Category Archives: In The Making Aprons

Smiles

Very jolly ‘Smilies’ repeat logo t-shirt added to the Folksy shop last night.

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The nine appliqués are made from the same cotton jersey fabric as the t-shirt and hand stitched with yellow and brown embroidery thread. This is one design from a set of ‘repeat logo’ designs I did nearly 3 years ago. I sold another from the set, ‘orange goldfish’, to Mini Boden it was used in the Winter 2012 range. Quite pleased with the freehand drawing on the photo too!

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Here are a few photos of the making process. I had to back each circle with fusible cotton interfacing so that the dark embroidery thread didn’t show through as it carried underneath. You can just make out the lines of the air-erasable pen I used to mark details, the lines disappear in a couple of hours. I discovered these pens when I was on a short embroidery course (St Martins School of Art) a few years ago – such a brilliant solution to lots of making problems!

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Goal!

PHOTOgoalwebFinished making a new storysack for school, ‘Goal!’ a Preston Pig book. I’ve wanted to make a football themed storysack for ages, to capture the interest of some of our more reluctant young male readers. After a couple of years of waiting I finally spotted a Preston Pig toy, complete with football on Ebay (still in his original packaging!) – so I was able to put this storysack together over the summer. I’m quite pleased with the cloth sack too, quite stylish, made from oddments left over from apron-making and a nice appliqué logo!

‘Shark In The Park’ Game

Decided to do some Storysacks stuff this week, making a board game for the Shark In The Park Storysack.

I wanted it to be as strong and colourful as Nick Sharratt’s illustrations so decided on using ‘cut paper’. I worked out a rough version of my game-board on white paper (scrap) and used it as a template tracing off the colour sections and squares on red, green and orange paper – glueing them to the red paper . I drew characters and other items from the storybook to go in my game, very tiny, to fit in the squares. Scanned the ink drawings into the computer, coloured them in using Photoshop and printed them out. Next was a very delicate cutting out job before glueing them into place on the game board, and lastly adding text with an ink pen.

I’m really pleased with the result. All I need to do now is laminate the two A4 pieces of the board and join them with tape (so that they will fold neatly) and laminate the 4 ‘shark’ player pieces.

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First ‘House No4 Aprons’

I finished these last week but only just got around to photographing it. This is almost the same as the cross-over back No4 Artisan Apron, I’ve changed the pocket design and I think I will use prints or woven surface patterns for this one. I wear my dark tie-dye No4 Artisan Apron all the time; the cross-over back feature is great, it’s so comfortable and easy to get on and off – particularly useful with my ‘frozen shoulder’ and recent tummy operation.

Unfortunately it’s a bit hard to see the very nice fabric from the very small photos on the Folksy shop, they look pale grey, hopefully people will click to look at a larger image.

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‘Little Red Hen’ t-shirts finished

Quite pleased with them, I like the colours very much. Re-drew some chick logos I did a few years ago to keep the hen company.

Took a bit longer than planned, having to finish the threads for all the letters: despite my best efforts there was the odd tiny stitch here and there that felt slightly rough, so decided to put a piece of stretch interfacing over the stitching on the inside – I haven’t done this before and found it tricky to get the temperature of the iron just right ie sticking it to the fabric not my iron!

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‘Little Red Hen’ – toddler tee

All cut out, ready to position and sew. Twenty piece design- it’s all those little letters! I did this design for the ‘Little Red Hen’ Storysack title picture a while ago and decided it was too nice not to use again. I tightened up the shapes a bit, especially the letters.LittleRedHenPieces

‘Kitty’ t-shirt Illustration

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Still pretty uncomfortable sitting at the computer after the operation (11 days ago now) but finished this illustration today, for the ‘kitty’ t-shirts on Folksy, in short sessions. Trying to get a vintagey feel, very pleased with the shoes (Laurel says she wants them)!

Pirate t-shirt illustration

I’ve been working on this drawing for a week on and off – it’s been a bit tricky because I had an operation on Thursday and I can’t sit up for long periods. But I was so keen to get on with this idea to update the t-shirt images on Folksy by introducing some illustration. It’s also a good way to get me drawing more regularly: I’ve had so much inspiration from my Pinterest boards , now I need to actually put it into action! Bit rusty, and I also have to bear in mind that the picture mustn’t overpower the t-shirt.

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Puppet Theatre

Finished making a puppet theatre to go in a new Storysack ‘Each Peach Pear Plum’. I managed to make it without buying anything – it’s made entirely from leftover bits of fabric from other projects, recycled fabric and ribbon- which is always a good feeling. And great to find another excuse to use ric rac!

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New Sparky Apron

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I’ve been working on this apron for a few weeks, after seeing a picture of a baker wearing one similar. It’s loose around the body and no neck tie. I saw the fabric in Rolls & Rems and it seemed just the thing for this new shape. James and I took photos of the new aprons today at his studio in Greenwich….then we went for lunch, amazing Thai soup in Greenwich Covered Market!