Fabric Jewellery Project

The latest project that I have set my students on the Level 3 Fashion & Clothing course at South Staffordshire College concerns fabric jewellery and body adornment.  The brief is to create an accessory using various fabric manipulation and textile processes. 

The themes that I have given my students to base their item on are:
Opulence; Native; Candy Girl; Cyber; Earth Child; Antiquity

To the left is an example piece that I have created, based on the theme 'Native'.  The piece was created using scrap fabrics and various processes such as; weaving, fringing, applique, quilting and beading.

Continuing the Obsession with Cross Stitch

Ok, so I've gone a bit crazy with cross stitch, after not even bothering with it since I was about 10, I now can't get enough of it!

Here's some more of my little cross stitch goodies that I've made (today in fact). 

When I finally get my shop up and running, I'll be putting a selection of these rings, and also necklaces, on sale.

An Obsession with Cross Stitch

Since making my little cross stitch ring last week, I've now become obsessed with cross stitch. 

Here's a little cross stitch I made for my sister today to cheer her up. 

I've also scanned it and was thinking that I might actually produce postcards or something that can be mass produced, or prints on to fabric.

My cute little wooden button rings

These are my latest little making addiction.

Antique bronze effect rings featuring cute little wooden love-heart buttons (in various patterns and colours).

These will be on sale very soon on my folksy shop - along with many other bits and bobs.

My Cross Stitch Ring

I've been stuck in the house for 3 days straight now, and boredom has hit me hard. 

However, it's allowed me the chance to be creative again!!

Here's one of the things I did today :)

Flip Repeat Images

I've been working a little more on the doodle images I created previously.  I scanned the drawings and flip repeated them in Photoshop to create the images above.  I love these, they look really surreal!

Floral Eyes Illustration

Another of my latest fashion beauty illustrations.  This one was created by drawing a basic line image on to tracing paper.  The hair was filled in with single lines to create waves.  Flower images were then cut out and mounted on to the eyes.  The whole image was then mounted on top of some patterned black and white floral paper.

Latest Fashion Beauty Illustrations

 I said I was going to try more of those doodle-style beauty illustrations...and indeed I have!  I've got to say I'm totally loving these!  I love the monochrome with just the slight touch of colour, and I love all of the patterns in the hair.  I feel like I just want to draw a whole book of these!  They're really fun to do aswell, and very relaxing.  Love, love, love!

I also added to the one I drew before (below), as I felt that it just needed that extra little something.  So I added just a little bit more to the hair on the one side, and I added extra to the eyes.  I think that this has improved it, because it just looks that bit more whacky now.

Art Deco/Nouveau Beauty Illustration

This is my latest fashion image, inspired by art deco/nouveau.  I drew the image by hand first and then added the colour in Photoshop after scanning my original drawing. 

I love the boldness of this image, with the strong colours, and I'm majorly in to the whole roaring 20's trend at the mo! 

Doodly Hair Beauty Illustration

Here's another drawing that I've done recently in prep for the upcoming fashion illustration project.  Another really easy one to do!  I've kind of based it on Noumeda Carbone's style of illustration with the doodle aspect.  It's also more eye-catching to keep it mostly black and white, with just a hint of color. 

I'm going to work on some more illusrations in this style.  I think I need to be a little looser with the doodle aspect and possibly a bit crazier!!

Loving the New Collage Fashion Images

 So I've been doing some more experiments for the Fashion Illustration project, and today I've created these two images, collaged together using fashion adverts from old Vogue magazines.

I'm really loving this!!!  They do look a bit freaky I'll admit, but they're incredibly eye-popping and quirky, and above all, ridiculously easy to do!!!

I'm going to be kicking off my fashion course taster session's in July with this task, and am really excited about it.

Crazy Heads & Fashion Illustration do mix!

I've been writing a new assignment for my school learners, and this coming academic year I quite fancied doing a project on fashion illustration.  Sssooooo, I've been having a little doodle myself in order to come up with some interesting tasks to set the learners, and I've come up with these! 

I saw a window display in a high street fashion store, I can't quite remember which one it was, but the mannequins had pictures of deer heads stuck on top of them and I thought it looked crazily kinda cool.  So this (top left) is my take on that shop window in the form of a fashion illustration.  I actually really like the use of the oversized animal heads, it makes the illustration really quirky and captures the attention.

I also tried the same technique using large doll heads instead of animals (below left).   I love this too, and even though it's probab;y slightly less strange than the animal heads, I still think its really quirky. 

These are actually really easy to do, and I've begun to draw up templates for my school learners to use, and I'll be piloting this task in September.

Seems it was a weekend for Upcycling!!

 So, I got all quite obsessed last week with sorting through my big pile of 'to do' sewing projects that have been sitting around the house now for a year or so; all this thanks to the Great British Sewing Bee - cheers for that, really inspired me to get on with it! Sew (hehe)...I spent the weekend upcycling my dad's old 1990's levi's denim shirt. Bless him, he hung on to that shirt for an awfully long time hoping one day he'd fit back in to it, but sometimes you've just got to move on! I cut the panels up from the shirt, cutting it to my size but keeping the oversized shirt element in the body to rock that 90's vibe. I used some awesome russian doll print fabric that I bought an age ago to cut new front panels from and inserted these in to the old button down. The printed fabric was also used to add a thin panel along the back of the shirt, and along the inner sleeves so that the print flowed better with the original denim. I've got to be honest, I'm loving it and have been wearing it pretty much all week! I even got style spotted!

I'm the kind of girl that hoards fabric and hates to throw even the tiniest scrap away.  Therefore the remnants of the denim shirt were made in to a quirky fabric necklace.  The hemed and seamed scraps of the the shirt were gathered in to roses and finished with old buttons, and then all stitched down on to a denim backing, which was then studded afterwards.  I actually really like how the hemmed demin created naturally rounded edges on the gathered roses, and will definately use hemmed edges in the future off other old clothes to create the roses.

An Obsession with Kantha!!

 Another thing that I've been working on whilst I've been gone are these embroidered designs.  I have been totally obsessed with the traditional Indian embroidery technique of 'kantha', which is made up of lots of running stitches to add in block colour.  It's simple, easy and utterly effective, even if it does take an age to do!

I'm particularly in love with these embroidered tattoo designs that I've done, and am now in the process of turning these in to a fully kantha stitched quilted jacket, featuring traditional tattoo designs.  I've been working on the jacket now for a year (although not constant, as I'm swamped at and with work the majority of the time, so I have to grab short chances to sew it when and where I can).  I'll add pics when I've got a bit further with it.

The kantha technique is also an obsession that I've extended to my fashion and textile students, and they have taken to it
really well, often emplying it in their own work.  It's great to see the young learners adopting these traditional world techniques, and hopefully keeping them alive.

Whilst I was away....

During my time away from the blog and after completing my MA, I continued to illustrate and print my own fabrics.  These are just some of the cute quirky products I made using those unique hand-illustrated fabrics. 

Doodle Jack Quilt

So I've been absent from my blog for a good long time due to getting locked out. So here's my final quilt from my uni quilt series that I made back in april 2011. It was based on a photoshop illustration I made inspired by the union jack, in advance of the queen's jubilee in 2012. 

Quilts UK Exhibition, 05/11

I've just returned from the Quilts UK Exhibition in Malvern where my log-cabin illustrated quilt was featured. I was impressed by the exhibition and am pleased to say that the concept behind the update in my quilt was the only one of its kind there, so it appears that i am actually breaking new boundaries in the realm of patchwork and quilting - by exploring it via illustration and digital print.

New Quilt in Progress

Since finishing my log-cabin illustration quilt, I have since begun work on a new wall quilt, which is smaller in scale, but no less smaller in the amount of sewing it's going to take. The design is based on a contemporary version of Art-Deco design and will be shown at the National Quilt Exhibition at Sandown Park in Surrey during mid-June. Currently I am only on the first stages of sewing the quilt, so best carry on quilting!

Photo Shoot for my jewellery work

This photo shoot features my fashion fabric jewellery. All of my jewellery has been inspired by traditional forms of patchwork and quilting, taken out of their familiar zone and thrown in to the realm of fashion.

Log-Cabin Illustrated Quilt - Finally Finished!!!

I've been working on this quilt since November 2010. It has been a long process - from the initial stages of illustrating the tea-party images, illustrating the patchwork, working on it on the computer, printing the fabric, steaming, drying and then the 180 hours alone of hand-quilting! It has been a major slog in terms of hard work, and yet I loved every single minute of creating this piece. And now I have finally completed it, I feel a bit lost, like I don't know what to do with myself. Work on the next quilt I suppose! This quilt, which I have entitled "Just My Cup of Tea" will be featured in the 'Quilts UK' exhibition in Malvern (Three Counties Showground) during the 19th-22nd May.