Wm Morris Bolero Finished...For Now? Plus a Goodwill Find

Since the weather has been close to, or up into, the 100s, working outside is not fun, and to be avoided if possible. The most I do is move a sprinkler from one part of the yard/garden to another and then head back indoors. So, with a decent excuse to stay inside, and while listening to a book on tape (The Copenhagen Connection by Elizabeth Peters), I managed to finish the Wm Morris Bolero.

It started like this, with me trying to determine what binding color to use. As it turned out, and with a hint from Zom, I didn't use either one of these, deciding they detracted too much from the pattern on the material.

I took one of the sleeves cut off from the patterned T-shirt back to the Goodwill, looking for a better color match and was lucky enough to find one. It was a dark grey man's T-shirt that had been washed so many times the grey had taken on a greenish cast. Just a hint, but it hooked into the teal perfectly. And since JoAnn's is right next door to the Goodwill, I strolled over there to look for embroidery thread, and also found some beads I thought were stunning, and which were on sale for 40% off. Sweet!

However, once I got the bolero sewn together I decided the beads wouldn't work. They were a little too big and too bright, again, something that detracted from the pattern of the material. As it turned out, I had some beads in my stash that matched much better and were smaller. They worked great.

Here is the finished bolero. I really like the way the colors in this one are subtle. My other three boleros are flashier, either in color or beading/applique. I may add beads to the leaf pattern, but have decided to think about that for a while before I commit, start beading, and then decide it detracts from rather than enhances the design.

And this is my latest Goodwill find. A couple of weeks ago a small group of women (and one man who tagged along) from the Rogue Mounted Archers went on a Goodwill/consignment shop crawl looking for clothes for which we could make Zombie Apocalypse costumes. We have an international competition coming up in our area in September, and one of the contests is a zombie shoot. Anyway, after a day of hitting the Goodwill and two other consignment shops—with a stop for Mexican food and margaritas — all I could find that I really wanted was this beautiful jacket, found at the Goodwill, and it had nothing to do with Apocalypse costumes.

It is supposed to feel and look like hammered silk, but is not made of silk. The label inside doesn't say what it is made of, but I suspect some kind of acetate, which I normally would avoid like the plague. But the colors, the lightness of the material, and the oriental look of it grabbed me. I carried it around the whole time I was looking at other stuff, thinking that if I hadn't put it back by the time everyone else was ready to leave, then it was meant to be mine. And for only $4.99 how could it not, right?

I like it "as is." So this piece is not a project waiting to get done.

This little jacket is so different from anything else I have, and will look awesome with jeans.

Well, that's my remedy for beating the heat. How are the rest of you doing?

The Love of Stencils

Recently I have discovered many wonderful uses for stencils. Years ago I stenciled a pattern of twining leaves high on the walls of our dinning room, and I may have dinked around with a few since then, but nothing very exciting. Over the last two years or so, I have had all kinds of fun with them. The nice thing about stencils is, they are inexpensive, and can be found in all sorts of places. I picked up the variety you see above from JoAnn's fabrics, Michaels Crafts, Home Depot paint dept, and the rose I found at the Goodwill.

It started with seeing Rice's work over at the Voodoo Cafe. She used stencils to cut out patterns for the Alabama Chanin-type clothing she was making. So, not only did those posts inspire me to make some of the same types of clothing (and buying the AC book), doing all the stitching by hand, and getting back into embroidery, but it also got me using stencils in new ways.

The little amoeba-looking beaded star was my first attempt. I never used it on anything because the beads (only ones I had at the time) are heavy, so it's still in a drawer, waiting for a home. 

I started on cloth first, both for design and for stitching around, and for reverse appliques. I did three boleros, two tank tops, a T-shirt, and a sweatshirt. Here are three examples.

I have just started using them on paper for my artwork for background designs. My first try was on this color pencil and ink drawing of Nomad 2. Here is a close up of the stenciled part of of the background.

I drew around the stencil with a light pencil, then colored it in and added highlights. Worked great.

What's next? Well, once again, Rice has featured a new technique that I want to try, using stencils. You draw the stencil pattern on cloth, much as I did for the above drawing. Rather than use paint to color it in, you go over the drawing lines with stitching.  You end up with a lovely stitched pattern. Since I love the little boleros so much, and they are so easy to make, I want to try this way to use a stencil next. Rice used it on denim (or maybe it was linen, I can't remember), and it looks wonderful.

Just an FYI, if you have never visited Rice's blog site, I highly recommend it. She is always finding new ways to decorate fabric...she's now into dying her own embroidery thread...not to mention her other projects and trips to art conferences, photos of her cats, and just general fun everyday thoughts and, yes, sometimes a rant or two, but she's always inspiring.  Some of her posts will make you laugh out loud.

Crown Bolero Almost Done

I finally got the binding sewn on the Crown Bolero, which gets it pretty close to being done. Then again, I guess "pretty close" is a relative term, as I intend to bead the binding, and that usually takes quite a while. However, I won't start on that until next week, as I want to wear the bolero this weekend, and there is NO WAY I could bead all that in time, and I don't want to wear it with just one sleeve beaded, or half the front done. It will be fun taking it for a test spin and seeing how the double layer differs from my other boleros, which are all single layers.

So, here it is,  minus the binding beads, which will be the same small purple and gold ones used in the main body of the piece. I really liked the way this one turned out, and I like the heft of the doubled fabric, so I am sure I will make another one. These boleros are kind of addicting—little blank canvases to play on, and I can wear them with almost anything.

Crown Bolero: AC pattern, Goodwill T-shirts, stenciled, stitched all by hand, reverse appliqued, and beaded.

I will wear this over tank tops and skinny long-sleeved T-shirts, and with jeans. I don't go to that many fancy places, so all of these boleros get worn with my everyday wear. Otherwise they would all hang in my closet gathering dust.

Crown Bolero - Layout

Here is the results from the stenciling. I wasn't sure how my own drawn and cut stencil would work, and as it turned out, would have been better on heavier paper. All I had on hand was a heavier grade drawing paper, which isn't meant for wet mediums. It worked, but barely.

The Lumiere paint I had was old, and getting a bit thick, so I added some water and stirred the dickens out of it. However, I think that is why I ended up with a rather mottled look to the paint. At first I was upset. But the more I looked at it the better I liked it. The uneven coverage gave the crown an antique look, like old gilding that has started to wear off. The center portions of the base of the crown I did not even try to cover, as all of that will be cut away when I do the reverse applique. Why waste the paint?

The arrowhead shape and the long center shape I cut out of tape and stuck to the shirt so it would leave the negative space in the design. That was another experiment that turned out well. Those negative spaces will stay the color of the shirt, and most of the gold cut away around them to reveal the purple underneath.

Here are all the elements ready to pin together. You can see how my paper stencil buckled, so next time I will get some good heavy stock, or even see if I can find stencil plastic, if I do anything like this again. The tiny pieces of paper are the negative spaces that I used as a template for the tape.

And here are all the pieces pinned together and ready to start sewing on. The thread is regular sewing thread, but heavy duty, and I will double it. I will use that to outline all the design elements. I will probably use embroidery thread for any other decoration, and will use that to sew up the bolero when the fun of stitching and beading is done. Last will be to add the dark teal binding around the edges.

Crown Bolero - Design & Color

I have been thinking about his design for awhile, and decided on the muted colors after seeing a reproduction of an Italian tapestry from the fifteen-hundreds. The photo of the tapestry had been darkened for use as background for a rather dark and gloomy fashion ad. But I kinda like dark and gloomy (except rain and gloom all winter. That I don't like at all). I suspect there is more Morticia Adams in me than I care to admit.

Anyway, here are the crown designs I played with, made by folding a sheet of printer paper in half and just cutting away freehand. Like making those paper snowflakes when you were a kid.

Then I took these and played a bit more with cutouts. I can't get too carried away with those, as this will be a stencil. The design, once stenciled on the shirt, and stitched around, will then be cut away to reveal the second layer of fabric underneath — a reverse applique — so the design has to stay pretty simple. Next, I will draw the crown on heavy cardstock paper, and cut it out to make the stencil.

I didn't like the one on the top right at all, so eliminated it straight away. It was too clunky looking. In the end, I decided I liked the spiky quality of the one on the top left.

The hard part was the color. I wanted muted, except maybe for the crown, but even that couldn't be an in-your-face color, or cheesy, like a fake gold lame' or something. I wanted an old, faded, tapestry look without it being made of old tapestry material. And without the old tapestry dust.

So here is what I came up with, all from T-shirts purchased at the Goodwill. The light gray-green will be the main color of the bolero. The royal purple with be for the crown - of course. And the dark teal with be the binding color. The crown will be stenciled with Lumiere antique gold paint, which will only be an outline once the fabric is cut away. The small fleur d'lis will be stenciled on the front panels of the bolero and then cut out in reverse applique like the crown. After that, it will be stitching and beading. Not sure of the binding stitching color yet, but might be a lighter purple than the crown, or something that matches the gray-green. In any case, something that shows up nicely on the dark teal. That's still undecided (there is an insidious little voice in my head telling me to use metallic thread. I did that on my first bolero and loved the look, but hated working with that thread. It breaks, kinks, and doesn't go in the needles very well, so I am slapping a mental hand over that inner voice's mouth).

I am going to have a lot of fun adding beads to that crown! In fact, I like that crown design so much, that I can also envision it in black on a red bolero...or red on black. My husband gets tons of either red or black promo T-shirts from work, so I would have plenty of material to do either.

So, that's my current project, The Crown Bolero.

Belle Epoque Tunic — Completed

After hours and hours of pleasurable beading, and adding the front decoration to the bodice, the tunic is now finished. Well, except for the buttons, which are boring, but I don't have anything to replace them that would work. I will keep an eye out, and when I find something, will swap them out.

I didn't bead the arm binding, as I thought it might be pretty scratchy on my underarms. The center decoration was made up of a scrap from the shirt, purple binding, beads, and an iron-on peacock feather that was one of several in a package I bought at JoAnn Fabrics.

The skirt hem beading.

Waist band, with double row of fly stitch and beads.

So, this project went from this = The inspiration.

To this = The materials (All from the Goodwill)

 

To this = The finished tunic.

I still wish I had been able to add the short sleeves, so if I do another one of these, I will make sure I have enough fabric to do that. Also, I may do the whole tunic out of T-shirt material rather than another cotton shirt, just to see how each one moves and hangs differently. Another tweak I may do, is not raise the front part of the waist. My fear is, the way I have it now, will make me look pregnant! NOT GOOD. I am wearing it today when I run into town to do errands, so will know better how everything works by the time I get home. If anyone asks me, "When are you due?", after being horrified, it will be my sign that something must be changed!

So, now it's on to the next project. I have an idea I want to try, using stencils on a T-shirt. Also, my Etsy jewelry shop has been closed for several months, while I decided in what direction I wanted to go, and to give me time to upgrade my stock, and take better photos. I need to get busy on that, and have several jewelry projects in mind that need to get made. With the temperatures hanging between 95 and 103 inside projects are a good thing!

Belle Epoque Tunic — Process

Here are process photos of the BE tunic I am making. The tunic is done, except for the beading, and the small applique that will go on the front of the bodice.


The inspiration, and the elements laid out.

The bodice cut out, and the lower part of the man's cotton shirt cut off just below the sleeves.  I also cut the narrow hem off the bottom of the shirt, since I intended to add purple binding as a finish.

The tunic sewn together, and the purple binding sewn on with fly-stitch (or fern-stitch, I've seen it called either one). The cotton skirt was basted to the bodice with a running stitch, and instead of gathers, I made pleats to take in the fullness. I pinned the purple binding around the waist, to see how it looked, decided I liked it, but made it a bit narrower.

Also, I had intended for it to have short sleeves, but there wasn't enough of the gray T-shirt to make them, and I didn't want them in purple, so the tunic ended up sleeveless.

The tunic laid out on my coffee table (better lighting...sorta). I have almost finished beading the waist band, which was sewn down with a double row of fly-stitch. Next to bead will be the neckline, armholes, and the bottom of the skirt. Yeah...lots of beading. But I love the heft the garment takes on the more beads I add, and I like the clicking sound the beaded parts make against the table as I work on the piece. The beads are tiny matte-finished silver, AB dark purple, and larger lozenge beads in dark purple with blue glints. Embroidery floss is gunmetal gray a shade lighter than the bodice.

I'm going to either swap out the buttons for others, or sew beads to the existing buttons. Not sure which.  And I think I am going to hand-sew down the front of the skirt, so it doesn't gap in between the buttons. I'm never going to unbutton it, so might as well close it nicely. Probably with a running stitch in the gray floss. In the last photo it looks as if there is a stain on the right side of the skirt, but it's just shadows.

The more I work on this tunic, the better I like it. Wasn't too in love with it at first. I wondered if all the beading I was doing would be for naught...but no, as it goes along, the piece grows on me. I'll see how I feel when the applique is on, and the beading is finished. I may love it by then. One can only hope.

Next Project...Belle Epoque Inspired AC Short Dress

Okay, I have stated here many times (dozens, hundreds...) that I love vintage clothing, especially the Belle Epoch. There is a certain style of dress from that period that I especially love, and thought might be adaptable to modern wear, by incorporating it into the Alabama Chanin style, plus a technique I saw in Altered Couture where you add cotton shirt bottoms to knit tops. Put them all together, and I hope to get something unique and fun to wear.

Here is the inspiration.

The dress on the upper left is by Wendy Firmin, and pictured in the Feb/Mar/Apr issue of Altered Couture. She calls them Baby Doll dresses, as does AC of the dress pictured at the bottom (the one in gray is the one I am referring to in this project). I've already stated that anyone my age is not going to wear anything called "baby doll." I'd feel silly. The dress on the upper right is a costume from the Russian Ballet of that period, but is the same style as many of the dresses of that era. This is just the best example I could find this morning, but the style was used on everything from evening dresses to walking suits.

My idea is to make the top of the dress out of a T-shirt I bought at the Goodwill, as was the cotton man's shirt I will use for the bottom—actually, all the pieces for this came from the Goodwill (love that place!). My dress will have short sleeves and a higher neck than the AC dress. Also, I will not use lace over the seam, as Wendy did, but strips of another T-shirt, maybe done in the AC "random ruffle" design.

I am also experimenting in different color combinations. Dresses of the Belle Epoque period used colors we wouldn't think would go well together, but somehow work. There is a particular one that I love, in colors of acid purple, soft teal, with gold and black trim and beading. Kinda gives you an idea of how bold they were back then. So, here are the recycled T-shirts and man's shirt, laid out so you can see how it will work. All the banding will be out of the purple T-shirt. I will even put banding on the bottom of the cotton shirt, as I am going to cut the front to get the tapered look in the vintage dress, and I want the weight of the beaded banding to help keep the shirt hanging nicely. 

The top T-shirt is a dark blueish gray. The banding T-shirt is a dark rich purple, and the cotton shirt is striped in narrow bands of blueish gray, but seem to have a purple cast to them when the shirt is seen as a whole. I tried putting various colors of T-shirts in the middle to see what would work, and this purple seemed the best.

I bought this shirt because I loved the detail on the front.

 

The lines of grey are stitched to make the ripple pattern, which I thought would lend itself very nicely to some kind of beading. This photo shows the front pattern, compared to the strait lines of the rest of the shirt. Also, I will either take a piece of the front—if I have enough after I cut the taper—or take one of the shirt sleeves, and make an applique to sew on the gray bodice, which will help tie everything together.

As with all these AC projects, it will be totally hand sewn. Now I just need to find the right color of embroidery floss and beads. 

This is going to be a total experiment, which might end up a big flop, but one I thought would be fun to try.  As with everything...time will tell.

ETT — A Few Process Photos & Comments

Okay, these are probably the last photos of the ETT I will post. I think it has arrived at that "enough is enough" point. LOL Here are a few process photos, and some explanations of why I did what I did, and what I would do differently.

So, this is what I started with. One teal-blue White Stag T-shirt, and a $2.99 Goodwill find baby doll dress that was too small for me.

This is the finished tunic (the sun came out long enough for me to get this photo!)

Right off, the first thing I would change is the bodice. It ended up too wide. I had left it on the wide side so I could wear the tunic over other T-shirts, but it ended up looking a bit too baggy, and needs tightening up for a better fit. Also, I am still debating whether to add some kind of design to the front. Now that I look at it, that is a pretty big expanse of blue. The reason I left it undecorated, is that I wear a lot of my own jewelry, and don't like it when the clothes and the jewelry fight each other for attention.

Here is the skirt, cut off of the baby doll dress yoke. I cut it above the seam that attached it to the yoke, mainly because I was afraid if I cut below the seam, the thing would stretch out and I would have to re-gather it up with straight stitches, which I didn't want to mess with if I didn't have to. As it turned out, the skirt ended up a bit smaller than the top of the tunic, so as I pinned it on, I had to stretch the seam, and in some places actually break the threads. Bottom line, it took a lot of futzing around to get the skirt on the tunic top. I sewed the skirt on to the tunic with a double row of chain stitch about an inch or so below the seam, then when finished, I VERY CAREFULLY cut the seam off.

The skirt pinned to the yoke of the tunic. As stated...lots of futzing to get it to fit. There are about two inches of blue tunic behind and below that pinned seam, which gave me lots of space to add the double row of chain stitch. Also I figured it would help keep the skirt hanging correctly, and help prevent the skirt from rolling under if there was only an inch or so of tunic behind the chain stitches.

And here is the finished skirt...attached with the double row of chain stitch, the old seam trimmed away, and then the chain stitch beaded. I also trimmed about three inches from the length of the skirt, as it hit right at my knees. I didn't want a dress, I wanted a tunic to wear with jeans.

And the final photo, showing the fit and length (the front and back are exactly the same, so even though you don't see the front of the piece, you're not missing anything...except me going without a bra. NOT pretty and NOT for posting on the internet!). It also shows how the tunic would fit better if the top part was adjusted to be not so wide. I think it would eliminate those loose fabric folds you can see, right above where the skirt attaches to the bodice.

Oh, only one last thing to add to the tunic. From now on I am putting my own clothing labels inside each piece. Just a small section of fabric with the same cartouche design using my initials that I use on my drawings and paintings, and then the year. For now I use a brown calligraphy-point Sharpi, but eventually I would like to make either a rubber stamp or a stencil for the label. 

Now that this tunic is done, would I make another one? Yes, with a few adjustments. However, I will wear this one, as it is comfy and looks okay over T-shirts...and because I spent flipping FOREVER sewing on all those little beads! LOL