

@ A Gathering of Stitches start in late August

The Wedding Suit

Blogging has been off my radar while we prepared for my oldest son's wedding last week on the Solstice.

Sewing may have been my emotional saving.

 Paparazzi (friends with cameras) annoying the groom

                                 The groom requested a suit make-over which I proudly began. 

The pressure of design perfection for the occasion hadn't hit me yet. 

He had found a pre-loved grey suit which fit in the shoulders and at the waist. Those aspects could be crossed off my sewing list.

My son is 6'3" and under 170 lbs. Sleeve and pant hems had to be let out.

 Luckily the jacket was a good length.

I added and subtracted elements. I wanted to include Japanese Boro applique and Sashiko stitching. It needed to be formal enough and yet a bit edgy without pretension.

Men's clothing is much trickier to design in many ways. It's easy for it to look contrived or tasteless.

There are just so many more rules than in women's fashions.

I finished off the lapels with some stitched and torn gauze that I ink-stained to go with the various shades.

The basic shape changers for the suit included tapering the pants and jacket body (alot). There are sleeve cuffs that actually button. The single vent back became a double vent with a great lining fabric. The front closure has an added placket from a darker grey jacket of similar weight . The dark panel has three closure buttons and the lighter grey has two for multiple ways to fasten.

My son found a vest that worked perfectly.

As the Designer/Mom I wanted to add something  distinctive and nostalgic. So I printed a favorite children's book character just inside the front. He is from the Swedish/Finnish Moomin books.

 I'm thinking it's  mushy but really, a very chic final touch. Or maybe just a short love note to my son 

RickRack at SOWA!

RickRack has a new venue for Summer 2013

 RickRack will be at SOWA Open Market in Boston. It's a great place to see all our latest clothing,   eat some goodies from all the food trucks and enjoy a day of crafts, art studios and lunch in the beautiful  South End of Boston.

RickRack will be at SOWA on May 12th and 26th, June 9th, and July 7th and 21st.

See you there!



Putting Away Winter Sewing

Every year I find it difficult to switch my sewing seasons. It's hard to imagine wearing that little spaghetti strap dress when you're having a blizzard. Even worse is sewing wool in the heat of Summer. Just the tactile experience is miserable.
 It's so lovely sewing cashmere on a cold dreary March day, but it's time to pack away all cold weather sewing . I'm finding it painful, to say the least.
I can stretch out the men's sewing just because men's clothing is a bit less seasonal but wool dresses? They've got to be tagged and stored. Even the ones that are halfway finished. Ugh.
So the idea of this post is partially to give myself encouragement by showing you some new, bright, Spring/Summer clothes. Some of them have already been sold. You'd think that would be encouraging all by itself.

Going Biking Skirt

back view

details, details, details

Button-down shirt skirt

even an extra side pocket

Super Spring Skirt. Lots of mill end fabrics in this one

Teeshirts Make a Tee Dress

Teeshirts Make a Tee Dress

I've been busy taking lots of pictures of clothing. Some great images, some not.
I needed to get started and this is at least getting a start underway.
So here is one of my tee dresses. I even have before and after pics this time.

mixed batch of shirts

This shirt had an added black yarn decoration from it's previous owner

There was a hole at the back neck which required a small patch

                  The final creation

I WILL get my Etsy going!

I've been working on my Etsy images and feel like they're just about ready.

The process has taken a long time. My original idea involved a model, a photographer and a perfect

weather day. Wasn't going to happen in the real world.

The next plan was to figure out the techie way of creating the perfect composition. You know, learn a new computer program in record time and just zip through it. Not with my learning curve.

And then it occurred to me that I could paint some backgrounds and photograph clothing with only

a tiny bit of stress and the fun of painting thrown in. It harkens back to my days of art gallery installations.

For now, it’s a doable solution.

So with that introduction I’ll say that these are some of my latest pieces and they’ll be available atUmbrella Shop and Gallery in Portland, Maine or on my new Etsy page.

                  This Sweater has legging sleeves and collar trim made from pajama top scraps.

Chocolate cotton velour turtleneck with tee shirt scrap design and long sleeve tee sleeves.

This was so much fun to design. I am never happier than when I have mixed patterned fabric in front of me.

A four shirt dress

A basic three shirt dress

Here's another men's jacket. I removed the pockets and turned them sideways with a sweater trim

backing. The lapels have added fabric from a polo shirt. The sleeves have cuffs of reclaimed cloth

and I had just the right number of matching horn buttons for the closure and the pockets.



January tie experiments

I always meant to try making something out of ties so here are my first attempts. A skirt from many classic garish  polyester ties which I opened. They have lots of stability to them. Then I worked on a silk non-opened tie vest for my husband. It's still without buttons and photographed a bit crooked, but you can get the feel of it. I'll put more pics up as things progress.