Dress Up - January

Since my last post I've received a number of mails from Bloggers wanting to play along. I've attached a button on the side bar setting out the idea behind 'Dress Up', anyone can play and I'm just aiming to complete a dress by the end of each month. I've attached a comments box, if you leave your link then your page can be viewed. Enjoy!

Ready for the runway

After much um-ing and ah-ing I've finally managed to get my first dress completed. It all started off rather badly but I kind of like the end result! I plan to back my dresses with a page of text and hang a mini price tag with the date on each one. I still haven't managed to do anything more to my box/cupboard and I think it'll be part of the ongoing project (to do list...)

I made some paper ruffles and added some lace circles and vintage buttons.

The background needed a good going over with antique ink and some metallics to tone down the colour

To create the background I gessoed some card, rollered on some acrylic and
stamped randomly, I then spent the next hour trying to get rid of the pink! I've
no idea why I put it there in the first place, just one of those
things!

There are now five of us in the monthly 'Dress Up? challenge and I'll post links as soon as the other gals have their creations on show.

Patty

The results of our latest QB5 challenge of charms and brooches have started to arrive and just look at these little masterpieces from Patty I love my birds nest a lot! I can see myself having a go at these. Patty stamped a colour card to attach it to, inspired!

Patty altered a playing piece for her second charm, so teeny tiny and gorgeous!

And a rose brooch, I wouldn't even know where to start making something like this! so beautiful, thank you so much for your box of goodies Patty!

A note to the 'Dress Up' gals, I have my first one completed and will post tomorrow!

Complete canvas

I found a small bird for my canvas as I figured there's not a lot of point in having a perch without a percher. It's so badly wired that it tips forward everytime the front door closes and by mid-afternoon it's beak down and in dire need of assistance, I've added rewiring to my 'to do' list...

At the risk of looking Herman Munster-ish I glued a drawer knob to the top, kind of fits the colour and well, why not?

I had a couple of questions about the canvas and on this occasion I did actually take a pic of the starting point. I usually gather a pile of old bits of paper and start ripping and gluing. Once you have a rough 'canvas' shape then get sewing, I tend to use a mixture of plain and zig-zag and just go where I like. I do have a free-motion quilting foot for my machine (which would be easier) but that would involve reading the instructions and then following them which is more than I'm capable of right at this moment.

This is the point at which most of my friends say they think they'll mess it up or they don't want to cover up the backing papers. The trick is to just GO FOR IT, use waterbased crayons to lay a bit of colour down, when you have an idea where the piece is going you can add acrylics, a bit of stenciling, stamping, whatever. I usually remove more paint than I leave on which is the beauty of water based products!

Charmed for sure

In an earlier post I mentioned our latest QB5 swap of charms and brooches and
just look at these little beauties that arrived from Linda Teeny tiny detail on
her charm with a bee hanging at the bottom.

A super gorgeous felted flower brooch! I'm afraid my pic doesn't do the colour justice

A little bit of Anthropologie tucked in the parcel

All wrapped in angel tissue! Thank you so much Linda, you made my day!

Sewn canvas

I haven't done one of these for ages and I throughly enjoyed making this one. I love the texture and the colours that reveal themselves in this layering process.

Dingle dangles

I've finally completed my charms and brooches for the latest QB5 swap, it's taken more than a while and it's safe to say jewellery isn't my strong point! I've posted a wee clue below but don't want to totally give the game away, yet!

Nathalie

This little lovely arrived in the post yesterday all the way from Nathalie http://nathaliethompson.blogspot.com/ in The States.

It's a shoe!! and not just any shoe, but a pincushion shoe! how fab is this?! one of Nathalie's own alterations giving this little gem a new lease of life. It was wrapped in old lace with buttons and dangles. Check out her Etsy shop for more cool upcycled items!

Just fits right on in with my sewing stash, some things are just meant to be, I love it! Thank you Nathalie, you made my day!

Project 2010

Do you remember these? This was my 2008 project of one art card a week, the only rule was the size but other than that I was free to choose my colours and theme. I put each card away as I finished them then on 31.12.08 did a grand opening and saw what I'd achieved during the year laid out in front of me. As a project it was a good one as by the end of it I had a visual diary of my year and had learnt a lot more about the kind of art and techniques I prefer. It was also an exercise in self-discipline and actually getting stuff done! I didn't have any such project last year and time just drifted by, also not always such a bad thing but this year I wanted to set myself a goal of some sort

So here it is, a cigar box, now unstuck which is set to become a ... (drum roll)

wardrobe!! Let's play Dress Up! My project is to create a dress every month this year and hang it in my cupboard, by the end of the year I should have 12 fine creations fit for any self respecting style guru. Now, being a jeans and t-shirt kind of a gal this is more out of my comfort zone than you might imagine, but that's the whole point really. The template comes from an article called 'Dressed Up' by Connie Govea Stuart in Somerset Life, Vol 2007. I've seen various 'dress' swaps on Blogs in the past year and there are some funky designs out there. I like the idea of making something to display and add to throughout the year. I can imagine the dresses might reflect the time of the year, Easter, Christmas, plain, fancy, whatever, the possiblilties are endless. Anyone want to play along?

Somewhere, although I don't remember where I saw the instructions for making hangers. I started with a 12cm piece of wire which is bent around a pencil to form the corners then twisted at the top. I cut a piece of dowel for the clothing pole which is set to the front of the box to allow the dresses to hang. Easy huh? what are you waiting for? Let's play Dress Up!