Fabric Has Been Cut!

Oh boy, I'm getting close to actually doing something with my Alabama Chanin Mardi Gras dress - I cut the outer layer last night! (Yes, I use rulers, scissors, mirrors, my phone sometimes, whatever's handy as a pattern weight, but I prefer the term "inventive" to "cheap.") This sucker's LONG - one end hung off my cutting table and I had to carefully skooch everything together so the cotton didn't stretch. In her Craftsy class, she cuts the inner and outer layers together, but can you imagine making sure all that fabric is flat and smooth? I cut the top layer first so I can start stenciling. Oh, and I used this tutorial for doing the swayback adjustment, which is pretty much what I was doing anyway - you can see the little wedge I took out at center back.


Today I went to Michael's to look at airbrushes and such, and you can't look at them - you have to take a card to the cashier to buy them. Plus they were quite expensive. Next I went to Joann's to see if they had anything, and picked up a marine blue paint to try with some sponges, in case the airbrush thing doesn't work out.


Then I did some research on airbrushes (shout-out to Bianca for being an airbrushing queen) and realized I don't know squat about what all is needed, but we do have an art store that carries them, so I went there (trying to support local small business, you know, and Hobby Lobby is clear across town). Turns out they have many actual airbrushes, but only 2 air compressors - "very" expensive and "holy crap" expensive, with minimal PSI (the lady helping me didn't know what that meant, so I immediately lost confidence). I figured Home Depot must carry more air compressors than this, but it turns out those are only for big manly men inflating tractor tires, not nervous nellies stenciling dresses. Finally, I went back to Michael's with my 50% off coupon downloaded to my phone (technology rocks!) and bought the smallest, cheapest compressor, which still gets more PSI than the one at the art store.


This one is the "Breeze" for "decorating cakes and applying makeup," so we'll see if it's good enough for a whole dress. Of course, that's only after I tarp the whole garage so our bikes don't get contaminated...oh crap, what am I even going to hang the dress on while I'm painting?! (The sponges are looking like a good start right now.)