Canvas and Dresses Play Date

 My friend K invited us to her lovely home for a day of arts and crafts and yummy food.  She had seen some images online of baby dresses on canvas and was anxious to try it out.  She had prepared "samples" using various techniques so that she could advise us on the best recipe for success!
Here is a doll dress she dipped in plaster and mounted on canvas, which she then painted and added a vintage looking key.  Not quite done - but you can see how cool this is!  It looks like a priceless heirloom, when in fact it was a cheesy synthetic doll dress!

 Here is a different variation - this time using Alene's fabric stiffener.  the dress and hat look soft and fluffy - but are in fact hard as rocks.

 For this cute overall, she tried liquid nails - a construction adhesive.  it can change the colour of your item - but looks great with the texture of this fabric.

 Here's a little dress in progress.

 My friend D decided to make her dress out of textured paper.  she created a colorful background and added some scrabble letters.  She plans to further embellish her canvas with golf tees and possibly pez heads.  But that's just D's signature style!

Here is Z's lace covered box.  she is perking up all the ruffles after dipping it in fabric stiffener.

 Z had this sweet little leather baby shoe and created the beautiful fabric and lace covered box for it to sit on.  She was not quite done - still to add laces and other adornments.

 S had two pieces to place on her collaged canvas - little overalls and a pink dress.  She added some painterly touches and brought out the texture of the papers.

 A play date at K's means a delicious lunch (breakfast and snacks too!).  We had a two yummy salads and blt lobster burgers.

For dessert we had a choice of key lime pie or  individual lemon meringue tarts - how cute!

 I did not bring a baby or doll dress for my project.  I brought instead two scraps of fabric.  The first one is a embroidered textured cotton with a few age marks. i got it in a swap a few years ago - you can see HERE.  We thought it was very funny - "ooh look at my piece of old stained fabric - i got it in a swap!"  Only us crazy artsy people think this is valuable!

 I trimmed it into a dress shape and ran a few stitches along the sleeves.

 Then i gathered the skirt.

 A bit of smocking trim and a couple of buttons - and voila!  We have a dress!

 For the background i used a pretty piece of Cavallini paper - with a couple of scrap cigar lables added.

 I put the dress into a ziplock bag K had prepared.  It was filled with liquid nails.  I smooshed it around and then pulled out the fabric and removed the excess.  Then i laid it on the prepared canvas.  It sticks!  I used a skewer to arrange the folds of the skirt.

 After about 2 hours it was dry enough to paint or embellish.  I just added some white gesso brush strokes to highlight the fabric.  Might add some more "stuff".

 For my second dress i used a scrap of blue silk from a discarded cushion.

 I cut out a rectangle and gathered it up for a skirt.  Then i created a little bodice with lace trim.  Some vintage seam binding ribbon for straps.

For the background i collaged wall paper scraps onto a 12 x 12 canvas.  then added some text and sheet music.  I left the center blank - thinking it would not show anyway..!

 I placed the dress in a ziplock bag of fabric stiffener and laid it on the canvas.

 It took about 2 hours to dry and it turned green!  It was also pretty transparent - like the texture of sea weed or deep fried spinach.

I added a bit of blue glaze to the dress which puddled in the texture of the fabric.  I am not sure if i am "finished" - i might tone down the white lace with tea stain and add more embellishment to the canvas.

But all in all a really fun play date with my art peeps!