Crime Scene Cushions

I had fun making these, they can now be found in my etsy shop.

Memories of Costume Balls

I was very excited to learn that people who organised the "Labyrinth Ball", The Guild of the Golden Owl,  will be holding another mid-winter masquerade ball in Melbourne again.

It was the first costuming event that I had gone to since I had Tori and I could fit into nothing in my costume wardrobe. So I made my outfit, from black velveteen and the skirt was re-fashioned from another costume. Andreas pulled out his old Regency suit from the Regency Ball we had attended a few years back.

 

It was the second major project I had done on my embroidery machine, the first being my daughters baptism dress. I traced the pattern piece onto the fabric, did the embroidery and then cut it out the pattern piece and sewed it to the other pieces. The pattern was a commercial historical corset pattern.

We spent weeks making the masks from scratch and they sat in front of the "fire" in our back room drying on wire racks. Andreas wanted to go for a steampunk type look, so we made the base mask from paper mache, created the nose and then when it was finished stuck bits of square plastic on it to make it look like plates of metal. The rivits you see are blobs of dimensional paint. A hinge and eye piece completed the look. The paint work was silver spray paint and dry brushed with black.

It was an enjoyable night with lots of other friends making the effort to dress up.

Kerri dragged out her regency ball gown as well and Marina looked lovely in electric blue!

Not sure if we will attend the next one, it is on a boat and I don't go too well with boats. But I am itching for another opportunity to do some costuming, some sewing just for me rather than for etsy or a market.

Northside Makers Market Wrap Up

The weather was fabulous, the people gorgeous and the crafts to die for ... but the customers were casual and cautious. Could it have been school fees? Rates notice due in? Economic climate? Not sure, but it was great catching up with people and having some wonderful stimulating and empowering discussions with some fabulous women!

The thing that is great about markets, is that it forces me to make stock.

Picture by Mrs Beckinsale via Northside Makers Flickr

So even if I don't sell all of it, my online store benefits from the energy that goes behind preparing for the market. I love the three Thea and Sami bags that I made for the market, the fabric is to-die-for!

The jewel in my crown was my crime scene and Wizard of Oz range and both were warmly received. The bag with the four friends facing the emerald city was sold before the market opened and I ended the day with someone buying the bag with the Ruby red slippers on it for their friend.

Picture by Mrs Beckinsale via Northside Makers Flickr

Even though some older members of the community thought that the crime scene things were a bit "dark". I enjoyed making them, that is the main thing - right?

I bought myself a gorgeous Finki Handmade necklace... can you see it, isn't it gorgeous!I also got some yummy steampunk inspired badges from Mrs Beckinsale and some felt donuts for my daughters pretend tea set from Miss Rosie (I didn't get a business card?).

A huge thank-you to my gorgeous husband who helped me ALL DAY and my inlaws for babysitting my daughter!

Crime Scene Handbags

I've been buring the midnight oil trying to finish off all that I can for Saturday's Northside Makers Market ... it's going to be a lovely 26 degrees ... so you must come down and say hello!

I am rather pleased with the way my Crime Scene Handbags came out... they will sit alongside the Crime Scene Pillows I have done. Decaptiation, Broken Heart and Vampires will all be available for purchase .. along with dismemberment (not pictured).

I've really been enjoying doing the hand embroidery on these handbags. I ended up using machine applique for the blood, faster and more effective.

 

But I still have a few more to finish, press and then tag before Saturday morning. Does anyone know the collective noun for a group of handbags?

Northside Makers Market

I'll be glad when the week is over. The first full teaching week back is always hard yakka. Lesson plans, parent evenings, very little sleep and lots of photocopying. But in between all of this, I have managed to steal some time to make some stock for my first market of the year, Northside Makers Market. As a Northside committee member, I haven't been much use at all .. and to my team mates I apologise and promise to make it up with cider and martini's!

So here is a sneak peak of what I have been doing ...Firstly, my Wizard of Oz range .... Some Market Bags ....

Each one of course has a surprise lining ... you'll just have to come to the market to see what I have done!

 Some makeup bags or small pouches and some coin purses, these ones a bit bigger than my usual ones, so they should fit a licence.

I was very excited about using the Thea and Sami  hand screen printed fabric. They are a Queensland based business and they hand print it all themselves.

The bag has a bit of a Mattt's bag's feel to it, but the pattern is all mine and it is 100% cotton and machine washable (actually, the Thea and Sami fabric is 55% hemp/45% organic cotton).

And of course some new japanese fabrics have been used as well. I love this print and the colour palette.

So come along to our first Northside Makers Market for the year and check out all the new crafters and some old and trusty ones.

A skirt for work

2010 finds me placed in another "house" at school. I have previously been in red/burgundy house, blue/silver house and now I am in green/navy house (*obviously not their real names ... but you get the idea). Yesterday was the Year 7 Orientation day and it was suggested that Green should be the base colour for attire for the day.

Given that I do not have a lot of green in my wardrobe the challenge was to make something to wear from my stash. I also have a roll of cotton drill from making my bags ... so I used that.

I had a length of "computer styled" fabric and given that I teach IT, it seemed only logical that a skirt needed to accented from this ...

I used an A-line skirt pattern as my basis. Cut 15 cm from the top to make the yoke and then created an overlapping panel for the front. The green computer fabric was a strip of fabric 20cm at the bottom and 10cm at the top and then tucked into the seam. I didn't bother with lining the skirt, I wore a slip instead. The only alterations I need to do is to take in the waist which is a little big, which is easy due to the construction of it.

I decided to put my label on the front to give it more of a casual feel. This skirt passed the road test on a hot day, now for a cold winters day with boots on.

I tend to suit A-line skirts, hides all the bumps and lumps and a wrap skirt gives me the maneuverability that I need in the classroom.

(PS, if you are using Zemanta ... it was interesting to see the suggested links and references this plug-in threw back)

Tori's Quilt Block Pairs 6 - 9

I stole some time away the other night to do some more blocks for Tori's Quilt. Even though I am swamped with everything, I stole 2 hours to do 8 blocks.

Out of all of them the orange one was my favourite.

Tempted to get more of the orange fabric as I think that it looks quite lovely with all the swirls.

Edit: Oh Fransson has some quilting bundle packs to give away, head on over to her blog and post a comment!

Tiamo's

Tori and I stole a moment on Sunday night to have dinner at Tiamo's. Just us girls ... the last time we were there, she was a lot smaller and more of a handful. This time I didn't have to take the pusher, she just walked beside me ... enjoying the hustle and bustle of a busy street.

Tori is getting quite good now at occupying herself, drawing on a business card an ideal activity.

If you know Lygon Street in Melbourne, you should know Tiamo's. Quick, yummy pasta, excellent coffee and quick turn around.

So we shared some pasta ...

And then Tori wanted to finish off mine ...

We are still learning how to smile on demand!

Crime Scene

Things are a bit slow on the sewing and craft front this week, as I have started back at school and there is a lot of preparation and organization to do for the coming term. So only essential sewing is getting done this week, orders and market stock. Tori's Quilt has indeed been put on temporary hold.

But this afternoon, I stole a few moments while watching Project Runway, to knock over some more crime scene outlines on some Market bag fronts ...

The challenge is in finding the balance between my artistic vision for this range and using technology to get there results I need. Customers do not necessarily want to pay for hours of hand embroidery, even though they will say it is gorgeous!  So I am putting a lot of thought into deciding how to represent the crime itself and I am thinking that some clever applique work might be the trick.

I also have some new pillow designs in the works! Just to put things into perspective, the blood embroidery on the "axe" crime scene took 1.5 hours ...So what crime scene do you want to see?

Lazy Days

Today is my first day back "at school" and I would much rather be doing this ...

... meeting friends at a cafe and being served "too strong" coffee ...

... going back to their place reading some interesting books