Not-Exactly Zentangled Skirt

So ... time is a thing that I apparently don't have.

Not that this is a surprise, of course. I never seem to have enough time to finish projects - and all this last-minute summer work has been worse than school itself. At least during school I can bring my hand sewing with me and work on it during lecture-style classes. Ah well.

Long story short, the deadline for the skirt came around and it was very much not finished. But I'm getting ahead of myself - let's start at the beginning.

The basic skirt was a breeze to pull together - just a circle skirt. I'll admit I was a little wary going into it, as I couldn't figure out just how a flat waistband would attach to a circular waist, and every online tutorial seemed to just solve the problem with elastic.

Anyway, the circle was cut by folding the fabric into quarters and then marking vaguely circle-ish shapes for the waist and hem.

(Pause to acknowledge my brand new disappearing ink pen - it's bright fricking purple and it just disappears!!! It's very exciting.)

Here's the skirt all laid out on the floor, looking very donut-y. How simple was that?

(Yes, I know, I really should have pressed it before I cut the fabric but there was a thunderstorm and I'm paranoid about using plugged-in things like irons when there's lightning).

I wanted a pretty thick waistband so it's a long strip about 4 inches tall and a little bit wider than my waist. Step one was to pin it around the edge of the waist, where I realized the problem ...

Somehow or other, I'd ended up with an inner circle several inches wider than my actual waist!

The fix was of course very simple - just adding a back seam to take it in a couple of inches. Indeed, this was a bit of a blessing in disguise, as it gave me the perfect place to insert the zipper.

(Not sure what's up with the lighting here. Maybe a ghost?)

Now, let's digress for a moment to talk about my love-hate relationship with zippers.

I want to love them, I really do. They seem like they should be so easy - no sewing on rows of hooks and eyes, no fiddly horrible buttonholes - just a simple long zipper that zips right up! But for whatever reason, zippers never end up being as simple as I think they should be. I always mess up on the insertion and instead of a pretty, elegant zipper I get a wonky sort of deal that looks like someone's 8th grade home ec disaster. Yay.

Lucky for me, zippers are not accurate to most of the periods I costume for, and in modern fashion exposed zippers are apparently trendy, so I had an excuse not to suffer through trying to do an invisible zip. That would've ended really badly.

Comparatively this zipper wasn't too bad - I only had to redo it once! It somehow managed to be kind of crooked, though, and I ended up with an uneven meeting of the waist band ... :(

But, at this point time was running out so I decided that it wasn't terribly noticeable and moved on with my life.

The skirt was finished by pressing over the waistband and stitching it down by hand, so it looks all pretty and invisible from the front. I forget how fun tiny invisible hand stitching can be - there's so much control and it always ends up looking so much more elegant. Sadly, I don't often have time for it, as I'm the Queen of doing every project at the last possible second.

For the swirly black outlines of the zentangle design, I drew everything in my handy disappearing ink pen and then machine-stitched thin black ribbon to it.  Let me just say, this was really, really addicting. I started at about 9pm one night, figuring I'd just stitch one swirl as a test, and the next thing I knew it was hours later and I'd finished half the skirt:

In hindsight I should probably have done this while I wasn't half asleep and maybe done two rows of stitching to really hold it down around the sharper curves, but again, time.

At this point, it was the day before the next Art Exchange gallery (which this was for) and I still hadn't done any of the fun embellishment stuff. :( Thus, I developed a very brilliant plan B - only embellish a few of the sections, which would probably actually be more visually appealing because space and such.

Then I sat down the next morning to do my AP Chem homework, and it took hours. Suddenly, there wasn't time for anything at all.

So I turned in my distinctly un-zentangle skirt to the gallery, and that was that.

To be honest, I still really like the skirt - especially because it looks like a modern interpretation of my all time favorite historical dress, this gorgeous "ironwork" creation from the House of Worth.

Source

Isn't it just incredible? This is definitely on the to-make list someday. For now I'll just settle to repinning it every time it pops up on my Pinterest, and swooning over those beautiful swirling patterns!

I'm a little disappointed that I didn't get to use my big bag of embellishments. It was going to be really fun. Maybe I'll make a pillow or something out of the scrap material, or a bag or something - just for kicks. That being said, this more understated skirt is a lot more practical, and I might actually wear it places. Maybe a church outfit someday with a bright colored shirt and a fun hat?

With it done now I can focus on starting my next big ambitious project, which will hopefully go better than this one ... more musings on that later, but for now I'm thinking it might be time for a new set of stays ...

~ Emma

Zentangle

Been a while since I blogged, huh? Normally my summers are filled with sewing, but I've been much busier this year than before. Sadly, it's sewing that's had to be put on the back burner. I've done a bit of mending, and a bit of alteration work (apparently men's dress pants are not designed to fit a female figure. Who'd've guessed?), but nothing worth blogging about.

Luckily though, I'm about to embark on a brand new project just in time for the end of summer, so here we go!

I don't know if anyone is familiar with the concept of Zentangle® art? Basically, you draw a bunch of lines then fill in each section with a different pattern, typically in Sharpie or pen. Like this:

(Not sure what's up with the weird shadow in the corner ...)

I learned about it from my 7th grade art teacher, but apparently it's an actual elaborate thing, as I discovered while preparing this blog post. Here's some official jargon:

The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. "Zentangle" is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

Anyway, I was thinking about Zentangle etc. and how interesting it would be to create a similar concept with fashion - say, a skirt:

(It's a very rough sketch. Bear with me)

I really enjoy little detail work type projects - I find that sewing on beads and ribbons and tiny embroidery stitches is very relaxing, much in the same way of the original Zentangle concept. And, I'm always looking for excuses to branch out in embellishments, so this seemed like a perfect design!

I'm thinking I'll make a fairly simple circle skirt (or slightly less than circle skirt, depending on how the fabric cutting goes ...). At JoAnn's the other day I picked up some white cotton canvas type fabric:

I'm really not sure what it is, exactly. I hesitate to call it canvas, because it's much softer than I associate with that. It's not super thick, but it has some nice body, which hopefully will walk the line between thin enough to sew through and thick enough to hold its shape. Fingers crossed on that! Oh, and it's 100% cotton, which is always fun and exciting. Even if it's not a historical project, I still like keeping to natural fibers. Call me old-fashioned, but they're so much simpler to work with.

I also bought lots and lots of exciting black embellishments, from buttons to beads to studs to sequins. I was running all up and down the store, picking up everything that caught my eye!

In the stash I have some black lace, and I just got some new cheesecloth that might make an appearance (anyone sensing a theme here?). I don't have any super particular design ideas yet, but I figure they'll work themselves out as we go along.

The goal is to have this finished in about two weeks, three at the absolute most. I'm really excited to get back to sewing, and fiddly hand sewing on a relatively simple garment sounds like just the thing to finish off my summer!

As for this blog, hopefully I'll have more to post about come fall ... there will definitely be an elaborate Halloween costume, and I'm sure I'll be doing lots of fangirling over the 1950s what with an upcoming theatrical endeavor ... but more on that later. :) 

~ Emma

Green Fairy

Well, it's actually been a very long while since I finished this dress, and longer still since I blogged about anything! In my defense I've been rather busy this summer, but really there's no excuse beyond my being not quite used to blogging yet.

So, it's time for the big reveal about the Top Secret Project™ ...

A Fairy Dress for my friend Parker's Art Exchange!

So, what is the Art Exchange? And why all the secrecy? Why must it be so mysterious?

The Art Exchange was created by my fabulous friend, Parker, as a way to bring together various artists and inspire new work. Each artist creates an original work in their medium of choice, then these works are anonymously distributed to other artists, who must then create a new work inspired by what they received. These derived pieces are then exchanged again and so on and so forth in what is essentially one big game of artistic Telephone.

For the first two rounds of the exchange I wrote, but the piece I received for Round #3 was a song that immediately put the idea of fairies in my head. It was light and frolicky and titled "Green", hence the color scheme of this dress.

Since anonymity and secrecy are essential to the integrity of the Art Exchange, Parker informed me that I could not post about my piece online until after the exchange was over. I informed him that I would do it anyway and just be very vague so that no one would make the connection. Being as no one actually reads this blog, Parker acquiesced. 

The gallery was actually in early June, but I left for Germany just a few days later so posting about this really slipped my mind! Anyway, here we go.

The base of the dress is a simple a-line frankensteined job made from some old green canvas-type stuff that I got at Tuesday Morning ages ago. Frankly, it's pretty ugly, but being as it was getting covered up anyway I figured this was okay, as long as it was functional!

The edges were finished with Fraycheck, which left a nasty mark and smell, but again, short on time and going to be covered up!

I decided to do most of the sewing with large stitches of green embroidery floss; this was not actually done as a way of making things go faster (though it did speed the process up considerably!), but rather because it made me feel like a proper Fairy tailor stitching things up with big messy stitches and thick thread. I don't know, it just kind of felt like something you'd see in a Disney movie. In the end, almost none of the stitches were visible, but I knew they were there, and somehow this added to the magic.

I started with the skirt, adding on one layer of cheesecloth at a time and cutting the edges into nice rounded shapes.

Each layer was draped to a different length to add visual interest and uneven edges and all that jazz; there was no real science to it - just draping and stitching till it looked pretty!

Adding some cross-the-chest drapes that hang down into the skirt ...

And more layers ...

And more layers ...

Unfortunately I wasn't thinking and didn't get any pictures as I draped the top! It was more deliberate than the skirt, but still pretty loose ... just stitching and draping and stitching some more!

I honestly love draping things on a dress form; as much as I try to measure and cut and plan, I always find that my best results happen from working in 3D!

The final touch was a wooden button that I purchased in Finland with the idea that it'd come in handy some day! I think it really brings it all together. :)

And the finished product ...

The lighting in these photos is frankly awful; I'd like to take some outside in our yard (perhaps with the dress on someone?) in order to really capture the frolicking fairy vibe ... but that's a project for another time. 

 Close up of the bottom edge ... seriously, these photos make it look blue! :(

(Also the back has a kind of bustle-y feel from all the layers and bows and I kind of love it.)

(The picture on the right was taken at the gallery and is much more true to color!)

I ended up deciding against the cape and embroidery that were part of the original design ... I like this simpler version of the dress much better!

Over all I'm very pleased how it turned out, and I'm sorry that it was the last round in the Art Exchange, as no one got to interpret it.

I'm not sure what my next sewing project will be ... I won't have much free time for the next few weeks, so for now it's just looking at Pinterest and dreaming about the next project! Hmm, Halloween will be here before you know it ... maybe this will be the year that I finally have my costume done ahead of time!

In the meantime I've still got a pile of extra cheesecloth ... any ideas?

Adventures with Cheesecloth

Guess who's the proud owner of forty yards of cheesecloth?

Really, though, when Tuesday Morning is selling it in packages of 10 yards for $5, how do you not buy all 4 available packages? (Don't worry, the lady at the checkout was a seamstress too so she totally understood).

Full disclosure, I've never dyed fabric before, and I'm pretty sure that I went about this the completely wrong way. In hindsight, I should have used RIT dye and just saved myself all the trouble and anxiety, but unfortunately I didn't have time to drive all the way out to the craft store and if I ordered it online it would have arrived last week while I was out of town, and I really wanted to get this done before I left.

Interestingly, there's quite the wealth of tutorials for dyeing cheesecloth, because apparently colorful cheesecloth wraps are a must-have for infant photography. So after quite a bit of research, I came up with a game plan: Kool-Aid.

Source

Yep, everyone's favorite flourescent "fruit" drink. Seeing as this stuff can stain just about anything, including your insides, I figured it would be the perfect fabric dye, and most of the other bloggers I'd read agreed.

I started with one package (10 yards) of cheesecloth, cut into two just to make it easier to work with. Some people said to soak it in water first but others said to put it in dry; I ended up soaking it but wringing it out before putting it in the dye bath. I don't know if this actually did anything or not.

There was no real recipe for the dye bath - I was kind of making things up as I went along - but this is generally what I did:

1. Boil eight cups of water in a large pot.

2. In a large measuring cup, mix two cups of vinegar, three packets of lemon-lime Kool-Aid, two mugs of coffee and a little bit of salt.

This is when I discovered something really interesting: Lemon-lime Kool-Aid, coffee and vinegar smell really bad when mixed together, and this will end up perfuming both you and your kitchen. Mix at your own risk.

3. Add the dye mix to the boiling water and mix well.
4. Remove the pot from the heat and add the cheesecloth, stirring to make sure it's entirely covered in dye. Cover and let sit.

From here I stirred it ocassionally to make sure the coverage was even; if you want fully even color you should probably stir it more often, but I was actually hoping for more of the natural variation look.

I let it sit like that for almost 24 hours, stirring every once in a while. A few hours in I was worried that it wouldn't be dark enough so I added about two bottles of food coloring, which I'd also read about as a potential dye.

Anyhoo, long story short it could only sit in the dye for so long. It was time for the moment of truth ... (drumroll please ...)

Look at that beautiful color!!

.... And look at how much of it washed off :(

I did manage to dye my hands and the pot, but the fabric didn't take it all that well.

This was okay, because I actually did need a very big piece of light green for the design - but it was clear that Kool-Aid wasn't going to cut it for the rest of the fabric. It seemed like I was going to have to push the project back to dangerously close to the deadline by waiting for RIT dye to arrive, but while in Tuesday Morning I stumbled upon a magnificent find:

A $7 Kid's Tie-Dye kit!! Have I mentioned how much I love this store? You can't go in expecting to find anything, but when you stumble upon a gem like this it's really, really exciting.

The kit came with six bottles of dye designed to be used on 100% cotton t-shirts, so this seemed like a much better fit for my cotton cheesecloth. I only used the blue, green and yellow dyes and then played around with it from there to achieve various colors.

(The kit also came with lots of gloves, which is even more exciting. No more green hands!!)

Since I wanted lots of different shades of green, I cut my three remaining packages of cheesecloth into two relatively equal pieces each. I then soaked each piece in water while I mixed the dye.

Since I wanted mixed colors, I decided to start with a bit of water in a chaffing pan, then pour color over the cheesecloth. I then kneaded it into cheesecloth, thereby breaking every rule of tie-dye but achieving some nice, even colors.

I dyed each piece in the same pan and just added new dye each time, playing around with the ratios of blue to green to yellow, so I can't say how much of each dye went into each color. It wasn't really a precise science.

After coloring each piece I put it in a ziploc bag per the tie-dye instructions and let it sit overnight. I decided to make five of my six pieces green, but for the last piece I wanted brown, so it was back to improvised dyes.

Since the coffee seemed to be what had taken the most to the cheesecloth with attempt one, it made a second appearance. To make it darker I added a few packets of soy sauce, an idea I'd read on this photography blog. This got to stew overnight as well.

When I washed these out, they definitely lost color, but not nearly as dramatically as the Kool-Aid. Interestingly, it seemed like the green dye was the weakest, as my teal batch washed out to mostly blue. Not a problem, though. My one regret is that I don't have any real forrest green. This could probably be achieved by RIT dye, but I have neither the time nor the cheesecloth for this.

Overall, this was a pretty fun process, and I'd love to try my hand at more dyeing in the future. I love the control I get over the colors, and it's much more cost effective then buying a bunch of small swathes in various shades.

Technically speaking, the due date for the Top Secret Project™ is tomorrow, but I still haven't begun any of the actual sewing part so we'll see how that goes ...

Anyhoo, in the meantime please enjoy another beautiful picture of my cheesecloth:

- Emma