I took a class with Yvonne Porcella in the fall of 1998. The class consisted of dying various silk fabrics based on her book "Colors Changing Hue." It was thought that we would make a wallhanging from the class, but not being much of a "wallhanging" person, I decided to combine as many of the fabrics as possible and make a vest. I used the June Colburn's Oriental Fan Vest pattern. By purchasing a couple of pieces of hand-dyed fabrics and dying the cotton lining fabric myself, I was able to get the entire vest done.

For the closure, I found a pink quartz "do-nut" shaped button and attached it with pink satin cording. I put a double tie on the other side to complete the closure.
The grape cluster on the front was created by cutting the dyed silk into various shapes and burning the edges over a candle. They are hand-stitched down right inside the edges. This is a technique that Yvonne uses quite often in her projects.

The embroidery on the back shoulder is a design from the Viking Library of designs, #070107.
I embroidered the label on the inside front lining before finishing the vest. I used a shape from Customizing System 5 and added the grapes and lettering. I think labels are important for all your projects--not just quilts.

 

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