Textured Stencil Print

Somehow with my textile printing, I have always subconsciously aimed at the flat solid colour areas achieved with screen printing. Consequently I have been frustrated when my block printing and stencilling has not produced the same thick and even ink application. But I have started to realise that both techniques not only have a charm of their own, but have possibilities that screen printing does not have. So it’s horses for courses I suppose.

Specifically it has finally dawned on me (slow learner!), that I can make a textured, or even a textured multi coloured print with a stencil. I have not tried the latter yet, but here is my first mono coloured textured print. I am rather pleased with the effect.

The fabric is a cotton viscose mix with a slight sheen, a repurposed Ikea sheet, and I have copied a painting by Australian artist Kristina Sostarko, modified to suit my purpose. I hope she doesn’t mind, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery after all.

The pattern used is yet another Tessuti Mandy hack, with the armscyes widened to accommodate a woven fabric and piecing on the sleeves to accommodate a lack of fabric.

The skirt is a variation of the Kaliyana skirt in a previous post. This time I used elastic in the hem instead of gathering and applying a hem band. I think I prefer the hem band, but alas, no more fabric. Not a bad yield for a single flat sheet in any case, so no complaints.

I crushed the skirt by twisting it into a bundle for storage, instead of keeping it on a hanger. To do this you bunch up the waistband and hem into each hand, pull the skirt tight, then twist it as hard as you can. Without letting go, allow the skirt to twist into a bundle, tuck in the hem end and nestle in a draw amongst other clothes to stop it from unraveling. I crush some of my scarves and other garments that way, and you can steam the bundle to set the creases in more permanently. Usually I crush without steaming first to see if I like the effect, then steam if I do.

In this case I think I prefer the skirt uncrushed, to match the top. This means ironing but hopefully not too much or too often. I also took down the height of the cowl by half and widened the neck opening a little. Picture below.

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How to Get Better Photos for Your Sewing Blog

Having a fabulous setting when you photograph your sewing creations is great. But…

Having to recruit someone to take the photos, hoping for good weather and braving other people’s stares is not so great. I sew quite a lot and at times I blog relatively often. You can’t blog without photos, and if I had to go through a major production every time I would never get around to it. Even taking photos in your own garden is a bit embarrassing, in case the neighbours are watching and wondering what sort of vain idiot is posing for selfies all the time.

Inside the house, where it is private, taking photos can be another sort of problem. You need to find a neutral background without pesky furniture and pictures in the way, somewhere where you can sit the camera at the right distance and height and where there is good light. I don’t want to have to do a complicated set up each time, moving stuff, setting up lights and generally faffing around.

So I have designated picture taking spot in my house.

Plain background. Check.

Convenient window sill for the camera? Check.

Good bright light? Check.

Tadaaaa!

Doesn’t that look great? Maybe not.

Ok, so clearly bit of a tidy up is called for: Hellooo Photoshop!

I use Photoshop Elements, which is much cheaper than the full version and just a good for my purposes. It really is an excellent investment if you want nice photos. But if you prefer to hang onto your cash, there is a free image editing software called gimp. Plus a gazillion apps you can get for very little, which do at least some of what Photoshop does, such as cropping and lightening. I can’t help you with any of the latter, although there would be lots of online tutorials if you search a little.

What I do is take my photos with the timer and flash, load them on my PC and open them in Photoshop.

First I crop the photo.

Because my photo was not taken in a proper studio with professional equipment, I need to lighten it up, by going to the Enhance menu and clicking on Auto Levels.

I even lighten it up further on the Enhance menu by selecting Adjust Lighting>Brightness/Contrast. Lighten up your photo with the brightness slider until you are satisfied with the result.

Next I use the eraser on 100% opacity to get rid of the outer edges of the photo.

Then I turn the eraser slider at the bottom to 60% opacity and go around the edges multiple times until I have faded out most of the remaining background.

And voila, here is the finished photo. You may also notice that compared to the earlier photo I have smoothed my face out a bit to get rid of the worst of my wrinkles. (I use the blur tool, and there is lots more you can do, but that is a whole other tute.)

For now, I just reduce the size of the image. The bigger the image, the clearer your face will be with every little line and blemish on display. You don’t need any of this to show off your garment and give readers a good idea of what it looks like. I reduce the size of my photos to 40% of the original, sometimes even smaller.

Go to the Image menu >Resize

Set it to 40%.

Save your finished image and select the file size. A low resolution means a small file size, but this will still display just fine on a screen. However, if you think you may want to print the image or do something else with it later, you may want to select a higher resolution. I usually go for medium.

There are ways of removing the background completely and I used to do that with my photos, but found it far too time consuming. If you are interested, the are lots of tutorials on the web on how to remove the background in Photoshop. For my purposes the vignette style with the faded edges is just as good and much faster.

Good luck with your own photos!

Boule Skirt Inspired by Kaliyana

Seems I am going to mop up quite a few ideas that have been languishing in my imaginary sewing queue for years, if not decades, while at home during this pandemic. I have been a fan of the Canadian designer Kaliyana for a long time, but I could never afford her creations and even if I could, the proportions would be all wrong for me. At 161cm and now 67kg (thank you, home isolation), I am a long way from the models who look so fabulous in her fashion shots. That doesn’t mean that I can’t wear this type of thing, but it has to be adapted for my height and figure in terms of ease and proportions. Very doable when sewing even if impossible with RTW.

This skirt has been on my to-do list since forever.

I have used a dark grey striped jacquard of unknown fibre content which reminds me a bit of nylon taffeta, although not as shiny, not as stiff and not as noisy. Maybe a nylon mix of some sort? It is a nice quality, but at best only part natural fibre.

The skirt consists of 2 straight fabric rectangles, 150x75cm each and sewn into the round. Then I made 8 deep box pleats at the top to absorb the fabric volume over the hips and a gathered hem at the bottom 1:2 with a band to finish it off. The circumference at the hem is about 1.5m, much less than the original Kaliyana skirt, but that huge amount of volume would swamp me. The top of the skirt is pleated to a circumference that just fits over my hips and a waistband is added with elastic inside. Sewing details are on PatternReview.

The fabric is not as light weight as the original and I didn’t crush it (other than to sit on it) because the self stripe looks nice. Still pretty happy with the result and will be fun to wear with my Doc Martin boots for winter. (Note the super elegant ughs for the photo shoot. 🙂

Surely Not Plaid!

I’m not a great lover of plaid, I have to admit. So why on earth did I make a plaid winter coat? This is one of the deep mysteries of buying fabric online. I saw black and white wool, I thought of a jacket I once owned and loved with a black and white pattern (not plaid!), I bought the fabric and then I was stuck with it. The covid bug came, I was bored, and so here we are, with a plaid coat.

That said, I find that I probably like black and white buffalo plaid better than any other, with the possible exception of black watch tartan. So the coat might actually get some wear. Hope springs eternal.

The pattern I used is Marcy Tilton V8934, which I bought principally for the bubble shape.

But perverse as I am, once I got to the hem I decided to skip the darts and leave the coat as a classic a-line. And being even more perverse, I am now considering putting them in after all. Of course I have removed all the markings, which will make doing this much more difficult. Serves me right. 🙂

The sewing details are on PatternReview.