Skittles’ first dress

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I was browsing Martha’s website one day in search of easy sewing projects and found this sweet pattern.

Sadly I was fresh out of vintage teatowels, but had some destroyable man shirts from my very patient husband (“Babe, I’m never going to wear that shirt again, it must be destroyed.” “But the cotton is so good, it’s a TM Lewin shirt! I’m sure I can do something with it, I’ll just put it in the sewing cupboard black hole.”) Shirts tend to wear around the collars, cuffs or armpits, but often the rest of the fabric is in perfectly good nick and I’m always loathed to throw them away.

Step 1 – Print out the pattern and tape it together
Pattern

Step 2 – Lay the pattern on your fabric and cut it out. I didn’t take a progress photo, but instead of cutting two front pieces, I essentially cut a single front piece since the front of a shirt is already composed of two separate pieces.

Step 3 – Join the sides together. I left the collar and armholes to the end.

Step 4 – Finish the collar and arm holes with bias tape cut from the shirtsleeves. I decided not to add the frill at the bottom since it didn’t seem to go with the clean lines of the dress. Instead, I made a fabric rose by handgathering a strip of fabric. The big one was my first attempt and I think I gathered it a bit too loosely, the littler one was better:)

And done! I really enjoyed this project. We have a little niece due in October (currently referred to as Skittles) so I’m planning to make a few more little dresses for her.

A Joyful Giraffe..

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I’m wandering down a different path  with this one – after the last landscape I really wanted to do something different. Something that would be a little surreal, predominantly monochrome but still high contrast. Searching Dali, Miro and Magritte online was really inspirational and I started to think of fluidity, movement and dancers. Since I got the JG domain name about this time (Note-I think I started in March?) , it hit me – a giraffe ballerina!  ( I promise this made perfect sense in my head).  The ballerina’s body is based on a photo with the caption “Imaging the Dance”. I can’t remember who the photographer is as the printout isn’t with me now, but I’ll update the post when I retrieve it. In the meantime, hattip to you Mr Photographer, thank you very much! *update- the photo was captioned ” Imaging The Dance, Marco Cappalunga”

I didn’t really have a plan for the background at this point, but I felt it needed something that would evoke a theatre. Chequerboard floors came to mind, so first there was a wonky sketch, then a lesson in perspective..

Last weekend was a breakthrough and I think her vertical leg finally looks much better- less like a static concrete pillar and more like an actual leg. The hands still need a lot of work and I’m finding the knuckles really tricky. Also I think I’ve accidentally inverted her wrist..

I’m hoping I can get’er done in 3 more sessions, then move on to her companion piece!

Hit me baby one more time

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This is my second attempt at a first blog. The first attempt was 8 years ago, had an affected name and I was so hung up about sounding clever I didn’t even make it to the first post. This time I’m going to write about what makes me happy, be it painting, sewing, cooking or baking ( the good, the bad, the ugly but edible :) ).  After all, on the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.

BurntCake30June13