Tunic Shirts with Reverse Applique on Jersey Inspired by Alabama Chanin

Back in June, I promised you more clothing made with reverse applique on jersey fabric. Well, today is the day. This is my most recent piece, a short sleeved, tunic top in cotton jersey. I learned the techniques from #AlabamaChanin. Stencil design was originally designed by Zelda Lin for the Genie Bottle.

The fabric is on the thinner side for cotton jersey, but not transparent. With two layers, it makes a nice weight for a shirt.

  

I spent many weeks of my free time to make this piece, and I really enjoyed the process. Doing running stitch is very meditative and easy to do even if you're tired. 

I like the way it looks a lot. However, I altered the back pattern piece to remove some gaping at the back neckline and now it's a little tight in the armpits. I can snips some threads and resew the seams to fix that, I hope.  This piece has a lot of detail covering the entire surface.  I probably won't do another piece again with this much detail. 

It has about 300 yards of thread, all worked doubled in hand stitches. That's 150 yards of running stitch and a bit of Cretan stitch on the neckline.

Here are some process photos. This photo shows the three pattern pieces: Front, back and short sleeve. The front and back are both two pieces. The fabric is cut and stenciled with spray paint fabric paint. I used Tulip Color Shot Instant Fabric Color in purple. I needed two 3 oz. cans to stencil all of the pieces, but didn't finish the second can.

Here is what the fabric looked like after stitching but before cutting. I put the knots on the outside to emphasize that it's hand made. It's also more comfortable to have the knots on the outside where they aren't right next to your skin.

Next are several photos of another shirt I made using the same techniques. This long sleeved tunic is made out of Modal jersey, which is a type of rayon made from beech trees. To say it's rayon means it is semi synthetic cellulose fiber. It is very soft and springy, much more springy than cotton. You could probably shoot this shirt across the room like a slingshot, but I haven't tried it yet. 

This is my dress form, Marge wearing the top. This jersey fabric is a thicker weight from the cotton above, making this a warm and cozy shirt that is both comfortable and fancy. Its weight and spring help it to drape nicely. I'm looking forward to wearing it a lot this winter.

 Here is a process photo of the cutwork. 

I thought the design needed some more density, so I added the blue stitching you can see below.  This is the back left shoulder.

I end with a heart to offer you my appreciating for making it this far.  This photo shows the center front of one of my very favorite shirts with black and taupe jersey and big patches of floral embroidery (not shown). 

I got an oil stain right on the center front of this favorite shirt of mine. So here's how I fixed it. This is reverse applique with red cotton jersey and two rows of running stitch. Good as new. Have a great day. Thanks for looking.

Free Beading Pattern - Sierpinski Triangle

Once upon a time I was going to write a beading book on beaded angle weaves.  The first part of the book was going to show how to bead many of the basic angle weaves, and the last part of the book was going to show lots of charts of flat weave designs.

I abandoned that book idea long ago, although I haven't abandoned the idea of writing a beading book, just that one.  Some of the designs that I would have included in the book are now available for free here on my blog, including Hexagon Angle Weave, Circle Earrings, David's Star, and Super Right Angle Weave.  Others are in my Etsy shop and website, including Kepler's Star, Night Sky, Honeycomb, Lozenge, Book of Kells, and Solaris.

Before I tossed aside the idea of completing the book, I created three sample pages for the section with the charts.  Today, I'm sharing them with you because they're not doing anything particularly interesting sitting inside my computer.  I hope you enjoy them.

Have a great day. Thanks for looking.

New Tutorial - Solstice Earrings

You can learn to make Solstice Earrings with this original variation on Cubic Right Angle Weave (CRAW). This tutorial is very detailed, written for advanced beginner beaders who have a basic knowledge of bead weaving. Knowledge of CRAW is recommended but not assumed.

Solstice Earrings use two types of fancy beads, combined with our old favorites of seed beads and rounds. The fancies include little drops or daggers and little beads with two holes. This purple pair below is available here: Purple Solstice Earrings.

Several pages show and describe 6 pairs of earrings using different types of fancy beads, including all of these.

Depending on which bead shapes you use, each Solstice Earring is usually a little over an inch wide (28-30 mm) and 20-22 mm tall. You can also make large earrings (48 mm wide) like this pair with long dagger beads, which are for sale here: Neon Pink Solstice Earrings.

The tutorial is 15 pages, with over 90 full color illustrations and photographs, a COLORFUL FEAST for the eyes. The tutorial gives highly detailed illustrations, photographs, and written instructions to make six different pairs of earrings. That I have made so many pairs of Solstice Earrings is a testament to how much fun these are to make and wear. This is my King Tut pair in lapis blue and gold.

Thanks for looking.  Have a great weekend.