Dancing to Painting to Fashion: a Blouse by Nancy Chen Bajraktari
The story behind of Nancy Chen Bajraktari’s (@iusedtobeacurtain) Style Arc Catalina Designer Blouse featuring my “Collaboration” fabric art print is many layered. Here is the history.
Blouse made and modeled by Nancy Chen Bajraktari of @iusedtobeacurtain. Photos of her blouse in this article are by Art House Images.
Written by Julia Cost
The story behind the painting in Nancy’s blouse begins circa 2005-2009 when I was studying in summer intensives at San Francisco Conservatory of Dance (SFCD). To paint a picture of this time, it was high level, amazing, and grueling training (9 hours per day/ 6 days per week) and the work we were exposed to was massively inspiring, taught by great dancers from companies all around the world. I tried to find a photo from that time to illustrate this point, but unfortunately all the pics I can find are of exhausted dancers in dormitories, sleep deprived dancers riding the MUNI bus, or extremely sweaty dancers sitting on sidewalks of San Francisco waiting for MUNI buses back to the dorm! So, to accompany the basic fact that I am a dancer, here’s a recent photo of me performing in a concert on Maui.
Dancing in Adaptation Dance Theater’s 2019 “Bring it Home” concert. Choreography by Hallie Hunt. Photo by Ajja Photography
Another bit of background info: I doubled majored in Dance and Studio Art in college, while studying at SFCD in the summers between. For my Studio Art thesis, I painted many paintings of dancers. I loved playing with the composition of the dancers across the canvas like a square of stage and allowing the eye to wander around a fleeting moment of physicality and presence.
FROM DANCING TO PAINTING:
In the summer of 2008, the highest level of dancers at SFCD performed a piece of choreography that took my breath away. If my memory serves, this was a work set by Alessio Silvestrin, a representative of the Forsythe Dance Company. During breaks from my own rehearsals, I would slip into the stands of the theater to watch this piece. The music was a haunting soundtrack of rolling fog horns that seemed to be rising from the San Francisco Bay itself, building to a screaming silence. The dancers wove in complex pathways around each other and eventually built with precision, a statuesque moment that lifted one dancer into the air. Each person, with hyper presence, took their role in its intricate structure. It reminded me of iconic photos of the flag being raised by soldiers on Iwo Jima: people working together with no focus other but the task between them. It fascinated me to watch them work together to build this strange and specific sculpture of bodies.
When I went back to college after that summer intensive, I painted this moment as part of my Studio Art thesis. I called the painting “Collaboration.”
“Collaboration,” oil on canvas, 2008, in a private collection.
FROM PAINTING TO FABRIC:
Fast forward to my current life in 2021 designing textiles. I thought that some of my past paintings would make interesting fabric prints that could be inserted into a garment. I imagined sewists building unique, story-worthy garments around paintings that could be featured in the bodice, the back yoke, etc or in art quilts. I added a collection of fabric art prints to my website. The next thing I knew, my sewing pen pal, Nancy Chen Bajraktari of @iusedtobeacurtain, told me she had a vision for the Collaboration fabric art print!
FROM FABRIC TO FASHION:
Nancy picked out this Viscose Challis fabric from Minerva Fabrics where she is an ambassador. She wanted to pair the painting with a fabric that has movement and flow. The denim blue perfectly matches the colors of the dancers’ clothing!
Nancy says this about her pattern choice: “I felt like it needed to have big flowy sleeves. I chose the Style Arc Catalina Designer Blouse pattern for this reason, and because of the raglan style. I had to chop off the top two corners of the fabric print to fit it, but that was negative space and nothing major would be lost. I envisioned the final garment as a sophisticated home for the fine art print, so the long cuffs and pretty pleats at the shoulders would give it extra elegance.”
About how she set the panel into the front, Nancy says: “There are 3 pieces of rayon in the front. Two at the sides and one at the bottom. I tried to find out how quilters set a rectangle into a rectangular hole but I didn’t find any tutorials about this (and I don’t think they do that after all) so that’s how I did it.”
Buttons from Cloth Edit.
If you follow Nancy on Instagram, you know she always adds extraordinary touches to every garment.
Nancy says: “I love details so I added and these gorgeous buttons from Cloth Edit at the long cuffs. I've been wanting to create this braided bias trim forever but had to find the right project for it. The braided bias is bias folded twice. The raw edge is in the back and thus hidden. I sewed each strand down with one line of stitching. I just braided it and then sewed it down the middle after I sewed the sleeves to the body.”
Julia’s thoughts:
When I saw this I couldn’t believe my eyes. Nancy built a blue-curtained theater for these dancers to perform in, complete with glimmering side lights on the cuffs and elaborate braided curtain pulls down the back. It reminds me of the historic theaters in Europe with fresco paintings on the ceiling. One day I hope Nancy will wear this when she attends a dance concert. I am amazed that the painting has been given a whole new life through her artistry.
Make sure you are following Nancy and all her exquisite makes at @iusedtobeacurtain.
Check out the full collection of fabric art prints.
