Yes, you read that correctly. This is the wackiest thing I've sewn so far...and I LOVE it!!!
When I spotted this unicorn fabric on Girl Charlee, I knew I had to do something awesome with it. First I thought it would be a dress, but then I went on a Briar-making spree and decided it would make a great top. I wanted to try out the shoulder patch variation that Megan Nielsen posted about, and after some deliberation I settled on this grey wool I had left in my stash (I actually used this stuff to make Scott's mini-suit for our wedding caketoppers).
But the more I looked at it, the more I thought I have to do something really ridiculous to go with those crazy, flying unicorns. What should it be? Rainbow stitching on the shoulders? Nope, too obvious. Then I thought about taking it in the complete opposite direction. I mean, it's already a black shirt...and just look at those unicorns. Don't they look kind of menacing - flying in huge flocks, following their one giant leader with horns ready to impale whatever gets in their way? Yeah?
You know what these unicorns need? Metal studs!
I ordered a pack of 1/4" pyramid metal studs from Studs and Spikes. It kind of took me back to my awkward high school years of listening to punk rock bands, wearing torn fishnets, spikes, and way too much eyeliner, and putting safety pins in damn near everything. Oooh wow. Remind me to never show those pictures!
When I ordered the studs, I thought they would be easy to put in. It's like a Bedazzler, right? (Who remembers those?!) I thought I could just position them and use something like a eyelet tool to set them in. Well...I couldn't find anything like that. It was really difficult to position them just right. Even after marking, they would tend to go off to the side a bit or twist around as I put them in...and then they might just fall right out before I could use my pliers to bend the teeth in. It took me a few episodes of Weeds to figure out a method that would work for me and finally get the first one done. I finished the second patch at work during a slow day. It was fun trying to explain that one to all the little old ladies who walk in..."Well, ma'am, you see, these are some hardcore metal shoulder patches I'm going to put on a unicorn shirt. Of course."
I appliquéd the shoulder patches on by machine using a blanket stitch. Last week I did a TON of appliqué for some samples at work, so I was thankful for all that practice. It really isn't hard (and now I kind of want to appliqué everything!).
You know, maybe I've just gotten used to the idea of this shirt, but it doesn't look as crazy as I thought it would. I honestly think it looks pretty awesome!
Shoulder details may be the new Peter Pan collar for me this year. Although, I will probably leave metal out of the equation from now on. But...beading? Sequins? I'm thinking of all kinds of stuff I wouldn't normally touch for a sewing project. Dear god, what has happened to me?!
Labels: briar, finished projects, sewing
