DIY: A Waterlilies Dress (and Jacket Refurb!) after Monet

 

Y'all know those people who go on vacations and come back and wanna show you their One Million Photos of One Million Boring Thangs? Well, this here post is kinda like that in that I've got One Million Photos for y'all. Hopefully they won't be as much of a snoozefest as yo mama's trip to Vegas to play the slots complete with pictures of the buffet bars and awkward drunken middle-aged lady dancing in rando fountains. Ahem. 

But when you spend what feels like One Million Years on a dress, you kinda wanna share the daylights outta it, you know? Therefore, I present to you A Water Lilies Dress after Monet in a gazillion pics or less.

By now, if you've hung around this here blog for a wee while (and for that, I thank you kindly), you know I kinda have a thing for creating dresses after famous artists and their works. My most recent one was this Mondrian number but then there's also been a Starry Night, a Warhol frock, a couple of Kandinsky's, a Great Wave,  a The Scream number, this Keith Haring jacket and skirt, and a Lichtenstein dealio. There are still a ton of artist-inspired dress ideas rolling around in my itty bitty head. 

However, when I saw that watery print fabric, seen on the skirt portion of the dress, I immediately thought of Monet's water lilies. Now, I picked up two yards of that fabric and the violet and chartreuse well over a year ago. It wasn't until the last couple of weeks, when I've had One Million Snow Days (have you noticed that One Million is a theme in this here post?) that I had time to dive in and start stitchin'. One of the reasons I hesitated for so long was cuz I knew I'd not only have to stitch up the dress but then do some needle felting after the fact. That's a whole lotta work and I'm a whole lotta lazy. But with endless hours of free time on my hands, I decided to jump right in. 

By the way, I used that lovely vintage Butterick for the dress. The pattern was super simple, especially the bodice as it had raglan sleeves, my personal fave. I also thought the wrapped waistband was clever and fun. 

Once the dress was created, I started sketching the water lilies in chalk and commenced needle felting. If you've no clue what needle felting is all about, might I suggest you take a visit here and here. 

Because there was so much color in the ensemble, I decided not to go with Monet's pink water lilies but the white ones. I was particularly inspired by this lovely painting of his. 

I found that needle felting was a great medium for recreating the same look and feel as Monet's works. Sadly, my style is much too tight. I wish I could better immolate the looseness of Monet's work. Although, wasn't dude like near blind when he was painting these works? Note to self: next time, take out contacts. Except I'm using a tool with three razor sharp serrated needles and I'm near blind. SoooooOOOooo scratch that. 

 Most frequently asked question about Needle Felting: 

How do you wash your clothing?

I don't. Hence the smell.

Okay, so sometimes I do. Since it's wool, which shrinks when agitated (that's how you do wet felting. And why your 100% wool sweater shrunk in the wash), I wash by hand in cold water with Woolite. 

 I dunno if I was successful or not but what I was trying to do was not simply place one million water lilies all over the skirt portion but to create a composition. That's why I started with the one lone flower and lily off to the (viewer) right and gradually angled upward toward your left. Make sense? Can you tell I had a plan in mind? I dunno if it worked or not. I do know that I'm so over needle felting that Ima gonna pretend it's just right.

I love a good wide belt. I thought I'd give you a sneak peak at the side view and the back of this dress. I think that band is one of my fave things about this pattern. I can't decide if I love the neckline curve detail. It's kinda growing on me.

 With the art teacherin' conference coming at the end of this month (OMG, so soon! Yikes! I've got four presentations that I'd love you to attend, y'all. More details on those dates and times coming soon. This blog post has enough going on already), I knew I'd wanna wear this dress. However, I'm kinda cold natured so I thought I'd want a jacket to go with this number. 

 In the "re-do me" portion of my closet (Yes there is such a thing. No, I never ever get rid of anything.), I found this Target jacket that I'd scooped up on super sale a while back. Like, I'm talking 4 years ago a while back. I'd never worn the the thing because it looked like this:

I loved the buttons, the gathered fabric at the collar and opening and those presh sleeves. I have ALWAYS HATED that length. Every time I put it on, I found it so unflattering. But the color matched my dress's bodice perfectly. So I decided to make a bolero outta the thing. (P.S. Welcome to my uber messy sewing room! There's so much fabric, books and crapola in that room that I'm just waiting for the day that the weight of all my stuff sends me crashing thru to the dining room). 

 Using a beautiful platter that a sweet teacher buddy bought for me (thank you, Heather!), I traced the curve of the plate. The other bolero I made had a similar curve to the edge and I really liked that. It was the inspiration for the bottom edge of this bad boy. 

I absolutely LOVE short jackets because they look so vintage. And they still showcase your outfit underneath. So I was pretty stinkin' happy with how this simple lil alteration turned out.

And I totally dig it with my dress! It matches those shadows in the water lilies pretty well, says me. Ima totally gonna rock this out in New Orleans at the art teacherin' conference where I plan to hang with my brand new buddy...Tim Gunn!

 So, sadly, I've been keeping secrets from you. A while back, I had the incredible opportunity to spend a lovely hour on the phone just chatting it up with the one and only Tim Gunn. I interviewed him for SchoolArts Magazine (thank you, Nancy Walkup!) and you can read the article here. There's actually much more to the interview so you can bet I'll be sharing the entire interview right here just for you very soon. I'm super excited to attend Tim's sessions at the conference. Ima be all like...

"Hey, Tim! 'Member me?" And y'all know dude's much to nice to say no. Let's just hope he doesn't secretly file for a restraining order. Again. 

And das all, folks! A Monet's Water Lilies Dress and a Jacket Refurb. 

By the way, if you need some AMAZING Monet art lessons, check out my buddy Laura's blog over at Painted Paper. So much Monet goodness, ya'll!

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DIY: A Mondrian Moment in Dress and Shoes

Well, kids, today is one of those days that every teacher on the planet dreams of: A Snow Day! In Tennessee that means we scored a whooping 2" of ice pellets (which, as it turns out, sounds like someone is throwing rabbit pooh at your windows all day. Not my fave sound in the world). One of the best things to do on a Snow Day is turn it into Sew Day! And that's just what I did in finishing off this Mondrian Dress-terpiece. 

 

The whole idea started when I saw this fabric and popped it into my virtual shopping cart faster than you can say, "OMG, don't you have enough fabric already?!" Answer, no. Also, if anyone ever says that to you they are: A. Being absurd. and B. Prolly your husband. So see A.

Once the fabric arrived, I set off to JoAnn's to pick up a new dress pattern. I've been using and reusing, like, the same 4 patterns and Ima starting to get a lil bored. Not that this here pattern is much of a stray from my norm. I'm all about the 1950's fitted bodice, flair skirt deal. 'Tis my fave.

I'm currently working on two other dresses from this pattern, each with a diff collar. I'm hoping to finish 'em off with tomorrow's snow day (yeppers, I scored a Snow Day Double Header, yee-haw!). I decided to go with the "stand collar" for this dress because I wanted it to have a 1960's feel. But more on that in uno momento.

Let's talk about Simplicity #2444 for a sec, kay? Do y'all sew? Personally, I love the Project Runway patterns because they come with a ton of options and are pretty stinkin' simple. Also, I secretly stalk Professor Pincushion who creates videos of many of the PR patterns and walks you through the entire dress-making process. Yes, you read that right. No, I'm not even kidding. She's totes stalker-worthy.

 So, the stand collar. I know the fit and flair of this dress is mostly 1950's but I wanted a nod to the 60's. Mostly because this era of Mondrian's paintings have a super mod vibe to me. I'm happy with the collar, I think it gives this dress a bit more attitude than the no-collar version woulda had. Whatcha think? 

 So let's talk ole Mondrian for a moment, shall we? I'm gearing up to start a big fat hair Primary Colors unit with kindergarten and who better to showcase than this ole boy? What I was totes bummed to find is that there is, like, one kids book on Mondrian and I wasn't loving it. Do you all have any recommendations for me? I recall learning about Broadway Boogie Woogie (1942-43) in those dark and sleepy art history sessions in college. Please tell me I'm not the only one who always fell asleep and woke up with drool-soaked notes. How you gonna turn off the lights, talk in a monotone voice and not expect me to snore my way through your course?! I'm hoping to make Mondrian more 'citing for my kids.

As I was stitching up this dress, I got the idea to MOD-ify some booties (get it, MOD-ify 'em?! Sometimes my incredible sense of humor even leaves me in tears. Of sadness. That no one else is nearly as hysterically humorous as me. Ahem.) Mostly cuz I always thought that when I got around to Mondrianin' a dress (yes, now he's a verb) it would look like this 1965 Yves Saint Laurent number.

I love Yves Saint Laurent. He studied under The Greatest Designer of All Time: Christian Dior. Oh my goodness, don't even get me started on my love of Dior. It's borderline cray. But back to Laurent. This dress of his is so mod and so 1960's that I always thought it'd be the perfect thing to stitch up. The prob? I'm not a fan of the shift dress. I get it, it's comfy, it's classic. But it's just not my bag, baby. So some 1960's Mondrian-inspired booties would just have to do the trick. 

Now, before I go too much further, lemme just throw in a disclaimer: I prolly shouldn't even be showing you this here DIY. Mostly cuz I just used whatever I had on hand: booties and acrylic paint. I hear they make paint specifically for leather. And I hear you should treat your leather before painting it. I learned all this after I started painting and decided to do a lil googling. Eh, says me. Too late now. 

 This truly was a simple and speedy DIY. Just mask off some geometric shapes and start a-painting. I used a coupla coats. 

And allowed to dry before pealing off the tape. Some of the acrylic did come off with the tape (nice job, acrylic) so I did have to do some retouching but it really wasn't a biggie. 

And I was pretty psyched with how they turned out. Y'all should totally do this. Then we'll be Mondrian Bootie Twins! Wait, that doesn't sound right.

Now, as y'all might know, this isn't my first Artist-Inspired Dress Rodeo. In case you want some more, follow these linky-loos:

A Light-Up Starry Night Dress
Warhol's Soup Can Dress
Kandinsky Dress #1
Kandinsky Dress #2
The Great Wave Dress
Munch's The Scream Dress
Keith Haring Ensemble
Jim Dine Heart Dress
A Roy Lichtenstein Ensemble

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What the Art Teacher Wore #131 and Happy Surprises

 Dorkin' Out Tuesday: My sweet baby bro got me that rainbow tie and suspenders for Christmas. Upon my request. He asked mom, "Does she REALLY want this stuff?" You know it! One kid said I looked like "Dr. Art". I'll take that! blouse: thrifted; rainbow tie and suspenders: Amazon; skirt and tights: Target

Hey, y'all! I hope you had a super fantastical week, are all rested up and ready to roll for that one day of the week that I swear always seems to come a day early: Monday. My week was an exciting one. I found out on Wednesday that I was crowned Teacher of the Year at my school (and by "crowned", I mean no such thing. I was, however, given a lovely amount of paperwork to complete). I was very honored as I work with the best educators in all the land. It was funny, when the announcement was made, I was in the middle of teaching third grade. When the kids heard my name, they were all, "Hey! That's YOU, Mrs. Stephens!" And I was all, "Are you sure? I thought there was another Mrs. Stephens at this school. I think she teaches Deep Sea Fishing." To which they rolled their eyes and gave me their best, "Mrs. Steeeeepheeeeeens" reprimand. 

Then, just this morning, I found out that this here blog received this: 

That's right, y'all. Ima First Place Wild Card. Can I get that printed on a t-shirt, please? Can I go around acting (even more) like a crazy person and when someone questions my behavior, can I do this...

Werd.

In all seriousness, I'm excited to receive such a title! Thank you so very much for the nominations and the votes. It really means a lot. If you've not checked out the list of winners (as well as nominations!), please be sure to do so. There are so many incredible art teacherin' bloggers out there who I'd be lost without their advice, tips -n- tricks as well as friendship. Often times, teaching art can be like teaching on a deserted island without a single soul in sight who "gets" you. Thankfully, the interwebs have made it so we can all stay connected and sane. Ish. 

Oh and one last thing before I shuddup. I now have 700 lovely "followers" of this here blog! Now, normally, I don't like a follower but in this case, if you wanna follow me, well then, who am I to stop you? Welcome, all you new readers! It's super fantastical to have you here.

AND one last-last thing (I swear), since I've blabbed enough in this post, we'll resume our Artsy Book Clubbin' chat next week, ermkay? Cuz, let's be honest, you stopped reading this post like 5 minutes ago, didn't you? THAT'S what I thought. Y'all have a great week and I'll be back attcha soon.

 Prom Dress Wednesday: I love this stinkin' dress, specially with a big fat crinoline underneath cuz I feel like I'm going to some sorta artsy prom all day long. Course, the crinoline drives the kids crazy because every time I walk past their table, my big skirt knocks their painting/pencil/papers/you-name-its off their table. "Mrs. Stephens! Your swishy skirt took my paper!" Sorry, not sorry. sweater: vintage, thrifted; necklace: The Paper Source; Jackson Pollock Dress: made by me, details here; tights: Target

 Sharpen Yer Pencils Thursday: So I got this dress a while back and it's been super popular among art teachers for obvious reasons. Howevers, if you do order this dress, just be aware that the catalog which will flood your mailbox is, um, very interesting. One that you'll wanna have stashed away when company comes over. sweater: thrifted; dress: The Pyramid Collection; tights: Target

Runs with Scissors Friday: I love a skirt with a good art teacherin' motif, don't you? sweater: vintage, thrifted; top and tights: Target; bow belt: Pin Up Girl Clothing; scissor skirt: ModCloth

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In the Art Room: A Woven Clutch

Welcome to the season finale of the Weaving Series, y'all! I do hope that you've enjoyed this little trip down weaving lane as much as I have. I know I was always super stressed about teaching kids this craft when I didn't feel so confident myself. I'm hoping that these posts, videos and avalanche of photos have been useful for you. Here's a recap of all the posts from this series:

The Weaving Series: Paper Loom Weaving (perfect for first grade)
The Weaving Series: Straw Weaving (second grade and up)
The Weaving Series: Circle Loom Weaving (second grade and up)
The Weaving Series: CD Loom Weaving (second grade and up)
The Weaving Series: Ojo de Dios (second grade and up) 
The Weaving Series: Tree Weaving (third grade and up)

So, I'd love to hear from you! Have you given any of these projects a go? Did you find the videos useful or are step-by-step photos your preference? If I do another series, what would you be interested in? Thank you so much for the feedback, guys!

Today I'm sharing with you a woven clutch project that is just perfect for those kids in fourth grade and up. It brings together all of those skills learned from previous weaving experiences however it's simple enough for those that have never woven before to do. 

A while back, I shared a series of posts that detail how to weave a basic pouch. You'll definitely want to start here if you've never created a woven pouch before. In this post, I'm going to show you how to get fancy with your pouch (btw, I have a habit of calling these creations a "pouch" for fear that I'll drop the "purse" bomb in front of a class of boys. And you know what that would mean: Game.Over.) So, follow these links to begin your pouch then c'mon back for some fancy stitchin':

Pouch Weaving, One: Getting Started
Pouch Weaving, Two: Weaving the Flap
Pouch Weaving, Three: Removing the Weaving
Pouch Weaving, Four: Weaving the Cord

So in today's post, Ima gonna show you how to do a little tapestry weaving along with creating a buttonhole and a checkerboard pattern.

Just to be a brag-a-saurus for a pinch, can I just tell you how much I love the back of this clutch? It took me a while (weaving with fine yarn was prolly not the smartest move) but I love the way it looks...and I'm already dreaming up my next woven clutch! Lemme show you how I created this triangular tapestry.

For this, you'll be using a dovetail tapestry stitch. For me, this entailed weaving with four needles at once (confusing? kinda. But for those middle and high school kids, def doable): two needles of brown yarn for the sides and two needles of pink for the triangles on either side of the clutch.

I found this super groovy 1970's craft book which had these super groove diagrams of all the stitches. This is a close up of what that dovetail woven stitch looks like. 

I wove this guy a couple years ago with some funky yarn. While I think the end result was cool, weaving with that stuff is a headache. For your first go, I'd definitely use regular yarn.

You can see a different take on that dovetail weave here. 

Now, let's talk buttonhole. That was simple. I really like simple. That checkerboard pattern? Gave me 5 new gray hairs and a migraine. Mostly cuz I wasn't doing it right for the longest time. In this clip, I'll show you how it's done (bear with me, it's confusing):

Here's a peak at what the buttonhole weave looks like. You're just creating an opening. Cake.

And here's that confounded checkerboard weave. Oui. It's not hard it's just confusing for the small minded like myself. 

The cord is by far the most fun and simplest thing to create. My kids love creating these! We turn them into bracelets, belts and, of course, the strap for our clutch. I've created these cords with kids as young as second grade. 

To attach the cords, I usually hand sew them to the side of the pouch. On my larger clutch, I first stitched a figure-eight around the base of the cord before hand sewing it to the clutch. I'm so happy with these little guys! And I know you and your students would be as well.

DISCLAIMER, SHAMELESS SELF-PROMO: Y'all. If you've not voted for your fave art ed blog, would you mind taking a moment to do so? There's some fantastic ones and my crazy blog is in the mix (in the "Wild Card" division). If you'd be so kind to cast your vote (you can vote for as many blogs as you like), that'd be just swell. Here's the link. 

And there you have it! The season finale of The Weaving Series! I do hope you enjoyed this woven adventure. 

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