Leaf it alone......

yes folks, the paint is dry

This is a "quick & dirty" snapshot of what the back of the shirt looked like before I started in attaching leaves

I had decided to play with the fusing stuff to attach the leaves, and had spent several hours on New Year's Day cutting out the leaves and cutting little pieces of Wonder Under to go behind each and every one, then had tacked the little pieces of that lovely iron on glue to each leaf.

Yesterday I attached the leaves to the shirt (pictures WILL be taken -- eventually) by peeling the paper backing off the sticky stuff and steam pressing to the shirt

my whole idea here was to have each leaf attached to the shirt at the center where the vein of the leaf would be and be loose at the edges so they would "move" like leaves fluttering in the breeze when the shirt is worn and moved in

so far, so good (although the question, as always, is "how many are enough?" aka when should I "leaf it alone"!?)

Today I hope to get started embellishing each leaf with beads down those center veins, then the plan is to use fabric paints to edge each leaf which will seal the edges so they won't fray and add some "glitter" -- in retrospect I probably should have done the sealing/painting step BEFORE I attached them, but I was afraid of what the iron would do to the paint if I did that, so this will be a project where I will have to pin paper behind each leaf to protect the shirt -- or maybe not, perhaps that "halo" outline actually on the shirt would be a cool look -- we'll see

I also worked on some more strawberries for the new bear yesterday, and have to admit that although the bead crocheted ones were "ok", the new one I started last night that is bead embroidered over a red velour backing really has that "OH WOW" factor, so I may be tearing out those original ones and do more of the new ones. More to think about

today I really do plan to get the jewelry inventoried -- hopefully!

into the fray!!