PALETTE PROJECTS

I love palettes of color - seeing the offspring of those simple primaries of red, yellow and blue, and then putting them together into one project so all those colors just magically connect and work together. I always am promoting this idea, but actually taking the time to do it is another thing....you know, the "so many ideas, so little time" thing. But lately I have wound my way into palette work, and satisfying it has been.

A few years back, I came up with a straight and square Mexican-ish shirt design that uses fat quarters and is oh so comfortable to wear. I got back to some shirt sewing this summer, this time putting pockets in the sides. My first was using palette pieces, and those to follow featured some of my unique hand dyes that I wanted to highlight on the pockets, the yoke, etc. Which gets the most compliments? Yes, the prototype palette shirt, and I believe its because of those simple and soothing colors that just belong together like a family of colors. The pockets are too short and the shirt a bit baggy, but I get many positive comments when I wear it.

Then I had a lovely palette of colors from my recent class on Cortes Island and I decided to divide them up into warms and cools and work with them separately. The results are below - two totes that are making their way over to the Craft Cooperative to be placed with my other goods for sale. Of course I had to incorporate bleaching/discharging (this time using Soft Scrub with bleach) which adds a great dimensionality to the whole.

For me, the warm palette works much better than the cool as the residual yellows fall in place with the background. Once again, another piece of information to put in the experiential file cabinet. Happy dyeing, happy sewing!