Pre-Hispanic Women’s Clothing Design: The Huipil Endures
Years ago, after I first arrived in Oaxaca, I discovered an incredible small book by Mexico City fashion designer Carla Fernandez. Taller Flora: Indigenous Dress Making Geometry of Mexico, Pre-Hispanic Origin (2006) is now difficult to come by. But, it has become my bible for easy-to-make, easy-to-wear, comfortable, flowing clothing that is versatile and beautiful. […]
Felt Fashion Workshop: Oaxaca Style Art To Wear
We’ve invited Jessica de Haas back to teach this popular workshop again in 2014. Here is your chance to escape winter, roll up your sleeves and make an extraordinary felted wool garment that will bring ooh’s and aah’s. For seven nights and eight days, from January 30 to February 6, you will experience the textile […]
Felted Fabric Fashion Oaxaca Style
Making felt is one of the oldest forms of fabric known to humankind–a process more than 6,000 years old. Felt happens when sheep wool is moistened, heated and agitated. For our Felted Fashion Workshop with Jessica de Haas in Oaxaca this week, we used merino wool dyed with natural plant materials — […]
Felted Fashion Workshop: Making Wearable Art Oaxaca Style with Wool, Silk and Cotton
For hands-on fun, escape winter and come to Oaxaca from February 2 until February 9, 2013. Together, during this one-week workshop, we will be immersed in the textile culture of Oaxaca to create naturally-dyed felted fabric combining wool, silk and cotton that can be hand or machine stitched into an indigenous clothing design of your choice. Our […]
How to Make a Wool Felt Flower
Making a flower out of felted wool fiber is a simple art process that I learned during a workshop with Jessica de Haas, Canadian clothing designer, at the Museo Textil de Oaxaca. No one else wanted to cut into their handmade felt cloth, but I took scissors in hand and cut away. Here was my reward! Felted […]
How to Felt Wool: For Beginners
Ten women gathered together at the Museo Textil de Oaxaca for a felting workshop with Jessica de Haas from Vancouver, Canada. All but one of us were raw beginners. I had knitted and then agitated my wool in a washing machine, but Jessica was quick to say this is NOT felting. Rather it is called […]