CHA Couture

The theme at CHA this year was fashion. I was really excited to be able to contribute to the Cornish Heritage Farm booth with a project I made using Kim Hughes' line! I thought a fun twist on the theme would be to focus on "children's fashion" and create a fun little outfit for a little girl.



CHF's booth colors were chocolate, deep orange, and bright pink. So... I went shopping. I found this cute denim purse at Wal-Mart in the craft department and knew I had to have it!

I bought some Avery iron-on transfer sheets and thought I would 'whip this outfit out' in no time! Ummm.... WRONG! If any of you are thinking about trying a project like this... let me spare you some frustration.

• Only use regular iron-on sheets with WHITE fabric. If you are going to be transferring onto anything with color, buy the transfer sheets made especially for dark fabrics. The regular sheets are transparent and the color of your fabric will alter the color of your stamped image. The sheets made for dark fabrics are opaque. You have to be really careful when you trim your image because whatever is outside of your stamped image will be solid white -- and will show onto your colored fabric.
• Do NOT use Copic markers to color in your stamped image. The alcohol in the markers 'eats away' at the transfer sheet and leaves a gunky mess!
• I had good luck with SU's markers. However, the color of the marker becomes much darker when you color onto the transfer sheet. You still have to be careful when you color so that the marker doesn't 'eat away' at the transfer... but it can be done pretty easily with a bit of practice.
• If you use the regular transfer sheets, your image will be reversed when you iron it on. So... stamping text onto these sheets will not work. I stamped directly onto my shirt using Palette Hybrid ink and heat setting.

For my shirt, I stamped the cat image (from CHF's Kim Hughes' Cutie Petootie set) onto an Avery transfer sheet made for DARK clothing --- using Graphite Black Brilliance ink. I let the ink completely dry. (Don't use a heat gun for this step. I'm sure you can figure out why.) :) Then I colored in the image with dye based markers. I cut out the image VERY carefully and applied it to the shirt following the package directions. As I said above, the sentiment was stamped directly onto the shirt using waterproof ink.

For the purse, I used the same type of transfer sheet for the puppy image from the same stamp set. I added felt flowers from American Crafts and a small charm (made with shrink film that had been stamped).

These are the hair ties I made by sewing the same felt flowers onto hair elastics. I made some charms (again with shrink film) and added Ranger Glossy Accents to give them some shine. (Images from the same stamp set)

And.... here is a glimpse of the Cornish Heritage Farms booth and my little outfit. (Thanks for the photo, Kristine!)