Gold Rush Ensemble was a wearable art garment I made for a convention banquet.  Being a knitter in recovery ( I had to give it up since quilting and sewing are my life)  I had a large stash of fibers – trims – yarns etc. and I wanted to make some fabric out of them.  I used anything I could sew over and “quilted” them together.  Once the “fabric” was made I cut out the skirt and put it together.  It is lined for strength and I used left over bits of the fabric as trim on the purse. The purse handle was beaded on wire as the string – very nice effect and it holds its shape, plus I made a couple of loops on each end so it was easy to sew the handle to the purse.  Jacket was made from some sale bin fabric when Hancocks was closing – unknown origin but it feels like a cotton blend – nice feel given how cheap it was – $2 yard!  Pattern was a Sandra Betzina design and was pretty involved.  I have been sewing for over 35 years and there is not much that I have not encountered in all my sewing years, many of which I spent doing custom bridal, however the curved seam with the rouching was a test of my skills for sure. When I was done making it I did not like the fact that the collar was plain so I took apart a necklace (of course it was 1 in the morning with a wearable art entry deadline the next day) since I did not have the correct color beads.  I sewed them on and loved the added texture and unexpected sparkle.  The feathers I quilted were done with a copper colored metallic thread by YLI, the balance of the quilting was done with Superior Bottom line in a gold color but it was not metallic.  ( I tried to upload a photo of the skirt detail but no matter how small I make it I keep getting an error message saying it is too large – sorry.) Trust me it looks better on my body than it does on these stands 🙂

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