Alabama Chanin Cap Sleeve

I have been at it again! Sewing up another Alabama Chanin creation. This time I have ventured into a new item from the book Alabama Chanin Studio Sewing and Design.

 I decided to make the cap sleeve tee shirt from the book using the Angie's Fall design.

 Before I received my airbrush from my mother-in-law, I painted some grey jersey with my old spray painting method. I prefer the look of the airbrushed painting as it is smoother and looks better. However, since I had it already painted and knew I was going to do a reverse applique technique, I  choose to use what I had on hand.

I used grey jersey for the top layer, black paint, and a baby blue jersey as the backing layer. It is hand sewn using slate colored button/craft thread. I decided to leave the knots exposed on the top and felled the seams to the sides.

Close up of the reverse applique

 Please pardon my wind blown hair! We had to get the pictures while the kids tapped on the window for us to come back inside :).

Alabama Chanin Angie's Fall Cap Sleeve tee shirt.

Detail of the hand sewn seams felled to the back

Detail of the cap sleeve and neck binding with herringbone stitch

For this shirt, I cut the size medium and did not add the suggested seam allowance. I did however sew a 5/8th seam allowance into the shirt when I constructed it.. So the sizing is midway between the small and medium sizes. I found that to be the perfect sizing for me; not too tight, not too loose.

I love this shirt! It was fairly fast to put together and only took 2 weeks of evening and free time sewing. Using a running stitch rather than a reverse back stitch makes such a difference in terms of speed. I like it so much that I airbrushed three more shirts! One will be yellow with the Little Flowers stencil in black; another is tan with black in the Paisley stencil and the last is black with Anna's Garden in white. For those tops, I will make the neck binding wider. The detail of the herringbone stitch is lost on such a narrow binding.

If you haven't tried Alabama Chanin hand sewing yet, consider doing so. It is so rewarding to complete a garment from beginning to end in this way. Tracing the pattern, cutting, painting, embellishing, and sewing it all by hand is well worth the effort.

Happy Sewing

New Airbrush, New possibilities

After making many A.C. garments I am happy to report that I finally have an airbrush to improve my fabric painting! In the past, I have used aerosol spray fabric paint and pump paints to color my fabric. Some times I have had favorable results, other times not so much.

Paints I have used in the past.

Results with sprayed fabric paint a bit spotty, but functional.

The results with these methods has been okay, but I was really looking for a new, better way to paint. This quality of painting limited my ability to create design that exposed the entire stencil shape as in negative reverse applique. So, I added a Master Airbrush to my Amazon wishlist and received one for a Christmas gift from my Mother-in- law.

This little number came as a kit with all I needed to get painting including the Createx airbrush paint. I am a firm believer that if you can read, you can learn anything. If the instructions are provided, one can learn many new skills. The problem was the instructions with airbrushes are woefully lacking. I guess the manufacturers assume, if you are buying an airbrush, you know what you are doing right out of the box!

The first issue I had was with attaching the regulator to the compressor. It did not say this, but if after you screw it on, it does not tighten vertically, you are to use a wrench to loosen the bolt so that it comes out further. Once you do this, try again until you can adjust it vertically. (I do not know how this is done. I returned the first airbrush to amazon because that was not explained and I thought it was a defect.I had the same problem with this one so I called tech support and they explained what needed to happen. I took this one to my neighborhood Habour Freight tools and they fixed it for me). I thought this solved my problem, and I could begin spraying, but I was wrong.

I had another "problem". Every time I turned it on, within a few seconds the motor would shut off. I Googled it, checked message boards, and watched YouTube videos, but nothing made sense to me. Finally, after avoiding it for days I called tech support AGAIN to see what was up. Turns out, it was doing just what it was supposed to do! The motor runs when you turn it on and then it shuts off when the appropriate PSI range is reached! That is when you begin to spray! You can keep spraying while it builds more pressure as you go. I thought it was broken, but it was just doing what it was supposed to. I am so glad I called!

I got to spraying my new Alabama Chanin Anna's Garden Stencil!

 

Look at the difference in the paint quality! I am so pleased with the results! This was my first time ever using an airbrush and I am so excited!

Look at the quality of the paint on these panels!

I have been dreaming of a fitted tank dress from the most recent A.C book. I have a delicious sea foam green jersey that I will use as a top layer. I painted with white and am unsure of the backing layer. I am not sure if I want bold contrast or muted similarity. I am also on the fence about whether I want it to be reverse appliqued or regular applique. It would be a shame to cut all that paint away for reverse applique! I have a few projects in the works so I have a bit of time to decide on that. More to come!

Happy sewing!