Alabama Chanin Long Paisley Dress WIP

Now that I have completed my Anna's Garden Short Dress I am ready to move onto another Alabama Chanin project. Next up on my list is this long paisley dress from Alabama Studio Sewing and Design. I fell in love with it the first time I saw it, but at $2800 it is out of my reach. I knew I had to make it when I had an occasion to wear it. I have two weddings this year, one in March and one in July. I hope to have this one done for March.

This will be a daunting task as this is a fully embellished dress. I am hopeful that  because it is a large format stencil it will go quickly. I made my paisley stencil in a process I explain here. For this project, I made it with three sheets of pennant felt because I wanted the airbrush process to go faster.

Stencil ready for airbrushing

Dress laid out

My trigger airbrush.

I recently upgraded my airbrush to this trigger model.  I love this mechanism with the lower pull trigger. My former top pull model made my finger cramp when I sprayed for too long. I find I spray faster and smoother with this new one.

 

Covering the already stenciled parts.

In the photo above, you can see that I used the mail box and felt sheet to cover the already airbrushed portion of the dress. By covering the previously stenciled area I can get really close to the painted areas without large gaps. The top layer is a tan jersey and the lower layer is also a similar tan with a bit more white in it.

One of four panels 

The stitching has begun.

So, I am chugging along and will keep you posted on how it goes.

Happy Sewing!