Monday, May 27, 2013

bow-tie lepidoptery

These are what I've been sewing up for fun lately.


Cute eh?  Little shadowboxes full of bow-ties. Or just bows, I guess; the 'tie' is optional.  And since I had my very fist fancy schmancy business fair to trot them off to (very small scale, but still lovely), I got to try my hand at a little lepidoptery



Now, I had meant to get a nice photo or two of the display I had set up, but to be honest, I was a little frazzled that day, and it just didn't happen.  Hopefully I will remedy this next time I get to go out among people and show off my wares.


Bugaboo is the kind of kid who wears ties, often of his own volition, sometime for no reason at all.  He's really big on costumes and accessories.  He wore his tie the whole morning (of the business-fair thing).  He even snatched a cape from my display to pair with it (he's cuter than my mannequin anyways).  He looked a bit like a tiny magician; perhaps I need to look into top hats.


Bow Ties!  A whole happy pile of 'em.  Now, however, I do have some actual work to do (took the week off for visitors, now it's time to play catch-up).

Oh, one final note from the business fair; my 'Wandering Seamstress' Geocache is hidden in my display.  It was spotted by one cacher, whether or not it gets logged...  I'll give a heads up next time she's out and about, ready to be found, until then you can check her out at the geocaching website, with TB46K8T for a reference code.

Toodles!

Friday, May 17, 2013

oh so fancy


I'm extremely excited to be sporting my new logo!  Isn't it marvelous?  Many many thanks to Vanessa of Sea Salt Design!

Monday, May 13, 2013

bluebells and bucket hats

While this past Mother's Day weekend it rained (Happy Mother's Day!), for the last week or so it has been simply glorious around here.  We're talking summer weather in May!  So we have been outside as much as we can stand it.  Now, I burn to a crisp in no time at all, but the kids seem to take more after their Daddy and have more resistance.  Either way though, we're rocking the sunscreen, cover-ups, shade tents and most importantly, hats.  I have to say I'm fortunate that both my kidlets are good hat wearers.  Bugaboo is big into fedoras right now (he calls them his 'orra-fedoras', no clue why).  My little bean still lets me choose what she wears, so she's been sporting this little number.


I love it; it puts me in mind of a little bluebell.


It's simple enough, so I've started making a few of my own.



I'm tempted to add a little green stem on top, but I haven't given it a try yet.



I've had a friend mention she really likes the style and if I could find a way to tone down the girly-ness, she's love to see some for boys, but while I'm still working on that, I've stuck to good old fashioned bucket hats for the little lads.


Fun stuff!  If I do get some good results out of my schemes and alterations, I'll be sure to update!

Sunday, May 5, 2013

super-duper

Now this has been a fun little thing I've been working with of late.  Appliques!  Well, probably not by-the-book ones, but I'm loving throwing a little character or image on a project.  It started with flags.
 

  I wanted to make something for Bugaboo's snow-forts we built this winter (and because flags are fun).  While I was at it, I made a few extras.  They weren't perfect, but I really loved how they turned out (considering I really had no clue what I was doing).

This one for my little Bean,

and this one for Bugaboo.

Well, then I had a birthday gift to make for one of Bugaboo's friends.  I figured something 'super-hero' would be good.  I had wanted to try finger puppets, but I didn't have any felt on hand and they weren't starting out the way a wanted, so they evolved into bean-bags.






I loved making them, and giving them too!  Bean bags are a lot of fun.

And then I had another birthday boy, so I tried it again.  It was a little harder to pick something for this little guy (he's only 2, so not as obvious what he likes).  I was thinking cars or trucks or some-such, but I wasn't really feeling it.  They seemed a little boring.  I'm not much of a car person, but I do have one love in the automobile world; Super cars.  Bright, colourful, fast, fancy, oh yeah.  So I picked my five favorites, (a shiny penny to anyone who can tell what they are):



 


That would be a Caterham, a Shelby Cobra, a Koenigsegg, a Veyron and a Zonda (do I owe anyone?).  I've also been working on some animals, but a unique selection isn't so easy to come up with.  Any suggestions?

My method is simple.  I draw what I want.  Then I stick heat-bond onto the different colours of material I'll be using.  I transfer my drawing over to the material (or just re-draw it), and cut out all the fiddly bits.  I iron it onto my main fabric, and then I just have to sew along all the seams.  Actually, the sewing is the hard part.  Especially with anything that has a nice even curve to it (like wheels), or teensy-tiny bits.  However, I'm getting better at that, and I'm loving the outcome!

Tadaa!