skip to main |
skip to sidebar
(well, maybe not this one, such tiny wings).
Aha, finally something crafty to post about! I've been inspired by all the lovely softies and birds people have been making so I thought I'd give it a go myself!
I prototyped her out of paper and sticky-tape first which sort of worked. After I sewed her together I had to go back and make some little changes - shorten her body, narrow her neck, give her head some darts. It's still not how I pictured her but I'm happy enough.
(the tail is still a work in progress)
I stuffed her using some cotton wadding that I've had in my stash for ages - it's the stuff they use in making futons and Japanese floor cushions, and basically looks like raw cotton right off the bush. It even has the occasional twig in it. It's awesome to work with tho - much more pliable than synthetic stuff and you can make it dense in some spots and light and fluffy in others. You can get it from friendly futon manufacturers. I'm not sure what other people use to stuff their toys but I really like the cotton wadding...
Oh man, I feel like such a slack blogger lately. Here I am reading post after post by everyone else and I just have nothing. In fact I feel incredibly slack in all facets of my work lately. The weeks just seems to be rolling by, and at the end of the day its like: "what did I actually get done today?"
There's certainly stuff in the works though. Like a mysterious little collaboration I've got going with Lynn from Satsuma Press. It's VERY exciting, and quite imminent too. More to come soon!
Meanwhile, given I have nothing to show of my own today, it's time for some linky love!
Satsuma Press blog
As previously mentioned, this is Lynn's very new blog! Keep an eye on this one, I reckon there's going to be some good reads and very inspiring letterpress related stuff (if her first few posts are anything to go by!)
Milk & Cookies
A good uni buddy of mine, Tali. She's just started a post-grad animation course, and posts really cool illustrations in lots of different styles.
Kwoozy
The lovely Pei (Pei Pei?) who I got to meet in person at the Etsy meetup the other week! I really like her cute crafty stuff and felted toys :)
Hollabee
A Melbourne based 'Dutchy' who only recently started her craft blog but is already off to a flying start. Some lovely stuff coming out of this one :)
Blossom Creations
The lovely Erin, who kindly put together a little Japan travel guide for me (she lived there for 2.5 years). Anyway her blog is full of some very awesome stuff, and she recently released a range of patterned gift wrap and notebooks. Very cool!
And last but not least - another Etsy purchase! Man I love the impulse buying power of PayPal.
This is a crotcheted coral piece by Jess from jpolka.etsy.com. You can either buy the pattern or she can make them to order for a very reasonable price! I plan to put it in a shadow box frame like she has on her site.
Okay time to go attempt to be productive...
Ohh, thanks everyone for the lovely response to the riverside pattern - very sweet :) And thanks for submitting your 'votes' as to which pattern I should print alongside it! I had to laugh though - there was a perfectly equal number of votes for each. Sheesh, talk about making decisions difficult! Anyway, I've decided, more for a technical reason than anything else. I think I'll keep it as a surprise :)
I'm sure I'm not alone in saying that one of my very favourite things in the world is getting packages in the mail. Especially surprise packages. It doesn't happen very often but this week was full of good things:
A length of 'kirin' (giraffe) trim that Pete's mum picked up for me and posted over (very sweet). My two letterpress pieces from Green Chair Press (Gosh they arrived quickly. And they're just as good as they look in the pictures!) And last but not least...
... Nicole's Freshly Blended business cards! They're letterpressed, with one of my patterns in the background - how cool! I've never seen anything of mine letterpressed before and she's done such a lovely job of the design. I like the way she's done two different card designs from the same plates. One with the pattern pale in the background of the text, and another with the pattern stronger, but on the reverse of the card. Very clever. They were printed by Shelley from French Press, who also did the card with the circles that you can (sort of) see above. Nice!
Ahh. I have that pleasant feeling you get after managing to successfully realize an idea that you've had in your head. Sometimes I feel like my 'ideas' are few and far between, and often I get stuck on an idea that I just can't get out onto paper. This is one of those ideas. I've made many false starts, I think because I was thinking too much about it. It seems to be so much easier to create stuff when you're in a somewhat altered state of consciousness. Drugs and drinking aren't really for me, but sleepiness seems to work as an alternative! This one started to come together directly after stumbling out of bed and onto the puter. I think that really helped.
I'd like to print this one soon, if I'm not the only one out there who likes it! But now it's a tossup as to which two designs I print next (I have to print them two at a time). This one, Birch Forest, or My Little Town. Hmm.
An exhausting start to the week. One of my 'real world' clients is having their opening night on Sunday and there's been lots to prepare for it. Promotional materials, signage for their premises, etc etc. I've never designed signage before but it's been a heap of fun - I like seeing my designs in real world contexts - hence the fabric production :)
Anyway, as retail therapy I just bought these two lovely letterpress prints from Green Chair Press. I'd seen Susan's work featured in a few places before and have always liked it, but for some reason it didn't occur to me till yesterday to just go buy some.
Signs of Spring - by Green Chair Press
Wood Type Collage no. 9 - by Green Chair Press
Oh and thanks muchly to those who commented on my last post! I'm glad you could see past the garishness of that costume and find something positive to say!
Signing off now to go battle the cold in our car-with-no-heater. Our coldest day in 9 years yesterday. If only it had snowed in Melbourne too! I can only dream.
...forgetting for a moment that you ever had an ounce of good taste, and sewing a Wonder Woman costume for a friend's dance competition. Click here to see a picture of this abomination (I wouldn't want to spoil the prettiness of my blog with such an unworthy picture!).
I had such a love hate relationship with this project. The lack of a proper pattern to go off was endlessly stressful, with me worrying that I might have done something wrong and not being able find out till the end. And a lot of the steps (eg side zip, waistband, appliqué) were things I hadn't attempted since high school.
But on the other hand it was so good to do something challenging like this, and proved a lot of things to myself. And it inspired me to try other sewing projects like the journal cover, which are so easy in comparison. Maybe the sewing machine isn't such a scary beast after all!
Anyway, that zapped up a lot of my time so it's back to work. I have so many emails and lovely comments to reply to, so sorry if I haven't gotten back to anyone yet!
Have a great weekend :)
Part 1: Measuring
1) Measure the height of your journal. Add 2cm. We will refer to this measurement as "H".
2) Whilst closed, measure around your journal, from the outside edge of the front cover, around the spine to the outside edge of the back cover. Add 2cm. We will call this measurement "L".
3) Measure how deep you want your cover pockets to be. 3/4 of the cover width or more is good. Then add 1cm to this measurement and double it. We will call this measurement "P". (eg: if your pocket depth is 12cm, then P = 13*2 = 26).
Part 2: Cutting
4) Cut your cover and lining fabrics, both the same size - H x L.
5) Cut your pocket fabric, two pieces, both H x P. Once cut, fold each piece in half widthways, with the correct side of the fabric facing outwards.
Part 3: Stitching
6) Lay the 4 pieces of fabric on top of one another and pin together like this:
7) Sew each of the sides of the cover and lining fabrics to the adjacent side of the pocket fabric, leaving a gap in the middle of one of the sides. I use an overlocker and trim about 2mm off the edge as I go. If you are sewing with an ordinary machine then stitch about 7mm in from the edge.
8) Lay the pieces down flat again, and then sew across the top and bottom. You should be sewing through the cover, lining and two layers of the pocket fabric each time:
9) Now for the moment of truth! Turn the whole thing right side out, through the hole you left in the side. You should be able to turn it out two different ways - either with the lining fabric tucked into the pockets, or with the cover fabric tucked into the pockets. This makes the cover completely reversible.
10) Finish it off by stitching up the hole, and ironing flat. Voila:
So there you go! Pretty easy, really. Would love to hear any suggestions if anyone has them! Personally I'd like to find a way to get the corners sharper so they're not so rounded, but I can't seem to poke them out enough. Must be something to do with the way it's all stitched together...
This is my contribution to the Great Wheatbag Race, (which Shannon has already won, but anyway):
The backstory? Shannon and I decided to make wheatbags on our walk home from the Melbourne Design Market yesterday. I sometimes get nasty leg cramps at night and have been meaning to buy one for ages - but why buy one when you can make one yourself! Apparently all you need to fill them with is some sort of wheatgrain (plus scented herbs if you want) - we found some at a health food shop on the way home - easy!
Anyway, we trammed down to the market nice and early yesterday, but it was already pretty crowded. Lots of very lovely, expensive yet inspiring things to see. One of my favorites was a range of very cute bits and pieces that I hadn't yet seen around the Melbourne design/craft scene - Library+. Cute website too!
I restrained myself and only bought this inexpensive brooch, from Elk:
Oh and thanks all for the very positive response to the last post! A tute is on it's way - will post this afternoon or tomorrow :)
I've been quite inspired by the fact that my sewing machine didn't let me down when I was making those coasters. Now I feel a new sense of freedom when it comes to project ideas that require my trusty old machine and overlocker!
A friend of mine recently bought one of those plain financial year diaries, and I suggested that we cover it with some fabric. Unsure of the best way to do this I decided to do a test run on one of my own journals (I love the beautiful hand-bound books that I've been given but often there's a need for a crappy A5 visual diary that you feel no preciousness about at all - but can still make look pretty).
Anyway, I spent a good part of the afternoon drawing diagrams of how I could best make a journal cover. One with pockets which the front and back covers slide into, and with no exposed seams. I knew there'd be some fancy, tricky way to sew it which would all come out perfectly once popped the right way out (hence the title of this post). I finally came up with a solution that seemed promising, did a test run with paper with heartening results, then crossed my fingers and tried it with fabric.
And it worked! I'm sure I'm not the first person to figure this out, but it was a fun problem solving exercise. Oh and there was a bonus surprise - the cover is reversible! Turn it out a different way and the inside lining becomes the outside and vice versa :)
Tute?
Well i'll be. Lovely blogger lusummers reminded me that good things come in threes, but when my work was featured on both crafty synergy AND the decor8 blog (!!) this week, I didn't really think that a third good thing was on it's way. But this morning I woke up to discover that it did indeed happen - Design*Sponge!! Thanks soooo much to all the lovely ladies for mentioning my fabric. I really do appreciate it.
Just wanted to write a quick but huge thank you to Patricia for posting my interview on Crafty Synergy yesterday!! You can read it here.
Thankyooooou!!
For some time now I've been thinking that bits of my fabric would make nice coasters. So, I finally ventured into the scary world of my unreliable sewing machine.
It actually turned out to be less scary than expected. I got some mysterious tangled threads in my bobbin area at first, and the machine made some horrible clacking noise as it sewed, but the tension was even and I got a nice stitch, and nothing went wrong except me sewing one side of the first coaster back-to-front. Yay! Nothing a bit of quick-unpick can't fix.
I have no real plans for these, just a bit of fun. I could never sell them for enough to cover the materials and time it takes slow-little-me to make them, and although they're washable I couldn't really bring myself to stain them with rings from tea and red wine. Maybe they'd make a good pressie for someone though :)
Today was the first day of the new F/Y, but it's also significant for another reason which I'm OVERJOYED about. The first day of the smoking ban in all pubs/bars in Melbourne! How awesome is that!? Took them bloody long enough. I'm sick of coming out of a venue reeking of other people's filth, and I've never understood why the hell there are people out there who are just "social smokers". What's with that?? No more o' that, thank you very much (unless u want to freeze your ass off outside).
Anyway enough ranting, hope everyone had a great weekend. Oh and there's new fabric up in the shop!
Well my final print run for a little while just arrived back from the printers. It's been fun to try out new colours! I've decided to start calling my prints "limited edition", because I can fairly confidently say that I wont be printing the same colourway more than once or twice. Keeping things fresh seems to be the way to go.
I'm really happy with how these turned out, except for the black. The black is a bit patchy in places, so anybody who orders it will receive an extra large quantity to compensate! I think it's because it's so high contrast (can't get any higher contrast than black and white!) so any variation in the ink is more obvious than in the lighter colours. That said, sometimes it's nice for things to be a bit rough around the edges otherwise it's easy to forget that this stuff is printed by hand, not by machines :)
Hope you like them! These ones go up in the shop on Sunday morning Melbourne time :)
Firstly I just want to say thank you for the overwhelming response to my post the other day. So many fantastic, insightful and honest comments, and it's nice to know that a lot of people have similar concerns about uniqueness.
Given that the positive far outweighted the negative, I'll definitely be printing the birches with my next print run. Possibly alongside the "My Little Town" (thanks pip!) pattern from a little while ago. This wont happen for some time though as my printer is taking a break. If I'm lucky it'll be printed early August, if not it wont be till I get back from Japan, sometime in September.
Meanwhile, look what got delivered to my doorstop this morning!
I only ordered it yesterday afternoon on impulse (speedy delivery!!) after a friend told me that I could upgrade from my Creative Suite 1 for only $900. For anyone who's bought legitimate design software before you'll know that's SUCH a good deal. It's got Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, Flash, Dreamweaver... the works! It feels so good to be up to date - and legitimately so.
Something else arrived today too - my latest batch of fabric! Will post pics + info soon, but in a nutshell it's 8 new colour combinations that I haven't printed before, in Bonsai, Geese, Poppies and Raindrops. And I'm really happy with how they turned out :)
It's funny how sometimes the craft/design blog world can be simultaneously inspiring and petrifying.
Sometimes I look around and it feels like there's so many great ideas flying around out there and it's all too much. Not that long ago it seemed like there was a clear path and it was really obvious what would make a great design. Now it feels like a lot of those things have been "done", and there's a feeling (for me at least) of "where to next?".
Against my own advice I've also been putting more pressure on myself to come up with "the best design ever". I have all these ideas on the edge of my brain that I just can't seem to make come out right. I'm also trying to think of designs that can challenge the mediums and processes I have on hand. For example, I'd love to come up with a 2 colour screen print design where both colours can be printed off the same screen. I'd also love to be able to do an "inverse" print - where the design is made up of solid inked areas with gaps that form the design, rather than the other way around. This can be technically difficult though - because the printer prints the design in panels, you can get a double inked area where the panels overlap slightly.
Anyway that all said, below is a design that came to me this morning. It can work as as inverse print if the edges of the repeat go through the middle of a tree. I can just imagine a cushion made out of this :)
Only problem though is that it reminds me a lot of some other designs I've seen out there recently. Like Bird in the Hand's tree screen print or (scarily close to home) Auntie Cookie's home sweet home fabric. Am I being crazy? Tell me, honestly....
Hehe, some fantastic, understanding responses to my last whingey post - thanks for that :)
I've finally sorted out my packaging for the lampshades. I needed to come up with a way to put them in the post without them getting squished, and I've finally found the solution, whoo! So I've just put this little pair up in my etsy shop:
I wonder if people will want to buy them, or are they just hanging out to make some themselves!? I will post a tute in a little while, I just have to get my hands on more frames first, which involves trekking across town yet again.
Have a great weekend, all :)
Sometimes something comes along that makes me feel sooo glad, and so extra appreciative about having this blog and being able to make my patterns and fabric and sell stuff on Etsy. This little part of my life on the side gives me some semblance of control in my creative career. I design things I think look pretty, and if people think so too then they buy it. Easy as that.
Not so in my "real world" job, where as a designer sometimes you feel like you have no control or respect as a professional at all. For example, an identity job that I've been working on over the last little while. It got to that stage where it was so close to being signed off, and I was feeling really confident about it. Visually it worked well, and it sent the right messages about the business to it's market, and the client seemed happy.
But this week what I received from the client wasn't a sign-off, instead it was their own, completely different rendition of the logo which frankly didn't work for many, many reasons. But they're happy with and want to go with, and just asked me to tidy it up.
This seems to be a problem endlessly faced by designers. Sometimes you have these fantastic clients who really respect your professional opinion, and then there are others who see design as a purely subjective thing, and that anyone can make a call on it. But then, when you try to take a stand and argue your point, designers often get labeled as 'difficult' or 'protective', or worse, that we think ourselves holier-than-thou because apparently we think our tastes are 'better' than yours. But often it's got very little to do with taste. It's about meeting real, solid business objectives, and having to be very objective in doing so.
Anyway, [/rant] !! In lighter news, how cute is this! Mr. Lee CatCam - a German guy who attached a camera to his cat to capture his adventures. The resulting photos are so good!
And also, I always feel so guiltily indulgent when I do this, but how gorgeous are these things made with the fabric!! If I've missed anyone just drop me a line - these are just the ones I remembered to bookmark!
Clockwise from top left:
1. Pot Holders by Suki Threads
2. A Kirin Cushion by Spin Spin
3. Deer Crossing cushion by Tutti Fruiti4. Neck Warmer by Tutti Fruiti
It's funny, one of the first things I think when I'm designing my fabric is "ooh, how would this look as a lampshade??". I think I've been quietly obsessing over making my fabric into lampshades for quite some time now. I love lamps - they make SUCH a difference to the feel of a room. When I first met Pete I fell in love with his bedroom for all the lamps he had around the place, and now we have them all around the living room :)
Anyway, the biggest challenge has been finding the wire lampshade frames. They are surprisingly difficult to come across in old Melbourne town. Okay I admit, I knew for quite some time that you could get them from Handworks in Prahran, but like many Melbournians I suffer from a strange irrational fear of crossing the Yarra River to the other side of town. "Ah, your party is in St Kilda. Ohhh...."
Anyway, my good friend Karin kept me company on this arduous journey and finally I got to make these!
The one on the left is Kristen Doran's Mollybirds fabric - it makes a gorgeous table lamp and I love the texture of the fabric. The key to successfully lampshade making is spray adhesive - my new love. I might post a tute about how to make them shortly.
These two will probably go up on etsy once I sort out my pricing and packaging. They're fully fitted with power cord, switch and bulb socket, but I suppose that won't be much use to US customers! So maybe i'll sell the electical bits separately if people want them. Oh and thank you for all the lovely comments on my last post about A2 :) :)
A quick but huge thank you to 'Bowie Style' from Print and Pattern for featuring my work on her blog! I contacted her the other day about my latest prints (of which I got a lot printed this time!!) and I'm very happy that she decided to post about them :)
Yaaaay, I made it into the newspaper yesterday! And all thanks goes to Pip from Meet Me at Mikes for recommending me to one of the editors of the A2. Thanks again Pip!
I don't sound too silly at all - phew :)
Wow thank you so much for the lovely comments on my last post! Some fantastic suggestions of places we should visit in Japan - I don't think there'll be any shortage of things to do! We're going in August for two weeks and are staying & traveling with a friend who lives in Tokyo - perfect!
I haven't been a very good blogger lately it seems - quite a while between posts and most of them have just been fabric updates. But some cool new interesting stuff is coming up which I'll post about in the next few days. Meanwhile, there's some more fabric up in the shop today. This is the second last run before my printer takes a break, and then I go away. So no more until September or so. But that's fine - I don't want to oversaturate the market or anything ;)
All available here.
Have a great weekend :)
I must admit, I usually have a fairly quiet after-hours life, but the last few days have been quite eventful. On Saturday I went to the Rose Street Artist's Market and met the very lovely Justinamaria. It was such a highlight to see the lovely things she's made with my little-ol' fabric in person. Very flattering.
Then, on Monday (a public holiday here in Melbs) we drove up to Ballarat in our "trusty" 20yr old Skyline, and whilst traveling at 110kmph in the pouring rain one of our windscreen wipers flew off and hit another car! And not just the rubber bit, but the whole swivelly head bit! We had to drive the rest of the way leaning to the side. It was actually quite scary. We tried to drive back to Melbs that night but with the dark and rain and crappy headlights and a scary near miss with a truck, we had to turn around and wait till morning.
Last night was a free ticket to The Australian Ballet (thanks mum!), tonight is Aqualung, but by far the best thing to happen of all... we booked flights to Japan!!! I can't believe it's actually going to happen! I haven't traveled overseas in almost 10 years, and have always, always wanted to go to Japan. I'm so excited. I'd also love to hear any suggestions/recommendations of places to visit from anybody out there! Anything with an art/craft/design slant would be extra cool :)
And, because it's just plain wrong to post without a picture, here's a little wip I'm working on :)
