I’ve gone a little mad on the Squid vest design. I’m probably the last person in Saori world to make one after seeing it on American sites for years. (Thanks to Terri from Saori Salt Spring for the encouragement). The design is very versatile having a bias side and a horizontal side.  It is put together in a different way to the bias box clothing and the red dress here and I think it is a very nifty and easy one to start a clothing adventure with your Saori cloth. You can see here how it can be worn with the hood/cowl at the front or the back. I left the back open with just studs attached to close the look when I want.

The warp was a cedar brown pre-wound wool from Japan and you can see how my experiments with orange, mushroom, then red/rust colours along the way on the six metres still work within clothing.  So a note to not stress if you can’t figure out what colours go with what or where when you are weaving for clothing.

The design is based on design 33 from the Shitate no Hon book.  I really love this book as it has so many ways of cutting the cloth and leaves room for the imagination to go wilder with changes here and there.  The cloth size recommended in the book was a stitched square 150 x 150cms.  My square was 127 x 136cms. So there is loads of flexibility.  With some more cloth I could have inserted sleeves easily too.

As I may had written many times before, sewing up garments from your own woven cloth is so very rewarding.  It becomes more like a sculptural experience for me, and if I’m short anywhere or going ‘wrong’ I just add another piece (or design feature) or cut off a piece.  The fabric is stronger that we give credit to. This fabric of wool warp and wool/cashmere wefts was particularly good as I agitated it for about 10 minutes in the washing machine making it softly fulled.