March 10, 2010 of 365 : alley between Lansdowne & Macdonnell Avenue

March 9, 2010 of 365 : working on a new gingham dress

March 8, 2010 of 365 : judys in the sheridan textile studio

I went to visit the Textile Studio at Sheridan on my day off. The second year students are working on a project and I am their ‘client’. There’s a skylight in the studio and light was incredible. I’ll share the projects they are working on in a few weeks when they do their final presentations. I’m very excited to see their final results!

March 7, 2010 of 365 : birch panels at mjolk on dundas west

Finally had a chance to stop into Mjolk in the Junction. What a wonderful space full of beautiful things. My favourite was the huge wall of birch panels at the front of the shop.

March 6, 2010 of 365 : pile of grey ’scraps’ from johanna for my hexagon project

The English Paper Pieced hexagon project that I’m working on is using all shades of grey with splashes of orangey red. I have quite a few greys in my collection, but I was hoping to have only one or two hexagons of each fabric. I have estimated that I’ll need over 225 hexagons to make my pillow, so that’s a heck of a lot of grey. I asked Johanna if she might open up her vault of fabric (over 20 years of collecting) and snip a few small pieces for me. She generously handed over an incredible stack of delicious grey pieces from her huge collection and each piece is a real gem. (I actually do mentally envision Johanna’s insane fabric collection as a huge vault full of fabric. She seems to have a neverending stash of amazing prints.)

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!

March 4, 2010 of 365 : fake flowers brighten up the outdoors

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?

March 3, 2010 of 365 : colourful bokeh