Getting a little bit sew-ie...

I've been on a bit of a sewing frenzy lately.  I've drafted a simple A-line dress and sewed four of them - yes four!!!!  I was inspired as I am heading to Hong Kong very soon and the weather is going to be warm and humid.  It also seemed appropriate to be on a crazy sewing frenzy, using up quite a bit of my stash during the month of May as loads of my favourite sewing bloggers are chatting about "Me Made May" (check out Kelly from True Bias blog about this!).  This is where you don't buy anything and just wear beautiful clothing that you have made yourself.

Anyway, I thought that I would share with you some of my creations, they have been super fun to make and I've had quite a few requests for the pattern!!  When I get back from Hong Kong, I will attempt to PDF it and share with you all!!!

So here we go!!!

Here's the Cobalt blue number.  It's made from a very lightweight gaberdine fabric (I think?!) and has inseam pockets and is finished with bias binding at the neckline and armholes.

And here is a very cute black and white gingham number.  I finished the neckline and the armholes with a hot pink bias which has a little bit of a 'peekaboo' effect.  This is a lovely soft cotton fabric and will be great for the Hong Kong heat and humidity.  For those people digging my necklace, it is Marimekko (of course!)

Here is a light coloured chambray dress!  Again there are inseam pockets.  A little more casual looking, the fabric is beautiful and soft and doesn't seem to crease too much.  I bought this fabric for $2 a metre too!  A great bargain!

And to finish it all off, a little black dress naturally!  Even in warm weather, I love a simple black cotton dress that can be dressed up with some cute ballet flats and a great necklace or bright cardigan.  The fabric came from Ikea and has washed up surprisingly well!

So I think that I am just about ready for my trip away!  And my fabric stash is 4 pieces lighter!  Woo hoo!

Working on... Self-Portraits...

I've been messing around with some self portraits to weave recently. Here are two of the cartoons that I've been working on. My approach has been to go straight to black and white and a more sketchy and mark making approach. Just trying to loosen up and try some new weaving approaches before getting stuck back into a new body of work.

 

I enjoy working on self portraits in between other works. I also love viewing other artists self portraits too. It is such an insight into how we view ourselves.

How Much Stuff do we Need?

I have been thinking about consumerism and our need to collect 'stuff' for awhile.  I did a post about consumption and the real price of cheap clothing over here.  I guess I'm thinking about it more and more.  I went on a bit of a weird 'Spring Cleaning' frenzy over the weekend, even though technically it is Fall here!

There were a couple of boxes of handbags and shoes that I have been holding onto but not actually using.  They were being held captive in the back of my closet and I thought it was time for them to be released. Without too much thought, tears or emotion, I popped them into some garbage bags and sent them to the charity store.

I then started going through some clothes that had been hanging around.  They weren't good enough to go to the charity store, so I cut them up and added them to our rag bag for polishing of shoes and all of that.

I then added some items onto eBay.  Yep, how many Crumpler bags and designer sunglasses do I really need?  I haven't even looked at these items for over a year!

It felt pretty good to let go of some things.  Though I don't think that I have even come close to really getting rid of my 'verging on hoarding' lifestyle!  To inspire my acts of de-cluttering, I've been reading Miss Minimalist by Francine Jay (naturally on the kindle as not to add any more 'stuff' to my bookcase!)  Francine does go pretty far into living a much more simple and object free life but it definitely makes you think.  I especially liked reading her take on gifts and how we accumulate stuff.  I know that I have gifts from people that I never use, don't really like and that just seem to stay with me.  I often joke that I would prefer a bottle of wine that will be used and discarded then a small token that will collect dust.

I don't think that I will ever truly have a handle on not acquiring things but I do like the idea of living a bit more simply and not having dust catchers!  Stay tuned to see if I can get rid of more stuff!

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Coat of Many Colours...

Romance Was Born for Cleckheaton.

Not quite the homage to the amazing Dolly Parton song but almost, this knitted intarsia coat designed by Romance was Born is my latest project.  If you have been reading this blog for sometime, you know how much I adore my wacky colour combos and bold patterns.  When I saw this pattern (which is for free!), I knew that I had to give it a go.

Making a start!

Probably one of the most challenging knits for me, simply because of the huge amounts of intarsia, it is simply flying off the needles at the moment!  This baby uses about 45 balls of yarn, oh my!  The structure of the garment is quite straight forward, back, fronts and sleeves and is one size fits all so there isn't too much to think about other than the intarsia work.

the intarsia is flying along!

 

I can't wait until it is finished so I can wear it around like a crazy cat loving bag lady!  As that is what I think I may look like!

Selection letters...

You've got to love coming home from a crazy day at work to a letter telling you that your work has been selected for an exhibition!

I will have a tapestry in the upcoming exhibition 'She Who Can' exhibition at Walker Street Gallery in Dandenong.  I've been part of this exhibition before, maybe about 10 years ago and thought that I would submit again this year too.

The exhibition celebrates and showcases the talents of female artists.  Two artists are selected to be the recipients of solo exhibitions at other galleries too, which is always lovely!

The exhibition runs from 7 to 28 March at Walker Street Gallery, pop in and check out some fantastic talent!

You Know Me Better...

I thought that I would share some of the videos and images that inspired the works in my current exhibition Sampler at Handheld Gallery.

This clip is by one of my favourite singers Roisin Murphy. She headed up the group, Moloko and I've always admired her sense of style and wacky dance moves. Her music videos are always interesting and have a great muted colour quality too.

 

Here are some of the small tapestries that were inspired by the music video clip.  When I am weaving them, I work from the low quality print outs as well so they really are a combination of the video and then the low resolution snapshot.  Sometimes the printer may be running out of toner and the colour will bleed in a certain section, I often will weave that too!

And here are some of the snapshots from the music video.  I took these on my iphone while watching the clip via YouTube.  The source material is starting in a low resolution form, becoming compressed onto the iphone and then again when I print it out.  I'm always fascinated with these ideas of process in tapestry.

My exhibition Sampler ends tomorrow, Saturday 16th February, so you don't have much time to check it out!