Spirit Week

I’ve tried freezer paper as a stencil for painting today. Spirit Week is next week at Camilla’s school. I drew the stylized version of the school mascot onto freezer paper, cut it out, and ironed it over the side seam of an old pair of jeans.

Some white acrylic paint, and now she has a custom pair of pants for spirit week.

I tried this technique once before, and had trouble with the freezer paper coming up while I was painting, so did a test before I got out the paint this time. It worked just the way it was supposed to. Perhaps the difference was in the paint. I had used Setacolors last time which are a bit thinner than the artists acrylic I used today. Also, I was careful when moving the brush across the paper.

Fashioning and Re-Fashioning Clothes

I’ve been working on clothes for a couple of weeks. I made a pioneer dress (McCalls 9424) a couple of years ago for a parade. It was still quite functional, but so old fashioned and costumey looking, that it hasn’t been worn since. I made a couple of attempts at restyling it until I came up with the final skirt. It’s just above knee level now. It looks good on her. I think it won’t be taking up space in her closet anymore.


I also got talked into sewing another dress for my daughter. We picked out McCall’s 6159. We found some plaid fabric in the closet which I forgot I had, and then Camilla found some gingham which she wanted for the collar and facings. And it’s a good thing she insisted on the contrast fabric, as I wouldn’t have had quite enough fabric otherwise.

This is a quick fabric postcard this morning. I used some scraps from the current dress for the background, and pre-fused scraps for the appliqué. It was fun to make.

Back to School Sewing

Camilla goes back to school in two weeks. We’ve done some back to school shopping, and I’ve been making a dent in my fabric stash while creating some back to school skirts.

I was thinking I would make a tiered skirt out of this stripe fabric, but Camilla wanted something different, since I had made a lot of those for her in the past. I sketched out some options, and she picked out which one she liked. She says the skirt is “super cool.” I wonder if I will still hear this about home sewn clothes in a few years when I have a teenager.

There wasn’t quite enough of this green plaid to make a skirt the length she wanted, so I did a little more digging in the stash. I’m glad I didn’t have a larger piece of the main fabric, or I probably wouldn’t have added the contrasting trim at the hem. I like it better this way.

I have a half-made skirt for myself out of blue chambray. It has been tucked away for a year, because I got bored with it being so plain. Maybe I will give it a contrasting hem like this one.

I’m going back to school next week also. I will be teaching again part time in the Office Skills Computer Lab at the junior college. I’ve also decided to take a couple of classes. I will be taking C++ computer programming and Photoshop. It probably won’t leave me a lot of time for sewing or artwork, but I will probably manage to make a little time for some creativity too.