Purse- suit of Happiness (oosh that was bad yeah?)

So this week has been mega busy but in a really good way. Lots of time spent eating tasty food with lovely friends and family and a visit from my sister and her family as well as a whole heap of printing and stitching.

Just for today though I wanted to share a few purses that I whipped up out of old curtains and bedding. I used a small magnetic clasp to keep them closed and bias binding for the edging.

 

Wonderland Embroidery

I've started a personal project. I've fallen in love with the hoopla craze; I blame Crafster for this! Also there are a few large blank walls left in the house which are just asking for decoration =)

I bought a beautiful pair of vintage Alice in Wonderland curtains from eBay many moons ago and had (with hindsight now I'm gutted) chopped them up and made handbags and purses galore to sell at craft stalls. I remember they sold really well as it's really unusual fabric. I was in my early 20's and was eager to use good fabrics I guess; I'm so much more precious now. Going through the crazy fabric stash the other day I came across scraps of the curtains that I'd saved - go me not throwing anything away!! I decided it would be fun to applique some of the characters and use big enough pieces to fill my hoopla need!

Here's what I've done so far and some progress....

The Queen's announcer is in a 10" hoop and the Tea Party is in an 8". I've bought a selection of other sizes too for new ones.

The edge of the tea party is the actual fabric and the rabbit is appliqued onto the pink stripey background. Its a lightweight cotton that I thought matched quite well. The pictures below show a closer view of the stitches I've used. The pink stitched line work is back stitched to secure the fabric as well as decorate. You can just make out little french knots in the whites of his eyes. For the fur I've free stitched to give him texture but kept it to the outline for a more minimal feel. I've created stripes on his tunic and outlined the heart in split stitch as it's nice and neat. The screen print itself is terrible, the registration (lining up) of the colours is well off but it adds to the quirk I guess. I like the effect anyways.

The Tea Party was really fun to embroider into. The wonk on the print meant there was lots of bits I could tidy up. I've been wanting to do a pile of french knots for ages, what a perfect fit for a bunny tail, eep!

I've since added a few more stitches across the bridge of his nose to hide that yellow bit of print.

I made a little cross stitch pattern to his jacket to try and give a tweed impression and I satin filled in his lapels too. His waistcoat buttons have little french knots. I'm thinking of trying out some chain effects on the pocket watch.

The tea cup was originally just plain white, so I thought it'd be fun to put a little pattern on it!

So once again the running theme of the dodgy registration meant that Alice wasn't too pretty. You can see in the photo below she was missing a nose and her eyes were doing something funky haha. I used a split stitch to add different shades into her hair and then with just a single thread from the skein I stitched into her face to add more detail. I hope I've done her justice!

It was fun doing the little scallop on the bottom of her apron; I've enjoyed using new stitches.

There's still loads to do on the big rabbit one and I want to do more so I can have a big wall of hooplas but this is a work in progress so I guess I'll just keep showing you updates along the way =)


 

Vintage Pattern Vintage Fabrics - Heaven!

I had a treat of a job when Hollie from Broken Girls Club asked me to make her a collection of vintage dresses. Out of the pile of patterns I had recently been given she choose one she liked and brought me a big bag of beautiful vintage curtains, bed linen, fabrics and lacy trims to make them out of.

There were some absolutely stunning fabrics in the pile she gave me so I hope I've done them justice! These first 3 are a size 16 on the vintage pattern but nowadays sizes I'd say more like a small 14. They were all curtain fabrics so have quite a nice weight to them, like the original one I'd made.

The next 2 dresses are about a size 12. These were made out of much lighter weight fabrics and give the dress quite a different look. I think they seem a bit more casual but still sweet and would look great with a netted petticoat. The yellow and white one had to be the prettiest bed sheet I've seen in a long time.

Love the patchwork print of this duvet cover, translates really well into dress fabric. I've also made the next 2 out of the same duvet but using the contrasting fabric from each side. the pinker one is a size 12 and the white is the first of the size 10s.

Such a cute ditsy style print. The last two dresses are also a lighter weight fabric bit they were actually fabric lengths rather than duvets or curtains. The blue with double white heart repeat print is delish I really wanted to keep this one for myself. The skirt is super full, the most gather out of all of them; because of all the different types of things being used it was difficult to regiment the fullness of the skirts. The pink dress is a lovely brushed cotton with a small amount of stretch to it. I found some old turquoise rickrack in a suitcase so popped that on too.

Phew... so that's been my busy week! Pretty epic but I cant wait to go and see them in the shop in Morgans Arcade in Cardiff. Hollie's dropped off another bag of fabric and some vintage dresses with broken zips and sleeves to repair so she's keeping me super busy at the mo! all good x

Screen Printing on Recycled Fabrics

Today I have spent the day down the PrintHaus with Becca who runs Green City, a company which promotes sustainability and green living through interactive public events. I'm running a work shop at the next event which is on the 30th July called Cardiff One Planet Festival - check out the Fbook event for more details. In prep for the day we've been making some big flags, so I thought I'd share a sneaky preview before they're finished.

We've used all recycled fabrics, mainly old curtains which I always love using!! I've also got some bamboo poles that I scavenged from a uni friend about 7 years ago. My Dad I'm sure is grateful he's gaining some more garage space back!

I can't wait to get some pics of them all up and blowing in the wind!!

I also spent Saturday at the PrintHaus doing some of my own work. It was good fun and I'll get the final project up here shortly but for now a sneaky peak at a few of the prints and one finished article!!