Dragon Jeans

This is the project I started in Tracy Bautista's class Denim Re:Vamped on the Wednesday while I was in Houston. I loved the techniques she showed us and had a pair of jeans I have just managed to get back into again. Half of Tracy's supplies never showed up! But she still had some good colours. Rather than um and aw about "what to do"...I decided to go with colours I knew I could work with straight off. I am not totally happy with the shape of the dragon...a bit too wurm like for me, but I have some ideas how I can fix it. There wasn't a darker red, so I had to go a bit pinkish for the base colour.

She gave us a little kit with bits and pieces, and I used an adhesive soft foam shape to make a stamp to give the dragon a bit of a background. (Story Alert: As it turns out these are fire balls which the dragon breathes out, rather than the typical flames.) I used that shape idea to cut up the painted fabric collage to make larger fire balls for the other leg of the jeans.They are fused down, and will need to be stitched to make them permanent. I also did a bit of painted fusible to create the transparent looking ones. Tracy hadn't heard of that technique, so I showed her. Wonder what direction that will take her work!!

I liked the start of these so much, that I cut a few more shapes in the hotel and fused them to the back! Then I wore them for a class on the Saturday. I got a lot of comments when I was walking round the quilt show.

This is a close up of a patch which I put on the front upper thigh area. I have added the flames since I came home, since I also used up another larger piece of the collage fabric, added flames and put it on the back thigh area.

As you can tell, I have now opened the side seam so I can stitch the appliqués with my sewing machine. I think I will use black thread.

These jeans will be great to wear for some of the workshops I am going to be doing in the next few weeks. I will show a photo when they are finished.

Workshops:

Christmas Boxes at the Birch Hill Library Wednesday, 26th November, 2008 2-4pm

Tactile Textiles 2 - private booking here 11th December, 2008, 10am-4pm