Things I mean to do over the half term.

As half term comes there are so many things to do that it seems a little over whelming to know where to start. To begin though this came in over the last week.

This wonderful machine cuts out stencils. Amazing. The possibilities are endless :) I have cut a few stencils and started screen printing. Those of you who know me, know that this has been a long time coming. Screen printing is such a wonderful medium. The mixing of paint and the reveal of the print really has made this the most satisfying week. A few samples of what I am doing:

The top two are simply printed. No idea what I am going to do with them, yet. I hand embroidered and added sequins to the bottom ones. I plan to use them as part of the 'making a present' program that will run at the after school club next term. I like them. What do you think?

Up-cycled fabric top, the best top ever...

I have been working on various up-cycling patterns for the second year of sewing for the LPGS students and this is one that I love.  We go on holiday in a few weeks and a 'wear anyway you like garment' is priceless. Here is the pattern which is both a lovely top and a very wearable skirt! It took me about 2 hours to cut and make up which is another big plus. The pattern is based on a Japanese pattern from this book which has some very interesting ideas. I have amended the pattern to suit.

• One dress, or any bit of t shirt fabric for the top - I cut this from the bottom of a wrap dress . You need two pieces 96.5 Cm's (38") wide by 36 cm (14") long. This is for the TOP of the blouse. (sorry no picture of this, cut this before I thought to take a picture).
• One old t shirt that would loosely fit you. I used an old one I had, cut from just under the armhole about 36cm (14") long. This is for the BOTTOM of the blouse Keep the t shirt bottom hem which saves us sewing a hem!

Old t shirt. 

Cut from under armhole. Keep the hem. 

For the TOP of the blouse, attach the sides together on one short side (put the two 36cm pieces together right sides facing and sew with a stretch stitch).  You will now have one long piece of fabric. Turn over a hem on a long side of the fabric and sew down. This needs to be wide enough  and strong enough to button hole through, I used interlining on mine, on the next one I will simply use another layer of jersey as then it will stretch if I need it to! 

You will now have one long piece of fabric with a hem on the top end. 

 Fold this in half (width ways) and mark the center on both the front and the back. Leave 15 cm on EACH side of the center (30 cm total) and mark 4 button spaces for each shoulder I left about 4 cm between each button.

 Sew in the buttons.I have used some antique gold ones that look nice with the black and white fabric.

 Align the front with the back and mark where the button holes should go. Sew button holes in.  

Sew the other side of the blouse up. You should now have a tube of fabric with buttons and button holes on one side. (ahem, rather messy buttonhole)

Now gather the bottom hem of the TOP of the blouse and make it fit the width of the t shirt IE the BOTTOM of the blouse. I hand gathered mine and pinned as I went along. With right sides of the two fabrics facing each other pin and sew down.  

Turn it inside out. Give it a good iron and you are DONE! 

This garment has lots of options, if you want the blouse neck line to cowl a bit simply undo a button on either side of the neck and adjust and it falls into place. If you don't want a sleeve undo a button from the sleeve side and it falls in pleats by the arm hole. 

If you want to wear it as a skirt, then open all the buttons and use the BOTTOM of the blouse as a waist band. I turned mine over to sit on my hips better and the gold buttons just look like a feature. 

Enjoy!

If you have any question or would like anything explained please mail me.

A baby quilt

Our friends had a daughter and I wanted to make her a mini quilt. I have been thinking about this for a long time and in between half term and various other mummy jobs this one got delayed. Inspiration was from the Prints charming books and my general sewing ideas.

What I loved about it was how much I enjoyed doing it. I needed to incorporate lots of different ideas into the making of it making it more crazy than I intended but I loved the outcome.

Prints Charming

Prints charming the book, this book dropped onto my mat this morning. Hurray. I have been waiting for weeks or so it seems for this to come and boy is it worth the wait. What an amazing book for anyone who ever thought of or would like to screen print and put things together this book it is. 

a few pictures to drool over...literally.

So basically printing and then adding hand embroidery and other bits to embellish. Really really loving it right now. Off to come up with a design for printing. Ooh how happy this makes me...

The science museum

It was almost the end of the holiday and I had wanted to take the little ones to the science museum. I do enjoy a good walkabout and the weather seemed perfect for it. There is a reason I write about this, I promise...

I did not know they had a display of sewing machines and their history. Included was the lovely old american ads for the first machines.

After my Print club experience I was thrilled to find the studio project  run by Access art up in Cambridge. I signed up for a creative morning of printing and print making with the rather talented Zeena Shah. Turned out to be a fabulous morning, lots of very creative people meeting and learning together.



Here are a few photographs of the day

We worked on three different processes. Lino printing, screen printing and mono printing. I enjoyed the lino printing the best. The part I enjoyed the most was being able to create prints, even used pizza board to scour and use as a print. I will upload the how to's soon.

Printing

For those of you have come into a dress making workshop you know the problems with tissue patterns and  know that I consider them a necessary evil to making clothing!  As a teacher I find it a shame that it puts so many of us off sewing (me included!) I would rather make and wing a pattern sometimes to make that work for me. Now, it is incredibly satisfying to take a pattern follow the directions and come out with something fabulous. Maria one of my participants and I cut and sewed a wrap dress which was lovely and then proceeded to change things as we went along to make it more on trend. Now that was a workshop I really enjoyed! I digress...
I have been working on printing on fabric, there are so many different ways of doing this that I signed up to two particularly good courses that have helped me understand the process. The first was with the London print club, a wonderful set up based in Dalston that really made screen printing fun. It also helped me explore the use of colour and understand the boundaries of the process.

The first picture shows the drying racks, the second was of a screen table and the third of the computer, light box and a few of us milling about.

Here are the results of this creative day and my playing with colours to pull.

  

Two other screen printed images that I loved:

 

On to other types of printing for me. So many ideas... so little time.

Things am working on and things I love...

Finally sorted out the website or at least part of it. So much more I want to do with it but of course on to another time. I have been preoccupied with finalising the teaching plan for the new teens workshop that I want to start soon. I wanted this to be an exciting class full of stitched jewellery, accessories and of course fashion. I love how fabric is making a cross over into jewellery and for some amazing and simple ideas am using this book as a guide.  

 Am really into redoing old pieces to make new ones and have been reading some fabulous blogs with lots of ideas and inspiration. My current favourite point of inspiration is Threadbanger on Youtube. One in particular caught my eye, Tee dress recon by the very talented Maybelle. 

There are some fabulous easy redo's there and tons of ideas for the new teen class. I think this one will will be making the list. Exciting...