Butterfly on Bone Vest - Final

 The vest is done, and turned out very nice! Although I have to admit, were it not for my rubber nosed pliers, I could never have gotten a needle through that heavy denim. 

I did not try free sewing on this project. Just didn't feel comfortable with it, and after playing around on small sample pieces, it became obvious that this was going to be a learning experience. So, all the stitching on the vest I did by hand.

The bones are outlined in black thread, as are the butterflies. I put Fray Check around the edges of the butterflies, even though they were ironed on with Heat and Bond. The fabric was thin, and was going to fray pretty easily. Also, I put Fray Check at the ends of the braid trim to keep it from unraveling. The trim and buttons came from my stash. 

I have worn the vest once, and the only feature that bugs me is the collar. It rubs on my neck, so I may end up cutting it off. 

 

Two Projects Finished

In December I had two projects that were sitting around half done. The T-shirt with beading over a stencil, and the red sweatshirt sitting out on the work table in the garage with soap lines drawn on it, but nothing more.

The beaded T-shirt I completed right before Christmas, and wore it to the family champagne brunch we always do at our place Christmas morning. This is my first time doing beaded backstitch over a stencil and I ended up really like the results.

The photos make the shirt look greenish, but it is a lovely turquoise. I enjoyed beading over the stencil so much, that I want to try it again. Also, I volunteered to teach a class in April on the technique of beaded backstitch using a stencil as a template. My first time teaching a class, so that should be interesting!

The second project was the red sweatshirt. I had originally intended to cut it up the front and make a jacket out of it. After thinking it over, and taking an inventory of jackets, shrugs, and boleros that I already owned, I decided to go a different way, so I rubbed out the soap marks. And because the weather has been dark, gloomy and rainy, I wanted something bright and cheerful. So, I cut the sleeves shorter, cut the banding off from the neckline and the bottom edge, and added T-shirt binding leftover from other projects. The shoulder decoration is also made from leftover bolero projects. All of it hand stitched.  I wanted this to be a little funky, a style I don't usually do, so left all the knots and tails of thread showing. When I finished the stitching, I added small brass washers I had purchased a long time ago in the hardware department at Home Depot (a great source if bits and bobs, the hardware section).

This sweatshirt was very wide, but once I cut off the bottom binding and shortened the sleeves, it worked really well over a long-sleeved T-shirt, which is what I had in mind.  I may, at some point, go back and add beads (I have some small, fiery red ones that would look great), but for now I am calling it done.

The above photo shows how the binding strips go over the shoulder seam, so when I wear it, the decoration will show on both the front and the back of the sweatshirt.

The bands were sewn length-wise with embroidery thread, then sewn across with a running stitch done with regular sewing thread, as were the brass washers.

This turned out to be a great way to use up T-shirt bindings, and short lengths of embroidery thread leftover from other projects, and it was fun to do something a little outside my usual box.

Oh, and both garments came from the Goodwill Store.

 

Filmore West Top—Complete

If there is one thing this project taught me, it was patience, 'cause things kinda went wonky as the work proceeded. Biggest frustration was sewing on the narrow banding that frames the black rose panel. Those long strips of knit fabric, despite being pinned to the fabric every inch(which caused another nightmare, as the thread was always getting hung up on the pins as I worked), walked, skooched, wriggled, and worm-crawled with every stitch. Then, after they were all finally locked down (I gave up trying to make them ruler-straight), the panel fabric started to pull loose and curl out from underneath the framing strips. First I tried doing a small running stitch around the inside edge of framing strips, trying to stabilise the panel fabric underneath. That helped...sorta...but didn't solve the problem. So, I added a running stitch all around the edge of the panel fabric. Again, it helped, but the problem never got totally solved. I suspect the first time I wash this, the two pieces will pull slightly apart and show the raw edges. At this point, I don't care. I decided it could just be part of plan...yeah...plan...at least, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

 Center panel partly top-stitched, and the framing strips pinned in place.


This was also one of those projects where the original design idea got changed as I went along. Pretty much each time I tried the top on I tweaked something. The last change I made was to cut off about five inches from the bottom, rather than gather up the sides, as I had planned. That was another situation where, standing in front of a full-length mirror and playing around with the shirt while on, made me decide it looked way better shorter, than just gathered. Whack...off with the five inches.

What would I do differently? For one thing, I would iron the center panel and framing strips onto Heat and Bond to stabilise them, iron them onto the shirt, then do the top stitching. It would solve that whole curling, walking, and pulling away problem and make my life much easier for next time. Also, in looking at the stitching around the rose, which I did in free-form swirl patterns trying to match the swirls in the binding material, instead I think I would just do the running stitches to echo the outline of the rose. As it is now, you can't really see the swirl pattern. It just looks like random quilting stitches that don't make any sense. Lastly I would make the shoulders narrower, so there would be less fabric bunched up under the ties. 

Purposely, there are no beads or sequins on this top. Just the four buttons, which I found while looking for something else in my button stash, and thought they would work well with this. I wanted this top to be different in look and feel from the other altered tops I have done. Less glitz, more hardcore. For whatever reason, I think it has a vaguely military aura about it. Maybe it's the colors, and the fact that the swirl pattern looks a bit like camo? Not sure, but I'm okay with it. In fact, I like it a lot.

Here is the finished top on Inara. Under it is a plain black long-sleeved T-shirt, which is how I will wear it during the winter. With tank tops under it during the summer.

Materials list: Two mans T-shirts from the Goodwill, one rose stencil from the Goodwill, knit tie cord from an old hoodie, four buttons from my stash, button/craft thread, regular all-purpose thread.

Tibetan Bolero — 3

I have added prayer flags to the front (using a free-form feather stitch, combined with a blanket stitch,  to resemble Tibetan script), and sewn the side/sleeve seams. I added the binding with feather stitch, which took me awhile to get the rhythm of, which is why the sleeve binding looks more even that the stitching on the binding around the neck and front. But when I was done, I kinda decided this would be my "signature" binding stitch, the way the Cretan stitch is for Rice, over at the Voodoo Cafe.

I am now in the process of adding little gold beads to the binding, and will probably add some to the prayer flags.

Bolero back

Bolero front.
I stuck a piece of cardboard inside to hide the messy machine embroidery backing. Had I to do this piece over again, or if I get another T-shirt with a large machine embroidered design on the back, I will make the back of the bolero two layers. The outside layer will have all the decoration on it, and the inside layer will hide all the messy bits.

Here is the beading I have just started.

 

 

And here is why I put the cardboard inside to take the pictures, and why I will make the next bolero sporting a machine embroidered design in two layers. This is just WAY too messy looking to leave uncovered. Well, to me anyway.

I really like the color combination in this bolero. The green was just something I had on hand...one of my husband's old work T-shirts. Also, I enjoy working on these little guys because I don't have to get into any complicated patterns, piecing, futzing, etc., like I do with a lot of the costuming stuff I make. These boleros, and the AC T-shirts and tank tops are simple patterns to sew together so I can spend more time playing with embellishments. That's the really fun part.

Medal For Kay Nielsen Shirt

Per a request by Rice over at the Voodoo Cafe as part of her discussion on SoulWear, I am posting pictures of this work shirt I did back in the early 70s. The title comes from the one I came up with off-the-cuff, to be used in the Art Clothing show it appeared in at the Riverside Art Center and Museum (Riverside, CA). It refers to the image on the back of the shirt, which was my interpretation of one of Kay Nielsen's illustrations for East of the Sun, West of the Moon, and the front of the shirt made to look like I had a chest full of military medals. The woman putting the show together saw me wearing this shirt to an art class, and asked me if I would put it in the show. Gosh, lemme think...of course I would! Not thinking, I whipped it off my back and handed it to her (I had a T-shirt on under it). Much to my later embarrassment, when I went to the show, I discovered my shirt had been washed and...gasp...ironed! A few days later, this shirt appeared in our local paper as part of the advertizing for the show. I still have that article...somewhere.

By the time this shirt was made, all of us art students were into the embroidery, embellishment thing. I started this shirt around 1972, in conjunction with finding and buying the book Native Funk and Flash, which, alas, was destroyed by water two decades later. 

So here it is, pulled from a drawer, not ironed...gasp...and laid out on my work table in the garage.

The front of the shirt is decorated with clothing labels cut from other garments I either Goodwilled or gave away, along with bells, keys(one now missing), and metal star studs. The dragon, now looking a little ragged around the edges, was one of my first attempts at decorating with embroidery, after I dorked around with the little roses on the collar points, and the fake ribbons on the "medals". The little pins were gifted to me by various people over the years, and once on the shirt, never left.

The back of the shirt is a combination of embroidery, applique, beading, and painting (the dark clouds). The horse's breast collar is some kind of washer, and a small bell. Everything on this shirt was drawn, sewn, painted, embroidered or beaded by me.

 

This old guy has held up pretty well over the decades. All the appliques and beading were done using just regular sewing thread. I haven't added anything to it since the 80s, as the shirt fabric is just too thin to hold up. But I still love and wear this shirt. He's an old friend who brings back a lot of memories of a young woman taking her first real art classes (with nude models!),  hanging out with other artists, sharing our ideas, showing our works in the yearly member's show (and feeling so, so important), and all of us overflowing with enthusiasm for what we were doing, and what we hoped to do in the future.