I could have shown you my finished Burda 2012-09-123 T-shirt. Except I couldn’t finish it. Because I had to send Saffy the sewing machine back to the hospital.

She came back last Saturday. Her unbalanced tension seemed to have been fixed. But oh no, what’s this, Needle Down setting no longer works! And I can’t live without the Needle Down setting. I don’t know about you, but whatever I sew, the feed doesn’t stay straight. I constantly have to readjust the seam allowance to keep the sewing on the stitching line. Stopping with the needle down and presser foot slightly up has saved many a sewing project here. Plus there are all those corner turning where it comes in handy too. So back to the sewing machine repair shop Saffy went today.

I’ve actually sewn up most of the T-shirt already. I just need to finish the stretch hemming on Saffy’s return. In the meanwhile I can show you the embellishment step.

So for the front, I went back to my art history lesson and pulled up this mosaic image of Byzantine Empress Theodora (who turned out to be pretty cool, an early feminist you might say).

• First I turned the image into grayscale and fiddled with the contrast in a photo editing software.
• Then I printed it out, scaling to the size I need, and traced the key outlines onto tracing paper.
• Next using dressmaking carbon and a blunt plastic needle (used for sewing up hand knitting) I transferred the design onto the fabric which had the pattern pieces already marked out.
• Finally I used 3 different metallic paints to fill in the outlines: Jacquard Lumiere 561 Metallic Gold for white areas, Jacquard Lumiere 552 Bright Gold for mid-tone areas, and Jacquard Lumiere 565 Metallic Bronze for dark areas. Then heat set with iron set at temperature for my fabric.

For the back I used the Urban Threads wings embroidery design as planned. I was good though. Rather than ripping the artist off, I paid for easily affordable $1 hand embroidery design.

• I printed this out directly on tracing paper with the design scaled down to 90%.
• Then this was again transferred to the back fabric piece with dressmaking carbon and an old dried out ball-point pen.
• The lines were then traced with the Jacquard Lumiere 561 Metallic Gold and Jacquard Lumiere 552 Bright Gold fabric paint, and again heat set with iron.

Those of you with eagle eyes (and mind) would have noticed I committed a big sin in the process: Marking the fabric with carbon paper like there’s no tomorrow. And worse, pressing over the said markings without washing them out first. Yeah, I’m a rebel. So sue me! 😉 Bred in NYC I like my Edginess. So I don’t mind if the carbon marking won’t wash out. If you’re of posher or more conservative taste, then do find some other way of transferring your markings and designs.

Anyway, I’m off to find some other project I can work on with just Bernie the overlocker and handsewing.

Stayed tune for the conclusion to this Heavenly T-shirt project coming in a week or two!