The lovely Yoshimi the Flying Squirrel will be literally flying! and over here! She has revealed her travel plans, so now I may say something too... I am thrilled to say that she is coming to visit me on her way to the bloggers meet-up in Melbourne. I will be so happy to see her again, and am super excited to show her around Perth! I'm planning for, and hoping that she will have a really wonderful time here, and I know she will have an absolutely brilliant and fun weekend at the Melbourne meetup with TJ and Maria and all the other Melbourne gals too. Exciting stuff! :D
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In current doings, I've been mucking about with fabric paint again today...
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In other sewing news, I have decided that I might quietly do a stitchers guild SWAP this year. I've bought a few Australian Stitches magazines over the years and, like lots of people, Lynn Cook's wardrobe planning was always my favourite bit. I discovered that following her example was an established sewing blog thing-to-do last year, with rules and a time frame and a competition as well! man, I'm so behind the times :)
Anyway, I've really admired everyone's SWAP wardrobes, and thought that maybe my own rather random sewing efforts could do with a bit more planning... so sensible! a new concept for me :) I might not actually enter my SWAP into the official competition... I mean, you are only allowed to make one thing before 26th December, whaaa??? don't know if I can wait that long! But I do like the whole idea of following the rules and making a co-ordinating mini-wardrobe. So I'll see how I go. The stash has been raided for some likely looking candidates and I've sketched out a plan of attack...
The horse-y fabric may or may not become the first "thing" :)
I bought this lightweight mustardy-chartreuse silk in ?Tessuti's? I think? during my girly trip to Melbourne with Mum and Cassie last year and it's been burning a hole in my conscience. I've reeeeally wanted to make something interesting with it but couldn't think what and it was fast becoming too precious to cut up. Finally I've thought of something... hopefully this will turn out cool in the end.
My initial grand plan was of a more realistically shaded horse, with sharply defined edges outlining rippling equine muscles and tendrils of mane billowing gorgeously in the slipstream... those pie-in-the-sky ideas had to be abandoned when experiments revealed that the paint bled like the blazes on this silk. Oh well. Embrace the limitations, and all that! And a serendipitous one; since the splodgily abstract nature of my print brings to my mind the markings of an Appaloosa horse. Ok, I'm happy!
The technical blahdy-blah...
I drew my design, gave it a grid so I could enlarge it to a good size to fit my piece, and then traced it onto the fabric using water soluble pen, although tracing probably wasn't necessary in the end. I mixed a hefty blob of black fabric paint into about 2 cups of water, in a plastic spray bottle... just one of those cheapies you see in the gardening section of the supermarket for your seedlings. Some experimenting was necessary to determine a good ratio, giving a solution that was thin enough to spray without clogging up the nozzle, and yet had enough paint to leave a mark on the fabric.
Cut out my stencil and sprayed away. I also sprayed the other pieces; and as lightly and as thinly as I could, painted in some mane and body contouring streaks with a paintbrush, separately.
This will be appearing in wearable form, tout de suite...
Anyway, I've really admired everyone's SWAP wardrobes, and thought that maybe my own rather random sewing efforts could do with a bit more planning... so sensible! a new concept for me :) I might not actually enter my SWAP into the official competition... I mean, you are only allowed to make one thing before 26th December, whaaa??? don't know if I can wait that long! But I do like the whole idea of following the rules and making a co-ordinating mini-wardrobe. So I'll see how I go. The stash has been raided for some likely looking candidates and I've sketched out a plan of attack...
The horse-y fabric may or may not become the first "thing" :)