A much wordier newsletter than usual. Partly because writing things out helps me process stuff (although I cut a lot of that out, for obvious reasons), but also because the patchwork vests and totes that I made for Lunar New Year have really dominated my time over the past several weeks.
I have Chinese ancestry, but I didn’t grow up as part of the Chinese diaspora. We did/do always celebrate Lunar New Year even though it’s not really that common among Filipinos. And when I first starting planning out these vests, I had some reference points (images of Baijiayi and other patchwork and quilted children’s wear, one hundred families quilts, a jacket with frog closures that I begged my grandma for on one of her visits), but I didn’t feel I had any right to make an explicit nod to any of these pieces because it’s a slippery slope from appreciation to appropriation. I really love the idea of Baijiayi being made up of pieces of fabrics from family, friends, and other community members, creating a garment that provides protection, but also tells a story. I decided just to tweak my existing vest pattern and use a color palette pulled from my inspiration pieces. I’d never done much patchwork before opening the store, but it’s become one of my favorite things to do and it serves as a really nice visual log of past projects. And I work with a pretty narrow color palette, so a lot of my scraps tend to work together. I lucked out when I stumbled across several yards of a vintage cotton chambray, as it’s not often that I find vintage fabrics in large enough quantities to make a full size run of any one piece. The medium blue of the chambray provided a nice neutral reverse to the patchwork.
It always feels a little weird and a lot pretentious to talk about stuff that I make. Especially to talk about inspiration and the creative process or whatever. But I gave myself the luxury of taking my time on these pieces, so I’ve also had a lot of time to mull over process and meaning this time.
