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Jean Cacicedo


Working with Wool: Art To Wear

Course Description
Explore the unique process of designing a garment using “felted” wool fabrics.Wool cloth can be transformed by hot water and agitation into a soft, durable and dense fabrication. This fabric adapts well to simple sewing techniques and allows for creative piecing during construction .Our focus will be on basic design elements and the transformation of wool cloth with hot water dyes. Discovery will include stitch resist and clamped dye techniques.

Working from a basic vest pattern, your “road map” to wear-ability, we will use the dyed fabric we have created to make the garment. Jean will demonstrate ways of piecing, creating unique pockets, as well as binding and finishing techniques for you to choose from. We will approach the garment the way a painter approaches the canvas…..a surface waiting to accept images of color and texture. Our goal will be to create a personally expressive, unique, one-of-a-kind garment.

There will be discussions and demonstrations, wool samples to look at, and lots of individual attention.

Skill Level
All levels are welcome, but basic sewing skills are required. Students will need to bring a sewing machine.

Artist's Biography
“The world I see is one of color, pattern, texture, and form. The work I create comes from my desire to make what I experience both visual and tactile. Cloth is the basic element to the work I create. Cloth has the ability to transform ideas and the power to seduce the eye and the hand. My pieced and sewn constructions in wool are a means to connect art visually as well as physically. Process and content form a base to my work, communicating ideas through a visceral language of color and texture.”

Jean Williams Cacicedo received a BFA from The Pratt Institute, New York, in 1970. She has been a prime innovator in the Art To Wear Movement and was recipient of an NEA Fellowship Grant in 1976. Jean’s work in dyed and felted wool cloth has been exhibited throughout the USA and abroad. Inspired by personal myths and symbolic imagery, her work tells stories about journeys, both physical and spiritual. In 2000,a 30-year retrospective of her work was featured at the Museum of Craft and Folk Art in San Francisco. Based in Berkeley, Jean teaches classes in her studio and has been both teacher and visiting artist in many schools including CCA in Oakland, the Penland School in North Carolina, the Spilt Rock Arts Program in Minnesota, and RMIT in Melbourne, Australia.

 Cacicedo 1

Cacicedo 2
Supply List:
  • VEST PATTERN – your choice of style (bring all the pattern pieces)
  • COMPLETED MUSLIN – make up model so we can fit it and use it as a tool for your final design project. Sew with large running stitches for easy altering. Sew no facings, hems or pockets! Just a simple “shell”.
  • SEWING MACHINE –Oiled, ready for sewing.
  • Medium to Heavy weight sewing machine needles. OPTIONAL: double needle, a walking “quilters’ “ foot attachment.
  • FABRICS - we will be using 100% wool fabrics. Woven, knits, solids or other.These fabrics will be washed (actually shrunk) to create a “felted” fabric. Do not bring wools washed or shrunk, as we will we talk about the choices and which ones will work best for your project with the fabric you brought. There will be fabric available for your project if you decide not to bring fabric. You can wait and purchase fabric from me and/or the school store @ about $20 yard. You won’t need much for a vest. You may bring in recycled fabrics, old blankets etc. 100% WOOL. Note: You will need 20% more yardage (wool jersey 50% more) than required on the pattern because of the wool shrinkage factor.
  • TRIMS, BUTTONS etc. for embellishment.
  • SEWING THREAD, CLOTH TAPE MEASURE, PINS, SCISSORS (for paper + fabric)
  • DESIGN TOOLS:
    • PAPER: bring enough pattern paper (butcher paper or brown bags are OK) to trace out your main vest pattern pieces i.e. back and 2 fronts.
    • SKETCHBOOK: a bound journal or spiral book. 8”x10” approx. size.
    • SOFT PENCILS (2B, 4B), BLACK PERMAENT MARKING PEN (small and wide tip)
    • ERASER, PAPER SCISSORS, TAPE, GLUE STICK, and a CLEAR GRIDED RULER.
    • DYE TOOLS: RUBBER GLOVES, APRON OR WORK SHIRT, CLOSED TOED SHOES FOR DYEING, 10 BINDER CLIPS, NYLON OR HEAVY POLYESTER THREAD and a LARGE SEWING NEEDLE to accommodate this heavy thread,
    • 4 WOODEN STIR STICKS from a painting store OR 4 WOODEN RULERS (we use these for dye clamps)
    • One 8” x 10” piece or FOAMCORE BOARD 3/8 “ thick (found in art stores or the school store)