handprinted: a fabric swap II

what do you think, folks? anyone up for some more handprinting swap fun??

::the gist::

you'll be sending one printed fat quarter to each of four assigned swap buddies and receiving four printed fat quarters from these same folk. whether you want to print one whole meter (yard) and chop it into quarters or you want to print four separate 50cm x 50cm (18inch x 20inch) pieces is up to you. designs must be your own and hand printed using whatever technique you want to play with. please print on natural fibers - cotton, linen, hemp or a blend of these - and be sure you use ink/paint designed for fabric. you will be sent your swap mates' preferred colours but, in the end, ink colours and design are entirely of your own choosing.

::sign up::

send the following information to handprintedfabricswap@gmail.com
name:
postal address:
website/blog:
preferred colours:

signups will be open until friday, june 1st. your swap group details will be sent to you by sunday, june 3rd and the deadline to send your fabric is monday, june 25th, giving you three whole weeks to play around with techniques. this swap is open to anyone, anywhere in the world, which means if you sign up, you have to be willing to ship fabric overseas (since we'll only be sending fat quarters, you should be able to sandwich your fabric between two pieces of card and send it in a C4 (8.5 x 11inch) envelope to keep postage costs down).

::resources::
my leaf printing tutorial

hand carved stamp tutorial
stencil and potato printing
foam stamping tutorial
lino stamping tutorial
homemade stamps turorial
stamp carving tutorial
contact paper printing tutorial
screen printing at home
screen printing tutorial
screen printing using drawing fluid
screen printing photo emulsion tutorial
my create your own screen tutorial

::inspiration::
my handprinted board on pinterest
handprinted: fabric group on flickr
printing by hand group on flickr


there are a ton of books on every kind of fabric printing you can imagine but one i can recommend wholeheartedly is lena corwin's Printing by Hand: A Modern Guide to Printing with Handmade Stamps, Stencils, and Silk Screens.  i'll be posting about tutorials, techniques and hopefully a few inspirational interviews over the course of the swap to keep you motivated but please feel free to add links to any other resources in the comments, there is so much great information out there! once the mailing deadline has past, i'll be posting ideas of what to make with your fancy handprinted fat quarters : )

here's a little sidebar button if you want to show off that you are taking part:

and please feel free to use the large image above to blog about the swap, the more the merrier!

brrrr.

this has been one cold and wet autumn (with very small patches of lovely scattered throughout) and i am filled with dread that we are still two weeks away from the official start of aussie winter. i've been trying to think of good things about this weather but all i've managed so far is: not as many spiders and very few flies. not exactly uplifting so i thought i'd better bring around some winter joy in the form of:


new boots (from here),


new shoes (new from ebay),


new scarf ($5 from st vinnies).

teamed with some warm cozy knits, these three little treats to myself might just get me through the winter. my husband's new birthday ipad may help, too.

also, happy late mother's day! we had a super quiet day, cleaning and organising the house, just what i requested. the crummy weather meant we didn't even attempt to get my mother's day photo on the day this year but i'm hoping for some clearer skies this weekend, i refuse to break the tradition!

diy skirt kits

so hot on the heels of the diy oobee kit, here is the diy skirt kit! and you're thinking, how DOES she do it?? well, in reality these have been in my etsy shop since february and i somehow forgot to blog about them so they've just been sitting there very quietly. but then last week someone ordered one! and she sent me super cute photos and great feedback on the kit and i thought, hmmm, these skirts are pretty darn cute, maybe i should actually let the world know that they exist. the kit comes with your choice of handprinted fabric combination for skirt and waistband and a handy instruction sheet that walks you through the very simple steps to complete it. it's suitable for beginners and shows you how to customize the fit for ages one through six.





i currently have three fabric options available:

1:: bone coloured 100% cotton skirt printed with pale bubblegum pink many moon dots and grey confetti with grey seedpods printed on grey 100% cotton for the waistband

2:: pink shot cotton (100% cotton) skirt printed with white quill feathers and almost black confetti printed on white 55% linen/45% cotton for the waistband

3:: natural 55% linen/45% cotton skirt printed with black many moon dots and pale pink quill feathers and black quill feathers printed on dark grey 100% cotton for the waistband.

and i'm working on some pinwale corduroy versions to release next month, perfect for an aussie winter skirt. here's mae rocking her fabric combo number 1 version when it was still lovely and warm outside:



and here is the gorgeous example of the fabric combo number 2 option that nicole created and so graciously allowed me to show here:

isn't this photo the cutest?? and it must be said, this skirt is all the more impressive because it was nicole's first solo sewing project EVER. i am blown away, she's a total natural!

you do it.

now here's a kit that has been in the works for a long time! i launched these at finders keepers last month and finally introduced it to the shop last week, my new diy oobee kit. now you can create your own handprinted little character and save me a bit of sewing ; )



the kit currently comes in three fabric options, all 100% cotton pinwale corduroy, super soft but sturdy enough to endure years of loving. there's offwhite with seedpods in raspberry (hot pink), white with quill in mustard yellow, or light grey with gathering in dark grey. i plan to change the fabrics up fairly often to keep it fun but since the grey has been pretty popular so far, it may become a regular feature.



to celebrate the online launch, i'm offering FREE SHIPPING WORLDWIDE on all diy oobee kits until the end of may. rev up those sewing machines, folks, i can't wait to see your results!

last minute kcwc

well, i must have been a bit inspired by all the gorgeous kids clothing showing up due to the kids clothes week challenge, i just had to add a couple more things to my week (and excuse the fairly terrible lighting in photos).



two pairs of pjs for mae. i used the cinnamon leggings pattern from ottobre 01/2011 and cut a size larger than she wears to make these a bit roomy and comfy. i think knits are such a great option for pjs, these were super quick to make, especially as the pair on the right was made from a barely used night dress so i used the existing hem and the other pair i left the bottoms unhemmed, plus i used foldover elastic for the waistband. i remembered amy karol blogging about foldover elastic a couple of years ago and how it was pretty much the greatest invention ever. i had some in my stash (bought on etsy) and i have to concur, it really is so easy, i shall never make leggings (or legging pjs) without it again.



a quick skirt for mae, based on my diy skirt kit design but i used an offcut so the skirt isn't quite as full as it should be and WAIT A MINUTE... something for SOPHIE???? unbelievable, the poor second kid who never gets to show her face on my blog because i never sew her stuff because she has a mountain of clothes already finally gets a pair of pants! lovely linen pants that are miles too big and so she still doesn't get to show her face.


aw but she's oh so cute, here she is anyway:

show off

i've been lucky enough to see some great stuff being done with my fabric lately:

amanda sent me an email showing some some gorgeously embellished shirts she made for her daughters using a panel of stormy weather in alabaster on grey and a bit of embroidery - super clever.

 
joanna ordered a custom printed meter of stormy weather in glacier on bone cotton and used it to make cushion covers for her cloud-loving sister. this was really fun to print, such a nice combination!


 
and mel made this AMAZING, KING SIZED patchwork quilt top in greys using a bunch of different maze & vale prints mixed in with some aunty cookie goodness among others. i love this so much, i really need to make some time for quilting again soon.

thanks so much for letting me share your photos, ladies! x 

misprinted scraps go to...

the random number generator gods have spoken and announced that comment number 36 and number 63 shall be receiving scraps a la post! so congrats to tania and fiona, it was a nice surprise to see your very familiar names when i counted through the comments : )

and thank you so, so much to everyone who entered, your kind words about my poor little rejects was almost overwhelming! do you know i almost felt a bit skeezy about giving away the misprints? like, would anyone want them? well, you put my mind at rest and i plan on holding regular misprint giveaways from now on. x

upcoming

handprinted linen and cotton and leather, these and others hitting the shop this weekend.

misprinted scraps, anyone? a giveaway.

i tried to cram some more bits into my handprinted scraps box last night and just could not fit in another piece. so i pulled a bunch for a future lovely pale blue/light grey/hint of mustard quilt (because i don't have enough things on my to do list already. or two quilt tops already waiting to be basted and quilted.) and then put together three little piles for a giveaway. each bundle contains six pieces of 100% cotton fabric in shades of grey and red. some pieces are quite big with the smallest being about a quarter of a panel and the prints may vary slightly from the ones shown above. these are misprints so they may have an area that is slightly smudged or an extra splatter of paint but they'd still be useful for patchwork projects (and i just cannot bear to throw them away). i'll give two bundles away here and one on facebook so leave a comment on this post if you think you could use them and then head over to like my maze & vale page and enter there as well if you are keen! (open to anyone worldwide, i'll draw two winners at 8pm melbourne time, friday, april 27th)

thank you so, so much to everyone for entering and for all your kind, wonderful words, this giveaway is now closed and winners have been notified. x

kcwc cheat

so elsie marley's kids clothing week challenge (sew clothes for your kids one hour a day for seven days) is now in full swing and unfortunately, i am not. i don't know how i managed to convince myself that the week after a major market would be full of spare time. in actual fact i have about a bazillion things to do and a ton of fabric to print and in reality my kids don't really need many clothes right now. mostly because when i signed up for kcwc, i was all pumped and ended up sewing a bunch of stuff for them in the following weeks. so this week i'll be showing what i accomplished for them last month instead. sort of cheating but sort of relevant?

here's a dress i made for mae from this japanese sewing book. actually really hard to get a decent photo, it looks great in real life but doesn't perfectly translate to image somehow. it was a fun and easy sew and when i do get a bit of time for more clothing sewing, i think i'll tackle it again, maybe in wool for winter layering?

market round up

A rare calm moment captured by my extra talented friend Jo Ely.

wowee, was finders keepers ever amazing!? anyone who was there would have to agree - it was crazily busy (pretty much constantly), the atmosphere was wonderful and the quality and range of wares on offer was fantastic. i had the best experience, got so much great feedback on my new products, made so many exciting connections and met all-around nice people plus came home with a much lighter load of stock. wonderful! my apologies to anyone who missed out on a cushion cover (i really had no idea they would be so popular and will endeavour to have them online in the next week or so) or couldn't get what they wanted because the atm was broken and i don't accept cards yet - hopefully both things will be remedied next time!

i only got to sneak away for 5 minutes here and there (thanks to my stall buddy kristen for maning the ship AND providing great company over the weekend) but i found the two things i really wanted:



owl know how by cat rabbit & isobel knowles and perfection in a little bud vase from shiko. so ridiculously happy with both, it's not even funny. the book is beautiful and sweet and brilliant and the vase... perfect. love.

finders keepers mebourne market

finders keepers kicks off tomorrow! i spent all day today finishing off last minute details, making sure I have everything and, exhaustion aside (because my kids keep waking me up multiple times a night this week),  i'm feeling pretty good about the new designs i am introducing this weekend. if you're in melbourne, do drop by for a visit. we're open until 10pm friday night with a bar, cafe and live music and then back at it from 10am - 5pm on saturday. i'm beside the wonderful kristen doran so you have double the excuse to come check out all the handprinted goodness!