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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2CV Peg Bag

My parents’ old peg bag has seen better days; the handle was too long and the bag itself too deep so I made them a new one from my 2CV fabric. peg bag, bag, home made, craft, digital printing, pattern, 2CV, fabric, textile design, home sewing, needle work, home made, car, textile, material, surface illustration, illustration

Luckily I had a length of cream canvas tape stashed in my sewing kit which matched the canvas 2CV fabric perfectly, so I used it as a handle and to bind the edge.

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A super quick and simple craft project that’s made hanging the laundry out a little bit more fun.

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Cockerel Dress

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For my latest foray into textile design and home sewing I  made myself a cotton dress to wear to my dear friends’ June wedding in London.

As usual I had the fabric digitally printed by Woven Monkey in the UK having made a white, red and pale green version of one of my cockerel variations; as my dad once said I’ve certainly got a lot of mileage out of that cockerel! 

Click here to see how the original cockerel came to be…

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I decided to finish the hems with red bias binding to match the cockscombs….

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…and luckily enough found a pair of my favourite Fly London sandals in the exact same shade…

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…and finished the ‘look’ with white nails and sunglasses…cockerel, fabric design, textile design, surface pattern, digital printing, woven monkey, illustration, dress making, home sewing, made to measure, cotton, rooster, bias binding, home made, dress

 

The dress stood up well to the festivities – just a couple of armhole stitches popped during the disco phase!

 

And the wedding was absolutley wonderful.

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. 

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!

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.

Stickers!

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Moo.com had a sale on so I couldn’t resist ordering a set of stickers emblazoned with my ‘circle-friendliest’ designs.

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Yay! As they say in the world of Moo…stick ’em up!

Baby Cockerel Cushion

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This little cockerel cushion is the latest addition to my ‘textile range‘, made from a fabric sample printed with one of my cockerel designs.

 

I made the baby cushion as a gift for the recent arrival who lives in the house where I sketched the original cockerel, which turned into a stencil

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which has since adorned many walls….

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cockerel, mural, stencil

and even a few items of clothing……

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cockerel, screen print, denim jacket

I was a bit sad to find out recently that despite his regal appearance the cockerel I drew was firing blanks and was put up for adoption, but he died of shock just before his new owner turned up to claim him….just shows, a cocky exterior hides a multitude of insecurities….