Guardian Angel Art Bra Done

Well I've finished embellishing/decorating my Art Bra. I used silk ribbon, braid, yarn, beads, sequins, and organdy ribbon. I dyed the fabrics and many of the embellishments using Jacquard's Dye-na-flow. It's so easy - just paint it on! I bought a couple of exciter packs and was disappointed that JoAnn's no longer seems to carry them - but they are so good to try out the different dyes/paints in small quantities. In the case of fabric or ribbon, I washed it, then heat set it by ironing. If it was some embellishment that would be flattened or ruined by washing/ironing, I just shot it with some steam from my iron to set it. I have to say, this was one of the funnest(is that a word?) parts of the project - to be able to make whatever color I wanted. I looked for this color of pink fabric at my local JoAnn's, but could only find pale pale pink or hot hot pink. So, back to home to dye some! Besides I have boxes of fabric and really try hard not to buy any more.


Here's the angel, with her archway of mother-of-pearl stars in the sky....She was really fun to make also. The ribbon encircling her dress was pale turquoise with white stitching, so I dyed it to match the dress. The gold edging on the top of her dress is the edging on some woven ribbon that I cut off. Her breasts are, guess what, pom poms! They were just the right size and I made a little "bra" cover for them so she wouldn't have bumpy boobs! It was a good idea to use something lightweight like parachute silk for her dress, since she's rather small and I could make it look compact while still being able to manipulate it the way I wanted. That was one thing with some of the other paints by Jacquard - I painted some ribbons, etc. with Lumiere, but it changes the hand of the fabric, so the ribbon was then too stiff to gather, etc.



And here are the two put together...I almost think the bra is fine without the angel, but after all she WAS my inspiration, so...


All in all, this was a very satisfying project to work on - very few limitatations, very open-ended, I loved it!

Happy creating,
Lin Moon