It's funny how things evolve. I cut out some fabric to make an Ikina Jacket, intending to leave the side flanges off and the side seams open. I got to the side seam step, felt a little blocked on the engineering of it, so I put the whole project away.
A month later, I picked it up to finish and decided that it needed a little spark. So Kathy rummaged through our remnants and found some hand-dyed silk that had some bits of colorful silks fused to it in strips.
If I did some piecing, I had just enough fabric to cut a narrower front band on the straight of grain rather than on the bias, as the pattern dictates. I found some small pieces of old silk kimono and fused various colors and textures to fill in the blanks. I used HeatnBond Lite on the back of the kimono pieces to glue them to the base fabric and then edgestitched all the pieces I place. Then I interfaced the entire band using our wonderful Ultrasheer interfacing.
I belong to the "kimono-of-the-month" club (seriously) to acquire my kimono piece collection. Go to Ah Kimono! to check it out.
I love the way the jacket turned out. Sometimes, things just have to cook for a while, and it's important not to get too upset when the creative moment doesn't hit you when you think it should.
~Linda