A cap-sleeved tunic. That’s the dressy-description. It combines denim pieces and dyed fabric. Including two pieces that are pre-printed…one is white and white and the other is black on white. Then both were over-dyed.
And, I included a stencil of the logo of the Women’s March. A personal statement.
On a garment that’s a personal statement!
Front and 
back views.
If one is fun, then four is more!! 
Dyed fabric, commercial fabric, upcycled denim blue jeans. And blue jean zippers make four!
My goal with blue jeans is to use everything but the squeak…fabric yes. Pockets yes. Zippers yes. The thickness of the seams and detail at the waist of the jeans is difficult to use…but I have a friend who boldly incorporates those into lovely purses…makes me a piker!
And, from the back. You can really see the different colors/wears of the blue jeans.
Using McCall pattern M7201.
A Moya shirt made 
with dyed and printed fabric.
I’ve been experimenting with other ways to add color. There are wonderful black on white fabric, some with large flowers. I used Sharpie pens here. Quick to color and definitely permanent!
The button is a found pebble with a hole–like a geode without the sparkle.
Back of sharpie shirt
Here’s a view of the back.
Several printed fabrics were included…dyed over white or gold on white fabric.
The fabric is a gold print of palm trees–makes me think of the South Carolina icon.
Someone saw my newest shirt and said that it looked like me. (Hummmm. They assured me that this was a good thing.)
Front (closed) of sharpie shirt
Another view of the front, with the overlay closed–overlay sounds better than flap 🙂
Mickey Mouse back
Just finished my Mickey Mouse shirt. Depending how it’s said…that’s good, or bad!
This uses a series of shirts with various graphics and dyed blue/green. And, there are some shibori dyed pieces.
Someone enjoyed their trip to Disneyland…I enjoy their shirt! And one of my favorites is the sheep that gets the middle spot.
Mickey Mouse front
Do what works…good words to live by. Think the toon green creature is freaked out by his neighbors or just freaky 🙂
They offered me a t-shirt for the Fitton’s upcoming Season Launch (August 19 5-9pm everyone is invited) but I opted to make a summery shirt but with lots of the Fitton 🙂
Front of the I Love the Fitton Shirt
Starting with fabric dyed in Fitton red–some shibori and some pre-printed designs, I added images from Fitton activities.
The Fitton Center for the Creative Arts is a community arts center in downtown Hamilton, Ohio. See the new murals in downtown Hamilton–that’s Street Spark at work. It’s partnership of the Fitton with the City of Hamilton.
The Big Blue Baby is quite the talk of Hamilton.
Back of the I Love the Fitton Shirt
I Love/heart the Fitton has Stephen Smith’s sketch of the Fitton. And, of course I added pictures of the building, the bathroom (yup– the Fitton has the best bathrooms ever) and a wonderful photo of a youngster enjoying a class at the Fitton. Fitton/Fitton/Fitton uses my rubber stamp of the name.
My Fitton shirt…so far. With lots of room for more!
Purple plus…vest and blouse
Purple plus is a combination of vest and blouse. It’s for a class that’s an introduction to scrapping for commercial garments. The class will be on making the vest–using multiple fabrics to make new cloth. Then making a garment from that cloth.
The vest is like a scarf, adding some color and pattern.
The blouse is scrappier and combines more pieces. The fabrics are mostly batiks.
I know they’re batik because I could smell the wax as I worked with them!
I worked on this using my newest toy…I should give the dress form a name. Mable?? She comes with lots of dials. We have innie and outie belly buttons, Mable has a dialie.
I bought this from a Craigslist ad–I was a bit concerned about CL serial murders. We’ve all heard about them. So I called a friend as I arrived at the seller’s house and asked that she call out the troops if she hadn’t heard from me shortly. I went to the door and the seller met me and then took me to her car where the dress form had been placed. SHE was worried about CL serial murderers and had opted to meet me outside. We both had a good laugh at our respective and effective strategies.
The blouse is made using Butterick 5948. The vest is made using a home made pattern but any simple pattern would work well, like McCall’s M7290. Come take the class at Seams Sew Easy!
Dipping into the stash bag is my favorite source for scrappy clothes. And, it’s a great way to use small pieces of fabric that I get from experimenting with dyeing. Play with colors and techniques and use the results.
FIshy Fishy Front
Fishy Fishy is a summery top with cap sleeves, shaped lower hem and stamps, stencils and shibori prints.
Fishy Fish Back view
Red Stripes-Front view
Red stripes is an early version of the summery top. It’s a simpler collage and includes a piece dyed with coreopsis–a natural dye.
Red Stripes – Back view
Moonscape – front view
I cut in a big circle to put a motif in the center of the shirt.
Moonscape – back view
Orange shibori front
The first of the summery series. The shibori (donut fold) is one of my favorites. But, the shirt has too many parts–it’s the last time I put in separate sleeves.
Orange shibori back view
Adding shapes to the body of the shirt and the lower hem were the goals of this series of shirts.
Series of fabric dyed in colors of the rainbow
With the recent event in Orlando, I wanted to do a Rainbow project to honor the resiliency of the LGBT movement.
First step for this project was to dye a series of fabrics in the color wheel series of colors.
I used fabric that is printed white on white. The fabric paint that is printed on the fabric (white paint) acts as a resist to the dye. The white dots are barely visible before dyeing. After dyeing, the dots stand out!
Rainbow shirt
Next I stitched up the fabric to turn it into a summery shirt.
The fabric pieces were cut in half. The ends of the fabric were backed and then added as a decorative edge.
I used Butterick 5948 for the shirt–leaving the good folks at Butterick in charge of size and basic style. I did make a few changes.
I started by sewing long strips and then I cut out the pattern pieces. The neck is enlarged a bit, then it was bound. I modified the sleeves to be capped. The length was shortened and the end fabric pieces were lined and then sewn to the bottom edge.
This series of dyed fabric will do double-duty as it became the header of the blog!
Under the Sea
Under the Sea has the blues and greens reminding me of tropical water.
I found a series of blues and greens– all hand-dyed pieces. Some are patterned with shibori techniques and some are done with white on white printed fabric. The dots are done with small clamps. The white print/paint acts as a resist–that’s the circles.
Under the Sea
I like to have pockets…the side seams were sewn up when I remembered. So, I made up a couple pockets using some triangular scraps.
The back has lighter green pieces and more vertical stripes.
Finding Dory
Using the same pattern (Butterick 6171,) I incorporated fishy fabrics in Finding Dory.
I made up this shirt for a Fitton Center event which used Finding Dory as the theme.
Finding Dory
There’s a mixture of commercial fabrics and dyed pieces…the fish fabrics were leftovers from a project that I did for my great nieces who live in Florida. The sleeve is indigo dyed with a shibori fold.
I couldn’t decide whether I liked one side or the other best, so I put pockets on both sides!
The nice folks at Shared Harvest gave me a gift as a thank you for volunteering. Their t-shirt was a generous gift. But, it was lacking.
They gave me a tshirt
It needed some color. It needed to be warmer to wear in the warehouse in the winter. It needed COLOR.
So, I cut it up and dyed it…adding color using shibori techniques. And, I combined it with other fabric friends to make a warm winter tunic.
Part of the Feeding America network, Shared Harvest works very hard to help feed the food insecure in Butler and the nearby counties. As a food warehouse they provide food to local pantries. And, they have special programs (Backpack and Senior food box) to feed the young and the old.
Shared Harvest hasn’t offered me another t-shirt.
The Fitton Art Center in Hamilton asked me to volunteer for an Open House. So, I dyed up some fabric and made a vest in which I incorporated the Fitton logo.
The Fitton is a community arts center right on the Miami River amid downtown Hamilton. There are lovely galleries that display work of artists from all over. A theater and ballroom present musical and theatrical pieces and the Fitton offers a variety of classes. The Fitton is a hub of the Hamilton arts scene. Currently the Fitton is partnering with the city to paint murals on several downtown buildings.
The Fitton folks said they were going to give me a t-shirt. But they didn’t. Maybe they knew what happens to t-shirts that are given to me.
Crazy Coats of Many Colors 