Book event

This morning Alice came over and we have been in the garden studio getting ready for tomorrow. It's really great to be finally working in there properly, although as you can see it is already stuffed full..

We have been preparing a few samples....



Tomorrow is our book event/demo day at Waterstones, Farnham which has come around so quick - i can't believe it is finally here.

We will have on display some of the actual projects we created for Sew Fabulous Fabric and will also be there to talk about the book and to demo a few techniques and projects from it. .. and sign copies too which feels very strange. (been practicing my signature Em x hee hee... I am very worried though that someone may ask for a message and that i will make a spelling mistake as my spelling is terrible!) I am really looking forward to the day itself but am very nervous so
please wish us both luck. And if you are local , do try and pop in, it would be great to meet you.

Finally i just wanted to say thank you for the comments on my last post and just to clarify... Magic was on the way UP the banister! We are going to have some fun with these two kitties i just know it!
Happy weekends to you.
G x

Sew Fabulous Fabric and a competition...

In November 2006 Alice and I exhibited as 'folkydokee handmade' at Country Living Magazines Christmas Fair at the Business Design Centre in Islington, London. We spent a fair bit of money on this show to achieve a warm friendly little shop like space with a counter made by the lovely Rod (my other half), a wooden style floor, a gold painted border a with Merry Christmas stencilled greeting and a mock up mantlepiece where we hung our handmade Christmas stockings.

Country Living Christmas 2006

As many of you who do these kind of shows will know it is very hard to have space to store everything, put samples of all the product ranges on display and to also make the space welcoming and uncluttered and importantly fit us both on the stall (we come as a pair!) and allow space for folk to come in and browse.

As a small company we could only ever afford a small space but the long thin ones always worked best for us as you get a lot of wall space to hang products and still have room for browsers to come in and have a closer look. We achieved what we had hoped for and i think it was all worth the extra time and money spent as we received lots of lovely comments about our little space. I feel it also was an important element in why we were approached at that show by the lovely Ali from the publishers David and Charles. This meeting was the start of an exciting collaboration for Alice and I which has now reached completion.

Ali, who had been drawn to our stall and our recycled textile products asked us if we had ever considered writing a book. We had both toyed with this idea before having both had teaching backgrounds, but had never really pursued it.... (i secretly always thought i would write a self help book.. god knows i am an expert as i have read so many.. but that's another story). We arranged to meet to discuss the possibility of this after the Show.

The next stage was for us to submit a synopsis of the structure that a book would take and a list of projects. We had to wait a while to see if our proposal would pass various stages, costings.. etc. Finally we got the go ahead and then began... With the sad loss of Alice's baby Poppy in mid pregnancy, working towards Hampton Court Flower Show and with the Summer Holidays in between, we certainly had our work cut out...

Creating the projects for the book was such fun and the process of writing the text a real creative challenge which we both loved. Alice and I have different styles so we were constantly editing what each other had written. The book contains beautiful illustrations which accompany our step by steps drawn by Helen Philipps and for the project photography we were so lucky to work with the wonderful Simon Whitmore. These photo shoots were tiring but great fun.



The book was finished back in April and we received a copy in July.... this is me (photo taken by my 10 year old) with my copy... i could not stop jumping up and down i was so excited... i am on the phone to Alice sharing the excitement.

Here is a little sample of some of the projects included in the book, having been created from a mix of recycled fabrics, natural fabrics, remnants and scraps as is our style....

Simon Whitmore's photographs

a full contents list can be found by clicking on the book cover
in the side bar and following the search in book facility.

To celebrate the launch of Sew Fabulous Fabric I wanted to run a little competition open to all bloggers as as thank you for all your support and comments over my last (almost 100) posts.
Our publishers, David and Charles have kindly given me a few free copies of 'Sew Fabulous Fabric' so, these are up for grabs. You don't have to answer any questions to enter or live in the uk as we will post the book worldwide (please note that it is written in English), but what we would ask is that if you win you could write up a little review of the book and post it on your blog.

Our books official publish date is 18th September, although i understand that it is now in stock, so i will do the draw on the 18th September at 9am. Good luck.
ginny and alice xx

p.s. a thank you message for Diana from Pebbledash who sent me one of her wonderful handprinted cards to wish Alice and I good luck with the book launch... so lovely of you, thank you so much x

a Dorothy dress

We have now completed the tongue and groove of the third wall in the studio space,(hooray!) but it still needs painting. Only one more wall to finish now. I am so itching to get in there and to get all my books, beads and fabrics in one place as most things are still in storage.

Despite the fact that the new workspace is still not complete i have managed to sew albeit on one end of my dining room table.
We do not have much space in our tiny house so unfortunately i can't leave the sewing machine set up as we use this table to eat our meals at and the kids also do their homework there.
I know many crafters manage this way. I was spoilt having the Flour Loft Studio. But soon i will have my new Garden Studio and it will be amazing.

I had another special commission to do last week. A Carnival costume to make for my eldest. Her schools theme was Hollywood, so after finding some...

blue gingham...

and some ruby slippers...

i made her a Dress and blouse and we set about transforming her into Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz... completing the look Buster went as Toto in a straw handbag as we didn't have a basket.


We ragged her hair the night before the Carnival to give it a little more body as it is usually dead straight and went to town on the make up. We had to buy some lipstick just for the occasion as i don't own any.

Here they are together with lots of make up on and my little one dressed up like her school friends as a Samba dancer.



The Carnival was great fun, the weather was sunny and the kids had a ball.
g x

a special commission

Yesterday when i picked up our smallest person from school she was full of beans and very excited. She couldn't wait to tell me that she and 2 of her friends had come up with an idea for a competition to run in her class.

They had created a character called Shiny the Star with their idea being to ask their friends to place Shiny in a scene, ie colour a picture of Shiny in an interesting place. The prize, they had concocted was to be a star shaped Shiny softie, which my little one had volunteered that she would organise with her mummy, as her mummy 'did sewing'.
She was eager that we must do it straight away... so we set about making Shiny come to life.

First she drew a picture of Shiny.

Then she chose the fabric.

A pattern was drawn by her, complete with scaled up face, was pinned to the fabric and 2 star shaped pieces were then cut out, by me.


She transferred the face on to the top piece of fabric ready for me to hand embroider to her specifications.


Then with right sides together Shiny was stitched up, clipped, turned through and stuffed.





My small person, who is also a budding photographer, decided she would like to take lots of photos of Shiny. Here are a few of the ones that she styled and took.



Boy racer Shiny on scooter.


Gardener Shiny.



Shiny on bike.



and finally Shiny having fun on Hoppy.

She had so much fun playing with Shiny that i think she may be sad to give him to the winner.
I expect we shall be making a Shiny mark 2 soon!

Gx

today is a bag day...

hey... i got my sewing mojo back today and have made a handbag.

As most of my fabrics are packed away at the back of the new, still to be finished workspace which is full to the brim, i raided my little home stash instead. I am not sure where i got this piece of retro silk from but it has been in the cupboard for ages. I love this fabric and have often thought about making a dress from it. I have just under 4 yards of it so decided that i could make a handbag and still have plenty left to use for another project.

The shape was based on a small linen handbag that i designed in the past but i scaled the pattern up to shoulder bag size and elongated it slightly as an experiment. I was too impatient to make a prototype so just went for it. The whole bag was backed with a canvas to give it some body as the silk was very soft and floppy.
Taking inspiration from the florals in the fabric i appliqued on a flower motif and highlighted it with tiny seed beads. Once i had made it up i thought that a long strap would work well with the proportions of the main bag. For this i used a complementary furnishing fabric sample. The bag is lined with a gray satin. It has an integral pocket with a bound edge made from a piece of the main floral fabric.
As you can see from this mosaic i had been more inspired by my river walk on Sunday than i had realised! I also have been wearing washed out old jeans and a green tee shirt today. It seems different days bring different colour inspirations. I wonder what colours tomorrow will bring...

click on the image for a bit more detail
g x