Following on from 'in progress - part 1' with all pattern pieces drawn, ready for fabric selection, I head to my fabric stash first. Mostly l try to use re-purposed fabric or use pieces I already have before hitting the fabric store. More making and less consuming has got to be a good thing. Right? Plus I live in a small space so being smart with the size of the stash is something I am trying to put into practice.
I love working with colour and pattern so mixing and matching fabrics until I have a combination I am happy with is always a fun part of the process for me. Generally I pick out one strong pattern or colour that catches my eye and then build the rest of my fabric choices around that piece. For this project I have decided to create two new softie friends at the one time. I have enough fabric and am able to come up with two fabric combinations that I like.The above pic shows the two sets of colour choices for each softie, minus hair and main body which will show up a bit later on.
With fabric combos sorted and cut down to a more manageable size I pin and mark out all the pattern pieces for both sets. Hair and mustache now included in below photo. Next up, no surprises, cut out all the pieces! Snip. Snip. [Insert preferred beverage here.] Mine was an earl grey tea, after all it was a weeknight!
I hope the images at this stage aren't too confusing since there are double the pieces but bear with me until the very end and I'm sure it will make more sense (I hope anyway. Now that I have started this I'm wondering what I've gotten myself in for!).
With all pieces cut and organised into each set, it is time to start putting the pieces together!
I have decided to do a little hand stitching in some places which will need to happen before I get out the sewing machine and preform any major construction. So next up I pick what colour flosses I wish to use and get to work! See you again soon...
Today I came across this studio visit on Fecal Face. How fun! I wish I had a crazy, colourful, cardboard cave living room like Sarah Applebaum. Not to mention the wonderful, crochet madness shes got going on.
Do you like photography? If so, you might like to have a look around Feature Shoot, a place featuring work from up-and-coming photographers as well as new works from established photographers.
One post which caught my eye was a portrait seriesof real life sideshow characters, by Matt Hoyle.
The above image featured earlier this week is the work of Denis Daileux. He has some beautiful travel and personal works.
I have a couple of projects on the go at the moment, some knitting, drawing and sewing. Above is pretty much the state of my work space, which is where the sewing project is living. It is a mess and it is also the beginnings of some new softie friends!
As I create these guys I thought I'd share with you the rough process I take. Rough because I make things up as I go along and experiment with new ideas from project to project, which you can do too. There are no set rules for me so long as I am enjoying the project all is good!
Firstly, I make sketches or write down ideas until I have something that I want to work with. I then draw up my design to the finished size. You could do this on the computer but for me there is something about drawing by hand that keeps the project organic, which I like.
Once I have the front and back of the softie drawn to size I use tracing paper to lay over the top and draw all the individual piece I need to cut material from. Remembering to indicate seam allowance where required, not a necessary step for everyone but one I take as I have been know to forget all together, realising when it's too late.
The picture above on the left shows my final size drawings, next to this is the individual pattern pieces on tracing paper (layered and in position as I was checking I had all required bits).
For example; arms would be made up of 4 pieces of fabric, front and back for both the left and the right arms. When I do the pattern pieces for arms I only have 1 piece which I flip when cutting out the 'back' of the arm from material. Reversed this for the the second arm. So you would flip the pattern piece for the 'front' bit of fabric. To keep track I write on all pattern pieces what they are and how many I need to cut from the fabric - 'Arm (x4)'.
With pattern pieces sorted it is time to move on to the fun part - fabric selection.
Yesterday afternoon ABC1 here in Australia screened a local, short film titled, 'Dance Like Your Old Man', directed by Gideon Obarzanek & Edwina Throsby, this documentary style film is sweet and funny with a touch of sadness. First half above, second half can be seen here.
Six women interpret their fathers dance moves and talk about thier relationship with their father. Screened at Flickerfest and other short film festivals last year, however if you haven't seen it and like me enjoy a bit of interpretive dance, this should definitely give you a giggle or two.
How does your Dad dance?
My Dad's style always incorporates the twist, with a very stiff back and action packed leg movements! I haven't seen him dance in years but it always made me laugh, which I think he enjoyed, like he was entertaining us, lucky he didn't take his moves too seriously.
How gorgeous are these perfume oils and solid perfumes? And they are handmade from the friendlies ingredients! Sweet Anthem store owner Meredith Tucker also keeps a blog on their latest happenings.
Possibly the cutest softies ever! I can't get enough of their embroidered faces!
Found via The Red Thread, who is always posting amazing finds. And I do believe I may have spotted them over at the lovely Penguin & Fish, so there's a good chance you've seen them too but just in case I couldn't resist posting. After all I wouldn't want you to miss out!
Made by the talented Eva Monleón, who lives in Barcelona. One of my favourite places. How lucky is she? Eva's characters are available on etsy where you will also find her in The Storque spotlight, worth a look.
Coincidentally after posting on Coraline I came across Jon Klassen's work, and it just so happens he worked on the visual development for the movie for a little under two years. What an amazing project!So much work goes on behind-the-scenes of movies, I love seeing snippets of this sort of thing, often the forgotten work or pieces not usually shown to the public.
I really enjoyed looking through Jon's portfolio of work, he has quite a unique style. There is also a great interview with Jon on Illustration Mundo.
Yay for the delightful illustrations from Anke Weckmann! I love this girls style, the detailing on the clothes and shoes she draws make me so happy.
I have a Threadless tee (shown above) with one of her illustrations on it which always seems to attract a compliment. It is the cutest, I think. Anke has also recently bought out some super sweet felt brooches that can be bought at her etsy store along with many of her gorgeous prints, cards, stickers and more, the only problem is you will have a hard time deciding what to buy!
If you like Anke's work you can check out her porfolio here and catch up on her latest work over on her blog.
This morning I caught up with a few Brown Owls at the Camberwell Market, we chatted, drank coffee and went searching for a thing or two we just couldn't leave behind. It was a lovely way to start the day and the weather was surprisingly...not freezing! I somehow kind of lost everyone in crowd but keep catching the lovely Bron every so often who managed to seek some great finds but who also seemed to have lost the others. So with a silent 'catch ya later' to the lovely Owls I went on my merry way scoring a cosy, burnt red crocheted shawl to be worn as a scarf and a great, rusty brown duffel style coat!
Lovely Packaging is one internet places I visit every-other-day, since I'm a graphic designer I figure its all in the name of research. Today while getting my usual dosage I noticed yesterdays post on Petrocoll who have the prettiest building supplies packaging ever, one would imagine. Designed by the clever folk at Mouse Graphics.
Considering building products have a main target audience of men and this packaging features quite dominantly women, I think it has been executed beautifully. It almost makes me feel like building something... anyone need a house? But then again is it possible blokey construction men may find this packaging too beautiful? I hope not but just a thought.
If you like packaging and product design you might like to follow the link from the above mention post over to playmedesign who also feature some interesting design pieces. Another every-other-day place I like to visit full of packaging design is thedieline, well worth a visit.
Waiting patiently for August (Australian release date 6th Aug) to come so I can see this movie and stop stalking YouTube for exciting snippets. Although I think this is one of those movies when the behind-the-scenes and making of are more fascinating, to me anyway. If your a knitter of any sort you have to watch this, miniature knitting for the movie, incredible!
My favourite pages from this super book, of course the other pages are pretty too. And did you know there is even a recipe for Pink Lamingtons amongst them too? Fancy that.
This weekend I went on a bit of a road trip. It was the first time I actually spent Mother's Day with my mum for many, many years. I had a lovely weekend and I hope you did too.
The post under 'flickr love' below ended a little something like...
'Could my day please not end the way it started? Perhaps...stay tuned to see what was waiting for me when I got home!'
Well, it definitely didn't end the way it started. The beautiful 'All in a day's work' zine was waiting for me! AND it was sweetly wrapped in paper, secured with a cute piece of tape and a hand written note from the lovely creator herself! Dawn your zine definitely made me smile! You are just too adorable.
Who knew such common daily items could look so beautiful?! Thanks to Three Buttons for the heads up on this one!
It's a bit dark here for good pics so pop over here if you want to see better and more beautiful pics of this zine.
These handmade and individually painted lovelies all the way from Mexico City caught my eye on flickr with their bold, bright colours, they are such imaginative little creatures. I love them! The creators website says, 'We’re two, inés and roi, like milk and coffee. We live in our imaginary house of sweat and stench in Mexico City. All you see here is handmade by us.' Which leaves me to wonder...'imaginary house...in Mexico City...their web address is .nr for Nauru? Hmm mysterious.
Do you ever have days that just don't go so well and you wonder why you didn't stay in bed? I seem to be starting every day like that at the moment. From spilling breakfast, falling over while trying to put shoes on quickly all the while knowing I should be seated, blinking mascara all over my eyelids, cat fur all over my clothes and not being able to find the lint brush for half an hour, forgetting scarfs, keys, glasses etc only to remember once downstairs, holes in tights, walking into doorways that haven't moved (who knew?) and the list goes on.
I'm aware these are small things on a scale of bad things that could go wrong but hey, they just don't put me in the best mood to start the day with. Plus I always seem to be running late. Do you think the universe could be telling me something? Perhaps it doesn't want me to get to where I'm going...
Anywho yesterday started no differently, if not worse!
When I put on my jeans I noticed something in the pocket, as soon as I put my hand in and felt the hardness of the object my heart sunk, I knew exactly what it was. You see, last week a lovely little piece of mail arrived, it was the first brooch I'd bought this year, one to add to the collection. It was a little treasure of a piece, lovingly handmade by the most talented Amy who has a shop Vanilla Bug which sells the cutest things. I'd had my eye one of her brooches for a while. I even waited until the bills were paid before treating myself. I was going to blog about it too but hadn't had the chance yet. Never did I think I would be blogging about it like this. You see, it went through the wash!
I feel silly. I forgot. The sweetest little handmade brooch is no more. How will Amy ever forgive me? Lesson learnt, ALWAYS check ALL pockets before washing. I am so sorry Amy to have destroyed your beautiful work.
Alas my day did improve (although I still feel horrible about the whole rinse cycle thing), I won blogroll bingo over here. That rocked! I was chuffed. I also got to go to Brown Owls to listen to the loveliest ladies chat about their blogging worlds. Which was fantastic, inspiring and full of handy information. Thanks so much Pip, Angela and Lucy for taking time to chat to us all last night. You are super stars.
Bird print from Brown Owls and brooch remains.
Things took another turn for the worse though when I got back to my car. A parking ticket was waiting. Damn it! Why didn't I read all the signs on the post and not just the one I wanted to see. Could my day please not end the way it started?
Perhaps...stay tuned to see what was waiting for me when I got home!
Today over on My Love for You I spotted a post about a great guy, Rand Rendfrow who is publishing and hand making his own zines, amongst other things.
It was the pics of the zine making that caught my eye. Containing illustrations by various artists all over the world, each issue has a theme and each limited edition copy is lovingly screenprinted by hand! You've got to respect that!
Rand is on the lookout for contributors. So, if you consider yourself a tinsy bit skilled in the arts area why not submit your work. Go on you know you can. And yes you are good enough! Artwork submission is open to all. You'll have to be quick though to catch the next issue, submissions close May 8th.But there is always next month.
Rand seems like the kind of guy who enjoys a challenge and most definitely is open to ideas so if there's anything you have wanted to test screen check out his production house Test Everything also on MySpace. Would be even better if you lived in Texas too, then you could pop down in person. One to watch, I think!
I love, love, love these images. Every time I see them they stop me in my tracks and I have to take a moment to just look. The tactile textures, the colours, the crack in the wall, the chairs, that boot, even the understated packaging tape manages to look great here! Created by Yoshikazu Yamagata a fashion designer from Japan. Simply wonderful.
Did you know that Yoshikazu teamed up with the fabulous knitter artist Mafuyu Murakami to create those wonderful crochet houses for 'My Town is My Home' exhibition?Oh, how I wish I could have seen it in person.
Finally a finished pair (of matching sized) booties!They were a present for a friend's new baby boy, along with this little embroidered lion rattle I whipped up last weekend.
I tried something new with the embroidery which worked quite well. You see, on a couple of other embroidered pieces I'd had trouble with the washable pen marks, not completely washing out! The ink just seemed to move and dry somewhere else in the fabric. Disaster.
I've tried iron on transfers too but I tend to get a bit freestylie and don't always follow the lines. And my transfer pen once ironed on didn't wash out!
So, for this little guy I drew the design onto tracing paper (baking paper would work too or any paper really) and then pinned it down to the material I wanted to embroider, then doing so through the paper and material. Once finished you simply tear or snip (snipping is safer so you don't pull on any stitches) the paper away and voila! It worked a treat.
You may have seen this already it has appeared on a few blogs, but I love it so much I had to share it too, just in case you haven't. It's a little set of alphabet cards, by the amazingly talented illustrator Julie Morstad.
I'm a fan of Julie's work, so when I spotted this over on Book By It's Cover I pretty much jumped out of my seat!
Julie's illustrations are just too cute. Did you see the little monkey playing the (Bb for) Banjo? Oh, and the sweet little box and ribbon is packaged up in - adorable! I can't wait to take a closer look, I wonder if it's sold in Australia? Hmm, I might have to investigate that one a little further I think.
For this project I have decided to create two new softie friends at the one time. I have enough fabric and am able to come up with two fabric combinations that I like. The above pic shows the two sets of colour choices for each softie, minus hair and main body which will show up a bit later on.
Next up, no surprises, cut out all the pieces! Snip. Snip. [Insert preferred beverage here.] Mine was an earl grey tea, after all it was a weeknight!
I hope the images at this stage aren't too confusing since there are double the pieces but bear with me until the very end and I'm sure it will make more sense (I hope anyway. Now that I have started this I'm wondering what I've gotten myself in for!).
See you again soon...
