Playing with leftovers

It’s one of my favourite memories: sitting on the floor and playing with countless fabrics and yarns. Growing up with a mother who did her entirely wardrobe by herself I was surrounded by fantastic evening dresses, colorful skirts and crochet bikinis almost all the time. For me she was the best dressed woman ever. And of course I wanted to be like her. So she taught me how to sew when I was a very young woman. One of my first pieces was a natural colored catsuit wich I could only wear at home. But I developed further and some of the next pieces were quite okay. But then I was completely frustrated because I couldn’t find the kind of fabrics I was looking for. And that was the time I decided to do my own fabrics.

I guess the first crocheting flowers stitched on cotton weren’t very pretty at all. But I liked them and never stopped stitching. Later on I learned how to weave and I began to collect vintage fabrics from different countries and cultures. I fell in love with a small piece of an old patchwork and I knew that’s exactly the thing I want to do forever. This was 20 years ago - and I never stopped making patchworks.

Besides weaving and embroidering and patchworking there are a lot of things I really like: the sea, books, indigo, Japan in many, many ways, Vienna, the early morning light, being in the woods just before the day starts, vintage fabrics, all kind of threads, all animals, specially pigs and sheep, colors, old wooden floors, learning things, flowers, Casa Brutus, rain.

Pascale Kohl

September 2019