Dreaming the Vinyard

Hello again, friends. It's been a long spell without blogging, but the New Year begins now!
Here are photos of a dream: It starts with an invitation to jury for the Larson Gallery's show, The Wine Country Home. Entries due by January 25th, clothing included with textiles, jewelry, tableware, tools, fixtures and furniture. I didn't think too much about what I might do, at least not consciously, but woke up one morning a week or so later with the whole idea firmly planted in my mind. How nice. I wish all my plans came this way, ready made! I knew the garment, a "dragonfly" jacket; the colors, purples and greens; the material, silk organdy; and the order of the work.
Step one  was to dye the materials, both the silk for the body of the jacket, and the organdy for the leaf shapes.
  Step two, paint the yardage. Painting little leaves individually would be a pain, and way to slow for this impatient artist. So yardage it is, with stamps and stencils of grapes, leaves, an old woodblock of what might be a winery ( or maybe a castle, but close enough!) , grape like images stamped with bubble wrap. I love Lumiere metallic paint, and bronze seems to be the right addition to the vines.
On to Step three, cutting out all the leaf shapes. What a pain! First off, to draw the leaves.  No pencil line shows up on the painted organdy, and only two marking pens, it would be too dark to use black. Finally I settle for green, if it does show, it won't hurt the design. Make a pattern, draw, and cut. Yuckiest part of the whole deal!( And this was my idea!)
Step four, another time taker but necessary, to stitch a vein in each cut out leaf. This gives some dimension to the jacket, just what I wanted.
Now for a "try on". Leaves of green and purples are pinned to the jacket body, starting at the bottom  and overlapping them. Success! It looks like this will work!
I'll keep you posted on the progress. Still to come is stitching down the leaves, what to use to stitch, should I let the threads hang and show, should I add "grapes", cords, beads? Should I make it fuller at the shoulder, like a "fur" coat collar?  Attach at the side or hang free?  What to use for the triangle piece in the back? I have some ideas, and plans , and may just dream on it tonight, hope for more answers. Or just plunge in and begin, that usually works for me, with adjustments along the way.