Screen printing fun

Not as much sewing in the last week or so, although I do have some things traced off and cut out ready to put together. Just have to get motivated again.

Here, finally, are pics of my two yr old's complete outfit - you've seen it in bits.

On Sunday I went to a Prints Charming screen printing workshop. I printed this fabric - which will probably become dresses for the girls - something simple to show off the print.

I'm so use to having co-ordinates to sew with though that now I'm finding it hard to get motivated to sew; I just keep thinking of co-ordinates I could print to go with this fabric. As soon as the rain stops I'll have to have a few printing days.

You may know that I've done screen printing before, but mostly finer, detailed stuff, and mostly printed as a border or similar - as shown in these posts (note - right click and chose "open in new tab" or page if you don't want to lose your spot here). I have done one print (scroll down to the butterflies) that has different colours and overlapping bits, but it still has some detail stuff.

It was fun to just do the large simple prints and not to worry about spending too long getting the drawings exact, etc. I will definitely do more fabric in this style - probably with co-ordinates next time though!

I also have a few other fun screen printing ideas that I hope to try out in the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned ...

To finish, a few pics from the garden.

Hopefully I'll be more productive in the next couple of weeks - my "list" is so long at the moment that I really need to get going with it all.

Mid-week catch up

This is what I woke up to this morning. This is hwo it looked outside our windows at about 6.30am. The picture is a bit blurry because I turned off the flash and hand held the camera to try and get the right colour, but you can certainly see the colour. It says on the news that this is the worst dust storm we've had in about 70 years.

The following few pics are really related to the last post, but are a few things that I found I was missing pictures of, so read there for the details.

This is a close up of the king parrot that I felted for the birthday ring (and maybe to be moved to our nature table when the birthday ring has been put away).

This is the birthday ring with the flowers in the vases - just because it looks so cute with them added too.

This pic shows our nature table as it is now - it's a work in progress with some things just there for the moment until I get it done properly. Last post I only had closeups of the birds.

This is a closeup of the birthday cake decoration girl. And it is worth saying again here - I did get the idea from various ones for sale on etsy, and it is very similar. I was going to link to the person who makes them there, and say to buy one from that store if you want one, but this one is a combination of inspiration taken from a few of them with a few differences too. If you feel that I've copied your doll, let me know and I'll either link to you so that you can get some business from it, or take my picture down. Mine is certainly lacking some of the lovely details of the ones on etsy, such as things the cake topper girls there are holding, etc.

Okay, that's enough of the pics that should have been in the last post. Here is some other stuff.

Ages ago I put in pics of an embroider and some screen printed fabric that were to become my bag. I finished the bag in about June, but never put in pics of it, so here they are, although the bag is getting quite grubby now and really needs a wash.

Decided to get back to a routine of reading to all the kids together before bed as I'd let that slip and just read individually to them. I wanted to start on something like a chapter book rather then picture books and decided to go with fairy tales and classics. The kids have been loving it. These are the books we've been using.

The first is probably my least favourite of the three, although still good. It is one from when I was little.

And a shot from an inside page ...

This one I love. It is also from when I was little. It's quite short though.

The pictures are so lovely ...

And the final one is a newer purchase ... Rapunzel and Other Magic Fairytales (because it is a newer one I could put it as a link - don't think the others would still be available, although I haven't searched). I love this one.


When I get time I'll have to list the big pile of books beside my bed for my reading.

This is a recent craft that the kids did. I got the idea from someone's blog that I visited, but I can't remember whose. If it is yours, please let me know and I'll link it.

They're garden prayer flags. Using fabric crayons on calico, the kids drew pictures of things that they wanted for the garden - to help it grow. They worked out what to draw. I just ironed them, put a rolled hem around the edge and quickly sewed them onto fabric tape. They're now hung in our garden. The idea is that you can't pray all the time, so with prayer flags you can send your constant prayers with the wind. Without getting into a religious discussion here, I think the concept of prayer flags works with just about any belief - in a God or whatever god you believe in, even if you just believe in the power of positive thinking!

And finally, I want to post here about a giveaway. Of course, by posting in my blog I get extra entries, but I want to tell you how much I love these products anyway. We have some stockmar crayons (not this nice double set) and I wont go back to supermarket crayons now. I love them. Great colours and I'm much happier for the children to use them. I think it is good for children to have good quality art supplies too. And they really look after them a lot more.

So here is the link - it's a giveaway ... you can look for yourself ... its on the Hip Mountain Mama blog.

That's all for now.

July Sewing

Drew this a little while ago and screen printed it then. My daughter wanted a sewing afternoon with my, so we cut out a couple and tried them out. We did them two different ways. I will redraw it before printing any more - mainly so that the bottom bulges more. It all ends up skinnier when stuffed!

My daughter just sewed the bottom closed to make a fairly flat doll. Works well as a cuddle toy.

I wanted to try and make my doll stand up. I sewed a little bag which I filled with dry barley (chose barley because I happened to have a few packets of it in the pantry that were past the use-by date) and put that in with the stuffing near the bottom, then instead of just sewing front and back together at the bottom, I added a circle to try and make the bottom flat. Result: It stands, but not very well. Again, by redrawing the picture to make the bottom wider, that will make the base bigger, which should mean it will stand up next time!

New outfit for my 2 yr old. Pants made by my lovely neighbour for a birthday present. Ottobre pattern but can't find the pattern number right now - will try and add it later. I made the matching top - my pattern.

New velour tracksuit for my oldest daughter. She just about lives in a red version of this in winter, so we figured she needed a second one. When she first put it on I didn't really like how it turned out even though we knew the red one was good. After a few washes it looks a lot better. I think it was just a bit too shiny when completely new!!! Ottobre patterns - again, I'll find numbers later.

Don't know if I've ever posted pics of the bibs I make for my bubs. This is one I did ages ago and I just did a heap more, but don't seem to have pics of them yet.

Jumper I knitted for my son. I did it to fit him next yr, so still a bit big. He loves it.

Did a lot more sewing in June/July, but those are all the pics I had. Will have to go through wardrobes and see what I missed. Mostly just quick standards like tees, tracky pants, etc.

May and June Catch up

Okay, once again I haven't written in ages, so here is a quick picture tour of what I've been doing on the crafty front. I don't feel as though I've been very productive, although I don't have pictures of everything so I've done more then this! I'm not going to write much.



Here is some of the matroyshka fabric that I screen printed sewn up into pants for my toddler. I also made the top - my own version of a peasant top, in Sandi Henderson fabric - love this design in yellow and wish I had more of that fabric. I made these clothes when my toddler was this age, but now they've been handed onto the bub I just had to take a pic. I love her in all red. She's wearing a minky fleece hat, a frottee jacket (Ottobre pattern), a cotton velour dress (my pattern) and recycled jumper wool pants/nappy cover, along with red fleece booties (that never stay on). She looks so snuggly. It may not be fancy, but it's one of my favourite outfits for her now that it's winter.

A screen print that I did for my daughter's classes' education week performance. I didn't do the design - I just printed it ...

... on a heap of t-shirts.

These tees were for the boys. I didn't get a pic of all the girls' t-shirts, but there's a pic further on of the girls' whole costume.

This pic is jeans that I made for my boy, and also a plain white tee (not very exciting). Jeans are hemp denim, and Ottobre pattern. Tee is organic cotton.

This is what the girls wore for their costume. I printed the tees and added a bit of elastic down the bottom to make them a nicer shape. The sun design is mine - super-simple. With help of other mums I sewed up the skirts. Thank goodness I didn't have to shop for the fabric and all the other bits and pieces too - sewing them up was easy. I also made the leggings just for my daughter. All the girls supplied their own leggings.

This is my first try of this sort of screen print. I just did about 1&1/2 metres of it to do a peasant skirt for my toddler and a dress for my bub. My plan is to do lots of mt of this print to make curtains for my dining room. I drew the design and did the printing.

This is the biggest piece of embroider I've done. It looks a bit wonky and it is a bit wonky! I didn't want it to look perfect because I wanted that "freehand" look, but I think it would have been better if it were a little neater. It is going to be part of a handbag.

This is the fabric that I printed to make up the rest of the handbag. It is hemp/cotton muslin, dyed with fibre reactive dyes, then screen printed using a couple of kirigami shapes - ie paper cut-outs - as the design. I only printed about 1/3 mt of the fabric for this, but wish I'd done more as I'd love a skirt made out of it.

I did print this for a skirt for myself though. It is using the same screens, plus one other, but uses much stronger colours on undyed hemp muslin. I think I would have preferred the colours to be more similar to each other - perhaps pink, red and something else.

But I like it much better now that I've sewn it up into a skirt for myself! I think it will be better in Summer or Spring, rather then with black stockings underneath.

I also printed this paisley design (my drawings) on some hemp/cotton muslin. As usual I dyed it using fibre reactive dyes and love the shade of blue that it turned out. That's one of the great things about dying fabric, that can also be one of the bad things. Because I'm at the stage of trying out all the colours, and not of trying to repeat them, the colour that eventuates is always a surprise. I do keep careful notes though so I should be able to get something similar if I want to repeat them in the future.

You can't see the paisley design very well here. I love drawing paisley. It's easy, and it's fun to fill with different patterns. Hardest bit is chosing which ones to use (and finding the time to do them).

So these are pants for my daughter. They're just super-simple, beach/lounge pants.

I love how this turned out. It's a screen print - I did quite a few of them. You can't really tell here, but it's about the size of an A4 sheet of paper, printed on hemp/cotton muslin (of course, although I've pretty much run out of the lovely thick stuff now until I can get some more). It's to cut out and sew together to make a simple mini-cushion. I'm thinking of selling these as craft panels. What do you think? I have some other designs in mind too.

That's all for now. I've also made a couple of peasant tops for my bub and a few other things. And I've almost finished crocheting myself a scarf. I'll post pics when I get to it.

Finally tried some screen printing

This is the first print that I did. I drew the dolls that the print is based on. The fabric is a hemp/cotton muslin that I dyed using fibre reactive dyes.

I cut out the patterns pieces for the garments before printing so that I would print the right amount in the right places - decided it was better then just printing the full length of fabric that I dyed. This also meant I could curve it a bit for my skirt, which is cut with a bit of a curve. So this picture shows it all laid out on the table to dry.

I sewed up my skirt first. Will add pics of the other garments sewn up later. Those pictures are still on the camera.

This was the second screen print I did. The picture is a freehand drawing based on one in Lotta Prints, by Lotta Jansdotter. Fabric again is hemp/cotton muslin, dyed using fibre reactive dyes (Procion).

Out of it I made a dress for my bub. Here is the front ...

a close up of the print ...

and the buttons on the back. I got to adding the buttons really late at night, and realised I'd forgotten to buy matching buttons. Looked through my button collection and found these! I don't think I could have found a better match if I'd searched them all at the fabric store.

I also made pants for my toddler.

I sewed these up in time for them to wear to Easter gatherings, but didn't have time to sew up the matching tops that I'd imagined. Fortunately, my bub had a yellow top, so that worked well, but not the toddler. So again, late at night (most of my sewing happens late at night) I found a plain hemp t-shirt (undyed) already made that she had and printed it with the birds print in purple. I did it in a rush and using different inks to the other ones (a bit thinner), so the print isn't quite as clear as the print on the pants, but it was ready for wearing with the pants the next day.

Here's a pic of my two little girls wearing tops that I put pics up of in an earlier post. Just didn't have a modelled picture then.

And finally, to finish up, some food.

A delicious strawberry and rhubarb pie.

And more bread. This is the same sort as is in the last few bread pics. I've been making this as our main bread now for quite a few weeks. Just wanted to show off this loaf because look ... it looks quite normal from this side.

But out the other side ... a blow out!


Still tasted super-delicious, especially hot.