Another Sewing Project

Last month my pals Cheryl, Pat, and Marsha trekked with me to Brenna's lovely home a little ways north of me for a fabulous afternoon of learning what Brenna knew about Shibori dying. It involves folding, twisting, tying, sewing, and clipping fabric in various ways. Brenna didn't have the traditionally used indigo, but we dyed lots of fabric with good old Rit dye. What to do with all that beautifully colored cloth......

I decided to make an apron. It just seemed like the best use of the fabric even though a) I seldom actually remember to put on an apron and b) if the project turned out well, I doubted I'd want to dirty said apron. But I proceded anyway.

It all got solidified when I was watching a PBS station and saw a quilting technique that looked super easy. The teacher was none other than Donna Dewberry, who rose to fame and fortune with her techniques for painting with acrylics. I had no idea she also quilted. I also have no idea if her method is the usual way to crazy quilt or something of her own design. All I can tell you is that the only skills involved are the ability to fold a piece of fabric in half and sew in a (relatively) straight line. If you're curious, I suggest a Google search, as seeing Donna demonstrate is much better than me trying to explain it.

The skirt of the apron is a little shorter than I would have liked, but I ran out of fabric. the binding, the piece that goes around the neck, and the apron ties were sewn from some batik fabric I already had, but everything on the skirt and the flower embellishment on the top was done with the Shibori dyed fabric. Thanks, Brenna!

Other details: The top is plain lightweight canvas (or maybe it's called duck cloth??), which I colored with fluid acrylics and then used a Jessica Sporn stencil (from Stencil Girl) for a tone on tone look. I printed "art saves lives" with my favorite alphabet stamp set (a VERY old discontinued Tim Holtz set, by Junkitz), using permanent ink.

I recently discovered that my good old (and cheap) sewing machine came with a free motion foot and a plastic thingamabob to cover the feed dogs. Hence, my free motion stitching on the skirt. And by free, I mean random and haphazard and not following any sort of pattern.

I didn't use any pattern for the apron; I just looked at the aprons I own and more or less followed the shape of each piece. It took me a couple of days, was a lot of fun, but would I do it again? Probably not. But I sure might incorporate some of the skills involved in making journal covers, pillows, a tote bag.....who knows what else. 

A Documented Life -- What's Black and White?

The latest prompt in The Documented Life Project, that's what. And it coincided with the very happy rediscovery of my favorite hand carved stamps that went missing sometime in April.

They are very simple,  but can be used in so many ways, singly or in combination, depending on their orientation.

I stamped several sheets of white paper, using an india ink stamp pad, then cut the pages into 1" strips.

The strips were then cut into 1" squares.

I played around with their placement, and finally settled on the above design.

The silhouette was done with a Dyan Reaveley stencil (by Ranger) in black acrylic paint. One of the things I like most about silhouette stencils, as opposed to stamps,  is that you can use it on either side, so your silhouette can face in the direction you want.

I finished it off with an outline of white machine stitching. I'm toying with the idea of adding one pop of color, maybe a red hat, but haven't made up my mind.