Project rekindles ‘hippie’ phase with a new level of flair

Once, a friend said to me, “You never outgrew the dressing-like-a-hippie phase, did you?” The remark was made, with no unkindness intended, in the late 1980s after she went back to work and began wearing power suits, a trend that left me, quite willingly, in the fashion rag bag. So when the roulette wheel of fashion recently spun around once again and the trend dropped into the slot of embroidered tunics and other bohemian-inspired clothing, I knew just what to do – sew.

When a local fabric store had a sale, I bought a tunic pattern, Simplicity 5684. I found some dusty blue gauze cotton at one of the big-box stores and I was good to go.

Later, at home, I rummaged in my trimming stash and found beaded fringe in blue that matched the fabric.

I cleared the kitchen table and soon the pattern was pinned to the cloth and cut out.

As usual, the cutout tunic languished, folded up on the trunk where I keep my old needlework magazines, for more than a week before I could make time to sit down at the kitchen table and sew.

I have in the course of my sewing life set in hundreds of sleeves and stitched in many, many facings. The tunic went together in about two hours from darts to hem, and that included the time it took to press each piece and finish the seams.

I like hand sewing and I try to find a way to include it in any machine-sewing project I undertake. That’s where the beaded fringe came in. I hand-stitched that to the 3/4-sleeve hems.

I knew I wanted to embellish the front with embroidery. But what motif? That was the question. At that point, I knew I’d have to look at the tunic for a few days until some idea came to me. I figured I’d make a few drawings and the design would evolve.

The idea for embellishment came to me, not at home with a drawing pencil in my hand, but while I was shopping for leather gloves. It came in the form of a leaf stencil, which I found at everyone’s favorite surplus and salvage store in Brewer.

The stencil was exactly what I was looking for. It was made specifically for embroidery and was a welcome change from the iron-on transfer method of applying a design to fabric. I used an ordinary red pencil to mark the design on either side of the neck opening. It was quick and easy and to do.

Elsewhere in my altogether too vast collection of thread – embroidery and otherwise – I found a spool of fine-weight, blue variegated Perle cotton I chose for the embroidery. I also used it to make a line of hand stitching around the neck opening and for crocheted ties.

The final touch was to sew a few blue sequins to the leaf stem, which provided just the right amount of glitter. I toyed with adding beads, but they detracted from the design rather than enhancing it.

The tunic was one of those projects that brought to me a great deal of creative satisfaction. Even though I used a pattern for the basic design, I had plenty of leeway in how to interpret it. Also, the pattern was easy to sew. I let the plain blue front serve as a “canvas” for my own ideas about how to garnish the garment with embroidery and sequins.

But best of all, when I wore my boho-hippie top over a white turtleneck the next day, it put me back in touch with my younger self and those 1970s days when I readily embraced whatever fashion flung in my path.

Snippets

. Artists Kristen Dettoni and Dana Claire Larson, designers for Interface Fabrics of Guilford, which manufactures office furniture and automobile upholstery fabrics, will talk about Interface’s products made of fiber derived from corn at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 23, at Bangor Public Library. An exhibit of fiber art made from Interface’s corn fiber and recycled fabrics textiles is on display at the library’s Stairwell Gallery during February.

. The first meeting of the Maine Needle Arts Guild on Feb. 4 drew 18 people, reports Michele Goldman of Pittsfield, who spearheaded the group’s formation. At the meeting, Goldman gave a lesson in hardanger embroidery. Because 32 women want to join the group, a larger meeting space is needed. Another meeting will be held 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 18, at the Page Farm and Home Museum, University of Maine, Orono, to continue the hardanger lesson. Those who wish may stitch independently on projects of their own. Those interested in attending this extra meeting should e-mail Goldman at michele@jobmaster.com.

Goldman said that she “can state with confidence that embroidery is alive and well in central Maine.”

Ardeana Hamlin may be reached at 990-8153, or e-mail ahamlin@bangordailynews.net.