BACK TO PLUSHY GOODNESS

I just started working on commission piece for the top of a wedding cake. The plush are based on Dale Maxey's illustrations of The Owl and the Pussy Cat.



Here's the sketch of what they will look like. They'll be about 7 to 8 inches tall. The cat will be sitting up right and be a little simpler in styling.



So far I've gotten the main body of the owl done. Still have the feet and wings to do. It took a better part of an evening cutting all the scallops for the feathers. I love how the feathers turned out.

SUMMER CLOTHES

::click images to see larger::

Here's what I've been so diligently working on for the past month. Toddler clothes. It really is fun sewing for a girl. The above tunics are made from Simplicity pattern 4203. It really is as easy as it says it is. Though the pattern didn't call for it, I added the band at the bottom of the tunics and made them a little longer. I also crisscrossed the straps in the back. I  made the dress that was included in this pattern too. No pic to show though.





Here's my little model! This tunic is my favorite. I LOVE the ice cream print. They don't look to bad over a long sleeved shirt either.



I cleaned out my closets about a month ago and was bagging up some old clothes to donate when I decided to save some stuff and repurpose it. This was originally an old dress of mine that I turned into a skirt. I made the lining a little longer so it would hang lower than the printed material. Added some white ric-rac and a bow.



This was a last minute dress. I found this material and had to have it. I used McCalls pattern 5836.



I also made three dresses for myself for the summer. I'll post those later.

LAST OF THE FLOWER EMBELLISHING

I think I've got all the flower making out of my system now. Here's the last two necklaces I made. Again I followed the tutorials in the book The Artful Ribbon.











I've noticed lots of embellished t-shirts lately too. Lots of flowers, lace and ruffles. These four are from Anthropology. I love Anthropology but can't justify spending money their. They are a bit out of my price range. But they have some pretty stuff to look at and be inspired by.



This my attempt at creating my own flower embellished t-shirt. I bought two t-shirts of the same color, one in my size and the other in a large. I then created a template of circles. I cut the circles out of cardboard and used these to trace circles onto my large sized tshirt. After cutting out many circles in the three sizes I started to stack them together. I stacked one large, one medium and one small circle together. I then sewed these together in the middle. After having a bunch of these sewn together I started pinning them to the t-shirt. The key to getting them to look full is to clump your circles close together. The closer you sew these together the fuller it will be. Hopefully that makes sense. I really need to get better with taking pics of my work in process. I get so busy working I just forget.

Below are the circle sizes I used. Just click on the image to make larger and print these to use. It should print out at actual size.

FASHION IN DETAIL

I'm still on my month long kick of sewing. I've almost finished the four tunics and dress for my daughter and I finished putting the hooks in the two dresses I made for my self. At some point I need to take pics of those. I'd love to get outside to take some pics but it's always raining : (.  I also finished another flower necklace. When I get in this mood I start looking through my history of fashion books. I just discovered the Victoria and Albert Museum, V&A for short, Fashion in Detail books. The books only show close up photos of garments. You really get to see the construction of the clothing. There are also diagram like drawings of the garment as well as detailed written descriptions about the history of the piece. Very interesting.



17th and 18th Century- Fashion in Detail



19th Century-Fashion in Detail It looks like this book is no longer in print. However Borders website has it but it is back ordered. Luckily I was able to order this book through my works library and they were able to find it for me. We have an awesome creative library here at work, one of the great perks.



Images from 19th Century Fashion in Detail



20th Century- Fashion in Detail

LIBERTY OF LONDON FOR TARGET

I finally made it over to Target to take a look at the Liberty of London collection exclusive for Target. Luckily for me I live in the midwest and this stuff isn't really flying off the shelves here. There were a lot of things I liked and a lot of things I disliked. It was fun seeing all the prints but I was disappointed in the clothing, the womens especially. Most of the womens clothings is made of polyester. It just seems a bit cheap. I had wished they had done more in cotton. Also the womens clothing runs large and the fit is a bit wonky. So needless to say I didn't pick up any clothing for myself.



I did get this wallet. It's pretty roomy and holds all my cards as well as my checkbook. However, be careful how much change you try to shove in the coin section. If you try to over stuff this wallet, the magnetic closure won't hold it shut. But it works for me.



I did pick this jumper up for my two year old. All the childrens clothing is made of cotton. Much better quality than the womens. However, the toddler clothing runs really, really small. My daughter wears a 2T and I ended up with having to purchase a 4T. I'm not sure what sizing guides they were going by. Odd sizing is my biggest complaint when clothes shopping. Old Navy is the worst. You could say it's because it's cheap clothing but I've found sizing issues in expensive clothing as well.



I so wish this skirt had come in Toddler sizes. This is in the girls clothing section. There are more options in girls clothing than there are in the baby/toddler clothes.

And finally, I checked out the bedding hoping to find just a set of sheets. All my store had where comforters and that's all they have on line as well. I would have loved to have created my own skirt or dress out of the material.

So overall I'd say I was 60% pleased with the collection. Loved looking through out the store for everything, loved all the fun signage, and loved listening to the highschool boy employee complaining the prints hurt his eyes. HaHa!