New Toy!

Fabric painting and block printing have been a favourite of mine for the last couple of years, but I always wanted to expand into screen printing. This is because block printing does not deliver the same thick coat of paint that screen printing can, and lots of fabrics, particularly knits, need this for a printed motif to look solid with a crisp edge.

I used to screen print years ago and know that it is not really difficult, but getting it going needs a bit of time and energy. First I needed some means of creating a screen printing stencil or mask. I did not fancy the light sensitive solution method, which is a photographic process where you expose the screen with the dried solution to light, which hardens it, and then wash away the unexposed bits where you want the paint to penetrate. This is because I don’t have anything I can use as a darkroom, a light box for the exposure needs to be kept somewhere and I am too impatient to apply the solution, wait for it to dry, wash out the screen and wait for it to dry again before I can print.

So I decided to go the route of a cut stencil, but I didn’t want to cut it by hand either. I had been eyeing the various stencil cutting machines on the market for craft, but decided they were too pricey in Australia, and on top of that the companies force you into buying lots of expensive proprietary consumables once you have invested in the machine.

But these days I buy lots of inexpensive sewing and art materials via Aliexpress, and when I went looking for a cutting machine there were quite a few to choose from. It was a bit of a gamble, but I have very rarely been disappointed with my purchases, so I decided to risk it. Aliexpress seems to keep a tight reign on their suppliers to provide a useable product of reasonable quality when you purchase through them.  So I bought the following machine, called a cutting plotter, and marketed to businesses for displays and advertising materials.

It cost around AUD 220 including the software, cables and some spare knives, and arrived in a week! Then it took a weekend to learn the software and set up the machine, find the right material for stencils and generally get going. That was the easy part.

The next weekend I wanted to screen print with the stencil I had cut, only to find that tesselating my motifs into an all over pattern on my fabric was a lot more difficult than I had anticipated. It is easy when block printing because you stamp the motifs one by one and all you really have to worry about is to space them regularly. But with the screen I had wanted to print several motifs at once to save work, then repeat each screen to create an even pattern. Not easily done! Parts of the screen need to be placed on previously printed areas, they pick up paint and when you put the screen down again the paint gets on the fabric — not good! I tried covering wet prints with newspaper, but because the screen is pressed down with some force the paper sticks and pulls the tacky paint off the fabric. Arghhhh!

Then I discovered that the grey ink I was wanting to print with was thick and gluggy and probably past its use by date. Double arghhh!

But I had a Plan B with a pattern easier to tesselate, which turned out to be something I could have easily cut out by hand, but Rome was not built in a day! I could print it in black, of which I had plenty of ink in good condition and so I managed to print a pair of PJs I had cut out. Although nobody could possibly mistake it for a professional job I was reasonably pleased with the result. I learnt quite a bit, along with what not to do, and got better as I went along.

The print quality is not great, lots of ragged edges, little smudges, bits that didn’t print properly like you can see on my thigh just below the hem of the top. Black on white it is all very noticeable and I am thinking I might dye the Pjs a darkish grey blue which will disguise a lot of the oopsies and make them less obvious.

I also learnt which problems I need to overcome before I will get the results I want. I think I probably need to use a large screen that prints a lot of my fabric in one go, so I don’t need to move it around too much.  Then when the screen needs to overlap a previously printed part I might have to dry that bit first with a hairdryer. Or maybe clean the paint off the screen before putting it down again for the next print. The screen can’t be too big, because my stencil cutter will only do a maximum of 35cm in width. That means a 150cm width of fabric will need 4 repeats, although when printing garments in the flat it will be less per cut out garment piece. Sounds more doable than lots of repeats.

And for those of you who wonder where all this is headed, here are a few pics of what is on my mind. I don’t have the skills yet but we all need to start somewhere!

Swing Coat

As much as I enjoy Lagenlook, I have found it difficult to come up with good jackets. The main problem is that of fitting over Lagenlook tunics, especially regarding to sleeves. Because some of my LL tops have a very wide body with sleeves not starting until halfway between shoulder and elbow, or even lower, the jacket must accommodate all this extra fabric at the shoulder and armscye. What is more, it must accommodate it generously because you don’t want your top to look all crushed when you take your jacket off. This means the jacket has to fit loosely through the shoulders, which can make the whole silhouette look big and baggy if there is also a lot of volume lower down, — which is usually the case with Lagenlook.

Quite a conundrum.

Twotoast has shown some lovely ensembles with jackets on her blog, The Spotty Dog Social Club, but her tops are mostly sleeveles I think, so the sleeve issue doesn’t arise. 

After giving it a fair bit of thought I don’t think it is possible to find one jacket shape that will look good with everything in Lagenlook. With very voluminous maxi skirts or dresses a short, relatively fitted jacket, at least in the shoulders, is probably the best solution. The top or tunic will show below the jacket, but that is fine.

With slimmer skirts or pants there is scope for a looser jacket, with room for tunics with extra fabric in the shoulder area.

My latest experiment with a LL jacket was supposed to strike a happy medium, and go with most of my wardrobe, at least the slim skirts and the pants, both Lagenlook and more conventional ones. I based it on the Tessuti Fave Top pattern, a TNT I have used many times before for tunics. One reason for this was that I only had about 1.80m of the fabric I was wanting to use, 120cm wide, which did no allow a lot of wiggle room in terms of patterns. I also like collarless jackets, because I almost always wear a scarf and a collar just gets in the way.  And finally I really like a nice swing shape.

To convert a top into a jacket is easy, you just need to split the front and add facings. I also like to snug up the neck opening,, so it fits closely at the base of the neck. I lengthened and widened the sleeves, making a deep cuff which goes well with the swing shape. I also lengthened the jacket, for warmth and because I don’t like wasting fabric. That was pushing it, long AND wide can be problematic. Fortunately I do like the result.

Finally I had just enough fabric left over for patch pockets, but decided against them in the end. I like simple lines, the fabric looks beautiful without the disturbance of top stitching and a break in the tone-in-tone pattern, and in any case, in Australia you don’t need pockets to keep your hands warm.  🙂

I bought some statement buttons in Bali a few years ago, which were just right for this jacket. The fabric is a superb black matelasse, bought at Tessutis January sale, also a few years ago. Both had been marinating in my stash waiting for the right project.

This jacket has become a favourite in my wardrobe and has been worn a lot already with just about everything. Success!

This is linked to the blogger party RUMS.

Another Noa

Here is a second version of the Noa, this time in silk dupioni. I had more fabric to play with this time, so the tunic is closer to the original in length, but not enough for the enormous cascading cowl, which is at least a half circle, if not three quarters. Instead I did my usual rectangular cowl, which is less spectacular but will have to suffice for the moment.

I used the StyleArc Toni Designer Dress as a base pattern this time. Details of the sewing process are on Pattern Review.

With different accessories and a scrunched down cowl.

 

This is linked to RUMS.

The Great Tunic Knock-Off

Not sure if it will be that great, but I certainly have put in a considerably amount of effort so far. Here’s hoping! My target is Bryn Walker’s NOA tunic. There are pictures of it all over the internet, and they all look great.

I wanted something similar and started a process of trying to develop a pattern. My first try was simply winging it, based on an analysis of this picture I found.

That didn’t go so well. It was especially disappointing because I had used an expensive linen in a favourite colour. It looked a bit like the image below, flat at back and front with some extraneous bits tacked on at the sides.

I am happy to say that I managed to recut the tunic and rescue the beautiful sea coloured linen I had used, but the result wasn’t the same as a NOA. So I had another go, this time sensibly intending to make a muslin first.

Now what pattern to use? I made a start with Vogue 9188 by Kayla Kennington.

Strangely, this pattern seems to have disappeared without a trace from the Vogue site, although I bought it only recently. Maybe nobody else liked it. I wasn’t that thrilled with it either, but I wanted it because it had an extension on one of the side flares, just like the NOA. However, when cutting out, I came to the conclusion that I didn’t really need to piece the fabric there in any case. Maybe the Noa was done that way because it allowed more economical use of fabric when producing on an industrial scale. But I don’t need to worry about that, on the contrary, I need to use up stash!

My muslin fabric was a little short, so I couldn’t cut the longer side flare as long as the real NOA , but otherwise it’s not bad. Only, if you have a close look, my tunic curves outward a lot lower down than the originals. You can tell if you imagine where the belly button or waist is on the models and then on me, and where the outward curve is in relation to that. So I needed to shorten the pattern halfway between the bottom of the armscyes and the widest part of the flare, otherwise the tunic would turn out too long.

Of course I didn’t realise that, genius that I am, until I had cut into the silk for my real, no-longer-a-muslin tunic, sewn up the shoulder and side seams, tried it on, and found that the lower side came down to my ankle!

It actually looked quite elegant and I could have left it, but I wanted a tunic, not a dress. I wear tunics all the time, dresses less so because I often feel too dressed up for everyday wear to the office and for manhandling my grandkids. Besides, I wanted to develop a TNT pattern for further use, and I need tunics, not a gazillion long dresses!

Shortening at the hem is out of the question with this design, so I recut in the shoulder and bust area, taking it down by 15cm. I also used the opportunity to chicken out of the very wide armscyes and sleeves of the V9188, and substituting the ones from a TNT pattern where I know and like the fit. As I have said many times before, with a lot of volume around the hem you need a tighter fit in the shoulders and bust, or a short and stout person like me risks looking huge all over.

Now to the cutting out process itself: V9188 is cut on the bias, so you get a whole pattern piece for front and back, not just half, because you can’t cut on the fold. I ignored the bias cut and separated the two front and back halves to spread them at the hem, to insert more volume there. I want a lot of swing to my tunics, so I almost always add more volume at CF and CB. This is because I am not as slim as the models, and adding width preserves the proportions.

I laid the tunic on the fabric with one side closer to the selvage than the other, seeing one side flare needed to be longer than the other. To paraphrase for clarity, the middle of the tunic was not on the middle fold of the fabric, but off to the side. I then took both flares right to the selvage. From there you need to cut the longer flare back towards the middle on the diagonal, as you can see very clearly in the picture of the grey NOA. If you don’t do this the flare will just hang there vertically, while making it narrower at the hem than the point forces it into collapsing into itself to make nice folds, which I prefer.

The last step was to cut the hem on the diagonal. I shaped this a bit like in the picture of the white tunic, not straight like the grey.

Then, when I had finished cutting, it suddenly hit me: except for the hem, the shape I had cut was pretty identical to the StyleArc Toni designer dress pattern I had just finished working with and blogged about in my previous post!

Sure enough, when I compared the shapes they were really close! So you could use that pattern instead, much cheaper and easier to get hold of if you live outside the US like me, and much more useful for other garments like pointy dresses. You do need to shorten between shoulder and side ‘point’ as shown below. Of course you also need to make one side longer than the other and cut the diagonal hem.

I used a thin lining silk, very slightly crinkled, and overpainted from a harsh neon green to a more sedate dark green with black streaks. I’m not mad about how the paint job turned out as the green is a little darker than intended, but it’s ok for now. When I did the overpainting last spring it seemed dirge-ey and depressing, but it suits the mood of autumn much better.

 

This is linked to the German blogger party RUMS

 

Dyeing Undone

Some time ago I blogged about a linen jersey top I dyed, because the original white just never made it out of my wardrobe. It didn’t turn out the way I envisaged, a bit meh, but I still wore the top a lot because it had a relaxed vibe good for weekends and the linen jersey was nice and cool on hot summer days.

But after a while I couldn’t help plotting how I could improve the look. Block printing did not look a promising option, black wouldn’t show up very well and any other colour wouldn’t look much good either. But I had been thinking about whether colour could be removed altogether if one of my dyeing experiments turned out disappointing. Having something like THAT up my sleeve would be such a bonus!

My favourite dye supplier, Batik Oetoro, sells a discharge agent called TUD, which removes Drimarene K and Procion MX dyes. Success is not guaranteed, but I thought the above shirt would be a good candidate for a trial. Following instructions I boiled the linen jersey on the stove in the mixture for the time instructed, and the result was a dirty white, with orange patches where the black had been previously. Not great to wear as is, but perfect for redyeing!

I used a strong turquoise and was quite pleased with the result. The orange patches went to green and blended with the turquoise to a tropical undersea landscape. All it needed now was a block print to complete the picture. I chose this Maori turtle symbol I found on Google, transferred it and carved ot out of Eazycarve.

Here is the result.

Pointy With A Twist

I have made several versions of this dress already, all winter versions using knits, either jersey or ponte.

For the dresses above I used a pattern I found in an Italian pattern magazine years ago, and adapted to fit me better by using a TNT t-shirt for the bodice part. Then I discovered the Toni designer dress by StyleArc and downloaded a copy, so I would not have to fiddle around with cutting from a previous dress overlaid with a t-shirt pattern. I still have to fiddle if I want long sleeves, as the Toni is sleeveless with extended shoulders, but for a summer version I can cut straight from the pattern (- with a couple of modifications of course, as always!).

Below is what the pattern pieces look like:

My summer versions both use woven fabrics, both crinkle linen, although the green seems to be a linen mixture rather than pure linen and is quite stable despite the slight crinkle. The black is softer, more stretchy and crinkly, and also quite sheer.

Serendipity took a hand in the creation when sewing up the green dress below. I happened to try it on for fit with the seams below the side pointy tip still open. When I looked in the mirror I liked what I saw, and the result are two Toni dresses with open lower side seams. I also put a cuff on the extended shoulders to make a short sleeve.

For the second summer version I decided I wanted bracelet length sleeves, wide enough to roll up, and so I overlaid the body of the Toni once again with the armscyes from another pattern, this time suitable for wovens, and used the matching sleeves.

I think this dress turned out a little long, as the crinkle linen seems to have expanded. Next time I have black thread in my machine I might just chop a bit off the bottom and re-hem.

 

And all ready to go out with scarf and bag.

 

 

The Poppy Shirt

I am enjoying wearing my Poppy shirts, made using this Tina Givens pattern.

The Poppy is not your average shirt, but really a tunic, with no collar or cuffs, no buttons and cut on sleeves. In other words, quick and easy to make, ideal for lazy sewists like me. I can have a new one ready in less time than it would take me to go to the shops and buy something. To say nothing of the price.

I have made two versions of the Poppy so far, but only the one below with the front split as high as intended by the pattern. This version is best worn with another tunic underneath.

I used a sheeting cotton which drapes quite well and is easy to wear as it doesn’t wrinkle much. Not an outfit for high summer because of the 3/4 sleeves and several layers, but good for in between seasons.

The second version below has a modified split that doesn’t come up nearly as high and can be worn over just my usual cotton tank top. The fabric is cotton sateen, a little thicker than the sheeting. I added a stand up collar this time.

An ikat fabric or something ethnic would look good with this pattern, but I’m not sure if I would like the Poppy in a plain fabric. I think it would have to be something really special to look good, something understatedly expensive. I don’t have anything to hand right now that would fit this bill, but I will make this pattern up a couple more times when I find fabric right for it, either patterned or plain, because I really like wearing these shirts.

BTW, both fabrics I used for my existing versions were over-dyed. The grey started life as an insipid light blue. I bought it online and was very disappointed when it arrived, as what I thought was a jacquard turned out to be only a cheap and nasty print. My fault for assuming! It looks much nicer after a bath in Drimarene K black (Procion would have been fine too).

The green was bought in person, so to speak, during a period in my sewing life where only black and white would do. Once the infatuation passed I was left with a lot of B/W fabric I no longer fancied. Fortunately, courtesy of a mix of blue, black and yellow Drimarene K, the white was easily over-dyed and I am much happier with the green. 🙂

 

The Michele Oka Doner Dress

On occasion I have heard some of my women friends say that they  wished they could just wear a uniform, to make daily dressing and getting out the door easier. Something flattering and easy care, that they know will look good and of which they have a never ending (and preferably perfectly ironed) supply. I personally could live in silk harem pants and loose tunics, although I wear all sorts of other things too.

But I heard of an artist, a sculptor, who literally wears the same dress, in different colours and fabrics, all the time. Apparently she once bought the original dress in a shop and liked it so much that she kept getting it copied from then on. Her name is Michele Oka Doner. Here is an article about here and her work.

She looks pretty good, doesn’t she? I love her work too, you should google it and have a look. While I don’t think I would have the discipline to stick to one perfect dress for years and years, I wouldn’t mind just one copy of her dress for myself.

As luck would have it, I had just the right pattern in my stash. I found it years ago in an Italian magazine and have used it several times, but the mag is probably in pattern mag heaven by now.  If you want to get your hands on something similar, the StyleArc Toni Designer dress below is very close.

The tutorial on how to shorten it shows the pattern pieces:

To make the Michelle Oka Doner dress you need to take out the centre front seam and make a simple round neck instead of the collar. You also need to add the arm scyes and sleeves from a pattern that fits you well in that area. Here are a couple of my own previous versions.

For the cowl I made a trapeze shape, self lined, about the width of my shoulders at the bottom and considerably narrower towards the top. The fabric is an off white ponte. It will show the dirt like crazy, but winter white is so dressy and a good colour for me too. I wore the dress for a big zero birthday party and felt very chic.   🙂

After I published this post Harriet Snow commented that the Tina Givens Iris pattern is also very close, or a ‘dead ringer’ as they say in Australia. This gives anyone wanting to make it another option. The sleeves are cut on in this version, which by necessity makes the bodice looser at the top. I prefer a closer fit in this area, but the Tina Givens version is undeniably closer to the original.

And a look at the pattern pieces:

 

More Babies!

Our family has had two new additions, little Clara Rosa born last October and now little Edward George born in April. They are both absolutely gorgeous and grandma has been busy sewing.

Baby Edward, known as Teddy, has a lot of clothing from his big brother, but with a new baby you want some new clothes as well. His mum wanted a wrap jackets and harem pants, so grandma dug into her baby fabric stash and made this outfit. It is a newborn size and won’t fit him for long, but at least he won’t get lost in it. The buttons could be a safety concern, except that in 50 years of sewing not one of my hand sewn buttons has ever come off, and I sewed these on extra carefully.

The top is the Newborn Kimono pattern from Purl Soho and the pants are the tiny harem pants from All Sewing Patterns. Both patterns are free.

Little Clara has recently started on solids, and her mum has requested some serious coverage bibs. I came across the idea of the bapron, or baby apron on Pinterest.

You can buy the pattern at Craftiness is not Optional, but I made mine from an online picture I found after a Google image search.

To get the pattern, I used the method described in my post How to Print a Pattern from a Sketch. As a size guide I used an RTW t-shirt I had on hand. I am sorry not to be able to show these off on my cute DGD, and will remedy this asap when I visit her in Shanghai next week.

This version is a sinfully expensive Marimekko fabric, but nothing is too good to be gunked on by a precious granddaughter! Fortunately there is enough left for a pretty Marimekko dress for her when she is a little older.

The other version is a jersey knit bought at Remant Warehouse, cheap but cute, and best of all with koalas to remind her of home.

I backed all the bibs using a pink towel found in great-grandma’s linen press after she passed away and we cleared out the house. Nice touch I think. Great-grandma would be pleased her towel has been put to such good use.

African Zombie

I’m not sure if there is such a thing as an African zombie, I think zombies are native to the Caribbean, aren’t they? But what else can you call my latest block printing motif, when I only has one eye and hair standing up in all directions?

                                                
Last time I went to Rathdowne Remnants in Melbourne, I picked up a piece of brown linen from one of their remnant bins. It seemed a really good quality, but I could see why it was still for sale when there was not a lot of other linen left: the brown colour was especially unappealing. But I thought I could do something with it and so it came home with me. Then, when I came across some African graphics online I thought a couple of them would be the right look for my linen piece.

I have always liked the combination of black and brown, it is counter intuitive but somehow the black gives the accompanying brown a sort of coppery-gold appeal. And African looking graphics compliment those colours well.

But what to make out of the fabric? When I bought it, I had a sleeveless maxi dress in mind. Not a bad idea, except that I don’t wear dresses a lot. I feel too dressed up, if you pardon the pun. What does get worn, day after day after day, are tunics over pants. With my linen being a bit over 2m, I decided I had enough for a long sleeve tunic with a modest cowl.

For a pattern I used an Vogue 8542, now OOP. It is meant for knits and very oversized. I have made it up many times, always in a size 8, which goes to show how much ease there is. But this time I was using a woven, and therefore I went two sizes up to a 12. Possibly a little over the top, as the fit through the upper bodice is quite loose. I did want the dropped shoulders for comfort and to be able to wear a long sleeve tee underneath in colder weather, and the downside is the looser fit. If you want to read up on the details of the sewing process, please go to my entry on Pattern Review.

On to the printing details. Please skip these if block printing is not something you are interested in.

I always start my new printing session on paper, to make sure the block is carved properly and no extra bits show up. It also allows me to work out print placements and patterns. This time I was using two blocks, so this was particularly important. You want the finished piece to have a nice even distribution of motifs and a pleasing balance of fabric and ink.

I usually cut out my garment pieces and print them in the flat. I could print the whole fabric length, but that is a lot of extra work. I do join the shoulder seams on the front and back pieces, because the print placement around the face is important. I don’t overlock/serge the seams because it would add extra bulk that will show up when you place a print over it. With this project I also had a centre back seam, which I ironed flat with the seam allowances apart for the same reason. If you need to overlock it can be done later.

I did a grid of one motif first and then filled in the other one in between. When placing the motifs I use my hand or fingers as a guide (a whole hand’s width or so many fingers between motifs) and also the motifs themselves, i.e. how far to overlap the rows. I am reasonably good at this, but if you are starting out you may need more help with a ruler or a piece of thread placed across the fabric piece.

One bonus of using black paint was that I found colour penetration on the fabric to be especially good. Probably because I have been printing pastels for a while which are heavily mixed with super cover white, a paint that is quite thick. The black in comparison is much more runny. I also wet the foam roller first, squeezing out the excess, but the depth of the roller stays wet, stopping the paint from getting gluggy as it builds up in the foam over time. I use the foam roller to ink up my block, and the quality of paint it deposits is important.

I fix the ink in the hot dryer once it has air dried on a clothes rack. The inks I use are screen printing inks called Permaset, an Australian brand but I think they are available overseas as well. If you want a detailed explanation of the printing process in my posts Block Printing on Linen and Leaf Print Version 2.

Here are a few more pictures of the finished tunic.

  

Linked to blogger party RUMS