My Late Embellishment Report

And this is how we begin!  Several years ago I realized that some types of products I was making were too time-consuming to be made for a price people wanted to pay...so I sent out some fabric to have these made in one of the factories specializing in doll sized items.  Since that time, I have really done very little with them, and the company that helped me do it is now gone, but I still have this heap of tiny shirts.  There are 9 styles of shirt and I had 20 in each style made....I still have 19 or 20 of many of them.  This project has been a LONG time in coming! hehehe
For the great embellishment adventure I decided to pull out my supplies (of which there are mountains....you should see it!) and actually DO something with these.  Here is a little taste of what can/could/might/should be done with them:

The first four shown are SD sized.  (I would be happy to share measurements if you are interested....and if you don't know what SD sized means, well it probably doesn't apply to you or any resin you own. heh!)
I found it was MUCH more difficult to generate a good spiral pattern on the small sized shirts.  If you look carefully you can see it on the orangey crewneck shirt, but it is pretty subtle.  The circular yoke dyeing was clearer.  The longsleeved was done just with horizontal bands (Carolyn did that one!  Her very first!) and the fade was done with dipping rather than tie-dyeing.  Those were a little tricky because the biggest problem I have in tie-dyeing is dye-pooling while still active.

In a normal setting you put the dye on pre-wet, pre-wrapped shirts and it has to cure(?) for 4-24 hours while remaining wet.  This usually means: in a bag.  Of course if you really saturated your item (because you want strong color) you are going to end up with you shirt in a puddle at hte end of those 24 hours. (We saw this with many shirts during the family reunion tie-dye extravaganza...where we also saw MUCH better spirals.)

Since I wanted the white to STAY white I actually clipped the shirt inside its bag to a skirt hanger.  You can see that we had a little cross-over with the bight pink on the sleeves, but on the whole I think it was fairly successful.  You can see that same effect on the boatneck tops for the 16 inch-ish dolls.  For those I just dipped the wet shirts hems and sleeves and let the dye creep up the fabric while it rested in the baggies (hanging up.)  You can see how the magenta and turquoise behaved a bit differently on the purple one.  You can also see where (if you look closely) I got a small dot of yellow on it.  Argh!  It is really hard to keep track of all the dye at once!  We had a LOT of trouble with that during the extravaganza too.  This round was better because I used a wire cooling rack instead of a flat surface as my work area, but there was a stray drip of yellow I didn't wipe away before I set the shirt down while working on it.  Sigh!

You can see some bullseyes, and almost spiral and even a slightly too subtle heart in this group too.

Here is my first ever hot-fix rhinestone use! I have had this little motif forever and, since I am not much for sparkly, just never used it.  I didn't get the straps on, but here is "Independence."  I think the motif is actually supposed to be a snowflake, but I think it looks more like fireworks....besides I need to use some of this fun ribbon.  My excuse for not having the straps on?  Can't decide if I want it to be a super casual tie-neck halter, if it needs some fancy back and forth through loops or if I should just put sliders on plain straps so it will fit "everyone."  Probably the latter but who knows.  Someone actually wanting it would be enough motivation to get it done I think......hehehe

These are the other two I tried going for actual embellishment. I know that my "embellishing with color" is kind of cheating but since this group is for "motivation" I figured I had better take that motivation where I could find it! The purple ribbon tank has sliders on the straps...like you would see on a full sized tank with adjustable straps! Can you tell I am pleased with that? I also included a little sequin shaped like a flower under the beads but the pic isn't great. heheh

These last pics are of my adventures with silk screen paint. I actually used stencils (as the prospect of making screens for tiny things is still daunting me.) The first pic includes my first and last trials of the evening in question. The SD (larger) t-shirt suffered a terrible accident, in that I was not as careful with my workspace and it got dripped on, and then I over ran the edge of the stencil. There was much cursing, let me assure you! According to the information on the paint itself, until it is heat-set it should wash out. I set the spider and should wash it to see what I get. The sleeve drips are smear-y because I just rinsed it a bit to see if there was an EASY fix. We shall see I suppose.

The small tank was my first realization that you could control the density of color. The first was too thick, so this little spider was done with a very dry brush and I love the misty look it has.

The last butterfly's only excuse is that I was tired and didn't secure my stencil carefully so it shifted. Poor thing.
And THESE, which have been in the plan for almost as long as I have had the "shirts," are actually part of a greater plan. I have some great camo fabric...that is made of butterfly shapes. There is a GREAT clothing line in this fabric, and this is the beginning. Sadly, the rest of the line needs to find me some more motivation. Even the notebook I drew the sketches in is missing! Some day! hehehe

I custom mixed this color (I have all the "basics" but didn't really want it black or bright.) I mixed and mixed and then mixed some more and finally got a convincingly camouflaged color.....of course by then I had a huge bowl of paint. Using my new-found knowledge, I used paint density to get a surprisingly wide range of color for my little butterflies. I also tried to come up with some less conventional placements.

The stencils I used for all my projects are from "Dreamweaver Stencils".  They are metal and very easy to use. She has some really great designs (and I was delighted to find this tiny butterfly which is almost the exact shape of the motif in the fabric in her collection.).  In case you are wondering, I asked the designer if I could use her products in creating my work and she graciously said yes.   Crafting Ethics can get complicated sometimes, but I have found people to be gracious each time I have asked for permission, and as such, I have no trouble in saying "You should go buy stuff from this great designer!"


So there are my adventures in embellishing for September!  I have all the supplies for it, so if you want to try any of those things out, come on over! k.