The very lovely Lisa, of Lisa’s Carolina Handmade very kindly sent to me some really beautiful and special fabric; some 100% organic cotton jersey from the Alabama Chanin store in the United States. How sweet is that?!!! I’m so grateful to Lisa… and so excited about what I could do with this very precious stuff. Obviously only an Alabama Chanin project would do. SO I’ve been busy planning, plotting and generally scheming as to what could do the fabric justice.
The colour is Dusk, which is a kind of blue-y/greeny/grey with a mostly blue-ish bent to it, if that makes any sense. I had enough for a skirt and also to fully bind and appliqué a tank top. I liked the idea of another allover, fully embellished Alabama Chanin project since I reeeeeeeeally love my first ensemble; so I bought some plain white cotton jersey from Spotlight, broke out the dyes and got cracking. My aim was to make some colours to blend in nicely with the Dusk. Since the dusk is a mostly blue with green/grey tinge, I was going for some mostly green with blue/grey tinge, and also some mostly grey with a blue/green tinge; meaning they will hopefully blend in really nicely with each other. Several days of dyeing and some more dyeing and then some over-dyeing to fine-tune some of the colours; and I have a nice range of blue/green/grey shades to go nicely with my Dusk..
I used iDye for natural fabrics in a mix of colours; mostly Royal Blue, Golden Yellow and Brown. I really liked the shades of grey I was getting with the iDye Brown to “dirty” the various teals, but the “grey” wasn’t quite grey enough, so over dyed those pieces further with just a touch of iDye in Black. This turned out just close enough to perfect! The colours are a little blotchy and swirly and I am very happy with that, since the Alabama Chanin jersey has a veeeery subtly motley tone to it too. I really like the contrasts and variations in tones of the fabrics.
The next thing was to choose a stencil design. I toyed with the idea of going with Anna’s Garden again, like with my first Alabama Chanin project and also the project I stencilled for Mum. I really LOVE that design! But of course I eventually decided I should go with something new. I finally chose Magdalena from the Alabama Chanin website, available here. I resized it slightly, traced it onto drafting film from Jacksons art supplies, cut out the stencil. I’d nearly finished tracing before it dawned on me that the upper part of the design is actually identical to the lower part, just on a smaller scale! *light bulb*
This looks great!
This looks great!
WOW! The work you put into these projects is amazing as it the result..can't wait to see it!
I can not wait for the finished project! It is going to be amazing.. 🙂
Beautiful! I love the design for the applique and the colors are so pretty!
Carolyn, you just amaze me! I love the first AC outfit you made in Feb 2014. As I didn't start sewing until summer 2014 I did not see your outfit. This one will be a beaut too. When I get around to trying AC I'll be sure to visit your blog posts for the tips.
This looks like it's going to be amazing, and I love the colours!
Do you cut the stencilled fabric out and apply it to another piece, or cut other pieces and apply it to the stencil?
Good luck with your deadline – at least the daylight hours are longer now!!
thanks Sherry! and yes, I cut the motifs from out of the stencilled fabric and will appliqué them to another piece. There are lots of different techniques for doing an Alabama Chanin style garment, this is just one 🙂
If you cut carefully you can put the cut layer over another piece of jersey and make yet another AC garment!!!!!
Wonderful colors BTW
Haha! yes! that would be quite the challenge and require far more patience than I possess!! 😀
So much work but so worth the effort. As I've just started my AC journey I watch yours with awe!
Oh my goodness is this going to be gorgeous. And now you have me itching to do some low water immersion dyeing to get some mottled teals in my life.
Intrigued with the use of the enamel spray paint – which I gather won't show on the finished garment as you have used it to mark out the applique pattern on the wrong side of the fabric. I assume that it doesn't alter the handle of the fabric or the ease of being able to handstitch the applique on.
I've tried several different methods of printing fabric in my time and found this to be very satisfactory for this purpose. In this case I experimented with the spray paint quite a lot before applying it to my precious fabric and discovered that using a screen of silk organza over the fabric as I described in my post above, plus ensuring to just spray very lightly and with very quick "passes" over the fabric gives excellent results.
The silk screen reduces the intensity of the spray by a lot, resulting in an extremely light "shadow" of paint that actually does not give any stiffness to the fabric at all.
This one is complex! I love the shades you have chosen, it will be beautiful.
Wow, so intense but I can imagine the sheer enjoyment of every step of the process!
This is going to be amazing when it's done!
Oh mu goodness that is so beautiful i have never seen this type of sewing before!
best of luck
D x
This looks lovely! You are very creative, your projects are a real inspiration.
I cannot wait till March! This lokks gorgeous already! You ca do everything, can't you? You're a real DIY mistress!
Beautiful colours and that stencil is wonderful. I look forward to the completed garment.
You are so very much welcome Carolyn! It is truly a privilege to have a small part in one of your lovely creations. This one will be fabulous and I cannot wait to see the completed results! You are a most special friend. 🙂
This is beautiful. I look forward to seeing the finished garment.
What a stunning design. Can't wait to see this come together.
Whoua ! you are very patiente ! I admire you !
I can't wait to see this finished, the design and colours so far are gorgeous.
Wowee this is dedication for you. Probably a great way to spend heat waves: stitching indoors with ice tea.
Hi, I'm curious as to why you cut out your motifs and stuck them on? I am working on a skirt and I cut around the motifs once they are sewn on. Is it because you don't want any of the stencil paint to show. Just curious.
Hello Val, yes, in this project I am appliquéing the motifs to the underlayer with no stencil paint on view.
There are a few ways of doing the Alabama Chanin technique; one is what Natalie Chanin refers to as "reverse appliqué", where you sew two full layers together stitching around the printed motifs and then cut away the motifs inside the stitching, another is where you stitch around the printed motifs and then cut away OUTSIDE the motifs, leaving the stencil paint as part of the design. I'm doing a different technique again, just plain old appliqué. My previous project that I linked to in the above post uses the reverse appliqué.
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I must say I am inspired now. I bought a couple of the Alabama Channing books and once I actually wrapped my head around the process…”what a great coffee table book”. : )
This will get me to going.
Your outfit choice, dying, and process are all Great!!
Thanks for sharing this lovely handmade process.
pardon my type-o,,, Chanin not Channing. ekkkk