Dress and Mask Combos

During lockdown I sewed some coordinated dress and mask combos; loose cotton shift dresses to accommodate the inevitable weight gain paired with covid ready face coverings. 

The fabrics are my own designs which I get printed to order in the UK by Woven Monkey.

These combos went down particularly well with shop checkout people, bless them, who were pretty much my only outside contacts. One chap in Waitrose complimented my outfit then looked down at his stripy shirt and said “Oh, I’m going to get a mask made to match it!” I really hope he did…

This certainly made dressing for social distancing a bit more fun. 

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Fab…Fab…Fabrics!

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Huge thanks to all those lovely people who have responded so enthusiastically to my designs for fabrics.

My exhibitionist side has enjoyed swanning about in exclusive patterns but since spring is coming it’s time to share them…with the world!

 

 

I’ve spent many, many happy hours developing my designs for fabrics and have tested them all to make sure that the patterns repeat seamlessly, that the colours are reproduced beautifully and that the material itself is comfy in terms of weight, drape and care.

All my fabrics are digitally printed to order in the UK.

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So! Here’s how it works: 

  1. Select your favourite design for summer clothes or upholstery (scroll down for details)
  2. Work out how many metres you need
  3. Contact me!
  4. I’ll calculate the postage cost, add that to the fabric cost and email you my PayPal details
  5. You pay securely online
  6. Your fabric is printed to order 
  7. Your fabric will reach you 2 to 3 weeks later depending on your location

Immediately below are the designs that I’ve selected for light cotton fabric; ideal for making summer weight clothes, pillow cases, appliqué and quilting.

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And below are the designs that I’ve selected for (dry clean only) cotton drill fabric; ideal for making cushions, curtains and for other upholstery projects.

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…since I’m not a professional seamstress I’ve decided against making and selling finished garments but if you’re in the Vejer area I can put you in touch with a highly skilled dressmaking friend of mine if you need help with the sewing part – that way you’ll be one step closer to getting the made to measure garment of your dreams!

Please feel free to contact me with any questions!

 

Illustration Exhibition at the Presentation of the Play ‘Té Verde’

te verde, green tea, play, marcel snyders, arte vejer, exhibition, vejer de la frontera, castle, illustration, book cover, watercolour, pen and watercolour, art, drawing, painting, posterOn a rainy January afternoon my friend Marcel Snyders presented his play ‘Té Verde‘ (Green Tea in English) to an enthusiastic audience in the castle headquarters of Arte Vejer.

I designed the front cover for Té Verde back in October 2017 (you can read about the process here) so Marcel invited me to exhibit some of my art work during the event.

That’s Marcel (below) being interviewed by Paco Ariza Varo from Radio Vejer before Marcel interviewed me….

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I decided to keep the exhibition small and simple so I showed a selection of my sketchbooks with my painting materials (to demonstrate the process of illustration) alongside the finished illustrations for:

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I also displayed some of my fabric designs (my current favourite form of illustration!) and the dresses I made from them, as well as a selection of postcards and a computer slideshow of other artworks.

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abraham sevilla serrano, flamenco, musician, te verde, green tea, play, marcel snyders, arte vejer, exhibition, vejer de la frontera, castle,

 

 

The presentation was highly entertaining, Marcel served green tea (té verde) and cakes as people arrived, two actresses from Marcel’s theatre group read the first act of the play, the flamenco musician Abraham Sevilla Serrano improvised a song dedictated to Marcel and the play (right)…

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…then Marcel broke out the cava and presented me with my copy of the book

 

 

 

The Spanish version of the play Té Verde is now available to buy on the publisher’s website.

It’s a highly entertaining read…Good luck Marcel!

Horse Dress

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I’m jolly pleased with my horse dress; the result of my latest adventure in home sewing. It’s a variation of the first dress I ever made (a shift style sewn from my dragonfly fabric) and since I mastered the use of bias binding on that project I decided to make an external feature of it this time; embellishing it with contrasting stitching. 

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horse, sketelon, carousel, roundabout, merry-go-round, cotton, fabric, surface design, illustration, textile design, woven monkey, bias binding, dress making, shift, dress, sewing, homemade, skeleton, day of the dead, halloween, horse, carousel, fair ground, roundabout, pencil drawingThe horse motif was inspired by the extraordinarily beautiful hand painted artwork I saw when Carter’s Steam Fair visited Maldon in Essex.

I made a pencil drawing (left) using my photos for reference, taking a morbid turn by adding the skeleton of the horse as part of the decoration.skeleton, horse, halloween, day of the dead, roundabout, repeat pattern, illustration, surface design, horse, sketelon, carousel, roundabout, merry-go-round, cotton, fabric, surface design, illustration, textile design, woven monkey, bias binding, dress making, shift, dress, sewing, homemade

I vectorised the drawing in Illustrator, used Photoshop to colour it and make the repeat pattern, which I then had printed onto a light cotton by the lovely folk at Woven Monkey.

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The dress feels lovely on, here’s me posing about in it on my 50th birthday.

 

 

Could it possibly be said that I’m flogging a dead horse? You bet!

Pretty Creepy Horsey for Hallowe’en

skeleton, horse, halloween, day of the dead, roundabout, repeat pattern, illustration, surface design, This piece was inspired by the beautiful carved wooden horses of the Jubilee Gallopers carousel at Carter’s Steamfair.

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I started off with a conventional pencil drawing, working from photos I had taken while visiting the fair in the summer.

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Having scanned the drawing into Photoshop I coloured it. Nice but boring, I thought…and that stripy saddle looks a bit like a rib cage…

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…so I kept drawing and developed the skeletal theme which I found much more interesting

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I scanned the new pencil drawing into my computer, vectorised it in Illustrator, then coloured and duplicated it to make a repeating pattern in Photoshop. I also added noise to the image to improve the texture.

I like the way that it’s not until you look closely that you see the dark creepiness of this image.

I’m eagerly awaiting delivery of a sample of digitally printed fabric in this design….it’s been dispatched today….dead horse cushions, anyone?!