Coffee boy comes to life

This week I finally finished some pieces in my Coffee Boy design. The realisation of this new design has been a bit of a labour of love for me.

You may remember that this design started as a t-shirt for the Mr. Then I had ideas to extend the design that I just couldn't stop thinking about so I decided to just do it :-)

The Sweets Workshop Gocco exhibition has been the catalyst in forcing me to stopping tinkering and get on with it! The exhibition started yesterday and I'm so pleased to be part of it with the prints I did with Emma and John .


Window display showing Gocco machine




 Prints on card and framed print

A Coffee Boy tea towel and apron have gone to the handmade retail side of the Sweets Workshop and it's so great to see it all sitting together nicely as a family. A few pieces are also available in my Etsy and Madeit shops.

I love how each placement of the 'face' gives a slightly different expression. The tea towel and apron above appear to be looking at each other, hee hee!

I've put a lot of attention into the details and loved getting all the separate elements working together.

Now, off into the world you go, Coffee Boy! I have my next design in mind, nagging away at me to get on with it ;-)

My creative space

In my creative space this week I'm enjoying the business of matching...

Starting with a design and then layering colour, fabrics, textures...

Adding all-important details...

And tinkering until it's just right. So much fun and so satisfying.

And any excuse to play with some new hardware is good, right? ;-)

Playing along with My creative space here.

Have a good weekend!

 

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Back to it

The craziness of children starting school and preschool is finally starting to settle here in our household, and so at last I have been able to get back into some screenprinting.

Whilst trying to work out how to get back into paid work (with all the challenges it brings for me and the family) I'm planning on bringing to life some of the many design and product ideas I have swimming around in my head and hopefully produce a few items to sell in my Madeit and Etsy shops and The Sweets Workshop.

So, in my 'days off' when all the kids are out of the house, I've been having sporadic frenzies of printing and sewing in between school runs, housework and errands, and finally have a few little wristlets and purses in my shops.


I had such lovely positive feedback about my 'lights' print late last year that I thought I'd start with a run of it. I love how the ink sits on the linen in this design, adding a translucency to the design. Matching fabrics, colours and details like little jute ribbon tabs is all so satisfying.


And of course I get to design and use some little labels too, which I aways enjoy. Give me a bit of string and some cardboard and I'm happy ;-)

Screen printed wet bag

Just before Christmas I printed a length of my lights design in fushia, eggplant and tangerine to make a few little purses for special presents.

I kept a little back for myself and recently made this little wet bag for myself using a fabulous laminated fabric for the lining. This idea came about after yet again discovering the mess in my bag caused by one too many soggy wet wipes, face washers, tissues etc spread throughout - as you'll know if you have littlies, there are plenty of times when these items end up in your bag (or is it just me?!).

Also a friend and I were recently discussing the fact that as we have children still going through toilet training (will it ever end?!!) it's inevitable that there are going to be some wet undies to take home now and then, ahem.

It's been so useful so far (and the laminate so fun to sew!) that its got me thinking about all sorts of possibilities: toiletry bags, make-up purses, baby change mats and anything really where a little waterproofing is helpful. Hopefully these thoughts will magically materialise in the coming weeks ;-)

Head on over to my creative space for a weekly dose of goodness.

 

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Sleep shorts

These sleep shorts were a Christmas present for the Mr, who had requested them after claiming his previous pair were very comfortable (hooray for handmade!).

These are the same style as the last pair. I'd made a quick self drafted pattern last time from an existing pair of PJs and used that again. They are pretty straight forward, baggy and shapeless, perfect for comfort ;-) I used a piece of soft dark blue jersey from my stash and a length of wide elastic. Again as I did last time, instead of making a casing for the elastic I just sewed it straight onto the waist of the shorts, serged the edge then top stitched it down (I got this idea from a pair the Mr's undies). It really is a quick and easy method, and as you can see below it comes out reasonably neat.

This time for a little embellishment I designed a little school of fish to screen print (pet fish being a new hobby of the Mr's in 2012). I cut the stencil and printed the little rows of fish around the base of each leg in pale grey.

I teamed the shorts with a store-bought t-shirt, as I didn't feel the effort of making a well fitting tshirt was justified, and I'd nearly run out of time. But I did print a little extra fishy fabric and sewed a square over the existing label just to link the tshirt to the shorts (no photo though). A satisfying little gift to make :-)

 

 

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Making and knowing when to draw the line

In my creative space this week I printed some more of my 'lights' design, this time using a different colour palette. I loved the neon design I printed last time but was keen to try another colourway. This one feels more like me.

I had fun experimenting with printing on different woven fabrics and love how different the inks and design can look on different materials. I found that when I printed on the coarsers fabrics (more open weave) the texture comes through really nicely and becomes an element in the design. I love the coarse linen but really love the effect on the hessian (burlap ). It's the first time I've printed on it and loved the effect, experimenting with mixing inks directly on the screen. I've got lots of ideas around this. Hopefully one day I'll get to explore it further.

As with the neon colourway I made some purses and also a larger clutch purse, all gone to The Sweets Workshop for sale.

So that's it for me on the 'making to sell' front at the moment. I really love doing it, and enjoy people enjoying my designs, but I've found it pretty hard going juggling my 3 littlies and household, and the myriad of activities, needs and wants of everyone. And I know from past experience that when the super late nights start to stack up I end up being grumpy mummy and no one is happy :-(

For the next couple of weeks I need to get organised and make those special homemade gifts that I have in mind.

How are you doing in the run up to the holiday season?

Visit my creative space for lots of creative goodness.

 

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My creative space

In my creative space this week I've mainly been filling orders from my new Neon Lights design.

It was really nice to have some lovely promotion on Monday. First I was featured in Madeit's 'Monday Finds' newsletter and shopping guide. I really like our Australian home grown handmade store. It somehow seems to have a personal feel. And then the lovely Steph from Bondville featured my things in her blog post that day.

When you design and create in an isolated environment where you're not getting feedback (asking the cat what he thinks doesn't seem to work ;-) I find it's easy to wonder if what you're doing is up to scratch and will it be of interest to others? So it's fantastic to get these kind of endorsements. Thanks Madeit and Bondville!

Also in my creative space I've been gathering materials for holiday gift wrapping.

There seems to be a red and natural theme going on.

And I found these gems in my favourite fabric shop The Remnant Warehouse, perfect for making scooter bags for the kids Christmas presents. Think I'll use this tutorial as a basis.

How is your holiday prep going? I'm trying not to panic about all the things on my 'to do' list in the next few weeks and hoping I get around to making at least some of them.

Joining in on my creative space.

 

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Wristlets

I made some more wristlets in my neon lights design, this time to put in my shop. I'm also starting to make some Christmas presents and trying hard not to keep adding to the 'to do' list!! A less frantic lead-up to Christmas this year would be nice, but I think I know myself well enough by now - there's not much chance of that ;-)

Hope you've had a nice weekend!

Neon lights iPad sleeves and purses

In my creative space this week I made some things to put in a little local gallery/handmade shop called Sweets Workshop. The owners, Emma and John, are just the most lovely people, very open and encouraging of independent designers and artists and I feel lucky to have a space like this in my local area.

I'm planning on making some more kitchen items soon (you may remember my artichoke and beetroot designs if you've been following me for a while) but firstly I couldn't resist the urge produce this little range, which has been in my head for a while now, bursting to get out :-)

Using my 'lights' design I screen printed some crazy neon colours onto a length of white cotton and also some oatmeal coloured linen.

Then I made them into little purses and iPad sleeves, highlighting the designs with bright ribbons and metal zips.

It was fun to go outside of my usual comfort zone and use such bright colours, playing around with the mix of design, fabric, colours and trims to get a balance I liked.

I love seeing the circles all lined up.

And I couldn't decide if I preferred the inks on the white or oatmeal so decided to do both. It will be interesting to see what sells better.

Im belatedly playing along with my creative space over here.

- - - -

I'm off to wear my new Belladone dress tomorrow night (finished, yay!), hopefully I'll show you some pics and do a little review of the pattern next week. Have a great weekend!

 

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Coffee print iPad sleeve

After setting up and printing the Mr's birthday t-shirts I couldn't not print a piece of fabric, it would seem like a waste to just do one print. So I printed on some great coffee coloured linen and then decided I couldn't leave it to languish in the stash. So late the night before his birthday I made a sleeve for his much loved iPad.

I combined two great tutorials to get make the design I envisaged. Firstly this one for neat zipper ends. It means the seams are unfinished (rather than being tucked inside, as in other pouch methods), and you finish them with bias binding. I had a length of a lovely mustard coloured binding so I used that as a little feature. The pic below shows the sleeve inside out.

And then when I googled 'sewing zipper on a curve' I found this fabulous one at Design Sponge. I know we often sing the praises of tutorials, but honestly, if it wasn't this particular one, there would have been tears, I'm sure!

I ran the zipper around 2 sides (rather than just the top) and added a few of my own little features like extra padding and a zipper pull.

 
And so in the early hours of the morning it was finally finished and I went to bed tired but happy :-)

Lots of creative goodness to check out over at My Creative Space.

Coffee print t-shirts

Thank you for your comments and emails on my last post about social media. It's really interesting to hear how people use it and has given me a lot to think about.

It was the Mr's birthday yesterday and I made him a few homemade presents. You might be thinking 'of course you did', but actually he is normally spared  from the crafting frenzy outcomes around here.

 

Looking for inspiration on what to make, I looked at some facts:
1. The Mr is a self-confessed coffee nerd, I'm sure he won't mind me telling you :-) Obsessed.
2. He never seems to have enough t-shirts
So I thought I'd combine the two and design and screen print a 'homage to coffee' type themed t-shirt.

The design I settled on is a stylised illustration of the filter basket thingy (the thing that holds the coffee grounds as the water get filtered through).

Then I added a starburst or halo of coffee beans around it for a bit of fun. I bought 2 t-shirts to use (not trusting myself with 1 in case it went wrong) from American Apparel. I printed one, holding my breath - what a scarey thing it is to print straight onto the finished piece! So different to using a length of fabric where you can just print more.



And I also printed some coffee coloured linen for another little present which I'll show you later this week when I'm organised.


And then, as I find often happens with the creative process, suddenly I looked at the filter basket again in a different way. It looked like a person, complete with little ears :-) Adding a few coffee beans completed the picture. So I printed that one up too.

 I'm pretty happy with the outcome, and think they look like 'real' t-shirts, if you know what I mean!