Creating and Applying Ninetails Dress Sleeve Detail Design
One of the next steps in making progress on Ninetails’ dress was to finish the details and attachments. The largest details on the dress is the swirling gold lines on the bottom of the sleeves. It’s a large graphic element of the dress base and I wanted to make sure I would going to be happy with it. I knew i wanted to use a soft vinyl fabric for the design over other methods, like painting.
Drafting the Pattern
Timelapse VOD of live stream session from Twitch. Originally streamed 12/17/2019
I started by ironing and measuring the bottom length of the sleeve. The design has two solid wide blocks of color with swirling lines that rise from the top. I was important to me to make sure that the design on the sleeve remained proportionate. I didn’t want it to be to large or to small. I keep craft paper on a roll to sketch and pattern with. Drafting the pattern on paper let’s me get a life size/accurate idea of what the finished design would look like on the sleeve when applied. Using a cheap paper like this I don’t feel bad making changes or starting over if I don’t like what I’ve drafted.
First, I sketched with pencil and then filled in with a dark marker. Darkening or filling in the entire design helps me visually block if I like the shapes of the curves or if I need to make any more adjustments before I move onto the next steps of turning my hand drawing into vector artwork.
Digitizing Artwork
After i was pleased with the size and style of the design it was time to digitize it. By doing this it allowed me to use my Cricut Maker to cut the design out and get smoother curves more quickly than if I was going to cut by hand. You can absolutely do this without a cutting machine like the Cricut, especially if you have a steady hand for cutting out details like this.
To begin turning my physical drawing into a digital one I first took a photo on a level surface and used the grid lines of my camera phone app to make sure I was not skewing the artwork. Then downloading the picture I used a software called Affinity Designer to redraw the art with the use of my picture as a base. Affinity Designer is very much like Adobe Illustrator if you are familiar with that program. Drawing the picture is a much more straightforward process with my hand drawn picture as a layer in my artwork file. I do not need to guess how big or long the art should be since I did all that figuring out with the the previous step. Now I can focus on making sure my curves are smooth and positioned evenly.
The next step once the artwork is a complete vector shape is to export it as an image and then import it into the Cricut program. I want to do a test cut of the art before committing to my fabric. Once I am happy with how the test cut goes I then I can start to prepare my fabric.
Applying design to the Sleeves
In order to apply the vinyl fabric design to the sleeve I used a material called Heat and Bond Ultra Hold Iron on Adhesive. This is a no sew, heat activated adhesive. It is double sided and very easy to use.
I broke the design of the sleeves into two parts. The bottom is essentially a long rectangle and the second piece is the same rectangle with swirl artwork that was digitized earlier. The was no need to digitize the simple rectangle, instead of cut that out by hand after measuring the length and width I needed. Next I also cut out the same length and width of the Ultrahold Heat and Bond then ironed it to the back of the vinyl fabric trimming an excess off so the bonded fabric had even edges. Once that was finished I removed the paper backing and used from Clover Clips to secure the bottom trim to the sleeve. It is important to note that because of the fabric I used I did not want to burn it or mar it and used the paper backing as a buffer between that fabric and the iron. I then went small section by section to iron down the bonded fabric. This process was repeated on the back of the sleeve and was made sure to match ends to make the whole bottom trim look like one continuous piece.
