Remember that dressing gown I was remaking into a coat? It is developing a life of its own…some of the patches cover actual holes (a few of the pieces I added in were already very well worn) while others are simply being affixed to it because I have stumbled on a lovely blue fragment that is too good to waste. Doubtless it will become thicker and warmer with the years, like the boro textiles of Japan and the ralli quilts of India that have inspired it. In both cases they are now ironically much sought after whereas in the past (as I understand it) they were looked down on as the textiles of need, made and maintained by people who had very little and saved each scrap out of necessity.
Here are some details of three examples from my small but treasured collection.
and below, two details from a shawl I brought home from India in 2020.
now for a bit of a twirl…
(no, you aren’t deaf, the movie is silent)
If you’re joining me in Morocco in April (or in Scotland and France in the northern autumn) I shall probably be enveloped in it, particularly as I am very much enjoying the way it swirls. I might even let you try it on if you promise not to scamper off with it.
As a child I dreamed of looking like the Blue Fairy in the Pinocchio story (who I have always imagined with blue hair, even though I cannot find any illustrations to back that up). I used to picture her looking a bit like the image by Henry Justice Ford below (borrowed from https://tomtefairytaleblog.tumblr.com/post/187904929283/andrew-lang-fairy-books-illustrations), with dress and hair all in rich tones of blue.
Or this one by Liiga Klavina, where the wanderer is accompanied by a protective bear (https://www.pinterest.es/pin/336221928414763341/) especially as her coat looks rather similar to mine and because at heart I am really a bear.
So if my hair ever turns white (or at least completely silver) I shall be slathering it in indigo so that I can have ocean-coloured hair to match my coat, and the rest of my wardrobe that seems to be slowly but surely turning blue as well.
Oddly enough, while I have great difficulty stitching into bold-toned ecoprint cloth and have usually printed/dyed my garments after I have sewn them together from white/greige yardage (or used garments) simply because I find intensely patterned surfaces too much for my neurodivergent brain - I do not seem to have the same trouble with blue, finding it marvellously calming instead. Undoubtedly there will be more blues in my future.
It’s a good thing I have resources…
Which colours sing sweetest to you?
And now for another part of the Journeycloth adventure…