Making of Alabama Chanin dress

First a bit more earthly things, some new mags, the Threads special issue is all about fitting, only skimmed it thru this far, Patrones issue 326, La Mia Boutique which has taken a dip downwards, which is a sad thing because Patrones is really boring these days as is Burda, especially this April issue.

Luckily there is the magnificent Hisako Sato book Drape Drape 3.

Now let's get down to business, these are the three books that have been the great inspiration for so many besides me and the fourth one is the stitching bible from Judith Montano called Elegant Stitches.

 The first Chanin book has two patterns( the corset and the skirt) and four stencils( rose,lace,rooster and bloomers), hope I didn't forget anything, also there are recipes and other craftsy stuff like those awesome flowers made with some metal wire and cotton jersey.

 The second book has a dress pattern that's slightly flared, made from six pieces and princess seams and like the dress in the third book you can chop it for a top pattern or skirt pattern and anything in between, i think that was the only pattern in this book, there are a few stencils here too, medallion, Angie's fall. Recipes in abundance plus how-to's for a bunch of decorative projects.

 The third book is all about the clothes collection, many patterns ( a t-shirt/ bolero, dress/ top/ skirt, hat, fingerless gloves, poncho and a tied wrap. 11 stencils, now is this is generous or what? and if you go to her webpage the's even more. These books are seriously addictive and FDA should put a warning on them.

This pattern comes from the second book and as you can see it's slightly more flared that the next one which is from the third book.

So are you ready? Choose your stencil, pattern, colors or fabrics first,  no matter in which order but these are the four things you must choose before you can start with the paints.

Stencil chosen: Anna's Garden from book #3

A copy of the stencil or the whole book taken to a printer shop and enlarged according to instructions. Bought some heavy paper cardboard and sprayed the printed stencil with glue and attached it to the cardboard, cut away the black print and use as is or buy some crafting felt, attach the cut cardboard stencil with spray adhesive on top of the felt and spray with a an airbrush gun if you happen to have one, there are also spray bottles you can buy if you don't want to invest in airbrush equipment.

Here you see the stencil sprayed on felt, still uncut.

Here you can see the felt partially cut.

Here are some Createx paint's  and some Deka paints, a word about the amounts, the Createx bottles I have are 2 oz or 60 ml, which is just enough to cover a knee length dress in allover stencil, the Deka bottles however are 25ml  but to my experience you can dilute them a little further that the Createx one. 

Createx also has a line called Wicked but I wouldn't use them on cotton jersey, it tends to make the fabric stiff. You have to set both of these paints by ironing. 

Then there are Fabric pens in many different colors, which are good for smaller projects and permanent markers are also a good choise depending on what kind of artwork you want to perform.

Here's my little air-compressor.

..and the airbrush gun, mine comes from Badger and it's really a very basic one. You absolutely must clean your airbrush gun after every use, don't be slack  about this one, I usually have a glass of water on the table where I can dip the brush if I need to refill the little bottle and when you are filled up just take the brush from the glass  shake it up a bit, dry it a little on paper or a piece of rag, start your compressor and spray the remaining water in a rag and paint away.

Here's a picture of the corset top fabric which was painted before cutting the pattern from it, you can see some smudge on the lower right pattern, I just got a little too much spray adhesive on it that's all, so be vary how much the stuff you spray on the back of you stencil.

 I think that next time I'll write about the stitches and stuff like that.

Have a great weekend,

Marita

Pictorial post..

Here are some pix that I promised about two weeks ago, it took me ages to photoshop these, haven't used it for many years, there was a learning curve just to realise what was the first step to take and I didn't do too well, but I hope they will be good enought to look at, LOL:) First comes the cover of Patrones 324. Following a few chosen favorites of my DD.

....and this is the book focusing on the vintage sleepwear etc. The book has patternsheets that you can copy the patterns from.

The Claire Shaeffer-book, which has the accompanying cd, which still is not working :(, so if you happen to have this book, what am I missing? how much goodies is there on the cd, should I try and do something about it?

The shapeshape-book, there's already so many pix from this book in the internet so I just chose a couple one to show.

And here are two pix of the Alabama Chanin corset I'm making for my DD, the bottom fabric is nude, the top fabric is black, the paint is "metallic black" 21-90 from DEKA perm, these paint's are really nice to use and unlike Createx's they don't get too hard when they dry. I've done the sewing with black thread with straight stitch and presently I'm applying the black seed and cut-off pearls on the face of the corset. In the meantime I finished sewing an other Alabama Chanin skirt that I started last fall, the cold weathers came and I kind of drifted away from the project, but it only needs the fold over elastic waist and it will be ready for use. Pix of it will be posted later this spring.

 ( A little note about the airbrushing thing, if you are planning on buying the equipment for that, please consider getting a pretty powerful Air Compressor, don't the cheapest available, I bought Sparmax AC-100, (it cost me 199 euro's) last summer and it just isn't enough, if I need to cover a whole dress with a stencil that's pretty intensively full of pattern, it get's too hot too soon to get the job done.)

Happy sewing week to you all:) Marita

Bought three books today and patrones 324

Claire Shaeffer's Tailoring techniques book that comes with a unoperable cd, blah, not the book but the cd.

Natsuno Hiraiwa's shapeshape, I can't get enough of those Japanese sewing books, there's something Scandinavian and pure about them, the styles are simple, clean maybe even crisp.

Now this is so sweet, Vanessa Mooncie's, And Sew to Bed, this is chock full of nice stuff like how to make a powder puff, sleeping mask, cover for your bedside table's lamp the obligatory sleepwear etc and of course everything is so vintage inspired it almost makes you dream....

The Patrones issue 324, has some pretty nice stuff, lot's of jackets (5) and overalls (10) dresses (4) shorts (3) skirts (1) pants (5) tops/ blouses (7) in smaller sizes. Jackets (2), pants (2) and a blouse in plus sizes.

I'll try and get some pix up this week.

Have a great week:)

Marita

Alabama Chanin corset...

No pics yet, sorry... but as some of you may know it's from the Alabama Stitch Book by Natalie Chanin.

If you happen to stumble on these in a book store or anywhere else grab them, they are treasure throwes of inspiration and she's very generous with her knowledge which is  very rare these days, what I mean is this, that you may be buying a very expensive book with a flamboyant name and what is inside is just ordinary everyday stuff you already know and might even be pretty basic,  that is not the case with these three books.

A little about the corset, the base fabric is nude, top fabric is black, paint is pearly black and stitching is done with black thread, stencil is Bloomers, I might add some black seed or bugle beads on the corset when I'm done with the sewing but it remains to be considered when it has been tried on.

Still a few pieces to stitch and then it's ready to be tried on .....making something with your own two hands is so pleasing somehow, it gives you time to reflect and calm, it's almost a "religious" moment, in no biblical sense. I really believe it's good for your soul.

Have a fantastic weekend,
Marita

It's past midnight...

And the winner of Patrones #323 is LISA!!!!! Congrats!

Marita

Pictures from the giveaway Patrones...

Here are the pics, sorry it took so long, but better late than never, huh?

The lucky winner will be picked out this Sunday, about midnight GMT. Good luck again, Marita

A giveaway....

No pics yet, I'll try and get them up sometime this week but it will be the Patrones magazine #323, it's the latest issue and it looked pretty nice although I've only had a small peak, too busy with other stuff.
The rules are simply this, leave a comment in this post and you're in, Lady Luck will pick the happy winner this next sunday (midnight) which is the 24th I think.

Good luck!
Marita

Sorry girls, no pics yet, been too busy. So I think I'll push the date forward by one week, that will give me time to put up the photos, since I have Wednesday and Thursday off.

Marita

Avocado pasta

Now this is sooo good, you have to give it a go...it's a recipe from this site Chicling.blogspot.fi by Hanna and Alexander Gullichsen.

 Here's the recipe.
 1 garlic glove (we use three).
 ½ chili (we used a whole).
 1 lime.
 2 ripe avocados.
 salt
 freshly ground black pepper
 olive oil
 handful of basil leaves (here you can go experimenting with flavors and choose something else)
 about 50 grams of both Pecorino and Parmesan
 400-500 grams of pasta this serves for four, we used only half amount of the pasta (only two of us eating) but made the topping/sauce as the recipe says.

 You will be making the topping/sauce straight to the serving bowl. Remember to be gentle when tossing after you have added the avocado so it won't go all mushy, remember to make big enough chunks when cutting it. Also keep in mind that the pasta water should be as salty as seawater. We used black pasta which gave a great contrast to the avocado and chili. ...and it will be served as soon as the pasta is al dente, so you have to synchronize everything. When the pasta is cooked you should save little less than a deciliter of the cooking water for the sauce/topping.

 Collect everything you need in advance to your cooking area and start by cooking the water for the pasta and when it does slip in the the pasta and go on with rest.

 Cut the garlic in fine pieces.
 Remove the seeds from the chili and chop it up.
 Squeeze the lime or you can use lime juice but remember not to use it too liberally.
 Cut the avocado in segments and add to the bowl, toss them a bit with the chili,lime and garlic.
 continue...
Chop the herbs of your choice and add them in the bowl.
 Add the grated cheeses, leave some to put on top of the finished pasta.
 Toss everything, adding the oil (you might want to consider leaving it off also), salt(add carefully) and the black pepper.
 Add the cooking water of the pasta toss again.
 Drain the pasta, add it in the bow,l toss again and it's ready to be  served.
 Now you can garnish the serving if you wish, with the grated cheese, black pepper and herbs.
 A good Riesling is nice with it, we had a bottle of Kungfu girl.

                                                                           enjoy!

The goddess

I cut it, I pinned it, and I basted it and it was really worth the effort, you need to pin it to put "things in their proper places" then you should baste it to keep them there while sewing otherwise you might end up with a bundle of mess on the backside of the dress' cos there are darts that overlap.

 Serging the necklines and hemline is a good place to start. This was a fun pattern to put together, the pieces matched

 You can see a glimpse of our little chihuahua in my daughters arms in one of the pics. Me I'm a German Shepherd dog kind of gal but this little bundle of love just stole my heart the minute I laid my eyes on her. She's the headmistress in our household, she has five cats to keep in order and believe me she's doing a good job. Ok, ok !!! I admit ,bring me an elepfant and I'd prolly find a way to keep her/him too.

The fabric was from a bin that said cotton jersey but it feels more like rayon/viscose, I used the serger to sew after basting and then connected the front and back with SM using a narrow zigzag stitch which is BTW what I prefer to use when sewing stretchy stuff like this, you get to open the SA's and it kind of gives that flowing feel to the SA's better than just sewing them together with a serger, of course there is nothing "flowy" in these SA's.