Yellow Linen Butterfly Applique Skirt

This is the time of year when linen can be found in bright colors and I have been going to the Joann's Fabric and Crafts store near the office and getting their beautiful linen/rayon blends with a 40% off coupon! This color is too bright for me to wear near my face, but it's great for a skirt.

This is the front.









As you can see, I filled the skirt up with really big and simple appliques of butterflies. I have lots of butterfly attracting plants in my very messy garden and the milk weed pods have been exploding with seedlings this week. I've collected a few pods and am going to plant them in pots to replant them in different parts of the garden so I have a view of butterfly activities no matter what window I am near. They are so delightful in their dance upon the air.

This is the back.







In order to figure out the placement of these really big appliques, I layed the skirt out on my big table in the garage/studio to see how it would look. It turned out that what I had planned for the back became the front of the skirt. Somehow I just didnt' want that big butterfly that is so high to be winging its' way so near my old bottom.

Fortunately, this bias skirt is a one piece pattern. The front and back are cut out from the same pattern piece, so all I had to do was switch out the label that I sew to the inner waistband to the opposite side.

I embroider the pattern number onto the label so I know what I used later on. Three years from now I may not remember which pattern I used and that can be frustrating if I want to start up a new project using a pattern that still fits.


Although I liked the way it looked, I felt the skirt design was too empty. I took a lunch break and leafed through a couple of my painting on fabric books. One of them reminded me that I could stamp on fabric!

Now, I have never, ever stamped on a finished project. Been to intimidated I guess. What if I screw it up??? OH WELL! What do I have to lose? $10.00 and two days of fooling around? That's not going to change my universe by much, so I went back into the garage.


After looking over my carving supplies and previously made stamps, I decided simpler is better.

I ended up using two left over rectangles of carving block and mixed up some black acrylic paint with fabric medium.

Fantastic! So easy and so satisfying. All I wanted to do was add movement, a suggestion of movement, and in art one doesn't have to be specific.
The minds' eye finishes the idea that is started with just a stroke or a mark.

And, the linen took the paint up well. I liked the unevenness of it and was happy just using two sizes of stamps.

I think this is why I keep on trying stuff out. I never, ever know where a project is going to take me. It seems to develop as I go along. I have tried to plan things out, but that never works. For me, the ideas fill in as the images show up on the fabric. I have to learn to trust myself more and I think that is what I am learning. Take the inspiration, do the work and see what happens.