Textile painted application

After months and months of not being really creative apart from a couple of scrap cards and mini albums I've gotten into gear again.
I've painted a couple of  images with textile paint for a mini fair I went to. One got sold, I guess it is a bit too much for the people that visited. Anyway I thought it is time to sew one of them on a T-shirt. The trend this Summer is still prints with animals and dark blue (the only color I have hope for this Summer as I look hideous in the other trend colours: grass green, apricot and yellow!).

If the T-shirt wears out I can just cut out the dog and sew it onto something else. Over the years I've been so impressed with the quality of the textile paint. I've been washing and even tumble dried (evil! Not supposed to!) some textile painted items and they survive beautifully.

The first time I saw the French Bull dog is when I came to the NL. I thought it was the most ugliest dog I've ever seen. My husband (boy friend at that time) wanted one.. Ughhh! People do change I tell you, now I'm the one that wants a French BD and my husband is the one rolling his eyes. LoL

Ps.If you haven't seen the face I've painted and ironed onto a jacket click here

Avon, my youngest daughter, turns 4 on Sunday.

When I was sewing a backpack for a little friend of hers a while ago she wanted one too. She especially wanted the fabric with blue and white dots. When she saw scraps two very sweet Crafty Mamas (Papillon and Missmagic) sent me, Avon picked the Owl fabric.

Unfortuantely I can't remember which CM sent me the owls, sorrry :( I've asked for scraps for projects just like this one so I can use up my stash (the black and white dots) and the cute fabrics. Thank you both of you nice women for taking the time and effort to send me a bag with your fabrics. ♥♥♥

So...I sat down today, acutally wanted to do it on sewing Wednesday :) but okay I'm on Africa timing it seems. I used a Starry, starry night background for the cute owls.

Again my scraps of zpagetti came in very handy for the draw strings and farbenmix ribbo I still have to use. I'm almost at a point where I'm allowed to buy new ones ;)

It is not visible but I've stitched a fancy stitch looking like twigs in green all over the top of the bag on the black just to over do it hie-hie.

Pirate Drawstring bag

I got this nice order from a friend to make her little boy a drawstring bag and that he likes pirates.  I surfed the internet for for some patterns and made him a drawstring backpack and used pirate scraps I got from a Crafty Mama.

Textile Painted Face

On a lazy Sunday afternoon I got my textile paint out again and painted two faces. The one I've sewn on a white jacket I got from a friend for my teen daughter. I guess if you click on the photo's you can study the details ;)

 I've added a bit of fancy stitching

Flagline

Still owed a photo of the flag line I made for my 8y0's b-day in July. I made one last year which in my opinion was prettier. On our visit to South-Africa in 2010 my oldest daughter turned 10 and I took the flagline with. Upon visiting one of my best friends I decided to do her a pleasure and gave her the flag line. This year my second child kept reminding me to have a finished one in time for her b-day in June. Well, I made the deadline.

I've cut 28 flags with a stencil I made from cardboard

and then used my rotary cutter to cut the triangles

I locked two flags at a time, right sides facing outwards, together

I then add them all randomly sewing them on 3m of bias binding

the binding is pink so I used a double zigzag stitch in red to create a very cute look

I made this line mostly with reds and pinks

my eldest turns 11 in October and I'd like to make her a blue/green one as she's not a pink girl

I'd like to make myself a black/white one but a dash of colour won't hurt at all :)

we"ll see

peasant top

I just love this pattern:

Potrait Peasant top @ youcanmakethis.com

I've made it twice (like this one) and will definitely not stop making them

and surely try some more variations:

sorry again for the not-so-crisp photo. It is just so easy to take a photo with my BB and send it to my pc wherever I am. Unfortunately the weather is often very dark here in the NL.

The fabric I've used was from Dapper (2011)

new line of fabric, very cute, very bold.

Kyla reversible dress

I've been wanting to make this dress for a couple of months. Every time I started out I ran into the print sizing. I've been making e-patterns for some time now and didn't have any printing issues until I ran into this one. I still don't know why. It doesn't matter what I click or "un" click it just didn't want to work out. I've been mailing the author and probably made her crazy cause she can't look into my head and my printer. She tried her best but to no avail.

Today I felt it was a good day to tackle the pattern and printed it and made the size 4 pattern for my skinny 2 year old. It seemed to work out perfect. Very neat solid patter, good explanation for a pea brain like me. If I can't visualize something I'm struggling.

Normally I choose very bold colors and prints but this time I've kept it small. It looks cute though the photo's aren't clear enough so I'll have to make some close-up photo's with my camera cause I've used my phone for these. I was too lazy for the camera :)

I've used two stenzo prints but used a thrift store fabric for example on the border.

I didn't want to cut up my other fabrics.

Again the print in the reversed side isn't that clear. Sorry.

I've made a little application on this side so that the bias band repeated somewhere else on the dress:

Snazzy Skirt

I just can't resist the fabric of Flora fox so made another skirt for my 8 yo

and just for fun the same one for my 2 yo!

I've used the tutorial written by Cat on a Limb's:

simple, no-pattern two-tiered girl's skirt

I've made an embellishment folding a large satin ribbon like a rose

Hello Kitty Poochie bag

For a swap at swap-bot.com I made a poochie bag. The theme was to make one for your swap partner using Happy Zombie's (great!) tutorial. I used stash for this project and used an iron on Helly Kitty that was just waiting for the right moment. My swap-partner is a HK fan so it was very appropriate to give her a poochie bag with a HK somewhere :)

Dutch Doggy de-luxe bedding

Ok I got up this morning and just had to make the new nest zone for Zizi. Her pillow was getting really old and the time was ripe to make a new one. Today. The last one I've painted with textile paint, I just can't seem to find a photo of it as I thought I posted it on the blog. Well, will keep looking for it.

My kitchen's theme is funky Dutch in the colours blue/white/red

I just love Dots. Originally the Dutch use red or blue check with the delft type of prints.

I kept it simple as I normally complicate things with my creativity attacks.

I made a cover from the red (used stash for that woot-woot!)

and then made a pillow with a Dutch couple print (used up stash so another woot!)

I filled the pillow with polystyrene balls that waited for a special moment like this for at least 4 years (brought it with me when I moved...so another double woot for using up stash)

I added a label with Dutch Windmills to both covers just to be fancy:

The cute little bear that got nipped by zizi was a gift from my friend in South Africa.

The other cute little one is my own and she's surely going to get a smooch!

zizi always have to share her nest. I posted on my blog when our cat annexed zizi's bed and then colonized it with a fresh batch of kittens. When it was safe for Zizi to reclaim her ground the kittens then in return claimed Zizi as their godmother. A dog's life. No democracy when cats and kids are around.

things to do

Sooner than later:

1. I have to make a better bedding for our maltese called Zizi. **DONE**

I've stumbled on the following on READYMADE blog and just love the idea

but will have to see what I do with her situation :)

2. I have to make two draft snakes/pillows

3. Finish the pillow cover I'm knitting

4. Finish the poncho I'm crocheting

5. Finish the pinafore I'm crocheting

6. Make 2 gifts for two little girls - want to try out the keychains I saw at Vlijtig blog. I have the iron transfer paper for some time now and the clipart I'm drawing/doodling so that would make and awesome combo with my farbenmix ribbon I can't wait to use! ***DONE***

Fabric just for me me me!

I'm always creating for other people, or my kids. Well times have change, I"ve decided to sew something for myself. I've bought this four lovely fabrics from stenso (summer 2010 and the grey one on the right:winter 2010):

I wanted to make half circle skirts from the fabric for our holiday in South Africa. Okay I wanted to sew 4 skirts in 5 days apart from having to pack for 5 people, get the house tidy, feed the household and prepare all the animals for our going away. In my lunacy I drove everyone mad and of course my most favourite (far left) got caught in the knives of my overlocker. My two year old try to comfort me when I was crying in dispair. My 8 year old gave me 4 different solutions to rescue the situation. IN the end I've sewn the "v"cut close with little felt flowers in orange and pink and nobody saw any evidence of the accident. I've finished the buttons and seams in South Africa with my mother's sewing machine. The skirts looked very colourfull and I was very happy I did go through all the trouble to finish them. Here is a tutorial for making a half circle skirt.

Here are one of the skirts, photo taken in South Africa

felted tulips from Amsterdam

My husband's grandmother passed away just before we went on holiday to South Africa, in October. I wanted to send flowers to his aunts and nieces but couldn't find nice online bouquets and especially for the prices, flowers seemed to be so temporary. I don't know how but I came across the idea to look for felted flowers. I just love their texture and they appearance had enough weight to convey what I feel without using words. I couldn't find flowers though especially because I had just 3 days. Etsy had a couple of beautiful ones but the delivery time was just too long or they weren't white, which I wanted. I've decided to make some myself and found a webshop (Het kleine atelier) with three white tulips. There is enough material enclosed to make 5 tulips. The technique used is dry and wet(white part) felting. I attached three circle labels made with my scrapbooking stock and attached it with an off-white satin ribbon. I wrote on the labels a small poem I came up with, our condolences and names. Though I really didn't have enough time it turned out well.

Easy fit pants

I bought this pattern (Easy fit pants) from youcanmakethis.com early last year and started to make two pants for my two girls. Well it all got stuck with my overlocker and the new ruffler foot I just COULDN'T FIGURE OUT (and still not!). So I chucked all in a little dark corner in my hobby closet. This Summer I checked if it still fitted the girls. Well both only fitted one so I finished them. The ruffles were made by hand. Sorry for the blurry photo, the background is in focus though lol. The pants is made with a Summer corduroy fabric and the ruffles are cherise with white dots (as are the rosettes on the peasant top)The pants still needs to be ironed

These pants I just finished with a cute bias band, I don't have a close-up of it but it looks like lace.

Bizzkids Summer 2006 skirt

I wanted to make this skirt since I bought the magazine in 2006. Yes, it took me 4 years to actually tackle it but now I can tick this one off my want-to-do list. A lot of blocks...and at a certain point I was asking myself why I can't just make a simple a-line skirt and get it over with. Not difficult to make though, one just need a bit of patience :) The fabric was propably stenso (if not then shout).

peasant top with peacocks

I really enjoyed making this peasant top!

Fabrics by stenso and pattern by youcanmakethis.com

I've made this pattern before as you can remember

T-shirt dress

I've followed this tutorial at CraftyMamas before and made a green/blue combination then. I keep forgetting to leave less space under the arms but anyway it worked out fine.

The fabric is stenso (it normally is so I think this too). It is a beautiful fabric not very visible on this photo as it as little golden dots and makes it look rich with cuteness.

I made roses with the cut off fabric using this tutorial by Tea Rose Home.

Cherries on top!

I made a peasant top to fit the zoe skirt and both are from the Youcanmakethis.com which patterns I just love to make. It is cherry time and I live in cherry country so why not add a couple more cherries. This fabric I got from a CraftyMama from Australia so it is very special in any case.

Pincushion going dutch

For the April Swap at Crafty Mamas you'll remember I got this little cuty.

I thought as it is going to Australia I'll give it a Dutch flavour so made a flower/rosette of Dutch Folk fabrics. The clogs stayed at home. I took the photo's on the dyke with a yellow buttercup as a silent witness.

That Pattern!

Yes! At last I tackled the pattern I've bought almost a decade ago for my firstborn and now I got a third chance to finish it for my youngest child:

It is maybe not that clear but I've added two duck shaped buttons in the middle front to go with the duck theme of the fabric used for the circular parts on this set. It all has a very Dutch Folk look and I think it looks very cute! ..and so I've taken part in the Crafty Mamas challenge for April: "That Pattern"!

The pattern: Koko & Nina