A fellow member of the Incredible Sweater Machine list on Yahoo remembered my Cosmic Peacock coat from 1997. Another fellow member asked for pictures, and I am extremely flattered and honored to oblige! The coat toured with the 1997 Fairfield Fashion Show, which was sponsored by the Fairfield Processing Company (manufacturers of quilt batting, stuffing, and other fine crafting products).
Here’s the story I wrote, to be read during the fashion show. Much of it is meant to acknowledge the sponsors. The heart of the story is in italics.
Which came first—the peacock or the egg? There’s no doubt, says Suzann Thompson, the peacock did.
She used Style pattern 2551, adapting it to a peacock feather motif. She charted the feather design for knitting, with Cochenille Design Studio’s Stitchpainter Gold. Using Harrisville Designs’ Highland Style 100% wool, she knitted the outer coat fabric on an Incredible Sweater Machine from Bond America. She quilted the knitted fabric with Poly-Fil Cotton Classic batting and embellished it with Prismatic Foil from Meryl Ann Butler Studios, buttons from Blumenthal Lansing, ribbon from Offray, and threads from Sulky of America and Coats & Clark. The coat’s binding is Jigsaw ribbon from Offray.
Our cosmic peacock was looking pretty handsome by this time, with his sparkles and buttons and trims. He caught the eye of a discerning cosmic peahen, and it was love at first sight. She laid a couple of Prismatic Foil eggs in the inky darkness of Rosebar’s Iridescent Taffeta, which lines the coat. The eggs are trimmed with Offray ribbon, and appropriately, baby rickrack by Coats & Clark.
The trousers, McCall’s pattern 8576, are also of Rosebar’s Iridescent Taffeta, trimmed with Offray ribbon, and assembled with thread and a zipper by Coats & Clark.
Nowadays the show is sponsored by Bernina Sewing Machine Company. The garments tend to reflect the change of sponsorship. They are much more floaty, and a lot of the designers go wild with machine embroidery. The show opens each year at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas, and travels around the US and sometimes overseas. If you ever have a chance to see it, do. It is wonderful.