Spring has Sprung

There are flowers blooming, birds chirping, and quite a bit of craft time. 

Each of the snowmen and the battle gnome had their wash paint completed and glaze (Woodland Scenics’ Scenic Cement™) and glitter applied. Here are the final project photos, no more words required.

Another project has been re-started. This purple linen top was originally sewn by me to go with the purple linen pants that were altered in Consistency! (November 12, 2021 – I can’t believe it has been that long). 

The Before Photo

The pants went from unused to being a wardrobe staple. I was trying to do a repeat with this top. I don’t remember the origin of the idea to try to make it into a wrap top (the bad thing about infrequent blog posts) – perhaps the voluminous material available? This New Look pattern, N6700, has been my inspiration. 

The color is a challenge, its not the best for me and my pale skin but the pants have been a great neutral. Because I wanted a top that is less blah, I have used this top as a canvas for a variety of embellishment techniques. The first step was to remove the bottom and sleeve hems and a decorative trim that just didn’t too much plus the trim always had a risk of melting during ironing (synthetic materials). Then similar to other alterations, I just kind of played with it to try to get the effect I wanted. I also picked out three buttons to start giving the garment a little interest. I decided to use the variegated thread that I bought for the coaster project in ThisYear’s Theme Revealed in March 11, 2023 since you always get a ton of length with the embroidery threads and the new seams don’t have to be particularly strong. I created new side edges – the overlap is not as dramatic as N6700 but that’s OK because the fit and drape is still very good. And then new buttonholes. These steps were completed successfully but the garment is still blah.

New Edge and Buttons

The next embellishment step was to add appliqués (appliqué is a term for decorative patching). I found this fabric on my travel adventure last summer. I thought of the purple linen top instantly as I thought THESE colors which are some of my favorites would give it some interest. Plus it was an excuse to buy more fabric. The label on the fabric says it is Oeko-Tex Standard – this is a certification by a third party that the fabric is harmless to human health and has been tested for harmful substances. Also GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) 5.0 is printed on the selvage.

Appliqué with New Fabric

While washing and prepping the new fabric I was thinking about how to appliqué it to the purple linen. At first I thought of shapes with a botanical theme following the fabric print but changed my mind thinking that it may look too busy and the more intricate the shape, the more difficult it is to apply. I decided to do a straight border for the bottom of the garment and a botanical shape on the left chest area (where a corsage would be placed). I wanted to make sure the new appliqué fabric pieces would have the same grain or direction of weave as the purple linen, then I just played, took measurements from edge to side seam and bottom to the border width I wanted to try with some inches added in both directions, and cut a piece of the new fabric. I cut three pieces for the border to follow how the original top was constructed (one back and each side = 3!). For appliqué, the books suggest to put a stabilizer material underneath so the fabric is easier to twist and turn while sewing. Since I was doing rectangles that required hopefully simple turns, I skipped that step and hand stitched each rectangle to the garment with a basting stitch instead. This was well worth it as I saw how the border was looking every step and modified accordingly. In the first attempt – the two side pieces did not have their bottom edges meet (safety pin used as marker above) – the right side was longer by about an inch. I shortened accordingly. 

Bottom Edges Meet

The back piece has a curve to it which meant the top edge of the border was not laying flat so I stitched two rows of basting to flatten. I just had enough time to do the stitching of the front side pieces and I am happy with the progress. The back piece is daunting but there is so much going on now with this garment that it’ll be fine.

Closeup of Zigzag and Current Project State

Good project progress. I also finished my apple pie research study and felt that the 50% gluten free pie crust was pretty close to 100%. 

The gluten free flours are more challenging to work with – sticky to roll or move but the advantage is that when doing a partial bake pie crust, they don’t sag.

E-commerce is trickling. I learned about putting better tags on my ads – tags are another type of keyword that the Etsy search algorithm uses in addition to titles, descriptions, categories, and attributes. It’s crazy, also Etsy is encouraging continuous tweaking so that your shop appears fresh. This is my next task as time allows.

Happy Hobbies! Until next time.