Saturday, February 06, 2010
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I’m going to post about the drapes I’ve been trying to make…notice I say trying. I bought fabric from Spoonflower to make them and when it arrived I was very excited. The fabric looks great. I’m extremely happy with the design and the printing.
I ordered 5 yards because each panel needs 2 1/2 yards. The first thing I needed to adjust and figure is that the printing starts at the left side and however it ends on the right side with the repeating is just how it is. This caused a slight problem in that when you put both cut panels together, they aren’t uniform. The right side of panel A is the drifting repeat pattern and the left side of panel B is the clear starting pattern. Does that make sense? I needed to cut the fabric down so that both panels look uniform when they hang next to each other on the rod. Cutting down the fabric makes it necessary for me to use another fabric to make the panels wider to fit our windows.
The next challenge is that I need to use sun-blocking lining which for any of you that have used it know that it’s a pain to work with. It’s thick and rubbery and it so difficult to keep smooth. We have a projector screen TV and it’s important for optimum movie viewing to have the light completely blocked.
The final challenge is that my husband thought it would look nice to have a solid red border around the 3 edges of each panel to bring out the red flowers and I agreed with him. However, this third fabric is yet another weight and all three of the fabrics are fighting against each other and look just horrible. Yesterday I was so frustrated I took the drapes down and folded them into a pile in my office with intentions to just start over with something else.
THEY ARE JUST STUPID RECTANGLES! WHAT IS THE DEAL???????
Drapes open. Right drape is not finished on bottom because the sides are already pulling.
Left panel drape with side pulling and bringing left corner up off the floor. I measured the hem with them hanging and the length should have brought the corner right to the floor.
“Oh, why don’t you just bite the bullet, pick it out, smooth all the layers and put it back together again? They could look really nice and you already put so much time into it.”
I DID!!!! This is what it looks like after I picked it out, laid it on the floor, put a million pins in it to keep it in place, and then sewed it back together.
So, now you can see why I haven’t posted and what my latest endeavor has been. I did finally decide today that it’s actually human to show the projects you work on that just look like CRAP.
Love,
Monday, January 11, 2010
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Finally! I’ve had a chance to whip up this little thing. This is my design from the Spoonflower Children’s pattern contest. I will show you the pictures and then share my comments at the end of the post.
We actually received the fabric on Christmas Eve and here is Eleanor with it. I don’t think she actually “got it” of course. She just loves the green flowers because green is her favorite color.
My 2 eldest girls holding up the fabric. I don’t know why Rosemary is making that crazy face.
I sewed up the dress last night and it went together very easily. Here is Ellie modeling this morning.
This mountain is in our backyard. Can you believe it? I still can’t.
My sweetie pie. Finally one girl who got my crazy red East Coast hair. Enough of the California blonds!
All in all, I’m satisfied with the dress. However, for those of you that know me, satisfaction just isn’t good enough. There are things that definitely need to be modified.
- I had the dress printed on the upholstery weight fabric. I liked the idea of having a sturdier feel to this dress, but after sewing it up I realized it was a mistake. This dress is a tent dress and is supposed to flow nicely. The dress doesn’t flow at all—it kind of holds it’s shape. When I get it printed on the quilter’s weight, the cloth won’t be so white, which is kind of a bummer. I like the contrast between the colors.
- The armscye is too tight. In general I feel that children’s garments go way overboard with the enormous arm holes but I need to let the bottom down at least a 1/2”. I also would prefer for the straps to be just a little thicker, maybe 1/2”.
- The dress fits too perfectly. I need to add an extra 1/2”-1” for a little growing room.
- I also need to lengthen the dress an 1”. I did the tiniest of hems, so I kind of faked it.
Well, that’s it in a nutshell! Eleanor couldn’t be more pleased with her dress and this is just the beginning for me with designing garments on fabric. I am so fascinated with digitizing my patterns and getting them to a place where I am completely satisfied and proud of my work.
Love,
Sunday, January 10, 2010
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You can officially vote for the best birds of the week at Spoonflower. You really should go and check it out. There are some amazing designs out there.
Once I was on a roll, I decided to continue experimenting with this bird pattern. These are my new flats to share with you.
I’ll zoom in so you can see the pattern on the front bodice.
This is so much fun! I just wish my computer would stop crashing on me!
Love,
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
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I decided to create a dress from the “Love Birds” fabric design I created for Spoonflower.
I have digitally laid out all of the pieces except for the sleeves. The images you see here aren’t accurate but show the composition of the pieces. I’m also going to play around with a different color scheme after I write this up.
Here it is!
Love,
Friday, January 01, 2010
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I just can’t resist the fun. Yes, Spoonflower once again. This time I’m entering in a bird fabric design and the color palate is chosen for you. Entries close on the 4th, so you still have time! Here is the palette you need to use:
Here is my bird entry!
Come on! What do you have to lose? It’s all in good fun and it gets you creating. Isn’t that what is most important?
Love,
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
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Thank you everyone who voted for me in the Spoonflower Challenge. I didn’t win but I am very excited none-the-less. I received my fabric with the dress on it and I quickly cut it out to see if the sizing was good. IT WAS ABSOLUTELY PERFECT!!!! I pinned it together and put it on Ellie and it just looks amazing. The printed fabric is so much better than the computer image file. I will write a separate post on that once I sew it up.
Today we are going to talk about ELEPHANTS! My new elephant dress for my little Ellie Belle:
I am also going to have a sleeve, but I’m going to work on that tonight.
Love,
Thursday, December 17, 2009
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The Spoonflower Children’s Pattern Design Contest is officially open for voting. I don’t want to TELL you to vote for me, but PLEASE!
Vote HERE!
Mine looks like this:
You know, free fabric and just FAME.
Hee hee.
Love,
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
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My daughter Eleanor LOVES elephants. She carries them around everywhere in her elephant purse and if we forget even one of them…God forbid. She also loves the colors green and blue. I welcome the change from pink.
What is it about these crazy looking animals that kids just love so much? I mean they are really strange looking. Not cuddly and cozy at all.
I’m on an elephant mission.
Love,
Monday, December 14, 2009
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…when you are furiously working on a design that has a deadline by midnight because there is no way you are getting up early to make the East Coast deadline the next day and your computer crashes and you lose all your work that you did over the past 4 hours? Whew. Someone say run-on sentence. Anyone? Anyone?
Hmmmm…Cry? Start Over?
Okay, in this case I did fight the tears but they didn’t come. I went to the kitchen to get a drink and I did start over.
This Spoonflower Challenge was fun and difficult—I loved it. I just wish I had found my patterns earlier and had a bit more time to work on it. I was very concerned with getting accurate sizing on the digital pattern pieces. I asked my husband to help me print out the image into tiles so that I could tape them together to see if they matched up with my paper pattern and it seriously took hours to figure that out. Why should that be so stinkin’ hard? I don’t know, but it was. So hours are drifting away trying to figure out how to print it out so that I could check my work.
It was about 1 am and I was done. I was throwing the towel in, but my husband Jon, the trooper, made me work on directions and he continued to figure out how to print out my image in tiles. When they finally printed out and they matched up exactly…I was so happy! I clicked in my official submission at 3 am Pacific Time telling myself that tomorrow I would be happy that I stayed up. I am.
Here is my submission: The Green Flower Tent Dress
Love,
Saturday, December 12, 2009
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and I found them! Finally! I could not find any of my patterns and so my design project for the Childrens Wear Spoonflower Contest was put on hold. I was able to dabble on some fabric designs for the actual garment, but the hardest work will actually be with the pattern.
I decided to go with something simple to let the fabric design take center stage. I am using my Toddler 3 Mamma Made Tent Dress Pattern—pretty easy for novice sewers and is absolutely adorable on little kids. Also it will fit well in the 1 yard restrictions…although I have to say I’m so relieved at Steven’s latest post allowing us to use upholstery weight fabric because the width is 10” wider and boy can I use those inches with this wide hem.
No pictures yet…I’m going to keep you in suspense.
Love,