School Based Projects

And sew it seams that I must apologise for the break in transmission - not exactly sure what happened - but here I am with more pics about stuff I make ...... Revisiting some projects from the past, from things done at school (me as teacher not me as student).

 Mixed Media Wall Hanging - a seascape that we did at St Philip's Christian College, Waratah, taught to me by Jan Cummings.This was a great project. It started with a rectangle of calico to which the students added overlapping leaf shaped pieces of fabric graduating from dark to light colours - representing the ocean. Then they added some "glitz" tiny snippets of sparkly fabric and allsorts of other fancy yarns, then a layer of black tulle was added and then they stitched by machine over the whole lot in wavy lines - many many rows of stitching - excellent for building up machine confidence without the fear of making a mistake.

 After that the piece was embellished with seaweed made using Solvy and machine embroidery, and organza leaves curled and heat set, and hand stitching more seaweed, maybe even an octopus.  We also made sea creatures using Polymer Clay and they were hand-stitched on. Add some borders, backing and binding and there you have it!!

 Later, I took some of these techniques to a group project at St Paul's High School, Booragul. This was a quick little project at the end of our unit - using the same idea of overlapping materials with tulle and then the students machined it all together in a postcard sized piece. I then bound them altogether for a wall hanging. Each student's name is attached to their piece of art. Individually they look pretty ordinary, but collectively they look impressive. And here it is outside the Principal's office.

Finally, I'd like to introduce to you my new little friend, Big Louis. British Shorthair 4 months old, currently quarrantined from Miss Maggie (very jealous Border Collie), we're hoping for a happy union in the coming weeks.

Bush Dancing Anyone?

It's amazing what one finds in crumpled up plastic bags ...
All of these sweet little ladies have been trying to dance in the daylight
Many a netball game and training session has been used to train these girls
Even the odd school excursion to Luna Park .... completed some time ago and abandoned, this is a Sweetwattle Design - I can't find a website for them, but they are located in Wahroonga, Sydney, and they used to advertise frequently in Australian quilt magazines. The design was meant to be done in redwork, but I prefer to use colour and I thoroughly enjoyed stitching these cute designs.
They finally got an audience in my studio ... just for a very brief season ... . where are they now? Back in the plastic bag!

Monica Poole and Elaine Lye

I am a member of the Australian Sewing Guild, and while I am usually unable to attend their Neighbourhood Groups, I do like to attend their Industry Days. Yesterday it was at Niagara Park, Central Coast, NSW. Monica Poole from Moonshine Designs was our first speaker. Monica has a fashion industry background, but has worked on Patchwork Patterns and designs - especially Quilt-As-You-Go designs - she is now venturing into fashion patterns. Her work is just lovely! Her output is impressive! She has been using the Texture Magic or Shrinking Sheet products to add texture to some vests ....




It's been a little while since I've done a quilt - and yes I purchased a couple of patterns - sounds like a good autumnal project!
Sandy Curtin was the next speaker - she has an amazing collection of fabric, buttons and bits and pieces for sale - her new shop is in Whittingham near Singleton.
Her hubby sells old farm machinery and she looks after vintage textiles - what a combo!

Elaine Lye was another speaker. She was very cool and had a very interesting story - TAFE teacher and world traveller ..... her work is amazing - she is a textile artist in the true sense of the word! Here is a Shibori jacket, that must have a gazillion different techniques in each little patch - the more you looked, the more you found .......

She was prone to buying tablecloths as she travelled and then made them into jackets and embellished them .....
She doesn't throw anything away - here is a little bag made from fabric strips knitted together.

Here is Elaine ....
And finally, here is one of her great necklaces - I might have to look into doing some classes with her!



Elaine is one of the tutors at the next Guild Convention in Ballarat - the convention has a most impressive line up of classes - i can't go this time, but hopefully one day!

Bleaching Denim and a GIVEAWAY

Do this

Dip it in this
Get some of this ready to neutralise
take a little nap, and you get this

Bleached denim all ready for some more cushion backs.

What about the giveaway? I hear you ask ....... Well .......... you could win ......
a voucher for $80 to spend on lighting of your choice at Buyster. Whether you sew by hand or machine we all know that good lighting can make all the difference. The Buyster people have a fabulous range of lighting for all sorts of needs. Could you use $80 to spend on a new light?
Here's the deal:

1. Competition is open to Australian residents only - sorry!
2. To be eligible to win you must be a Follower of this blog, if you're not already one go to the right hand side bar and become one.
3. Then just leave a comment - anything you like really. Edited to add: Anonymous comments probably not a good idea - I won't be able to track you down if you win!
4. If you also have a blog, you can get an extra entry if you post about this giveaway on your blog - just leave a 2nd comment to say that you've linked me.
5. Easy! A random entry will be deemed the winner on Sunday 24th January, 2010.
6. Good Luck!

Finally, how cute is this little vinyl sticker from etsy! - Lindsey T put me on to it.

Who sewed this?

Annalise sewed this! This is the result of her 2nd lesson - a Sewing Basics 2 bag.

With floral lining and a touch of applique ....

She is now the proud creator of a very cool bag ...

Sorry about the lack of focus .... and next we have Nicole's monumental quillow for her neice ...

This is the pillow that the quilt folds into - all hand embroidered with love .... Nicole was an absolute beginner at the start of this year - she is now sewing with confidence and creating some fab projects ....

This is the quilt - fabric range is "Hello Betty" by Chloe's Closet (MODA) - she used a Layer Cake - nice and easy - she also added some piped contrasting strips to break up the pattern a little ..

Here's Nicole (on the left) and Anissa (Happy Birthday!)- yes! the quilt works! It's soft and cuddly!

Now, for some of my sewing .... here is a very very very big cushion -

You can see that it is the KING of cushions up next to those weedy ones .....

Fabric - IKEA ....

This is a birthday pressie for my 17 year old neice ..... Happy Birthday Miss B!

Cushion Insert from Goldies ..... BOUND to be BOUNCIER!

You may already be aware that I dabble in dyeing ... this time I had a go at the opposite - removing the dye - bleaching some denim. The tub on the left has a bleach solution - just your laundry liquid bleach .... you put the fabric in and wait for it to bleach to the degree you want .... then the tub on the right is a neutralising solution - something like an enzyme based laundry soaker - eg. Sards Wonder Soaker or Napisan - read the label - it should say "Do not use with Bleach" - so you place the bleached fabric in that solution to stop the bleaching process - otherwise you'll be left with holes ... leave it for 10 minutes and wash.

The black and white stripey fabric is some interlock scraps that I used as "ties" for the denim - by the way - the striped fabric did not bleach - not one bit - the power of polyester!!!

You can see some of the denim losing colour ... and here is the finished product ...

the effect was quite random - because I bleached such a bit piece at once - smaller bits may be able to be done more controlled if that's the effect you want ...

And here is a bag I made from the bleached denim - another gift for my 17 year old neice ...

It's a Squared Swing Bag - pattern designed by my clever school colleague - it's our new Year 8 Textiles bag - the other one had a curved gusset - it was a tad difficult for beginners so, this one is easier....

I used Vilene S520 as a hard base ...

Tie dyed fabric for the lining - of course!

Now, as I was uploading these photos ready to blog ... I found the following photos ..... my 12 year old Sweet Pea cut off her jeans to make shorts - it's just funny that she thought she needed to photograph the process ...... a future blogger???

Here's the BEFORE ...

And now for the CUT ... right where mum chalked a line ....

And the result! Easy!

Finally, it was Father's Day today - Happy Father's Day Shaun! Here's a portrait by Sweet Pea!

Pursenality Plus!

Firstly I must confess that I "borrowed" that clever title from a book I recently borrowed about knitting bags and then felting them - it's a great book. However, this blog is about some smaller purses .....

These little zippered purses are ultra cute, use minimal fabric and would make great little gifts....

I used this great tutorial to make the Oil Cloth Purses ......

I got the oil cloth locally at Patchwork and Coffee on Main at Boolaroo. This collection of 30cm cuts cost about $18 Australian - which I think is very reasonable considering you only need very small amounts for each purse (7.5 by 5 inch)...

The purses aren't lined as the fabric is unlikely to fray being all plasticy ....

For the other purses I used NicoleM's Coin Purse Pattern.

These purses really need Pellon Fusible Wadding to maintain a nice shape - the grey Japanese Fabric Purse is only interfaced and it is not nearly as happy as the others ....

It goes without saying that this is an excellent little pattern- with accurate and detailed instructions - you really can't go wrong ....

Sorry I don't know the name of this fabric ......

This is my fave .... I used Vintage (there's THAT word again!) Japanese Kimono fabric that I've had for quite some time - they are perfect for this project as they often come in random sizes which is hard to find a use for (other than fondling and drooling) ....

Love the silver ....

Here is Prints Charming - perfect for embroidery ......

One of Nikki's great little pattern suggestions is to trace the pattern onto template plastic. Super easy to cut around with the rotary cutter and no fiddling and fussing with paper - that girl's a genius (with a great pursenality!) - couldn't resist!
Sew, you wanna make some???? I can show you how ..... if you live in Newcastle, Central Coast or the outer Southern Suburbs (ie Sydney) come along to my studio for lesson ... I also stock Nicole's Patterns if you want to save on postage and packaging. Contact me via my website.