"8 stars of gold on a field of blue"...er tarp

[saranethx]

"...Alaska's flag. May it mean to you...."-Alaska State Song

First of all I must apologize for that the pictures are not the greatest. I had to make do with the camera on my cell phone.

I am from Kodiak Island in Alaska. It has a couple of nicknames (Alaska's emerald isle, the rock...) and is probably most famous for its Kodiak Brown Bears. It also  rains a whole lot.  It tends to rain more than snow and in the summer it rains for weeks on end. I have spent many nights/days weathered out of Kodiak in the Anchorage airport.

Because I currently don't live in Kodiak, I decided I wanted to make something that I could wear that shows my Kodiak/Alaskan Pride. Even though it would have been appropriate I wanted to make something more than a sweatshirt. I decided that using a blue tarp as material would be a good twist to the clothing idea. Many yards in Kodiak have blue tarps either covering fishing gear or machinery. And my family used to have a neighbor that could not stand the blue tarp that coved my mother's pile of garden dirt. He used to pull back the tarp so he didn't have to see it from his living room. Thus inspired, I decided on making a raincoat.

 I used the Alden 9301a from Burda style because I wanted a raincoat suitable for San Francisco(currently where I live). I tried to incorporate as many Kodiak/Alaskan aspects to my rain coat as possible. I lined the coat with a green nylon to represent the emerald color of Kodiak in the summer. I also sewed on to the lining a felt appliqué of Kodiak. I don't have picture of that yet but I will. Well, enough blabbing here is the coat:

Me in the coat:




Front:

I made the buttons out of fimo clay. They have Alutiiq petroglyphs on them. The Alutiiq people are indigenous to Kodiak.

Back:

This picture was from before I finished. I switched the tarp button for a fimo one.

Detail of back:

  I embroidered the Alaska state flag on the back (the big dipper and the north star). Interestingly enough the man who designed the state flag was from Kodiak.

appliqué and buttons (a little blurry sorry):


The lining:


Thanks for looking. Let me know what you think.

[kcartwright856]

Cute AND innovative! One of these days I'll get up to visit Alaska. 

[BertaBerta]

I'm an Alaska girl stranded in Washington, and I must say, this warms the cockles of my little displaced heart.

Awesome work!

[lovelilisa]

Wow! This is great! You description makes me want to visit AK!

[kaishabackwards]

this is so cute! i want one!!

[bella_domanie]

It's a tarp!  I love it.  At first, I thought it'd be kind of weird and ugly lol but, I really like the way that it came out.

[Rio_Supreme]

That looks good! I wasn't sure about using tarp but you made it work for you! And maybe its the just the camera but it looks a bit purpely as well as blue. Well done!

[myinsaneleenie]

tarp!
i never would have thought of that!

i like it!

[KarenLouiseM]

Brilliant!

[justforme]

What an absolutely clever idea. I am so loving it!!! Tarps come is many different colors that I may just have to borrow from your cleverness. Great Job!!!!