Return of the Jedi Shirt

This is a shirt I made for Steve for Christmas. I made it out of a bed sheet I found at the Op Shop near our house. I made up the pattern (the same one from the blue shirt I made a couple of months ago) and used old bakelite buttons that my Dad gave me, they are a lovely deep red. It's a bit crumply because we took it out of the washing basket to photograph it.
Background mess courtesy of the D.S.Ls, photo credit to Samuel J. Davison, Salty Sea Dog credit to Steve Lynch.

Rainbow Dress

I made this dress for a final project in my painting class in first year. It is a full circle skirt, that has been painted, or even dyed with very diluted acrylic paints. The bodice is of black velvet.
I was looking to achieve an effect of overall colour, and was more concerned with the process of dripping the paint onto the fabric than what the end result would be- we were studying abstract expressionism at the time...

The closure is a zip at the back, that wasn't the right colour, so I painted it black.

Photo credit to Samuel J. Davison.

Googly-Eyed Monster

I made this Hallowe'en costume by commission wayyy back in October, but I only remembered to put it on here just then. It was really great fun to make- I created an interior skeleton, to give the monster some shape and then stuck googly eyes all over it with superglue!

The noise that those googly eyes make when somebody moves around in the costume is great- like shells rattling.

Thanks to David for the photo

Walking

Another shot from our trip to the Botanical Gardens in Montreal, doesn't the winter light look beautiful?

Rag Quilts

I was commissioned to make these quilts by a woman for her two daughters. Half of the squares on the patchwork are cut from the girls' old clothing.
I think they turned out very nicely, I embroidered their names onto each quilt and included tiny trimmings from the clothing, like bows and flowers!

The backing and binding is a gorgeous soft pink satin and I used a tying method for the actual quilting, as the patchwork was a lot more difficult and time-consuming than I had anticipated.
I prefer the pink and white quilt to the pink and green one, it just seems cleaner and more aesthetically pleasing.

Ballon Pour Nicolas

This is the Christmas present I made for Nicky, Ellie's little brother. I made it out of scraps from dresses that I have sewn.

I think it's always lovely to give old-fashioned gifts to children, because now those garish computery-light-flashey toys are cheaper than a rag doll!

Cat Doll

This is a Christmas present for Ellie, the little girl I nanny. She was delighted and noted that the dress is made from the same fabric as my Penny Dress a few posts down!

I embroidered the face with some 1940s silk that I bought at an Op Shop in Pie IX.

Snow Storm

And my first snow angel! I had to try a couple of times- the other ones all ended up looking like the devil.

Oh Brother!

This is my brother, Sebastian and I on holidays in Warrnambool earlier this year.

Baby Love

I was commissioned to make this baby blanket this week, and finished it up this afternoon. I love how playful the design is, it was really a joy to create!

I made some business cards and labels for the dolls that I sell in shops. I printed them with cut-out rubber stamps and India Ink.

Do you see the special secret in the big snail?

Penny Dress

I made this dress the other night out of some material that I bought when I was sixteen and brought with me to Canada because I had always loved it!

It is called the Penny Dress because I was having trouble making the bodice fit properly at the bust, so I tried tying a penny (like when you make tie-dyed fabric) in the centre of the bodice and it worked amazingly!

I drafted the pattern myself and made the collar from an old napkin and some incredible lace from the 1930s that I also bought in Australia.


It snowed yesterday and the mountain is sporting a fine white blanket!