Getting my hands dirty: Itajime silk shirts and an Anna dress in the making

When I was in New York I took an itajime class with Shabd Simon-Alexander which was amazing!

Dissolving the paint

She has just released her first book, Tie Dye, dye it, wear it, share it, which I really recommend. I haven't made any of the projects out of the book yet, but the instructions and the pictures are very clear and beautiful.

During the class I painted some silk and cotton which I bought at Mood during Lladybirds meet-up.

Silk painted with nickel and grey

Before washing it properly, the colours are a bit softer now

I made two shirts with the silk, and I'm thinking about what to make out of the cotton (it is pretty thin and see through) but I am a bit low on ideas for that one..

Any ideas for the cotton fabric? I have around 2.5 meters of it.. (around 3 yards).

Any ideas?

This shirt is made from a self drafted pattern which is a great pattern for loose fitting tops.

This robins egg blue one is made without a pattern and I arranged the pleats on my dressform and then sewed it together. This approach has caused the side seams to move a bit towards the back, but I'm calling that a design feature :) The armholes are a bit too large, but it doesn't really bother me.

Quite flowy, sorry for the crappy lighting

For the button holes I reinforced the fabric with a white cotton on the inside. I recycled the buttons by cutting them off one of my boyfriends old shirts and then using the wrong side, which was less shiny and has more colours than the right side.

Enjoying the French country side

Begging? What's that?

Both shirts have french seams and look really clean on the inside, which I really like.

This weekend my sister, Eef and me dyed some cotton scarves and some silk. At first my sister was sceptic about folding techniques, but look what she made!

Very concentrated workers

My sisters creation

I used a new technique from Shabd's book, which allows you to make polka dots and circles, how great is that?
I want to turn this piece of silk into an Anna maxi dress!

The green is a bit faded in the picture, but in real life it looks beautiful!

These photo's remind me that I should try and make a black skirt, since it is a very good staple piece to wear with all my new shirts. I was thinking this one from Pattern Cutting looks quite good to me..