I won, I won!!!!!!

I just received notice from the lovely folks at Adventures in Dressmaking and Paradiso Designs that I won their free pattern giveaway. I got to chose the pattern, which was of course the Lolita Skirt ( Pictured in my last entry). They are going to mail it to me. The MINUTE it arrives I will be whipping myself up a skirt, and of course I will post the results. I have just 4 days left until my summer break from teaching, so I will be sure to make at least one. I will also be checking around the bargain bins at the fabric shop for some cool fabrics in anticipation. Now if only the skirt could make me look as thin as the model in the picture........ Thanks again to Adventures in Dressmaking for the contest!

Great New Contest for Those who Love to Sew!

Check out Burdastyle for a brand new, and very top secret, contest. In today's newsletter I found out they are going to send out patterns to a variety of sewers to be altered, and those who do the best job will have their work featured! Sounds pretty exciting to me! I entered my name and now I will cross my fingers in the hopes that I get picked. The lucky entrants will also be sent the fabric they will use. Go to Burdastyle.com for more information, and good luck!

Green Challenge

With Earth day upon us tomorrow I thought a good topic to discuss would be options for those creative types who want to be Green. You might want to check out knittingdaily.com where they have a green challenge and also feature a new knitting book called Knitting Green. While I haven't personally gone through it yet it's gotten some good reviews and contains several neat projects. Another book that I have recommended in this blog is the Alabama Stitch Book which is all about using old t-shirts (or organic cotton ones) to make something new. I have made 2 projects from this book and LOVE it.

Unfortunately in the world of fine art many of the materials we use are toxic, such as paints that contain cadmium, turpentine, bleach, etc... I for one have been bad for sanding pieces of pottery or mixing glaze without a mask on. Very bad idea! Breathing that dust can cause lung disease. Alternatives are becomming more available however, such as low odor turpentine, natural plant dyes, organic cotton, and the list goes on. I recently saw a new art book that gave recipes for making your own paint and other concoctions. It's called Green Guide for Artists. It sells on Amazon and is also carried by Chapters. I have seen sculptures made from recycled materials, and multi-media pieces which also have recycled elements.

If you know any other great Green art resources I'd love to hear about it.

Embellishments

Lately I have been noticing that everything seems to be embellished. The last two t-s I bought have various forms of embellishment. Naturally a lot of these things cost a pretty penny, so what's a girl to do? Well, do it yourself of course! I have been blog surfing today and found some neat sites that can help even the most challenged embellish their own clothes on the cheap. To see some nice embellished clothes, check out Anthropologie.com. The Burda sewing website is also a daily favourite of mine, and the blog today just happened to focus an article on embellishing. Check out the blog adventuresindressmaking.blogspot.com or another good one is a site called Primrose Corner which shows you how to make a sweet flower brooch.

What I have been discovering is that there are simply not enough hours in the day. Dare I admit that while I am teaching art in high school every day I may be carrying a knitting project in my pocket, or cutting up t-shirts on an empty school desk? I can usually justify this by saying it is important for the students to see that I am interested in being creative or that by watching what I am doing student's interest in piqued. They actually get very interested in what I am doing, even if I have an alterior motive that I simply can't help but be doing something with my hands all day.

As I make another extra panel for my Alabama Stitch Swing Skirt I have also started knitting a little halter top for summer. I just couldn't help myself. I don't believe in having one project done before starting another. I usually have several on the go at once.

Happy sewing and knitting.

It's a Good Day

Ok, so today is turning out to be a pretty good day. The best news is that I scored awesome seats for the Simon and Garfunkel concert in halifax in May. I am on the floor right in front of the stage, 3 rows back! I can't WAIT!!!!! I know I am showing my age, because when I told my students about my great news their answer was "who"? I supposed there will be very few people there under the age of 35. I'm just really glad I got these tickets, because Simon and Garfunkel aren't getting any younger, and neither am I!

On to more good news, I am almost done sewing my swing skirt done in reverse applique and completely hand sewn. It's from one of my favourite sewing books, "Alabama Stitch Book." Now I am no country girl, but I can't help but love the designs and the fact that you can make everything from recycled t-shirts! You don't get much greener than that. The only draw back is that all this sewing by hand takes a really long time, but maybe it's good to have something that forces you to slow down in this age of everything done at the speed of light. It even gives me something to focus on while all the guys in my family watch sports. I hope to have a picture up in a couple of days. While the picture in the book is made with burgundy and grey t-shirts, I was forced to use grey and white because that was all I could find at the second hand store that day. It still looks great.

Check twice, cut once

Recently I bought a really nice sewing book at Chapters called "Chic and Simple Sewing" by Christine Haynes. After browsing the sewing section for over an hour I finally settled on this book because it seemed to have the best selection of patterns that wouldn't go out of date in a hurry. I was really excited to try the Classic Wrap Dress, and even more excited when I found 4 metres of really nice cotton pink fabric in the clearance section for $1.00 a metre on sale! Wow! A dress for under 5 bucks. I decided to make the largest size, which was a large, and busily cut out my pattern and began sewing for several hours. I immediately knew something was amiss when I went to try it on and couldn't even begin to get it to wrap around! My mother arrived at just that moment and was as perplexed as me. Then she asked me what size I had made. Well duh, of course I made the large. Then she said, "well what size is the large?". uh oh. had I really neglected to check that before I cut and sewed? Apparently yes I had forgotten. Upon closer inspection of the book I saw that large was actually an 8-10. Are you serious? I wear a size 16. So now I will have to grade the patterns, which I am NOT looking forward to. I downloaded some good instruction on how to do that from Threads magazine. I'll let you know how it goes. The moral of the story? ALWAYS check sizing not once, but twice.

Silkscreen for son

When my six year old son saw my own silkscreened shirt the other night he wanted one. I went back to the drawing board and created an image based on the ghost rider cartoon with my son as the ghostrider sitting on the bike, complete with flames and the text "Jeremiah is born to ride". He loved it. I had a couple of issues with this one as I decided not to have a helper. This meant that I had to try to both manage the ink and hold the screen down flat, with mixed results. The next time I will definately use a helper. I don't see myself becomming any kind of a silkscreen artist, but it is sure fun to do for something unique and distinctly yours. Enjoy!