Thursday, July 28, 2011

trial & error

So I finally got around to going to Goodwill and Hobby Lobby (craft store) yesterday in an effort to get my heart sweater project started. After rummaging through racks for almost 3 hours, I finally found a grey henley sweater that I thought could possibly work and came home to wash it. I spent the next few hours sewing on a few hundred sequins and a bead outline by hand and these are the conclusions I've reached so far:

Problem #1) Henley style sweaters just won't do, especially whilst sewing by hand. It's not impossible, but it's really hard to work with because sometimes it will catch weird, resulting in little snags (see the detail picture below) and 3 broken needles.



^ Shirt from hell! ^

Solution) I'm going to be ordering one of these plain terry pullovers from Forever21. I can't decide if I should stick with the heather grey - same as the Topshop sweater - or get the purple (purple would require getting different colored beads/sequins since that's what I have now)...



Problem #2) My hands kind of hurt.

Solution) given I'll be using an easier fabric next time and doing WAY less sequins per heart, I think it would still be stupid to do it by hand (and as you can see, my sewing by hand is shoddy at best) so I'll definitely be using my cousin's sewing machine.



Problem #3) Heart stencil, sequin shape/size, beads

Solution) I made the executive decision to use a different heart shape than what Topshop used because I just generally like a rounder shaped heart, rather than elongated. Well, that really doesn't seem to be best for this project... price of being power hungry!!! BLAST! But that's an easy fix. I also need to get different sequins &/or beads, less 3D sequins and shorter beads- although I do love the beads, I'll probably get little dot ones and use them interchangeably.





So, yeah! That's where I'm at one that project as of now! I'm surprisingly not deflated by the failed first attempt, perhaps even more excited for the new/finished project, because I think the changes will work out swimmingly! I also haven't really lost anything because I can use these materials for other things and I've only spent $12 so far!


Let me know if you have any suggestions for my next try that I haven't thought of yet. :)

1 comment:

kenzie said...

personally i think you should stick with the grey (although the purples cute, it wont go with as much) it looks good so far :) im thinking about doing some D.I.Y shorts with loads of sequins and beads abit like some that ive seen in all saints and just cant afford...its a good way of saving money :) xx