About a year or two ago I purchased three books by Natalie Chanin on how to create garments like they do at Alabama Chanin. I just love the Alabama Chanin look and if you Google or Pinterest search the name, you will see that many other sewers do too.
I even took an online class with Natalie and at the time just sort of touched the surface with making a garment. I didn't really dive into one as I am doing now.
So about a week or two ago, I decided to JUST DO IT! I just had to get started on creating a garment with these techniques even though I really did not need a new project to work on. I found two shades of purple cotton jersey fabric in my stash but there was not really enough yardage of the medium purple shade for a garment for myself. So I decided to make a garment that would fit my granddaughter, Rylee...and she loves purple anyway. I also thought that a child-sized garment would be a good beginner project so I could become comfortable with the techniques.
I created my own stencil and cut it with my Silhouette Cameo. I stenciled the design onto the medium purple with a light purple textile paint. I used a foam roller to apply the paint. The Alabama Chanin technique says to cut your fabric pieces first and then stencil the design, but I stenciled the design onto the yardage before cutting. Cotton jersey likes to curl at the edges and I thought all those cut and curling edges would be a big headache.
I cut all my fabric pieces (five pieces in each color) and then layered the dark purple as the bottom layer.
Here is the pattern I used. I am making the shirt that is shown on the packet cover in lime green with the heart on the chest. I won't be putting a heart on this shirt though.
I am almost done with the embroidery on four of the pieces. I have saved the largest of the pattern pieces for last. So far I have only cut (reverse applique) the top layer on one of the pieces. I love how it looks with the three shades of purple.
I chose a turquoise blue embroidery floss to do the backstitching. I contemplated using orange, but decided to go with the blue as Rylee likes blue and purple a lot.
The project uses a lot of embroidery floss. So far I think I've gone through about five skeins of floss. I will need to remember that when I do an adult-sized garment that I will need to buy a lot of floss.
Rylee has become a little fashion diva lately and knows exactly what she likes to wear and what she doesn't like to wear. I don't know if she will like this garment in the end, but I'm okay with that. I am doing it more for the experience and enjoyment and if she does decide she wants to wear it, well, that would be icing on the cake.
And speaking of my little fashion diva, here she is about a week ago when she came over. She is at a stage where she won't smile when I pull the camera out. Here she is coloring with grandma's makers. Why is it that grandma's markers are more fun than her Crayola washable markers?
