Another Alabama Chanin Skirt

Back in October I started to cut out this stencil for another Alabama Chanin Bloomer Skirt. I really like the leaf pattern and I wanted to try to airbrush the pattern instead of screen printing the ink. 

I finally completed the cutting of the stencil because I was going on vacation and wanted to take a skirt to work on while out camping. The air compressor that a friend lent me was missing a hose so I had to figure out some other way to get ink on the fabric. I decide to check out Michael's Craft store to see if there was some sort of fabric paint that was in a spray can. 

 I found two different spray's that I liked and said were for fabric. The Colormaster is more of a spray paint and is probably better for more solid items, it's a little stiff on the fabric. The Color Shot by Tulip was decent, it covered nicely and I liked the color. The only issue I found was it took the entire bottle to do one skirt. At $5 a can that can get a little expensive. I can a $5 bottle of ink that will cover about 10 or more skirts. I guess I paid for the air. I have to go get a hose for the air compressor so I can use the airbrush.

I used the Color Shot blue on the rose fabric because it was not as stiff as the Krylon spray paint on the fabric. I think it turned out OK, there is a little fuzz around some of the edges of the stencil, I have also not washed the fabric so I don't know how it will feel after a couple of spins in the washing machine. The Color Shot also stayed tacky for longer than I thought it should. The package stated it would be dry in 24 hours, the spray painted fabric stuck other fabric and I had to pull it off like sticky tape. It did not leave color behind which was good. 

Next I made some samples. I have found if I question my colors or stencil choice it's best to do a small sample. I tried the pattern with the reverse appliqué and appliqué. The sample on the right and on the top left have a dark blue for the bottom fabric. I thought it was a little too strong for the murky rose color of the top fabric. I asked a couple of people and they both said they liked the bottom right combination the best. I had already cut both top and bottom piece for this project so I had to set aside the dark blue and cut the dusty blue for the bottom layer of the skirt.

So that is what I took camping with me last week to Hart Mountain Antelope Refuge. I did finish one panel while out there but I spent more time rockhounding with friends and just enjoying the silence of the area. It was hot the first two days of camping so it was easy for me to sit in the shade and sew while talking. The second two nights of camping it rained so we all sat under the shade structure and played games. I have 3 of the 4 panels done so far and since it should be about 100 degrees out tomorrow I have a feeling I will be sitting in the air conditioned house and finishing this skirt. I already have another one planned...I just need to learn how to use an airbrush. 

A couple more zipper pouches

I had some more time in my sewing studio this evening after the sun when down. It was 70 degrees this afternoon in Portland!! I loved being outside reading, pulling weeds & playing with the cats. When the sun went down at about 8pm (daylight savings time started today), I went down to the basement into my studio and made a couple more zipper pouches from this tutorial. I wanted to try some fun novelty fabric. I pulled out some fun fabric that has images of camera. I got it half done before I realized that the cameras were upside down. I had to get out my seam ripper and pull out the zipper and start over again. Good thing it's such a simple project and taking out a couple seams was very easy. I completed the camera bag and thought I would add a crushed penny as a zipper pull. I had a couple of pennies with holes drilled in them, they were left over from when I was practicing drilling in the pennies to make a necklace. The penny I used on the camera bag was a mis-stamped penny. I wanted to use a split ring to hold the penny to the zipper pull. It was very hard to open this small split ring and even harder to get it on the penny & zipper pull. It seems that hold that I drilled in the penny was a little too small and needs to be larger if I'm going to use pennies on these cute bags. 
Then I decided to use some of my Melody Miller View-Master fabric. I love this Melody Miller fabric and still have a nice stash of some of her early lines of fabric. I completed the pouch in about 15 minutes. Since I did not have any more pennies with holes handy I pulled out some beads. It took me longer to pick out what beads to use on the zipper pull then it took me to complete the pouch. I can't say enough about how easy these pouches are to make. I again cut down a couple zippers to 4" since I do not have any 4" zipper (they are kind of difficult to find). Since the zippers teeth on the zippers was nylon it was easy to sew through them on my machine, I would not try this with a zipper that has metal teeth unless you are going to hand stitch the bottom of the bag.