Oy. I am up to my ears in chiffon and promises. My dear friend is celebrating her 50th in 2 weeks. She admired a new design of mine and so... here I go again... making something for someone that I pray they will like. Then, my dear sister-in-law saw the design and made her request... Then, there is another special someone that is going to get a surprise... You know the punch line. None of us are the same size. Agh. I drafted my pattern for my shape. Adjustments are a bit of a shot in the dark.
Shall we make it a little more difficult? The jacket demands a smooth front top underneath, and my prototype top was made from charmeuse. Yes, you are getting the picture now, I also have to make more slippery charmeuse tops for my gal pals - AND- modify my pattern for their various shapes. That might be a simple feat for some sewers... but I am not great at adjusting for all these middle aged bust lines and back sizes. Ever notice the presence of the dreaded "back fat" that we seem to accumulate in later years? How about those gaping arm holes in sleeveless tops? When I finish this round of projects I SWEAR I will never attempt this again.
This time last year I was working on a series of stoles for the wedding party of a friend's daughter. They were hand painted, and fairly identical. No stencils or screens used, just a complex drawing and a ton of gutta. I thought that was the most difficult thing that I would ever do. NOT.
Right now I am letting some discharge printing set up on one of the jackets. Pray for me :-) Pics will be posted later....
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Serendipity and the Steamer
I am so happy today. I have searched in vain for a used jacquard upright steamer for over a year. Yesterday I received an email from Surfacing ( a Yahoo group for surface design) that someone needed to part with her steamer. We connected, and as the Universe would have it, we made the deal. She is happy; I am happy. I saved some money; she is getting some money to use for her current needs. Ain't life great!
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Color and geography
My DH and I travel frequently. One of the things that I enjoy most about our travels is looking at the colors in other parts of the country. We live in the subtropics - sunsets are mango, watermelon, and sky blue. Everything is a rich pure green except for the palm trunks which are light grey and brown. Flowers range from rich oranges to brilliant pinks and magentas; the ocean is aqua. With all of this beauty I still relish the colors of other parts of the country. The palate expands with neutrals so warm and rich, and skies of more dilute blues and greys...
This weekend we are off to Apalachicola, Florida for a visit with my favorite uncle. I look forward to the pines and darker rivers of north Florida. Moss and sage greens rule the landscape, and texture is everywhere! I will be collecting some things this weekend to bring back for texture in my deconstructed printing. Hopefully I can snag a big piece of Spanish Moss.
It will also be wonderful to be in cooler weather for a change. We just got out of the 90's this week. It is in the 50's at night where we are going. Yippee!
Color, temperature, and geography are such powerful artistic influences. Are you taking advantage of everything around you?
This weekend we are off to Apalachicola, Florida for a visit with my favorite uncle. I look forward to the pines and darker rivers of north Florida. Moss and sage greens rule the landscape, and texture is everywhere! I will be collecting some things this weekend to bring back for texture in my deconstructed printing. Hopefully I can snag a big piece of Spanish Moss.
It will also be wonderful to be in cooler weather for a change. We just got out of the 90's this week. It is in the 50's at night where we are going. Yippee!
Color, temperature, and geography are such powerful artistic influences. Are you taking advantage of everything around you?
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
My experience with Colorhue dyes
I stumbled on Colorhue dyes this spring as I searched for ultralight silk thread. My source is http://www.silkthings.com/ . I was fascinated by these dyes due to their ease of use. You apply the dye to dry or wet silk, the strike is instant, and there is no after fix or wait required. They discharge well and clean up is easy. I bought the sampler pack for trial and later ordered full size bottles of the primaries . The instructions that accompany the product are adequate.
The downside to Colorhue for me is that you can not paint with it and it is virtually impossible to mix it sufficiently to avoid an occasional fleck or speckle. You can, however, mix it with shaving cream and sponge or screen it on without any difficulty. The picture above is a test swatch that I made screening over stencils with Colorhue. Mind you, this was a scrap that I did for play. It is so liberating to try color and ideas without delay or hassle.
This orange chiffon capelet and tank were done solely with Colorhue. http://picasaweb.google.com/pam.hebding/20080412?authkey=tDRWDtb2MGI#5246360908903674194 You can not see the ombre in the capelet photo for some reason. It is subtle but obvious in person. I sewed the capelet (did I say how much fun it is to make chiffon flounces?) scruch dyed the curved neck portion and ties and dip dyed the ombre flounces before attaching them to the neck and tie peices. The top is scrunch died stretch crepe. Like so much of my work this piece had to be changed because of a dyeing problem. This time is was the flecks in the flounce. In order to disguise the flecks I had to repeat the ombre dip dyeing. That resulted in a much deeper color than I originally planned.
There is a bonus in working with Colorhue. You work quickly with the product and there is a lot of dye water wrung out from your work that is still useful. I test the color in the waste water bucket, and if the color is pleasing, throw a yard or two of fabric in the bucket. That gives me a background dye for another project later on.
The downside to Colorhue for me is that you can not paint with it and it is virtually impossible to mix it sufficiently to avoid an occasional fleck or speckle. You can, however, mix it with shaving cream and sponge or screen it on without any difficulty. The picture above is a test swatch that I made screening over stencils with Colorhue. Mind you, this was a scrap that I did for play. It is so liberating to try color and ideas without delay or hassle.
This orange chiffon capelet and tank were done solely with Colorhue. http://picasaweb.google.com/pam.hebding/20080412?authkey=tDRWDtb2MGI#5246360908903674194 You can not see the ombre in the capelet photo for some reason. It is subtle but obvious in person. I sewed the capelet (did I say how much fun it is to make chiffon flounces?) scruch dyed the curved neck portion and ties and dip dyed the ombre flounces before attaching them to the neck and tie peices. The top is scrunch died stretch crepe. Like so much of my work this piece had to be changed because of a dyeing problem. This time is was the flecks in the flounce. In order to disguise the flecks I had to repeat the ombre dip dyeing. That resulted in a much deeper color than I originally planned.
There is a bonus in working with Colorhue. You work quickly with the product and there is a lot of dye water wrung out from your work that is still useful. I test the color in the waste water bucket, and if the color is pleasing, throw a yard or two of fabric in the bucket. That gives me a background dye for another project later on.
Friday, August 8, 2008
Final Note on Making Your Own Dress Form
My form was finished off with a muslin cover that I made without much thought other than fit. The cover allows me to pin to the form with no problem and makes Eve (the name of my form) less of a biological display in my Florida room where she is usually standing.
I inserted some poly fil between the form and cover in places to correct a couple of problems that I created by handling the form too much while it was still damp. The back shoulders needed to be fluffed out and one boob was out of synch.
As she stands now Eve measures as an exact duplicate of my odd body. She has a 17" back waist measurement, a 14" shoulder measurement, a 38" bust measurement, and a 27" waist measurement. I am 5'3" tall so although my narrow shoulder measurement is not unusual for my height, my back waist and bust measurements are not standard in ready made forms that would have worked with my narrow shoulders.
If you can use a standard form, do it. This project was long and tedious because I wanted the form to be exact for me so I could get a good idea about how a particular design would look on me. I also wanted to be able to avoid any personal fitting during a sewing project. Eve fits my needs although I wish I had taken better care to mark the form properly so draping would be easier.
I inserted some poly fil between the form and cover in places to correct a couple of problems that I created by handling the form too much while it was still damp. The back shoulders needed to be fluffed out and one boob was out of synch.
As she stands now Eve measures as an exact duplicate of my odd body. She has a 17" back waist measurement, a 14" shoulder measurement, a 38" bust measurement, and a 27" waist measurement. I am 5'3" tall so although my narrow shoulder measurement is not unusual for my height, my back waist and bust measurements are not standard in ready made forms that would have worked with my narrow shoulders.
If you can use a standard form, do it. This project was long and tedious because I wanted the form to be exact for me so I could get a good idea about how a particular design would look on me. I also wanted to be able to avoid any personal fitting during a sewing project. Eve fits my needs although I wish I had taken better care to mark the form properly so draping would be easier.
Making your own dress form
From time to time I will post pics of things displayed on my home made dress form. I built my own dress form after comparing my detailed body measurements to the ready made forms. It was obvious to me that the only way I was going to be able to use a form to serve as a proper fit dummy for my odd body was to either spend a couple of thousand dollars on a custom form - or build it myself. So, I decided to try building my own using some instructions I found on the Net.
I have reprinted below my email to Sister and Niece in August '07 about the project. You can see
pics of my project at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/pam.hebding/DressForm#
"OK creative girls- Here's the progress on my latest quest to build the perfect dress form. I used the instructions on these links:
http://sewnews.com/resources/library/0806form/index.html
http://www.sewnews.com/resources/library/0806stand/index.html
I let Bill wrap me in water activated tape until I could not take it anymore, then I made him cut me out. There are a lot of finishing touches to do, but I thought you might want some proof that a man, who cares very little about accuracy in anything other than a spreadsheet, can actually wrap you up and get you out alive. The only casualty was my underwear. Big slash in left butt cheek. No skin involved!!!
There are some things I would add to the great instructions in Sew News:
If you are going to use water activated tape pre cut a ton of it in advance. (I could not find self stick kraft tape, so I used high quality water activated kraft tape) The other thing is that I think water activated tape will more closely act like paper mache (stronger than any self stick tape). Since the best forms are paper mache, I thought it was worth the extra aggravation of wetting the tape. Of course, I could be totally wrong.
Put two sponges in a pyrex shallow dish with lots of water to moisten the tape.
Get the tape really wet.
You will need lots of strips equal to ½ of your hip measurement plus 4 inches.
Also, precut a bunch of 1 inch wide strips for the bust area. Round boobs can not be wrapped by 2" tape!
Do not do this project after eating a big Mexican food meal like I did. Actually, that's probably a plus so you can wear your designs after a Mexican meal, but the body form will look bloated.
Sarah- The bandage scissors are a real MUST. Getting cut out of this thing was not easy, and the transition from waist to hips and underneath your butt will require careful cutting!
Put on super comfortable shoes if you are going to get wrapped because standing still really takes a toll on your feet.
It is best to get wrapped by someone that is neat and cheerful.
When you cut the form off immediately use some duct tape to the inside of the cut shoulder to reconnect it. The paper tape doesn't really like to stick to the plastic bag liner.
This is not a 1 hour project.
Sarah- the tape requirement estimate is about right. If you decide to do this write down the amount of tape you need in feet and yards so the in-store math is not too hard. My total cost of materials for the stand and form is about $45.
I suspect that using this form will accommodate ½ of the design ease in all measurements. I can't wait to get her to the point that I can put something on her that really fits me well to find out if I am right! "
I have reprinted below my email to Sister and Niece in August '07 about the project. You can see
pics of my project at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/pam.hebding/DressForm#
"OK creative girls- Here's the progress on my latest quest to build the perfect dress form. I used the instructions on these links:
http://sewnews.com/resources/library/0806form/index.html
http://www.sewnews.com/resources/library/0806stand/index.html
I let Bill wrap me in water activated tape until I could not take it anymore, then I made him cut me out. There are a lot of finishing touches to do, but I thought you might want some proof that a man, who cares very little about accuracy in anything other than a spreadsheet, can actually wrap you up and get you out alive. The only casualty was my underwear. Big slash in left butt cheek. No skin involved!!!
There are some things I would add to the great instructions in Sew News:
If you are going to use water activated tape pre cut a ton of it in advance. (I could not find self stick kraft tape, so I used high quality water activated kraft tape) The other thing is that I think water activated tape will more closely act like paper mache (stronger than any self stick tape). Since the best forms are paper mache, I thought it was worth the extra aggravation of wetting the tape. Of course, I could be totally wrong.
Put two sponges in a pyrex shallow dish with lots of water to moisten the tape.
Get the tape really wet.
You will need lots of strips equal to ½ of your hip measurement plus 4 inches.
Also, precut a bunch of 1 inch wide strips for the bust area. Round boobs can not be wrapped by 2" tape!
Do not do this project after eating a big Mexican food meal like I did. Actually, that's probably a plus so you can wear your designs after a Mexican meal, but the body form will look bloated.
Sarah- The bandage scissors are a real MUST. Getting cut out of this thing was not easy, and the transition from waist to hips and underneath your butt will require careful cutting!
Put on super comfortable shoes if you are going to get wrapped because standing still really takes a toll on your feet.
It is best to get wrapped by someone that is neat and cheerful.
When you cut the form off immediately use some duct tape to the inside of the cut shoulder to reconnect it. The paper tape doesn't really like to stick to the plastic bag liner.
This is not a 1 hour project.
Sarah- the tape requirement estimate is about right. If you decide to do this write down the amount of tape you need in feet and yards so the in-store math is not too hard. My total cost of materials for the stand and form is about $45.
I suspect that using this form will accommodate ½ of the design ease in all measurements. I can't wait to get her to the point that I can put something on her that really fits me well to find out if I am right! "
Thursday, July 17, 2008
A Politergeist is in My Sewing Room!
I am constantly amazed at how I can loose something without ever leaving my seat. Today's items include the top to my razor knife and my very most favorite sewing tweezers. I have turned the world upside down and they have surely been taken to another dimension.
I suspect my distracted condition may be contributing to the recent activities of my poltergeist. Yesterday I spent an hour searching my house for a piece of fabric that I had labored over with my Rowenta to prepare for installation on the soon to be infamous paisley top. I ultimately located my fabric in the garbage covered in fresh coffee grounds.... AGHHHHHHH.
Well, I suppose every sewer has these kinds of days. Don't you?
I suspect my distracted condition may be contributing to the recent activities of my poltergeist. Yesterday I spent an hour searching my house for a piece of fabric that I had labored over with my Rowenta to prepare for installation on the soon to be infamous paisley top. I ultimately located my fabric in the garbage covered in fresh coffee grounds.... AGHHHHHHH.
Well, I suppose every sewer has these kinds of days. Don't you?
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