making, learning, teaching and sharing a crafty life
March 5, 2010 of 365 : fox print by melinda josie
I’m so excited about all the new prints Melinda has been making. I had to get this darling fox. Look at his bushy tail! Then, I really couldn’t say no to this amazing clover print, which she just announced she is also doing in fabric. I want it all!
I’m really excited to be participating in a really amazing blogging event called, “Blog it Forward“. Organized by the inspirational Victoria of sfgirlbybay, 300 bloggers are creating a virtual chain linking back and forth to the blogger that posted before them and the blogger that posts after them. Just the organization of this is a huge feat, so a huge thanks to Victoria for spearheading it. Yesterday ‘make*happy‘ posted her inspirations and tomorrow you can check out ‘Making it Lovely‘ for her inspirations. All the participating blogs are listed here, it’s been a great way to discover some new hidden gems out there.
If you’re new to ‘make something’, welcome! It’s so nice to have you here. My name is Karyn and it’s true, I really love to make things. Quite a lot of my blog focuses on sharing all the different projects I work on. There are tons of dresses, some quilts and lots of photos of it all. I also own a little fabric shop and sewing school called ‘the workroom‘ in Toronto.
I really feel like I am inspired by everything. My eye is constantly picking up little details, textures and colour combinations. I try to capture as much of it as possible with my camera.
Firstly, there’s no question that I’m inspired by fabric. Owning a fabric shop is like a dream, as I am constantly shopping for fabric for the shop. I just love looking at a bolt of fabric and envisioning what I will turn it into.
Especially right now, when it’s the tail end of winter, nature is a huge inspiration. Looking at photos of lush green plants, pretty flowers and tiny mushrooms makes me so happy. Spring, I can’t wait until you’re officially here!
In comparison, I also find the city landscape full of wonderful textures and colour palettes.
The way the light changes throughout the day and even the year fascinates me. I love the way a shadow is so fleeting and dramatic.
Lastly, I love blurry photos. Twist your lens out of focus and suddenly a photo looks more like an abstract painting and all the colours bleed into each other.
Stylish Dress Book
ISBN 9784579111855
I’m not sure how, but I noticed yesterday that I never did a post about the mother of all Japanese Dress Books – Stylish Dress Book. It is probably a bit redundant at this point, as most of you have the book, know each page by heart and have seen quite a few of these patterns posted here and elsewhere. Nonetheless, I feel my little dress book resource would be incomplete without this.
To date, I have made seven of the patterns in the book myself. I have helped other people make most of the others in the class I teach. Where some of the books I have contain just a couple standout patterns, this book has a great variety of styles that are very appealing. I can still pull this dog-eared book out and pore over every page with great interest.
I really like the layout of the Stylish Dress Book series. The technical drawings and instruction pages are well laid out and very clear. The pattern sheets are printed in one colour, which can be very overwhelming to look at. I have seen books that do multicolour printing for the pattern pages and it makes extracting the pattern a bit easier, especially when you’re first starting out. This is a small detail that would not deter me from buying this book, but I just mention it as a note of comparison.
Looking through the book, I see that I still have not made dress ‘S’. I need to pick a fabric and get on it. I’m deciding between this, this, this or a lovely plain indigo black cotton/inox (steel) blend. Thoughts?
I really wanted to try a project out with Anna Maria Horner’s new cotton voile. When you feel it, you can hardly believe how silky smooth it is. Voile is a very lightweight fabric that is slightly sheer and has great drape. I had never sewn with it before, so I was unsure of how tricky it would be to handle.
I chose to use a tried and loved pattern from Stylish Dress Book. Style “B”, is a favourite. I’ve seen it made up in various different fabrics and on different people and the result is always really cute.
I’d like to make a note here about drafting out this pattern, that I didn’t mention in the post about my first style “B” top in nani IRO. When tracing out the pattern pieces for the sleeve you’ll notice that the two sleeve pieces (top of the sleeve & gathered bottom of the sleeve) are printed beside each other on the pattern sheet. When you trace the bottom of the sleeve, you may notice that it is the same width as the top of the sleeve. In order to create the gathering and fullness in the bottom sleeve piece, you need to split that pattern piece down the centre and spread it apart by 10cm. This is something that you can easily miss, because the only notation for this is found on the huge pattern sheet and is well, in Japanese.
Sewing with the voile was no problem. Even making bias trim was easy to manage. For any pattern that has a ‘flowy’ style, this fabric would look amazing the way it falls and drapes. This is why it is a great fabric to use for many of the Japanese Dress Book patterns, as it can make that extra fullness of some of the styles look more elegant. For sure, the best part is how it feels. Wearing this fabric will just put you in a blissful mood.
This particular print is called, ‘Colouring Garden‘ and the colour is ‘Berry’. I really appreciate how Anna Maria Horner has taken prints from her ‘Good Folks’ collection and recoloured and reprinted them in flannel and now voile. It’s exciting to have new fabrications to choose from.
p.s. I just ordered a copy of Stylish Dress Book 3!!! from Pomadour on etsy. Thank you Marilou for the special alert!
March 2, 2010 of 365 : one of at.aw’s orphan series postings on queen street near bathurst
As this 365 project develops, I’ve been making a mental list of things I hope to photograph during the year. One funny goal I had was to have at least one photo this year with the CN Tower visible. I was pretty excited to see this super cool at.aw posting with the tower right there in the background.
Another goal for this year? How about somebody’s face? I’m working up the nerve to do a series of portraits.
March 1, 2010 of 365 : andrew’s vintage jean beliveau hockey game.
This photo seemed quite appropriate the day after Canada won gold in hockey (again) at the Olympics.
365 : 32 | 365 : 33 | 365 : 34 | 365 : 35 | 365 : 36 | 365 : 37 | 365 : 38 | 365 : 39 | 365 : 40 | 365 : 41 | 365 : 42 | 365 : 43 | 365 : 44 | 365 : 45 | 365 : 46 | 365 : 47 | 365 : 48 | 365 : 49 | 365 : 50 | 365 : 51 | 365 : 52 | 365 : 53 | 365 : 54 | 365 : 55 | 365 : 56 | 365 : 57 | 365 : 58 | 365 : 59
