Lisa Thorpe

Playtime

For months I’ve wanted to try out a fabric marbling technique that I read about.  I got all the materials I needed and there it sat.  I couldn’t carve enough time out, another stumbling block was the fact that to do the fabric marbling the fabric had to be soaked and dried ahead and a thickener needed to be mixed and rest for 24 hours.  So when I did have the time I hadn’t done the prep and so it went for months.  But this week I got it together and had a great time.  It’s a fascinating process where you drip colors onto thickened water and the color spreads in radiating circles, then you add more color and more.  There is very little control (at least in this novice foray) and I liked that.  Letting go control and expectations was liberating.  I wasn’t doing this for work or a magazine article or even any specific end goal, it was pure play and it felt good.  I love, love, love the fabrics I came up with.  I loved it so much that that evening I went on-line to order a bigger tray to work with so that I could make bigger swaths of fabric.  The tray I had was 14” x 22” so that is the size of each fabric piece.

Although I didn’t have a goal in mind, after I printed my fabric I was inspired to make something with it.  My excitement over the fabric combined with the spring weather and time change to longer days motivated me to make myself something wearable.  So this blouse is what came of it!  It’s been a long time since I sewed something for myself, and I love how this came out.  It was a week with pockets of play and I’m looking forward to more like it.  So give yourself some time to play.