Alabama Chanin: Green Tunic Tank

  I've been wanting to post pictures for a while now. Here they finally are.

This top is super comfortable and flattering.

I thought I was going to do a bunch of embroidery, but I was undecided about what and how much, so I stopped after stitching the first stem. I left the stitching because it tells me which side is the front. Otherwise I really wouldn't be able to tell because the pattern pieces are very similar.

I am bustier than my form, so on my the shoulder seam pulls to the front.

Next time I use this pattern I will cut off 1 inch from the back shoulder so that the back pulls the front up a bit. I will probably raise the front neckline a little as well.  

I love the herringbone stitch so I used it to flat fell the seams open and to bind the edges. 

 And there you have it. I'm hoping to make a more involved piece soon with my new airbrush and a larger stencil. I'll be sure to post about that when it happens. 

Alabama Chanin: Finished Details

I'm all done with my first Alabama Chanin Camisole top! I love it.

I adored making it and I'm looking forward to finishing my more basic (by comaparison) corset and tank top. 

 

I've worn it twice already. It feels kind of heavy, but I suppose it should since it is two layers of medium weight 100% cotton jersey. I'll bet the one layer tops will be a bit lighter to wear. 

Also, we're in the middle of a heat wave right now and all I want to wear is billowy batiste and voile. 

 

You can see some of the left over logos from the t-shirts at the back under arms.

Proof that I made this out of recycled materials.

I think the pink is very bright. If I hadn't thrifted the t-shirt I probably would not have gone for such a "Barbie" pink. 

I used the herringbone stitch for the bindings. It was pretty easy, but it used up a LOT of thread. I confess to using a much longer length of thread than prescribed for the binding, but I made sure to love that thread a lot longer than usual. 

I'm trying to finish up a green tank and a charcoal grey corset, but I think I might do a bolero in blue with white stars embroidered on it. I'm belatedly inspired by the 4th of July and the star trend that's happening this summer.

Slow Sewing: Alabama Chanin

I have been bitten by the Alabama bug.

Like many other similarly obsessed artisans, I have taken up my needle and thread and I am slowly sewing some tops out of recycled t-shirts. This new hand stitched clothing project began after I treated myself to the Alabama Studio Sewing & Design book. I have been wanting to purchase one (ALL) of the Alabama Stitch books for a while, but I could never decide on which one to get because I like all the patterns equally. The only reason I got the 3rd book instead of the first (I am DYING to make the corset) is because the third book looked to be the most comprehensive in terms of techniques. Well, about a week after I received the first book I ordered the Studio Style book because I decided I need to have those patterns also. 

So, with my start-itis in full swing I decided to make some comfy tank tops. 

One top is from the Sewing & Design book;

CF & CB seam tank top

and the other is from the Studio Style book:

Princess seam tank top

First, I went to Mood and splurged on some organic cotton yardage ($12/yard, 2 yards), then I got nervous about what to make with my precious organic cotton so I went to my local Salvation Army and bought about 15 t-shirts to recycle. ($.99 each!).

 I found that XL and XXL with no side seams and only small printed logos work the best to get the most salvageable material out of.

3XL!!!! SOOOOooooo much green cotton!

Cutting the Pattern

I cut off the sleeves at the seams, then snipped off the shoulder seams and the neck band.

I traced off the patterns** onto oak tag because I know I will use them again and they are easy to trace around with tailors chalk. I have lots of heavy jars and containers in my sewing room that I use as weights. 

I was able to get the entire tunic out of this t-shirt...

...plus a bunch of pulls.

Stenciling the Design

I bought a little spray bottle at a local art supply store for a couple of bucks. It is especially meant for watercolor use, but to tell you the truth it is pretty generic. I will remember to save my next travel sized spray bottle.  I also bought some Jacquard textile paint (it requires heat setting) but when I got home and went through my paint drawer I found that I already had a bunch of Createx paints that don't require heat setting.   

The spray bottle works well, but I when the paint level get's low it starts to sputter. I also had a hard time (I didn't test enough) getting the right water/paint ratio. The info is in the books, but I just didn't do a very good job following those instructions. It worked fine with more water than necessary, but my first stencil suffered from all the water and eventually started to disintigrate. 

I started out with an oak tag Rose stencil, but cutting it took FOREVER and it hurt my hand. When it started to fall apart I quickly decided that the (pricey) sheet of mylar (also purchased at the local art supply store) was probably worth taking the time to cut if only to have a sturdier stencil. 

I traced the stencil using a sharpie.

Cutting it out sucked almost as much as cutting the oak tag, but this one will last longer. 

I used Scotch reposition-able spray mount to adhere the stencils to the fabric. It worked out pretty good. 

center front & back panels of the princess seam tank drying on a rack

I started working on the princess seam tank first. This one is is going to be a negative applique with bright pink center and purple sides. (2 grey, 1 purple, 1 pink, large t-shirts). I'm using navy button craft thread. 

 

I wasn't able to avoid the logo on the back side panels because I didn't have a large enough grey t-shirt. I don't mind. It reminds me that these are reclaimed materials.

I've made good progress in the last week. I'm trying to decide if I'm going to cut out the leaves as well. I'm thinking yes, and I'll probably add beads as well. 

I knew I had these beads for a reason.

The green top will be a single layer with embroidery and probably beading as well.

center seam tunic 

That's about it as of today. I hope to post more progress and finished pics, but don't hold your breath.

** The Sewing and Design patterns don't indicate wish seam is the center fron and back!!! As a fashion person I find this MADDENING!!! The only way I can even guess is to look at the shoulder seams. In theory the slant should tell me which side is center. 

REFINED DESIGN CONCEPT

Hand Rolled Scarves - Hermes

I would love to try this technique. I have some paneled fabrics in my stash and a few scarf sized silk pieces that I painted for my textile painting class. 

At home steam setting

This past spring I took a textile painting class at FIT. I didn't get a chance to steam my last project because I painted it on the last day of class, so when I had a chance (read: needed a break from knitting my Mesh/Rib Pullover) I steamed it at home in my kitchen. This is much more involved than it would have been in class, primarily because our kind TA did all the work for us. 

Taken in class while painting.

Rolling the painted silk in brown craft paper. Craft paper was purchased at Duane Reade. Blank newsprint would work fine also.

The craft paper wasn't very wide so I had to use 2 pieces over lapped. It was also very curly so I had to use my handy washer weights, my 2 hands and a foot. (I'm impressed that I was able to capture this moment on camera.) I left about a foot of paper at the end (center of the roll) to fold back over the inside edge of the fabric. I was careful to smooth out the fabric as it was rolled so that there won't be any wrinkles or dye transference.

Taped up the seam and the ends. It is important that the paper is permeable to the steam, and there is nowhere for water to splash directly onto the fabric.

I used this old stock pot (that I use ONLY for dyeing) filled about 2 inches with water, and placed my steamer on top of a shallow baking tin for additional lift. Once the water started to boil I coiled my paper wrapped silk and fit it gently in the pot, and was cautious to avoid splashes. I reduced the heat to low, and let steam for 2 hours.

I put a folded kitchen towel under the lid to prevent the condensation from dripping back onto the paper which could cause water marks if water seeped through onto the silk.

I think I did get a water mark or two because in the end the kitchen towel touched a small portion of the paper... but since my painting style is watery and I used some cool salt blending techniques it is hard to notice the spot and it doesn't really look like a mistake. I learn by doing and messing up anyway!

After steaming, I washed the painting in cold water to remove the excess dye. The most important thing I learned from my first project (not shown) is that the fabric/silk must dry so that it does not touch itself. Even when the water runs clear and it looks like all the dye is out, this is very important to avoid dye transference. It was kinda tricky to rig this set up in my bathroom so that the entire piece of fabric touched nothing but the clips. Luckily, silk dries very fast.

Some lovely details.

In case anyone wonders, I was inspired by the Gustav Klimt exhibit at the Neue Gallery - the Adele Bauer-Bloch painting in particular. I think the show is over now... but if it's not, I do recommend seeing Klimt paintings in person. There is a depth of texture in his paintings that simply cannot be seen in a photograph.

I used clear wax batik and gold Jacquard gutta resist, Senelier dyes, and a whole lot of kosher salt. I'm a bit of a control freak and I usually pre-plan projects, but since this was the last day of class I decided I needed to take advantage of the lab time and exercise my right hemisphere. There are things that I like and don't like about this piece, but it was good to get it done fast because I learned a lot that I can use next time.

Favorites on Friday

I made this lovely little coverlet while in grad school and promptly forgot about it when I moved to NYC. I found it when I was putting away my winter blanket and it looks so much prettier on my bed than the poop colored wool. 

This was only my second quilt attempt, and my first success. I only did some basic square knots all over it to keep the layers together. I would love to have it professionally quilted. Any suggestions for where I could get this done the NYC area would be very much appreciated!

Stash Storage!

I got this basket at a street fair on 3rd Ave. I was told that it was made by a woman in West Africa. I love it! It's so pretty, has a lid and handles. All my favorite stash yarn is in it and it is within arms reach from my bed... good in case I have to escape in a fire, but great for yarn dreams.