My creative space: burgundy

 I finished trimming, interfacing and zigzagging my big pile of burgundy feathers this afternoon and now they're all ready to be sewn on as patches, turned into brooches, used as bookmarks...

  I'm having fun screenprinting coloured feathers instead of my usual black and white - I'm thinking bright red or gold might be then next colour I try.

And speaking of burgundy how red was the sunset last night!  So pretty.  

Joining in with My Creative Space today.

Happy Thursday to you! 

My creative space: a spring pouch

It was nice and springy outside today so I decided to make myself a little floral pouch.  The fabric is a reincarnated (and well washed) tea towel from the op shop:

And I added a little owl patch too, after discovering a whole lot of these that I had made and forgotten about.
I've got quite a stash of old tea towels so I might have to make some more of these.

How about you, what have you been making?

Joining in with "My creative space" over here.

Happy Thursday!

They're multiplying...

After making this pencil case I made a whole lot more - I've been experimenting with using different patches and more than one patch to decorate them...

 

These ones are all lined with polka dotty cotton - I'm eyeing up some gingham in my fabric stash for lining the next ones I make.

Might have to bust out the rotary cutter tonight and cut out a few more!

My creative space: canvas and polka dots

Morning!  At the op shop a while back I found a giant treasure trove of zips and bought a whole lot of them.  I've been making lots of small zippered pouches, but none of the zips were small pouch size, so I decided to have a go at making a bigger, pencil case-sized pouch.  It brought back memories of the last time I made a pencil case...a hideous orange padded nylon one in sewing class at Intermediate school.  This one's made of canvas and I sewed one of my swallow patches onto it.    

I've got at least 10 more red zips so I might have to get a production line happening!

Next up this morning I'm going to Albany to get an image I've designed transferred onto a silk screen, exciting!

Joining in with "my creative space" over here today.

Happy Thursday!

My creative space: provenance

 

In my creative space this week I've got some more zipper pouches - I've been having fun using my old scraps to line them.  This feather one, which I made as a present, has a polka dotty lining made from the leftovers from this dress.  

 And this one here with the swallow patch, has a lining made from this giant kaftan thing...which was also reincarnated as a skirt. 

 Now that I've got my sewing machine back I've been eyeing up this fabric in my stash, which I think used to be a tablecloth. 

I'm hoping I've got enough for a dress, a skirt...and a zippered pouch!

Joining in with "our creative spaces" over here.

Happy Thursday!

My creative space: reunited

Thankfully my sewing machine survived its accident - I picked it up from the repairers last week with a warning: "It's a very good machine...as long as you don't go dropping it again!"  Today was the first day I've had a chance to use it since, and I whipped up a little zippered pouch to test it out:

 I used one of my screen printed fabric patches to decorate the outside - I've got a whole lot of these that I made before I started strengthening them with interfacing...this might be a good way to use them up. 

 I'm getting a bit of a collection!  They are quite addictive to make. 

Joining in today with "Our creative spaces" at its brand new home here.  Hope you're having a lovely Thursday!

My creative space: pouches

 

I've been meaning to make my camera a new case for aaaages, it deserves better than being schlepped around in the makeshift flimsy leopard print bag that has been its temporary home.  Now that I've finally learned how to make zippered pouches I've made it two.  To start with I made a canvas case with one of my huia patches on it.  It turned out too small but it'll be handy for keeping little trinkets in.  Then I used the canvas I had been printing with my stamps and made this one:

Here's the starry lining:

 I'm hoping to make cases for lots more things - I think it'd be a great project to use up all the pretty scraps I can't bear to throw out.  And I might even need to buy a rotary cutter!

 

How about you, what have you been making?  To see lots more creative spaces head on over to the "our creative spaces" blog.

Happy Thursday!

At long last...

After years and years and years of talking about it, I've finally had a silk screen made up with all the images I like to print on it, so I can print much more precise images than I could with handcut stencils.

It's hard to get a good photo of it, but you get the idea!

So now there's going to be much more of this going on at my house:

Paper trail

A4 to A3? A5 to A3? I've been playing around with enlarging and reducing some of my drawings today, as you can see from this giant pile of paper full of tails and feathers and owls and huias. Soon, hopefully very soon, I'm going to get them made up into a silkscreen with lots of different images on it, so that I can print things onto fabric at the drop of a hat.
Hopefully the finished layout will look something like this:
but without the giant rip in the screen!

Little swallow

I made this little swallow brooch the other night - it's just one of my gocco printed patches sewn onto a scrap of wool felt and it has a safety pin sewn on the back. A nice quick project.

Complete with a sneaky rainbow from the window crystal thing...

Mr Millicent Crow reckons the swallow patches are also pretty handy for mending jeans!

His & Hers

I've been making some huias for the Auckland Art & Craft Fair. They started out like this:
I went to the museum to look at some they had there, and they looked a bit bedraggled and mangy (well they have been extinct since 1907) so I had to flesh these ones out a bit.

Now they look like this:
The male huia is the one with the shorter beak, the female has the longer one. They're gocco printed onto calico, reinforced with interfacing and have zigzagged edges. And I have a whole lot of them!

Righto, back to the sewing machine for me. I've got a big pile of zigzigging to finish!

Glass half full

I had a bit of a gocco disaster the other day. As I was exposing an image onto a screen, a gust of wind blew the paper out of place and only about half of the image got exposed onto the screen. I kind of managed to salvage it by printing part of the image and using it to make patches. So now these kowhai seedpod patches will be coming with me to the Auckland Art & Craft fair. They're printed on denim and reinforced with interfacing on the backs.