Mixed Reviews on Fur

Well, the meh-ness continues. I held the panel up for Drew's opinion, and he said, "Well, you've got to clean all those strings up." Dean thought it would be cool on a denim jacket, but not a Mardi Gras dress. My nurses thought I should go back and bead everything I've embroidered, and one said, "Of course, you'll trim all those threads anyway." Alabama Fur is so misunderstood! But maybe it's because my fur is sparse. Look at this beautiful wrap that isn't even finished yet - the fur is the main design element. My other nurse said there was too much going on with the dress, so I should stick with just beading - sounds very Project Runway!

Anyway, here's more beading before trimming away the inside, and I haven't removed the straight embroidery yet (which will be quick and painless with all these huge knots - it's not like ripping out machine stitching).


and here it is with the stencil trimmed away. The beads are really sparkly when I hold it up, so it's got THAT going for it.


So maybe the next picture I'll have is with some "strings" gone and more beads...like Becky said the first time!

Florabama Yacht Club and Dress Progress

In between sewing on my dress, I did have to watch the SEC Championship (War Eagle!), so we stopped in the Florabama Yacht Club for a late lunch and were happy to get a front row table for one of their big screen hi-def TV's. It's kind of dwarfed by the water and beach view - too bad it was 45 degrees outside.


You have GOT to stop here if you're in the area - the food is fantastic (the chef of Eat! in Orange Beach is here now, I'm told), the service is friendly, and the atmosphere is awesome. Even though it was freezing outside, we were toasty warm with these very cool heaters around - can you see the huge flame inside it?


Oh, yeah, and I worked on my dress some more. I realized this stencil is of flowers, so I should pick a whole flower to bead probably, instead of just random shapes, so I'm giving that a shot. At this point it looks kind of inconsistent, but I think it'll get better.

Alabama Fur and Beads

Important caveats about this Mardi Gras dress: This is not for Mobile, where I could be blackballed for wearing a heretical dress; this is New Orleans, and almost anything goes. Remember the crocheted dress with all kinds of skin showing that I saw a couple of years ago? And there will be thousands of people imbibing all manner of drinks, so I'm not going to bring a hush to the room (Superdome) when I enter. Thus, I have opted for outside knots, referred to as "Alabama Fur."

Of course, I hope it doesn't look like I just walked through a dust storm!

Like I told Bianca, if I'm going to go crazy, I may as well go all the way!

Ooh, to Reverse Applique, or Just to Bead?

I love the look of the purple stencil on the navy, so I was thinking of just beading it and embroidering it as is - what do you think? Here' the outer layer with stencil...


And here's one shape I beaded lightly around and cut as usual. With beading, you're supposed to use one strand of button craft thread so it doesn't tangle, but it looks kind of thin to me - I like the look of a double strand.


And I probably need way more beads per shape, but I was just testing to see how it looked. I don't know if I like the lighter color showing through - does it look more "homemade?" (Louise Cutting calls that "made by loving hands at home" to describe something really pitiful looking - funny!) Maybe I should've used black fabric underneath - argh!


I'm thinking it looks more refined with the stencil intact, and I just should do beading....and maybe have my knots on the outside? HELP! I can't decide!

Behold the Alabama Chanin Mardi Gras Dress!

My palette awaits...


I mean my 2 rotten sawhorses and rained-on plywood covered in 2 old sheets awaits, ahem.


The worst part was arranging the dress pieces and getting the edges to lay flat - they curled endlessly!


The best part was airbrushing - so much more refined than spraypainting.


The $90 Alabama Chanin stencil was SO worth it - it's mylar and doesn't soak up the paint, which my little posterboard stencil would've done. Props to Drew for venturing out to take some action shots for me, and major props to Dean, who graciously taught me how to use his manly-man air compressor last night (PSI of 40? No problem!). I took the other one back to Michael's - it's tiny PSI would've been no match for this dress.


And now, please feast your eyes on the most beautiful thing I've ever made:


I will be quitting my day job. I will look for a nice storefront with adequate studio space where I can airbrush and sew to my heart's content. You can call me....The Artist Formerly Known as Dr. Fun. (Wonder if Natalie Chanin needs a partner in South Alabama...)

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.)

Thanksgiving Wrap-Up

So here's a GIF of the guy sewing from sbnation.com:


And here's a picture where you can see his foot pedal - how quaint! Wish I knew what kind of machine it was. Hey Pam, is this a position a student could volunteer for?


And now, look what came in the mail right before Thanksgiving. Two big packages...


The box has my fabric, nicely tied with recycled cotton...


and the tube has my stencil!


I spent a few minutes in Hancock on Saturday studying embroidery thread colors (there're only about 200!), and I decided on understated, elegant gray instead of Mardi Gras, wacky purple. I figure this dress will be wacky enough since it'll be the only one there made of cotton.

I just bought a few of these things to try a little sample and see how it looks. But first, I've got to look into that swayback adjustment and get my pieces cut out...