Dragonfly Dress Mark 2

To accommodate my physical expansion since last year I recently made myself another summer dress from my grey dragonfly fabric.

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My finishing skills are improving! This time I followed my mum´s advice about French seams so the interior of the dress is much neater. dragonfly, fabric, surface design, illustration, textile design, woven monkey, dress making, dress, sewing, homemade, home sewing, made to measure

The arm holes are edged with grey bias binding with contrasting white and yellow top stitching while the neckline is finished with yellow bias binding with contrasting white and grey top stitches.

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It’s a comfy one and stylish too! 

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!

 

Dragonfly Tunic Dress

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So this little number is the result of my third dress making adventure; using a black on beige version of my dragonfly fabric design which I had digitally printed in the UK by Woven Monkey.

I find the boat neck / empire line combination really comfortable and flattering so I’ve continued it here but by cutting the hem straight and splitting the sides I’ve converted the dress into more of a tunic which allows for much more movement below the waist…I can run in this one but long undergarments are essential for the preservation of modesty!

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I wanted to make the bodice of this dress more closely fitting which meant putting in more darts and a zip. I opted to put an ‘invisible’ zip in the side seam (right) and thanks to guidance from several YouTube tutorials my first ever attempt worked pretty well.

 

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I also decided to sew on a long black ribbon to accentuate the empire line and add a bit of flounce round the back.

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While making my first two dresses – from my Dragonfly (white on grey version) and Horse fabrics – I’d come to love bias binding so I decided to use it to make a contrasting trim around the neck, arm holes and hem on this dress. I was also inspired (by a pair of black, beige and orange shorts I own) to add an orange top stitch to jazz up the black and beige combination.

Feels jolly nice on and washes well! Yay!

 

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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. 

horse, sketelon, carousel, roundabout, merry-go-round, cotton, fabric, surface design, illustration, textile design, woven monkey, bias binding, dress making, shift, dress, sewing, homemade

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!

Dragonfly Dress

I just made myself this dress with fabric printed with a version of the dragonfly design I made back in 2014.

I uploaded my design to the Woven Monkey website and they printed it onto a lightweight cotton.

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It’s the first dress I’ve ever made; patterns give me the heebeegeebees so I cut round one of my favourite dresses and made the rest up as I went along.

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It was also the first time I’ve used bias binding as I’d previously imagined it to be a right faff but there really is no other way to neatly finish neck and armholes. I watched a couple of tutorials on YouTube and bit the bias binding bullet; it’s actually quite straightforward and I’ll definitely be using it more in the future.

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Here’s me doing ‘catalogue’ poses in Cádiz this week, during the dress’s first outing.

 

 

 

 

Cushion Covers

Here are my most recent home sewing projects: making cushion covers from light cotton canvas fabric that I’d had digitally printed with my illustrations.

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This one (left) features a white on black version of my extra large cockerel circle design.

The cushion cover has an ‘envelope’ style closure and measures 38 x 35 cm, comfortably accommodating a 40 x 40 cm cushion.
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The two covers on the right feature my Two-Tone 2CV design, measure 50 x 30cm and have a zip closure.

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Click here to contact me about prices and availability.

Cockerels on Canvas

Two of my latest batch of digital fabric prints…our old friend the cockerel in two sizes

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Silk Scarves

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I recently sewed these two scarves featuring my dragonfly and 2CV designs digitally printed on super soft silk. What luxury….

Cockerel Cushions for La Casa del Arco

rooster, cockerel, cock, fabric, cockerel fabric, textile design, surface illustration, digital collage, sewing, cushions, handmade These cushions are my latest cockerel fabric creations, made with love for Blanca and Alain, my dear friends and neighbours at La Casa del Arco in Vejer de la Frontera

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Click here to see a photo of the cushions in their new home

Cockerel Skirt

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 This fabric design evolved from a stencil project I started in 2012,

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since when Mr Cockerel has adorned numerous hard and soft surfaces.

Last year I spent many happy hours in the Photoshop turning the original image (above) into several repeating patterns (below)

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 the last of which got made into a baby cushion in light cotton canvas.

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I’ve been really keen to make myself an item of cockerel clothing ever since, so I ordered custom printed fabric samples in several cottons until I was totally happy with the size and colour of the design, and then got cracking with sewing an A-line skirt.

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 It’s had a very enthusiastic reception and I’m cock-a-hoop!