Monday, October 26, 2009

Polka dot bubble skirt

I picked up this blue polka dot dress at a yard sale a while ago for like two bucks, I had no idea what I was going to do with it,but there was just so much material to work with. Plus I like polka dots :-)

The voile dress came from the Rose Bowl swapmeet and cost a little more, about ten dollars.

Add ingredients and come out with:



Sunday, October 11, 2009

De Young Textiles

I recently returned from San Francisco, and I had such a great time up there and can't wait to go back. While I was there, I visited the De Young museum, where they have a textiles exhibit.

This first piece is a bark cloth skirt. It was made in Polyneisa from the bark of Mulberry trees. It was created in process of soaking, scraping and beating the bark, then later dying, painting or stenciling the fabric. This particular piece was hand painted.


Next is a man's robe from Nigeria in the mid 20th century. it is made of cotton and native silk using a plain weave. The robes were worn to indicate wealth, social status and political authority.



This is a mens ceremonial wrap from the Igbo people in Nigeria. Made from cotton using a plain weave.


This is a ceremonial dance skirt from the Republic of the Congo Kuba people. This Skirt dates back to the early 20th century and is made from Raffia, wool and cotton using a plain weave as well.



This textile is from the United states 1930-1939. It is a screen printed cotton.


Lastly, not really textiles but I found it to be pretty interesting, is a string bag from the Upper Sepik mountain people in the 20th century. This bag was created using string, feathers, pig tail, shell, gum and rattan.



There was so much more to see and I have many more pictures, but unfortunately I cannot post them all or it will take up the whole blog!