Fashion Club with Tat- Recycled Runway Prep Continued

Recycled Runway Fashion Show is the key focus to Fashion Club with Tat.  We've moved beyond the standard Fourth Friday meetings in order to keep up with a tight schedule and looming deadline.  This is the portion of classes where everyone just follows what is instructed.

Today, we are sewing plastic and denim.

Tetyana Buchholz, Tat, is the mastermind behind this program series and has all of the ideas and techniques stored in her experience.  Teens are quilting images between plastic and denim.

Life Skills, recycled

Learning to make chains with Blue Apron packaging keeps these teens very busy!

Hot Glue can be a crafter's best friend.

In creating "Glitter Ghost," our proposed design, we are striving for an ethereal look.  Trying to mute the glitz of light-catching silver is difficult.  The loops end up flattened in this first attempted method.  Testing the materials so early in the game (we haven't even gotten the official word that our design is approved) is important, because what you intend the material to do versus what it actually does is a time hog.

Strips of Packaging

Strips of packaging are cut, then glued into loops.  The strategic placement of these loops creates an interlocking system, or "fabric," which will be a main focal point of this design.

Loopy Fiasco

Although we're almost 5 hours into this design, the loops must keep going! 

Like I mentioned, this task is a time hog. 

Quilting with Trash

While one team worked in the Looping Station, another team quilted with trash.  Taking denim, printed tissue paper, and clear plastic pouches, a new fabric has been developed.

Hazy Imagery

The plastic over the images give a hazy quality, lending to the ethereal feel.  We'll be working on this portion of the design for a few more hours to perfect the technique.  It's great to have gotten an extra work day in February, because of Winter Break.  Our dedicated designers were willing to forego their school vacation and work towards the completion of this community project.  They are excited to follow directions and keep the wheels turning, knowing the vision will come together and once it does, they will have important input to the final details of this design.  Many hands make light work.  Many teens make this fun!

More Imagery

This concludes 2 more Fashion Clubs with Tat.  

Check back next month to see our progress.

Thanks for visiting!

~erica

Fabric Holiday Cards

Fabric Holiday Cards

As a wrap up to 2016 and another chance to make gifts for loved ones, we hosted a Fabric Holiday Cards program with the fabulous Tetyana Buchholz, lovingly known as Tat.  We discussed offering this simple project to give students a chance to craft a gift, while learning valuable sewing skills.

The Lesson Begins

Tat started the class showing the basics.  Everyone needed a square of cardstock, a piece of fabric cut to the same size, and the same size sheet of Heat and Bond fusible fabric.  The process involved sandwiching the fusible fabric between the cardstock and fabric, then ironing them to bond the three as one.

Heat and Bond was a new experience for these crafters

After fusing the paper and fabric, Tat instructed everyone to cut out two different fabric patterns in half moon shapes with a template.  Once that step was complete, she showed the students how to roll and fold the fabrics to create a tree shape.  This tutorial from Life After Laundry provides clear instructions to create a different version of the tree.

Simple Folds make a Tree!

Once this step was covered, the projects started taking on individual appeal.  Each artist had their own vision and were on a mission to make their's perfect before class ended.  The tree needed a straight stitch running down the center to hold it onto the fused fabric square.

Stitch down the Center

When the tree was stitched to the fused fabric square, then individual designs stared to pop up.

"Gift Boxes" were placed under the "Tree"

Rhinestones, pom poms and more stitches

A border accent frames this card

Craft supplies were flying at all angles, but these students worked until the final seconds to finish.

Hot glue goes a long way

Each card was unique and made with love and care.  Projects like these are wonderful for creative outlet, as well as utilizing important skills like sewing.  The success of this simple project will lead to more of these classes in the new year.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Thank you for visiting and staying awhile.  Check back in January for the next installment of Fashion Club with Tat, where we start the process of designing fashion from trash for the Recycled Runway Fashion Show.  You don't want to miss it!

Taking Trash to the Catwalk

Wishing a Happy and Healthy New Year to you and yours' in interweb land and beyond!

xoxo,

erica