Working on print

At the end of the last term I decided that I really must try and keep up with my own sewing and projects. Term goes by far too quickly and I end up having done what is required with the girls and not anything more. Printing is such a gratifying medium and after last term where we were all bleach printing with wonderful results I decided to keep going and make scarves for a very dear friend and myself... the results are below:

This first one was printed using a Alabama Chenin stencil that I got from here

their resources page. When bleaching the blue stretch fabric dyed to a lovely purple, which I matched quite handily to a wonderful viscose that was in my stash of fabric that had a soft hand feel.

This stencil was a Ikat print that was inspired by a blog post that I read and here I do apologise that I cannot remember who wrote it but her stencil was done for a cushion I think, I space mine out and had 5 blocks of ikat on the scarf and worked each panel with beads and sequins and thread work to help it stand out.
My friend was very happy with her scarf and I was thrilled that I had managed to make something that really was useful and very unique. All the right reasons for sewing. My resolution for this year is to keep sewing.

On skirts, bleach printing and patterns..

I have been collecting ways and means of mark making and printing on to fabric to help me with the year three curriculum. I also have to admit that I adore printing on fabric. Anything to play with paint and fabric. Anyway, I digress.... I looked at block printing, tie dyeing and then I remembered that I saw this article on the Thread Magazine on printing with bleach.  A wonderfully easy way to change surface pattern and colour and the results are immediate and therefore most gratifying.
I used a pattern which I got from the this page from the Alabama Chanin site.

I cut a 6 piece wide skirt which in retrospect was the wrong pattern for this particular technique though I did want to try to get it to overlap on the seams which you can just about see in this picture.

The idea is to start with a basic stencil and strip the colour away on the knit to expose various other colours and with a dark knit, because so many other colours are used to achieve black, what you get is not predictable which for me is just fine!  I used my trusty silhouette machine to cut out the stencil and then used it to simply dab bleach that has been diluted onto the fabric.... the results are quite interesting.Once I finished I created the skirt and then added sequins and beads to it. Here is what I ended up with ....

I thought I would start the girls off with a t shirt and then move onto other more interesting things...I hope they enjoy this as much as I do! 

Light Layer top

I love this time of year, the light turns slightly golden and there is a nip in the air, the time to layer is here. I looked through my cupboard and realized that it was woefully lacking in the light layer department. Having wanted to make something to help with this I cut out a pattern from Alabama Studio Sewing + Design book. I also wanted to try out this way of embellishing for the Year 3 class.

The pattern in the book for a cover up was a short one which I did not want to use, a bolero. I used the t shirt pattern which had the length that I wanted and since it would not have a fastening in the front I cut down the middle of the pattern and added a few inches for the front facing. I also used a bell sleeve pattern from the book which is nice though rather long (I ended up gathering it up from the side hem a bit.)... I had some of this fabric left from the mountain of t shirt fabric bought on a whim :) A lovely light black with a goldish tint to it. It does'nt have tons of stretch to it which always made to re think using it for t shirts, perfect thought for this project. 

I cut the basic pattern out and then used fabric gathers to accentuate it 

It took me a few nights in front of the TV and at little miss's ballet class to get this done but it feels lovely to wear, more than just because I made it! It feels special. One last look at my current favorite make... More of this on the way.