Of Easter Sewing camps and other wonderful things...

I cant believe how time flies, the older I get the quicker it seems to go! I am very behind in the blogging department but work and life have been marching on... Easter Sewing Camp happened.
This time we chose to run them at St davids College in West Wickham. A lovely site that had a convinient location and a really good feel to it. Lots of natural light and space. Seams So Easy also runs an after school club there which is fabulous :)
Some pictures from the Camp. This was the last day after much hard work on everyone's part...

This time we ran a Learn to sew on a machine section which was great. The students did really well, putting together a 16 square patch cushion!

We shibori dyed fabric and made them into skirts...

We hand embroidered and sewed ourselves some wallets!

All in all a very good result.

Taj Mahal and Agra...

Mr S is working in Mumbai on a project and I used the opportunity to visit this amazing place. I remember coming to Mumbai when I was pregnant with Master A which seems like a life time ago. I do remember feeling that it was a special place even then. This time we visited Agra and Taj Mahal which is simply amazing to see.

This is the view from the Agra fort of the TM. Shah Jehan built the Taj Mahal at the request of his dying wife. He built a monument that has survived over time. The marble is luminescent and seems to glow in the moonlight. The work decorating he Taj is all done out of precious stones, cut and inlaid into flowers and this is why it took as long as it did to construct. The structure is perfectly symmetrical in every aspect except the two tombs which are different sizes. This was the view he had, taken from his balcony. I found this view and aspect the best.

One of the entrance arches which has carved inlaid work at the top and over the door. 

Impressive when you realize that the marble is carved to size and the precious stones cut to fit exactly, no grout at all :) 

View of the side enterace

Master and Miss were very good considering how hot it was, even at 6 pm! 

The Islamic star and diamond motifs are all over the monument, the ceilings, the fretwork and the floor. 

The Agra fort was also an amazing place to visit. I honestly enjoyed it more than I did the Taj Mahal, the amazing carvings and fun playful nature of a lived in fort is wonderful. The Indian Army still occupies part of the fort and therefore only 15% of it can be seen. I found myself simply enjoying the views and the amazing rooms. 

Amazing place to visit. i wish I had more time and it was a different time of year as the 36 degree dry heat was very tiring.. I am very glad though that I had the time to make this amazing trip. 

On skirts, bleach printing and patterns..

I have been collecting ways and means of mark making and printing on to fabric to help me with the year three curriculum. I also have to admit that I adore printing on fabric. Anything to play with paint and fabric. Anyway, I digress.... I looked at block printing, tie dyeing and then I remembered that I saw this article on the Thread Magazine on printing with bleach.  A wonderfully easy way to change surface pattern and colour and the results are immediate and therefore most gratifying.
I used a pattern which I got from the this page from the Alabama Chanin site.

I cut a 6 piece wide skirt which in retrospect was the wrong pattern for this particular technique though I did want to try to get it to overlap on the seams which you can just about see in this picture.

The idea is to start with a basic stencil and strip the colour away on the knit to expose various other colours and with a dark knit, because so many other colours are used to achieve black, what you get is not predictable which for me is just fine!  I used my trusty silhouette machine to cut out the stencil and then used it to simply dab bleach that has been diluted onto the fabric.... the results are quite interesting.Once I finished I created the skirt and then added sequins and beads to it. Here is what I ended up with ....

I thought I would start the girls off with a t shirt and then move onto other more interesting things...I hope they enjoy this as much as I do!