I've been kind of fascinated by Alabama Chanin style reverse applique for years, but never motivated myself to actually do any until recently. In law school, you have assigned seats... as in, where ever you sit the first day of class, you are sitting there all through the term, so that the professors know where to find you when they cold call you. That means of course that to get a decent seat, you have to get to the first class pretty early. I wasn't really looking forward to sitting around in a classroom for an extra hour, but then I realized that it might be an ideal time to try some handwork. So the night before, I cut out two raglan tshirt fronts, and free form sketched some leaves on one. (Note: this is not the correct way to do this. You should print a stencil from the Alabama Chanin resources page and use fabric paint to apply it to your jersey.) I just used a gel highlighter to sketch a handful of leaves around the piece. Please don't ask me how I know that gel highlighter writes on jersey and doesn't rub off, it's traumatic.
So, I packed a little ziploc bag with a needle, some silk Gutermann thread, and my tshirt fronts, and went to town. This is not neat, carefully sized hand sewing, unfortunately. But it came out ok enough that I decided to cut and sew up the rest of the tshirt. It's pretty comfy. I haven't tried washing it yet, but I'm hopefully the delicate cycle will be OK. I did make pretty good knots as I finished each leaf. The pattern is the same raglan t-shirt I made a few weeks ago, with a band again added on the bottom to make it long enough.
Here's a "real life" picture for you..... my sewing room, in its super messy state. Unfortunately, not enough light here to really see the leaves on the shirt.
Finally, I've been getting lots of wear from my peacoat, but I've discovered that I really need to add some length to the upper bodice (an adjustment I almost always make on patterns, and likely should have just done on this one). Here's the peacoat, with the skirt I made the other day...
And here is a closer view, you can see the folding that should go away with a bit more upper bodice length.
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4 comments:
The t-shirt is beautiful - I've always admired that technique, too, but have never done it on clothing. There's something nice about the free-handed leaves - a little "rustic" can be a nice relief from factory-identical sometimes.
I really like them all! I hadn't really looked at the Alabama Chanin stuff until recently, because I'm not a big embellisher, but this looks interesting. Good way to work a little sewing into law school, as well! K
Great shirt and I love the way you used the AC techniques on only part it. I want to try the Alabama Chanin techniques and have even take Natalie's Craftsy class, but just don't have the time to embellish a complete skirt or jacket
Your cute t-shirt is the perfect piece to try the Alabama Chain technique on. I think the peacoat looks great and the next one will have the final adjustments you need to make it perfect!
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