Botanical imprinted loose blouse 植物移印染襯衣

 

"Mum, this nightie is so soft.... I'd have a sweet dream with it...."

"Oh, no girl,  it's for my very good friend "iL".  You just put on to show me how it looks."

I made this wearable piece with different silk fabrics for my experiments of natural prints. They're the typical printable leaves, incl. rose leaves, eucalyptus silver dollar and kinds of unknown species of windfalls from suburb.

Since I need to test imprints on different fabrics, some with mordant, some not, quite a lot of panels were used.  To make use of the scraps, I sewed the panels into a loose blouse with my simple sewing skills. 

從幾片實驗的植物印染布料車縫的一件襯衣，絲薄輕柔，雖然不是時尚款式，作為夏日家居便服也挺舒適吧！這是我送給一位很好朋友 "iL"的衣物，其實是我硬要給她的，因為我知道她會珍視我的「手藝」.

 

The blouse is made with 5 long panels across.  The top two front & back with sleeves are the longest.

Neckline is wool felted with merino.

Sides of waist with folds to make pleats style.

Bottom layers overlapped to make drapes

 

To bring out shapes of dried leaves, I used iron mordant over the fabric.

One of the ways is to spray a little rusty water over the leaves after laid-out on fabric. 

Imprints on silk habotai are particularly bold.

These are with no mordant on crepe de chine, leaves are bits dull.

Rose leaves and euc silver dollar dipped in iron (or rusty) solution give shades.
 Red is euc silver dollar.

The background shades are of iron mordant to bring out the outlines

Double prints of leaves

A light and loose blouse for my very good friend (iL) who is my great supporter and always drives my creation.  That day I said I've made a blouse with assorted experiments of some leaves picked with her in a train station during our lunch break while we're working years ago, some were samples I tested for my Canada teaching. The blouse is a collection of my experiments. I was wondering if she would like it. She said she would love to wear it her coming US vacation. 

Be it a nightie to have a sweet dream or a casual wear on the couch ! 
 How delighted I am to have someone who appreciates my work and drives my creativity juice flowing !