This portrait was made in memory of Ian, one year on.
I completed it in November 2010, using Dudecraft's excellent tutorial.
January 23, 2012
In memory of Ian
This portrait was made in memory of Ian, one year on.
I completed it in November 2010, using Dudecraft's excellent tutorial.
January 1, 2012
Christmas in New Zealand
A lot has happened since I last posted. I graduated, for starters! After graduating, I headed to New Zealand for a holiday (my older sister bought a house there), before returning to Australia for work. A year later and I am back in New Zealand, once again for a Christmas holiday.
My younger sister and I made a gingerbread house, as is tradition...
Only this time, it featured banana-wielding ninjas, among other details....
You could, in fact, call it a ninja bread house! Badoom boom ching!- Recipe for vegan gingerbread
- Recipe for vegan royal icing
- Gingerbread house mould
- Ninja bread men cookie cutters
It's been lovely to kick back after a very full-on year. I have been crafting, just not blogging. I hope to share some of my creative work from 2011 in the coming months.
In the meantime, I got up to a little crafting here!
My older sister and I bought a sewing machine for her house last year, and I calculate it has made about 80 Morsbags. To liven things up, I decided to make a little pincushion-in-a-basket. I picked up the cute basket from Trade Aid and the fabric is left over from making Morsbags.
I winged the pattern and ended up having to make the insert smaller. Let's just say that it's a good thing that the basket is curved and you can't see the edges where I brought it in!
Also, it was fun stuffing the cushion with scraps of fabric (I had no filling), but it does mean that there's a bit of resistance when it comes to pushing in the pins. I'm sure it makes for an efficient pin bluntener if nothing else!
I'll leave you with a picture of some of the decorations up in my room here in New Zealand. On the left, the 2012 Frankie Calendar (a Chrissie present) and on the right, a tea towel I picked up from a local op-shop. I'm loving greys and greens at the moment.
Happy new year, everyone!
September 13, 2010
Intricate stencil work
So... my crafting hiatus didn't last very long. Ahem.
This is not my artwork. A friend of mine gave it to me after I complimented him on it many years ago. Now a special event of his is coming up, and yesterday was the 9th International Morsbagging Sunday, so I decided to print some Morsbags with his design on them.
I painstakingly traced the design onto freezer paper and cut it out (nothing like a looming deadline to make such tasks seem attractive). Doing the leaves and the basket was extremely fiddly.
Seeing the freezer paper ironed on the bag briefly made me consider screenpainting the design in white rather than black!
This was the first print. I made two, because I wanted to make the most out of all that cutting! As you can see, it's the inverse of the original artwork. It was simple because, as you can see from a couple of photos back, it was made from a single cut-out.
Here is the second, more fiddly bag. For this one, I ironed down all the remaining cut-out pieces one by one.
I had originally planned to add some of the finer details (flowers, petals, hair...) with embroidery thread after painting the bags, but I've decided that they look good as they are, and the threads would probably just snag on the inside of the bag anyway.
The labels went on the back, as there was no real place for them on the front.
Here's a little visual reminder of why you need to place some newspaper (or my favourite - cereal boxes) under fabric that you're screen-painting so that the ink doesn't seep through.
For the presentation, I rolled them up and tied them together with a simple tie I made from the same linen I used for the bags.
The linen was picked up for next to nothing at my local op-shop and was so beautifully soft and easy to work with, that I fear I will not want to sew nor print on anything but the best!
Everything has been packed away again, so hopefully I can get some uni work done now. Although when I went to bed last night, my mind was racing with ideas for doll joints and projects using them... uh oh!
This is not my artwork. A friend of mine gave it to me after I complimented him on it many years ago. Now a special event of his is coming up, and yesterday was the 9th International Morsbagging Sunday, so I decided to print some Morsbags with his design on them.
I painstakingly traced the design onto freezer paper and cut it out (nothing like a looming deadline to make such tasks seem attractive). Doing the leaves and the basket was extremely fiddly.
Seeing the freezer paper ironed on the bag briefly made me consider screenpainting the design in white rather than black!
This was the first print. I made two, because I wanted to make the most out of all that cutting! As you can see, it's the inverse of the original artwork. It was simple because, as you can see from a couple of photos back, it was made from a single cut-out.
Here is the second, more fiddly bag. For this one, I ironed down all the remaining cut-out pieces one by one.I had originally planned to add some of the finer details (flowers, petals, hair...) with embroidery thread after painting the bags, but I've decided that they look good as they are, and the threads would probably just snag on the inside of the bag anyway.
The labels went on the back, as there was no real place for them on the front.
Here's a little visual reminder of why you need to place some newspaper (or my favourite - cereal boxes) under fabric that you're screen-painting so that the ink doesn't seep through.
For the presentation, I rolled them up and tied them together with a simple tie I made from the same linen I used for the bags.
The linen was picked up for next to nothing at my local op-shop and was so beautifully soft and easy to work with, that I fear I will not want to sew nor print on anything but the best!
Everything has been packed away again, so hopefully I can get some uni work done now. Although when I went to bed last night, my mind was racing with ideas for doll joints and projects using them... uh oh!
September 7, 2010
My creative space
My desk is my creative hub. It is the only space I have for work and play. A mix of uni work, personal work and crafting.The lovely decorations on my wall are from Bobberdilly (the cat), Deadpan Alley (the two portraits), Tollipop (the wee girl), Cathy Cullis (the illustration on the far left) and Sycamore Press (the pencil stubs).
For the next month or so, I'll be concentrating on the work side of things. I've packed away my sewing machine, boxed up my fabric stash, brought out all my books, set up my computer, and will be concentrating on finishing my honours thesis. It's due on October 25... wish me luck!
August 31, 2010
Australian native flower-press
I had some flowers fading fast, so I decided it was time to do some flower-pressing!
I love the design & colours of this flower-press, which is from my childhood. It still has bits of paper & cardboard from back in the day wedged inside it...
After a few weeks, I could wait no longer and prised open the press.
Results as expected! The white flower wasn't very pretty, but the jonquils turned out really well.
Unsure as to what I actually wanted to do with the flowers, I whipped this up. You can spin the wheel for different early-morning remarks!
August 28, 2010
Stencilled morsbags using the handle in the design
I was prepared for the 8th International Morsbagging Sunday, organised by I bag you, and had 26 kits cut and and ready to be sewn.
Here are the finished bags! The material is from 4 single sheets from my childhood. There wasn't quite enough for them all to have matching handles, so I decided that some of them would get one black handle which would then work into a design. Much like the red lemur bag!
Next came the planning stage. This involved lots of quick sketches to get some inspiration. I ended up with 17 bags to stencil! So far, I've managed...
A snake bag...
A hanging monkey bag (with one skinny ankle)....
A power cord bag (with sparks - first time I've used colour fabric paint)...
An umbrella bag...
A cat bag (I used a photo to design this one, hence its realism)...
And last but not least, a fatty fatty boombah bag. As you can see, realistic anatomy is not my strong point, unless copied from a photo!
Here are the finished bags! The material is from 4 single sheets from my childhood. There wasn't quite enough for them all to have matching handles, so I decided that some of them would get one black handle which would then work into a design. Much like the red lemur bag!
Next came the planning stage. This involved lots of quick sketches to get some inspiration. I ended up with 17 bags to stencil! So far, I've managed...
A snake bag...
A hanging monkey bag (with one skinny ankle)....
A power cord bag (with sparks - first time I've used colour fabric paint)...
An umbrella bag...
A cat bag (I used a photo to design this one, hence its realism)...
And last but not least, a fatty fatty boombah bag. As you can see, realistic anatomy is not my strong point, unless copied from a photo!
There's a bit of go-go-gadget arm action happening there. And some cankles. And boy is that ape one fatty boombah. No more bananas for you!
Six down, eleven to go... If you have any ideas, please share!
August 22, 2010
Toy Society Drop: No llores, Lorretta #2 (with added lightning!)
Since I made the ¡no llores, Lorretta! pattern available, I thought I'd better test it. The first time I made the toy I didn't really use a pattern.
I had different colours of felt to work with, so it came out a little differently. Still pretty cute, I reckon.
After making the toy, I made a few adjustments to the pattern for next time (the right hand was a little wonky, redid the cloud bumps between the arms...). Looking at the pictures now, I probably should have also trimmed the dark felt a bit more so it didn't show up on the happy side!
I decided to leave her for someone to find, as a Toy Society Drop (#1332).
I left Lorretta attached to a tree near one of Lake Burley Griffin's walking tracks (Canberra, Australia) around midday.
Related post: Free toy pattern: Lorretta
I had different colours of felt to work with, so it came out a little differently. Still pretty cute, I reckon.After making the toy, I made a few adjustments to the pattern for next time (the right hand was a little wonky, redid the cloud bumps between the arms...). Looking at the pictures now, I probably should have also trimmed the dark felt a bit more so it didn't show up on the happy side!
I decided to leave her for someone to find, as a Toy Society Drop (#1332).
I left Lorretta attached to a tree near one of Lake Burley Griffin's walking tracks (Canberra, Australia) around midday.Related post: Free toy pattern: Lorretta
August 18, 2010
Free toy pattern: Lorretta
UPDATE: Pattern updated 09/10/10
UPDATE: Alternate "retro" version of pattern added 09/10/10
Please scroll down for details.
Please scroll down for details.
You may recall I did a Toy Society Drop (#1179) earlier this year called No llores, Lorretta!This was the toy in question:
I've finally gotten around to making a pattern for it, which I am releasing under an attribution, share-alike creative commons license, which means you are allowed to modify and redistribute the pattern, as long as you do so under the same license and give credit.
UPDATE: After realising that toys made from the original pattern posted here look quite different to the ones in the photos above, I made a second pattern which matched the first toy better. I'm calling it the "retro" version. I also added a lightning bolt to the original pattern.
The files below have been updated, and the old version is still available too. Original pattern v2.0:
Retro pattern:
If you want to edit the pattern directly in Inkscape or an equivalent program, here are the original design files:
Original pattern v2.0:
Retro pattern:
Lorretta comes in shy of 15cm (~6") but the pattern can be easily scaled to any size. The construction is very basic, hence the lack of tutorial. I used running stitch in matching colours to sew the face to the cloud and running stitch in black (for contrast) to sew the two main pieces together. I started with the arms and used a chopstick to stuff in small amounts of polyfill as I went.
Mary Corbet has a fantastic video library of stitches including running stitch and blanket stitch.
I hope you enjoy the pattern, it's fun to do a little hand sewing from time to time!
Related posts
August 14, 2010
Leather book sleeve
I first saw a pattern for a book sleeve in Zakka Sewing. I'd been waiting for a special occasion to make one, as unfortunately books here come in every size and shape, making such a sleeve unlikely to be reusable for other books.
(Spot the cathy cullis doll in the pic above!)
I was tossing up which fabric to use for it when I remembered that the recipient of this gift had been given some thin leather that had been cut out from the back of the couch of a loved one. It had special meaning for him. Leather is not a material I've worked with before, or plan to work with again.
It didn't need any lining, but I was keen to use this green fabric that I'd saved from the ends of a pillowcase, the rest of which was made into a Morsbag.
Unfortunately I didn't think it through very well and the fabric was threadbare and the leather had a mind of its own. Let's just say that turning it inside out and poking out the corners was a little nerve-wracking.
I used some old packaging to make a little clear pocket on the front.
I also had some beautiful woven ribbon that I'd picked up from my local op-shop which I used to embellish the book and make a bookmark.
I guess I can always whip up some blank books in that size to fit inside the sleeve for future gifts!
If you'd like to make your own journal cover, there are some great resources here:
August 8, 2010
Jumping on the breadwagon
I think I may be late to the "Artisan bread in 5 minutes a day" party.... The master recipe is available free online, so go forth and experiment if you haven't already!
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