I made a new blue dress

I made a dress out of some of my Spoonflower material.  A friend had craft night at her house which got me motivated to get a start, I took along my duct-tape dummie, an old sheet (for pattern making) pins a pen and some scissors.  I got a little carried away, having an audience, and was a little gung-ho with the pattern making and scissors and new fabric, but it all turned out ok in the end.  I made some covered buttons to go on the back of the dress which I liked and had a go at shirring, which I also liked and must do again some time.  Today my older child had the afternoon off school, so I badgered her and her friend into doing some styling and modelling for me.

There was great pouting and preening going on and fun was had by all.
I also had my photo taken for the style section of the local paper, whilst wearing this dress, which made me happy, especially as my husband had joked to me that this very thing would happen before I left the house.
They also did a styling of a nice suit I had bought at the op-shop, but that is another post.  

denim and lace bag

over the weekend, under great command and complete control (hers, not mine) I made a bag for my thirteen year old daughter.  She picked all the fabric and all the ribbons and bibbons and told me how many pockets were required and handed me a pile of old nonsense that she absolutely needed to put into it on a regular basis; ipod, cell-phone, pen knife (every teenage girl should have one), bag of crisps, DVD, three juggling balls etc...  She picks stuff I would never choose myself, and I eventually get my head around it and then quite like it.

 above, all the lace came from friends and the op-shop.  I love this little bit of circles.

 above, the perfect accessory was this little badge/button of vintage fabric that my friend made for her.  cute!

and the lining was this lovely silk (will probably shred in about a week) with little elephants on it and some pink spots for added strength.  here are essential items 1-3.

Her friend was impressed and said I could probably sell these for loads of money, when pressed farther on, how much this could mean, she thought maybe even as much as $20 nz. I have decided not to take it up as my new career, as it took me about two days to make.   

side-show dollies all sewn-up

I have spent some time sewing up my cut and sew dollies that I had printed out at Spoonflower.  My daughters and I spent an evening painting the B&W one and her clothes and then I did a little embroidery on her also.  I was planning on really changing her a lot, but then my daughter said she would like her, and so it was all quite mild mannered after all.  below, B&W left, coloured right

 I love how they have sewn up and that they always look different from what I expect, it's always a nice surprise.  This is them in their undies.

 above, I sewed up their skirts with added lace and used black ric-rac for the tops straps.

above, wearing a dress made from the background fabric.

This the painted version of the B&W doll.

new fabric arrives

I have received some more fabric from spoonflower, I waited very impatiently and it arrived when I was away on holiday, so exciting to come back to.

 above, this was printed onto silk and I think I would like to make a party dress out of it, but I need to order more, I just have a fat quarter at the moment, makes a good head-scarf though.

 above, one of my cut and sew dollie kits, I need to make her now.

 above, I love the big bold scale of this, I have changed the colour of the red to a less orangey red and removed that strange little red bit hanging off the cloud.

 above, these were on a painting I did on brown paper and newspaper, I am going to make a cushion cover for each of my daughters with them. (whether they like it or not)

 another cut and sew, in B&W this time.  I am going to paint and embroider her I think before I make her up.

 above, two different scales of the same pattern.  I wish my girls were still small and I could make them little summer dresses out of these.  I think I will make a skirt or two for me.

 above, the photo is in focus, the fabric is an out of focus design, I am going to make a summer dress out of this.  I have 2 yards.

I rather like how this printed out some pencil marks from my original drawings that I didn't know were there.  This is just a test swatch so only 8"x8", there is more to the design, and I have done some different colourways too.

I was v pleased with the way they all printed, I just need to get sewing with them.  All my sewing stuff is in the garage, so I need to go get it and sort out my sewing room. And keep my younger daughter out, cause she makes a dreadful mess.

change of plan

I decided to change my Spoonflower zombie plushie cut and sew design so that the dolls would have arms sticking out.  This involved a lot of faffing around on my behalf, and I spent 3 hours on photo-shop one evening, only to mess up my evening s work with my own incompetence.  Anyway, I then realised that the only way I was capable of doing the change was manually with scissors and glue, and then onto photo-shop and begin at the beginning again.

 You can see they still have their arms behind them, and I cut off the tops of their heads.

I drew new arms and cut them out and stuck them on and then scanned them, and then spent some time fiddling around with them until I was happy with the result.

This was my first design.  I decided to remove the black outlines so that it would look better when sewn up (more room for error). it's hard to imagine it would take so long to make so few changes.
the original design is still on spoonflower, but i entered the new one in the Zombie Plushie competition.

Zombies on photoshop

I have managed to make a small inroad into my previous photo-shop ignorance, and battled with seemingly un-logical technology to make-up a pattern for another Spoonflower fabric contest.  It isn't until October and I do not expect to win as my taste and technical know-how seems to vary wildly with the usual winners, but still I do it because I want to, and I like doing it.  So this is my latest offering.  Ahem!

zombie party girls is  a cut and sew pattern for stuffed zombies, with an extra bit of zombie inspired ( eyeballs, hearts, dripping blood etc) fabric on the side, for anything that takes your fancy.  I had fun designing their dresses, so I hope they look glam enough if not a little dishevelled.

I have just had to change the colours on my entry as informed by my 13 year old that the green was not so good.  I think she is right too, so now it is purple.  also the name is lame, apparently, but I will just have to leave it for now.  Note to self "consult 13 year old before doing anything first."  I already use my 9 year old as my stylist, when I get dressed to go out of an evening.

Million Dollar Design

I have just come across Million Dollar Design, they are an illustration duo from Amsterdam who love to mix different materials like paper, fabric, photography and drawings to give their illustrations a rich and layered look.  They have some beautiful fabric designs which I have my eye on.  Pretty fabulous I do think!  Also other news is that my computer is messing me around and hence the pictures are not lining up properly and are being like naughty children and ignoring my commands and just going where they feel like going.  So I apologise for the slightly dodgy layout.

Some fabric of mine for sale.

My Spoonflower swatches finally arrived after getting a little lost along the way.  These were little 8"x8" swatches.  I was happy with how they came out, the colours are really lovely in real life.  And they are now for sale on Spoonflower at eat my sweet dust.  They are patterns from photographs I took on a sunny day, so lovely sky blues and bright yellow lichen and softy green grass and trees.  I think they are well cool.

above print is big scale.  This image is on a yard (42"x36") I would like to make skirts and dresses and bags and curtains and cushions and lots of stuff out of them.