September 2011

Guest blogger series | How to make a face pillow pattern

by contributor on September 30, 2011

in Guest blog series2 2011, Home+Decor, Whip Up Tutorials

Guest blogger: Colleen Babcock of The Magic Bean

My name is Colleen from The Magic Bean and I am a face-aholic. I’ve always loved drawing faces and I suppose that is at least part of the reason that I love making cloth dolls (my primary craft obsession, but by no means, the only one). I teach cloth doll making all over Canada (where I’m from originally), the US (where I love to visit) and the UK (where I live) and everywhere I go people tell me that drawing faces scares them silly. Incidentally, I am a firm believer that drawing is not an innate talent but a learned skill that anyone can acquire with the right teacher.

However, when you don’t have a teacher at hand, you can always cheat. So when the opportunity to guest blog at one of my favourite blogs, Whipup.net, came along I decided that I would share an easy way for people to draw the profiles of their nearest and dearest and to turn those silhouettes into a set of High Profile Pillows – the cheaters way!

Download the free tutorial and pattern for these High Profile Pillows in PDF format.

So, we’ve established that I love Whipup.net. I love faces. I love drawing. But there is one more thing – I love free tutorials. So in honour of my guest post at Whipup.net, I’ve created another free tutorial for a co-ordinating pillow which you can get at my own blog, The Magic Bean. This second tutorial will arm you with another different cheaters technique to draw full body silhouettes of you and your family. Whoever said cheaters never prosper, never made my pillows.

{ 2 comments }

Guest blogger series | Photographing modern quilts

by contributor on September 29, 2011

in Guest blog series2 2011, Quilting

Monica Solorio-Snow is a freelance quilt and home-sewing pattern designer and a fabric designer for Lecien Fabrics of Japan.  Monica makes her home in the Pacific Wonderland (Oregon, USA) and is fueled by her rainy, wet and grey weather to craft, quilt and sew her world pretty. 

What is modern quilting?
That is a question I get asked a lot. A question all my friends get who are also modern quilters also get.  We almost all have different answers, meanings and feelings. For me it means looking at traditional quilts in a new light. I love quilts from the 1930′s, but I also love freshening them up and putting my own stamp on it.  It’s like taking Grandma’s loved cherry pie recipe and adding some extra ingredients… or taking out some ingredients.  Or taking out the cherries and adding in Meyer lemons. Or nixing the crust completely and loading up on cherries!  If it tastes good… make it!  If it looks good… sew it!  Celebrate traditions, but also make it your own.

Another modern approach to quilt making is in the quilt photography – one I’m most excited about.
Most often the modern quilt is going to be used, to be loved, to get worn, to take camping, to be outside on a grassy knoll with a picnic atop it… and clearly people are photographing their quilts that way, too.  My obsession with zombies and quilts have hit head-on and had themselves a love-child in photos I like to call The Walking Quilted.  A spoof of “the walking dead”.  I love these photos so much that I made myself a board on Pinterest and a group on Flickr.

Quilts out in the wild, displayed with visible hands, legs and feet – looking like they smell the essence of brain and are coming for sweet and tasty you.  So many quilters are opting for significant others, kids, whoever is handy to be their quilt-stands. Pure quilt photographing happiness. Out of stuffy rooms and into the wild and in loving hands. Quilts that come to life and show all their yummy personalities.

I recently asked my friend Elizabeth to indulge me in some Walking Quilted antics when she was photographing one of her quilts in Portland’s Laurelhurst Park.  A quick how-to lesson and she was on her way…

Me: “You’re doing great, Elizabeth! Keep going!”
Elizabeth: “You do know that I can’t see where I’m going, right?”
Me:  ”You’re fine, you’re fine… just keep walking.”
Me:  ”Oh.  Um.  Yeah… there’s a tree”.

Another quilt photography trend is to hang quilts where one wouldn’t normally expect to see a quilt hung. Draped over fences, gates, the side of truck, an airplane, a barn, you name it.  Quilters are really putting some fantastic effort into taking beautiful photos of their quilts. So naturally, I had to start a Pinterest board for that too – and my Well hung! pin-board was born.

I’m wondering what the next big thing in quilt photography will be next. Whatever it is, I’ll be starting a pin-board for it too! If you’ve never tried taking a photo of your quilt “in the wild”… make today the day you try it!

{ 5 comments }

Guest blogger series | Creating a Crochet Pattern

by contributor on September 28, 2011

in Guest blog series2 2011, knitting+crochet+yarn

Heidi writes the mostly crafty blog, Speckless, which started out as an extension of her Etsy shop and has evolved into a place to learn about art, craft, and life along the way. Heidi lives, loves, and makes in Minneapolis, Minnesota with the Musical Mr. Nicky and the Boy Cat Named Penny.

Belt gusset purse and Pretty little pleats bag

Heidi’s Method for Creating a Crochet Pattern
Hello there, Whipup.net readers! Today I’m going to share my process for creating a crochet pattern. By no means is this a scientific-one-size-fits-all process — this is just my method — and I hope it encourages you to create your own patterns! I think purses and bags are a great place to start building your pattern arsenal because you can be less strict about gauge and you don’t have to worry about sizing (like with a clothing item). This method has four key steps: (1) inspiration, (2) sketching for design and construction, (3) making and drafting, and (4) finalizing your pattern. Ready? Let’s go!

Blue raspberry evening bag

Inspiration
Inspiration can come from anywhere. For me, crochet inspiration usually falls into one of three categories: from a crochet stitch, from a non-crochet item, or from necessity. Do you ever see a beautiful or interesting stitch that you just can’t wait to try out? Making your own pattern is the perfect opportunity to do so! My Blue Raspberry Evening Bag [Pictured above] sprung from a recent obsession with the crocodile stitch. Vintage pattern books, which I count in the “stitch inspiration” category, are also excellent jumping-off points — For example, you might not want a granny square vest, but maybe you do want a skirt made from hexagon motifs (or a tote bag).

Non-crochet items are great inspiration, as they usually stretch you to think in new ways. If I see a purse or bag that I like, I try to visualize it in crochet. My Belt Gusset Purse and Pretty Little Pleats Bag are both direct responses to leather or cloth purses that I saw while running errands [both pictured at top].

And sometimes, there’s just something that you need but can’t find anywhere. Like this Tiffin Set. If there’s something that you’ve been wanting or needing, but can’t find anywhere, it’s a pretty good bet you’re not the only one (and this goes for bag designs, too)!

So go on, get inspired! Keep your eyes peeled and your mind open. Having an inspiration board and/or a sketchbook is helpful. I keep mine at Pinterest, if you’re curious.

Sketching for Design and Construction
Sketching for design is the fun part of this step. Using and combining bits from the inspiration step, make sketches of what you want your final design to look like — size, shape, proportion. If you have a specific color scheme in mind, it might be helpful to incorporate that here with some markers or colored pencils.

Sketching for construction is not quite as foot-loose and fancy-free. Sketch out the components of your bag to see how you will make your vision work. Will you be making your bag in the round or back-and-forth in rows? How will you attach the gusset/strap/motifs? I usually break down all the components and try to figure which way will be the easiest, most seamless, and most durable. You are basically dissecting your pattern before you begin so you run into less “surprises” later on. Although not necessary, it is helpful to have some knowledge of sewing and sewing techniques — it’s just a little advantage in visualizing how your bag will work in real-life-3D.

At this stage, you also want to start sketching a graph of the stitches you will be using, especially the first few rows/rounds. Often, I need to turn a flat, “made in rows”, stitch pattern to something that will work in the round — and now is the time to it. The more planning ahead you do now, the less frustration you will have in the next steps.

Making and Drafting
This is where things really start happening (or sometimes not, unfortunately)! Now we’re into the nitty-gritty. Arm yourself with hook, yarn, and optimism. Start following your construction sketches. Write down everything you do. In detail. IN PENCIL. You will inevitably encounter problems that you did not anticipate in your construction sketches. Some can be fixed easily and with minimal frogging. Others, not so much. Be patient, my friend! Just keep frogging, erasing, revising, and rewriting until it works, dang it! Be diligent about writing down exactly what you are doing row by row (or round by round). At the end of each row or round, go back and double check your work. Count all of your stitches. Dot the eyes, cross the tees, and weave in all the ends.

With a lot of patience and a little luck, you will come to the end of your creation (yip!). Take a moment to bask in your glorious genius. Analyze your creation as a whole and decide if it needs any finishing touches — a lining, some ribbon woven through, beading, a flower embellishment, a tassel or two? Enjoy this time, because the next step is, for me, the least fun part . . .

Tiffin Lunch Set

Finalizing Your Pattern
If you plan to publish your pattern in any way, for free or for sale, you’ll need to get everything together nice and neat-like. Even if you don’t plan on sharing your pattern, I suggest that you do this final step — you put in all of that work, and you’ll want a nice copy for yourself in the future! This last step is pretty self-explanatory, I guess. You’ll need to sit down at a computer and type up your pattern. You may want to add illustrations (hand or computerized) of special stitches or a graph of the first few rounds. Look at other patterns to guide you in your abbreviations, structure, and symbols. This free little bag pattern was one of my first patterns, and I’m sticking it in here because it shows a pattern graph, written instructions, and a lining tutorial. The cherry on top is going to be photos of your work. Take some beauty shots and add them on to your typed-up pattern . . . and . . . you’re done! Congratulations!

I hope this explanation is helpful, and if you have any questions, feel free to hit me up over at Speckless! [Or ask questions in the comments section]. Thanks, everyone! ~Heidi

{ 12 comments }

Guest blogger series | Crafting for health

by contributor on September 27, 2011

in Beauty+Health, Features, Guest blog series2 2011

Jodi Anderson grew up in the woods of Wisconsin and her past is very present in everything that she does today. Her greatest love is beauty in the mundane, which isn’t difficult to find, and she keeps track of that in her online journal, Daybook. She refuses to let her struggles with pain and illness define her.

Crafting for health

Crafting really can be a unique and useful tool in achieving a healthy life, despite circumstances beyond our control, while participating in something that is creatively productive.

These are things that, whether you are healthy or not, you may have experienced:

Waiting for the doctor to call with test results, the loss of a loved one, gnawing physical pain, trying to put your life back together after ending a relationship, biding your time while undergoing cancer treatment, feeling ready to explode from the pressures of everyday life, being laid up short- or long-term, or struggling to stay afloat despite depression.

We are united in our ability to feel emotional pain and in our inability to completely avoid disease. Our lives, even when in good health, are certain to contain trying moments, periods of anxiety-inducing waiting and emotional distress, not to mention an ill-timed and unexpected cold or flu. With more serious health issues, mundane tasks can become increasingly difficult and life is likely to include long periods of time when everything seems to be in limbo, maybe waiting for an appointment with the doctor, anticipating an unknown diagnosis, or watching for the earliest signs of healing and recovery. So much of it can not really be avoided, yet we can determine how we handle these times, whether we succumb to them or use them to propel us forward in some other measure.

Meditation and journaling are often recommended in addition to more traditional physical and mental healthcare methods. I find that both can be helpful in a variety of ways. Meditation may lighten our mental load, center our thinking, and provide a sense of peace that can pervade all areas of our life. Writing can bring us focus, a chance to vent our thoughts, a way to feel less burdened, and a map to navigate our way through confounding circumstances.

Living a handmade life through crafting and art can provide many of the same benefits as well as a very personal physical product of our experience. Earlier this year, I found myself particularly housebound. Despite loving the cold and dark hues of winter, I began to crochet a brightly-colored rainbow blanket for my daughter. It seemed like an impossibly long project: hundreds of tiny stitches in every row, nearly two hundred rows to do, thousands of yards of double knit yarn, and a small hook. Making that blanket, in hindsight, feels like one long and slow deep breath. At the time, it kept my mind off of my body. It allowed me to meditate, stitch by stitch. I felt a sense of control and peace. Sometimes I did think about my unknown future while working, but it was more constructive than when I simply fretted with my hands rolled into fists. Of course, the sweet icing on the cake is seeing my young adult daughter tote the blanket, a sort of map-journal of my healing, around the house, wearing it like a robe at times, and sleeping under it nearly every night.

Much handwork is repetition in both a small and a large way, with a great number of seemingly trivial motions producing a grand item, such as with embroidery, knitting, and crochet. A large knit piece may contain hours of meditative stitching, the chance to mindlessly work or, also, an opportunity to focus on something besides the self, like proper technique, tension, and the progress of the piece. This repetitious movement and chance to free the mind is so much like meditation, and some find it easier as negative thoughts can be replaced by intentionally thinking of the work at hand, refocusing the brain.

Craft comes in all forms and negate none of it. Take hold of what brings you joy and peace.

The act of dressing a plate with food can start out as creative experimentation, but develop into a satisfying ritual. Maybe you will again find your passion for fashion by piecing together your wardrobe into new outfits or sewing up a fresh addition. Scrapbooking may seem like merely a way to save photos, yet it can be the story of your journey, which is important to recognize and, perhaps, share. You may wish to keep it private, but that does not lessen its significance. Stick a small sketchbook in your bag, whether you feel that you can draw or not. Use it to see what is around you or use it to get out what is inside of you. Let it help you to pass the time while waiting at the doctor’s office. Other small projects, like knitting, are great for this too.

While you can not control all of what happens in your life and with your body, you can grab hold of yourself and live dynamically despite apparent obstacles. The busywork of creating can help to get you through the small crises, and the satisfaction of a finished piece can lift you during the duration of illness, perhaps even physically comfort you.

Crafting is unlikely to cure a serious illness, yet it may provide a sense of relief or contentment as well as a feeling of accomplishment when even the activities of daily living are difficult to obtain. Cross-stitching may not mend your broken heart, but it could be a healthy way to vent your feelings. (Yarn bombing, anyone?!)

{ 22 comments }

Guest blogger series | Creating amigurumi characters

by contributor on September 26, 2011

in Geek Crafts, Guest blog series2 2011, knitting+crochet+yarn

With a strong streak of nerd and an affinity for crochet Tracey started up Mostly nerdy crochet. She’s happy to be hooking and often finds it an interesting challenge to use what’s on hand for her next project.

It took getting married, being unemployed, and being 1,500 miles from home for me to pick up my hooks and start crocheting. I learned the basics when I was ten, but apparently I had to be lonely and lost before I’d pick it back up.

Of course the first project I started was the dreaded granny square blanket (well, granny hexagon). Two years later I’m still not actually finished with it, but I’ve accomplished a few other things instead.

Mostly nerdy crochet was the product of my own impatience. For some reason I’m great at amigurumi and only ever followed a pattern once. By the second time I was convinced I could improve the pattern (which I did) and after that I just never bothered to follow anything! I wrote my own patterns for a while (some of which can be found at Ravelry) but I hate trying to follow them again to test the designs.

When I decide to turn a character into an amigurumi I start to collect dozens of pictures of them from every angle. Once I’ve managed to compile enough to create a 3D image in my head I start crocheting. It’s really basic; you add stitches to make it wider and decrease to make it thinner and that’s about it. Each character can be broken down into a series of shapes (most often cylinders and ovals) and then attached together. However, the crochet is only half the battle! I’ve found that if you want something to look right it’s all in the details. Faces are especially important and require a lot of attention, which isn’t too hard as long as you’re willing to play around with embroidery and felt.

As for the yarn that I use I’ll take anything. You hear about people being super green and buying recycled yarn or locally spun yarn or yarn made out of dead leaves for all I know. I’m not quite that diligent. I think I’ve bought maybe four skeins of yarn at retail stores in the two years that I’ve been regularly crocheting. I buy yarn at garage sales and thrift stores and I think that definitely qualifies as reusing. It’s about as green as an unemployed thrift store volunteer can get.

Crochet means a lot more to me than just playing with yarn. I started to rely on crochet as a means of comfort after our last move. I have some anxiety issues and use crochet to keep my hands busy and my mind calm. The biggest reason I stopped following patterns was because it required too much concentration! I like to use crochet as a relaxing distraction, so typically I put on a movie and start hooking. Recently I’ve been trying to exercise my patience by using a visual diagram for a non amigurumi project instead of a written version. Something about looking at pretty pictures makes it easier to watch a movie, crochet, and keep track of my stitches.

Someday in the future I really want to own my own sheep, sheer them, and spin my own yarn. Actually, my sister will keep the sheep for me. She wants to have a small family farm and will use them to make cheese and keep the grass down. I’ll use them for the wool. I’ll learn to dye it myself and sell it somewhere neat… or maybe just next to my sister’s cheese. I can dream, can’t I?

Special thanks to whipup.net and all the readers for being constantly supportive of crafters everywhere.

{ 1 comment }

Sponsored giveaway : DIY Fluffies

by KateG on September 25, 2011

in Sewing+Fabric, Sponsored giveaway

We would like to welcome advertiser Mariska Vos-Bolman of DIY Fluffies to whipup.net today, to feature her business and to offer a fantastic giveaway to our readers.

DIY Fluffies are stuffed toy patterns that look very adorable and are also a lot of fun to make. They make perfect personal gifts. Most of my plushes on the photos are created with fleece. But you can use any fabric to make them. The patterns are suitable for any fabric, cotton, felt etc.  The PDF patterns are downloadable patterns that you can print out yourself. I also have kits available, if you don’t want to search for fabric yourself.  DIY Fluffies products are available from my own shop but also from craft shops all over the world.

Where to find DIY Fluffies online: Shop :: Twitter :: Facebook

Tell us about your background and how you started your business.

I started in 2008. I worked in the video game industry and I really needed a change. So I quit my job and started making soft toys. Which I do part time now, together with being a mom of two boys. The first one was born in 2008 and the other 2010. I started making plushes and jewelry that I sell at www.mariskavos.nl. After that I decided to start selling the patterns and kits of my toy, which I mainly sell at http://diyfluffies.etsy.com This is easier to combine with being a full time mom. I get many emails from people that enjoy working with my patterns and that is very rewarding.

How do you incorporate your kids in your business?
I get a lot of my inspiration from my kids. My son loves lions, rockets, elephants and now they are all patterns in my shop :) They usually don’t care much for plush toys, but they seem to like mommy’s creations! I have some photos on my website with them holding some of the toys. They make great models!
What is next for your business?
More patterns, I’m mainly focusing on getting more patterns in my shop. I would love to create a softie pattern book, but I don’t have enought time for that at the moment.

Today DIY Fluffies  are offering a prize of a Lucky Lion soft toy sewing kit to one lucky Whipup.net reader. So please leave a comment here to be in the running to win. You have 72 hours to enter. Winner will be chosen at random, announced here and contacted via email. Good luck! Congratulations to Kaden!

If you would like your business to be featured in a future Giveaway Post, visit our advertising page or email us at advertising[at]whipup[dot]net.

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Guest blogger series | Custom lunch bag

by contributor on September 24, 2011

in Guest blog series2 2011, Home+Decor, Sewing+Fabric, Whip Up Tutorials

Jackie Boucher is a freelance designer (http://www.behance.net/jackieboucher) with past gigs including “Look of the Games” designer for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games and managing the creative department for an NHL hockey team. She’s also a contributing writer for Apartment Therapy’s ohdeedoh. Her current passions include fabric design, blogging, photography, travelling with her family and making healthy, cute lunches for her 7 year old boy. Jackie is an apartment dweller with her husband and son in downtown Vancouver, Canada where they like to play in the mountains and on the sea.

I’m completely new to this sewing thing; sure I’ve dabbled here and there but if you must know, I took industrial arts in high school and missed out on ‘home economics’ altogether. It’s my new love of fabric design that has brought me into the world of sewing. I currently have about a dozen project ideas floating around in my head but with the start of school in the air this particular project floated to the top: a custom lunch bag to carry a new set of stackable, cylindrical lunch containers that we bought at IKEA. This bag could be made to fit a more traditional tiffin or round bento box as well.

What I did:
CHOSE FABRICS I chose a fabric for each of the 4 components: The outside tube, the bottom circle, the pocket (for holding a napkin that I had made earlier) and the lining. I chose fleece for the lining to add an insulation factor. Using some sort of water proof fabric is another option. I chose fleece because I think it will last longer, especially the number of times I think this will end up in the wash. My other fabric choices are from my Robot Gear Garden collection that I designed using Illustrator and had produced at Spoonflower*.

CUT FABRIC Our lunch containers stack up to 6” high and 6” across. Starting with the bottom circle of fabric, I added 1.5” of wiggle room so that the diameter of the circle is 7.5” (plus a little seam allowance). I cut the same sized circle out of the fleece lining as well.

Next, I cut the fabrics for the tube at 11” high. This factors in the height of the lunch container (6”), some extra height so that it can close properly (3“), the folded over part creating a pocket for the drawstring (1“) and some seam allowance (1”).

Finally, I dredged up some grade 8 math to figure out how wide the fabric for the tubes should be. I took the 7.5” diameter of the bottom circle and multiplied it by 3.14 (П) which gave me approximately 23.5” in circumference. So in my case, I cut a 24” x 11” rectangle in both the inner and outer fabrics.

THE NAPKIN POCKET First I hemmed the top of the pocket. Then I top stitched it down each side. I didn’t bother with the bottom because that will take care of itself when I sew on the bottom piece. The finished size of the pocket is about 3” x 3.5”.

MADE TWO TUBES Next I sewed each tube separately. But first, I hemmed the top 1.5” where the drawstring pocket will eventually be. And it was at this 1.5” mark where I started to join the tubes. I actually didn’t bother hemming the fleece because it won’t fray. Note that it’s best if the fleece tube is slightly narrower than the outer tube to reduce bunching. I increased the hem size on the fleece to achieve this.

PINNED AND SEWED BOTTOMS I sewed on each bottom inside out after a careful pinning session. And when I say “I”, I mean my husband did this while I made us some lunch. It’s nice to have a tag team. It’s no accident that I gave him one of the trickier parts of the whole project to do. I’m clever like that. He noted that sometimes you have to do tiny gathers as you go around the circle, especially if the fabric doesn’t have a lot of give.

ASSEMBLED BAG I turned the outside tube so that it was right side out but kept the fleece lining inside out when putting them together. That way, all the seams are happily out of view.

PINNED AND SEWED DRAWSTRING POCKET First I folded the top of the bag over so that about 1” of the fleece lining was showing at the top of the bag. Then I folded about a ¼” of that edge under, as a hem, and pinned it carefully. Finally I top stitched around the hem which made a pocket for the drawstring.

THREADED DRAWSTRING I put a safety pin on the end of the drawstring, inserted it in one hole and slowly worked it through to the other hole. Finally I cut it, being careful to leave enough for tying it off at the end.

*Interested in trying your hand at designing your own fabric? If you can produce an 8” x 8” jpg of artwork, even if it started out as a vector file (such as I did with Illustrator) and you get a handle on how to make the design so that it will ‘repeat’ seamlessly, then you can do it too. If this all sounds new to you but you are intrigued, take some time to pore over the information and supporting links on Spoonflower’s help page.

{ 1 comment }

Guest blogger series | Maternity pants refashion

by contributor on September 24, 2011

in Fashion, Green Crafting, Guest blog series2 2011

Eddie blogs at Eddie’s room about her refashions, food, and other crafty pursuits. She shares the Grey Duckling brand and blog with her husband where he illustrates and she makes yarn and lace. Finally she is an editor on the Refashion Co-op and runs the Historic Crafts blog too! [busy gal!]

Thank you Kathreen for inviting me to join your ranks of guest bloggers and letting me share the word about refashioning and especially refashioning for maternity wear. I began refashioning about a year ago when I joined the Wardrobe Refashion community. Unfortunately I wasn’t a member for long before Nikki sadly decided to close down the blog (the archive is still online though). I had been emailing with a couple of fellow members for a bit to see if we could find a way of keeping the community alive when I got the idea of creating the Refashion Co-op based around the concept of having several editors working together to build a community. Currently Refashion Co-op has 12 editors from all over the world. We all work together to provide a community where our contributors and readers can share their refashion and be inspired by other’s refashions. The best thing about having so many editors is that we have 12 times the creative energy to build up the community. We somehow manage to keep track of it all by each having our own responsibilities. We are running a maternity refashion challenge to coincide with this post and we hope you will come over and join us in the refashioning fun.

But why maternity refashions? As I see it there are two reasons. I am pregnant in my 5th month and while I haven’t grown much yet there are already certain clothing items in my wardrobe I can’t fit anymore and because maternity clothes are quite expensive and with only a short wearing time. That’s the first reason. The second is the same reason that I began refashioning in the first place. I feel that there are enough new mass-produced clothes in the world already so I prefer not to add anymore. I have shopped in thrift stores for many years now and being able to refashion some of the clothes I find there means that there are a lot more fun possibilities. I also like refashioning from my own wardrobe instead of getting rid of clothes I can’t fit or don’t wear anymore.

So lets have a look at a couple of my favorite ideas for maternity refashions. First I want to talk about trousers. This is probably the first piece of clothing where you are going to need a bit of adjustment to fit into it. The big issue with trousers and being pregnant is buttons and sometimes zippers. They just sit there and gnaw into your skin and put pressure on a part of your body where the baby is already putting more than enough pressure, thank you! I tried making my own pair of maternity pants but didn’t have much luck. I will have to adjust them. You can follow my attempts at Eddie’s room. I have added a list of trouser tutorials where you can also see some more pictures of my own attempts at maternity refashion.

Next up is what to wear on your upper body once your tummy and breasts begin to grow. If you don’t wear too tight clothes to begin with you might be able to get away with using your previous clothes for a bit. But at some point this won’t do. For one thing you will stretch your old clothes and they won’t be much fun to wear once you get your figure back again. Furthermore, you might technically be able to fit your old t-shirts but may find that they unintentionally ride up. There are quite a few tutorials online for different maternity refashions of tops, shirts, tunics and dresses. A great place to start is the diy maternity blog by Megan Nielsen. She has done such a great job at collecting tutorials and ideas. Another idea is to have a look at the maternity refashion category on Refashion Co-op.

I hope this has inspired you to get into refashioning whether you are pregnant or not.

{ 1 comment }

Guest blogger series | Fabric design

by contributor on September 23, 2011

in Guest blog series2 2011, Sewing+Fabric

Sarah Fielke find her at her blog The Last Piece.

Seeing as I’m sitting here waiting for a big box of fabric to come up the driveway in a UPS van, I thought that writing a guest post about fabric design was probably appropriate!

When I was asked two years ago by Lecien Japan to design a fabric range I was so thrilled. After owning a patchwork shop, quilting seriously for over 15 years, writing three quilt books and owning a veritable avalanche of fabric, having my very own drawings on fabric was an absolute dream!

Once the initial euphoria wore off though, I got seriously intimidated. There are some absolutely amazing designers making patchwork fabric at the moment. I studied graphic design, but that was a while ago now, back in the age where we didn’t have computers and we all used – you know, actual pencils.

A lot of designers may start with pen and paper but they complete all their designs, colourways and repeats on computer. I have never used Photoshop or a Wacom tablet or anything else like that so everything was going to have to be how I love to do things, by hand. I explained all this to Lecien who were incredibly gracious and helpful about working with my process.

When I design anything, quilts or fabric, I doodle a lot. I have books full of little sketches of patterns I saw on a tile, a flower I saw in a garden, applique shapes from antique quilts… and things that just pop in my head. Before I do anything solid I do a lot of thinking about what the theme of the range might be. I come up with a load of ideas and write myself little lists of things.

For my new range, St Ives, (my second range for Lecien) which will be launched at International Quilt Market in October, I had decided to do a range about my childhood. I started by making a list of everything I could think of that reminded me of my childhood. Legwarmers, hair bobbles, rainbow shoelaces, slushies, gumball gobstoppers, Michael Jackson, the Goodies, our garden, my bedroom, my bike. It was a long list and I started making little drawings of the ones that stood out.

After I find some doodles I like, I start to work them seriously into a design. This usually means making a quite detailed pen and ink drawing that is only for me. The drawings are too detailed for fabric design but it helps me to have something that is ‘finished’ to my eye before I pare back the lines to something more simple for a fabric range.

Once that is done I work on how the repeats might run. Because I do this all by hand it’s a fairly laborious process, but I only have to do it so that Lecien have an idea of how I want it to run – they do all the computer work for me so the repeats are not to a finish standard. I’ve explained how I do the simple repeats in the tutorial below.

The final stage is the colours, although of course I’ve been thinking about them all the way along. Colours are a whole other thing. With my first range, From Little Things, I wanted a range that reflected the colours I love to use most in my quilts – lime green, hot pink, aqua, yellow and most of all white. For this range I wanted the colours to be more ’80′s to reflect the theme of the fabric – without going for fluro of course! It was a little harder for me to choose the slightly softer palette of St Ives but I am pleased with the result. Lecien like me to use their colour card for their Cosmo embroidery threads to pick the colours, and then we can tweak as we go along. That way I have an exact look at the colour the fabric will be ON FABRIC, not on paper, as that can be very different!

When I have a colour palette picked out I do final artwork of each fabric design. Sometimes this is only one flower or leaf because of how the repeat will run. The designs are scanned and emailed, and I courier the originals with the thread numbers for each print and each colourway, and then I wait!

First thing back are digital prints… I colour correct and correct scale, line weight and anything else I don’t like, and send them back. This may happen a few times, but when we’re happy, they send the strike offs. These are smaller pieces of the actual fabric (usually the printing isn’t as good and the stock they are printed on is rough) but it’s always exciting to see actual fabric! Corrections again, until the final designs are signed off. And then the wait begins for the actual fabric, which has just now arrived at my front door!

How to Make a Simple Fabric Repeat

  1. First, make your drawing in the centre of a square the size of your repeat. This is a 6 1/2″ square, so it will be a 6 1/2″ repeat.
  2. Cut the design in half in one direction. Turn the two halves around so that the outsides are facing into the centre, and tape them back together.
  3. Cut the design in half in the other direction, turn the pieces around and tape them together again.
  4. You should now have a piece of paper with designs in all four corners and a blank space in the middle. Draw your design into the blank space. Here I am repeating the same flower over and over, but here is your chance to use something different in the middle and change the design entirely.
  5. Make a few photocopies of the finished 6 1/2″ repeat and cut them into 6 1/2″ squares. Match up the designs along the lines as accurately as you can (ok, I was in a hurry here) and you have a fabric repeat!

{ 14 comments }

Guest blogger series | Pleated lace headband tutorial

by contributor on September 22, 2011

in Guest blog series2 2011, Jewellery+Accessories, Whip Up Tutorials

Vanessa of Punkin Patterns stays very busy taking care of her two young children and lots of creative projects. You might find her sewing, knitting, painting, designing or juggling all of her passions at once. Take a minute and go check out Punkin Patterns and read about her sewing and crafting adventures and don’t forget to take a look at all of her great tutorials.

Hi Everyone! I’m Vanessa of Punkin Patterns and I’m very excited to be here today on whipup.net. Today I wanted to share with you a very simple project: a pleated lace headband. Super simple, but so elegant! It’s a very easy project, perfect for a beginner or the seasoned pro. It’s great for little girls or big ones too!

To make a pleated lace headband you’ll need

  • lace
  • a headband
  • fray-check
  • glue (either hot glue or fabric glue)
  • you’ll also need a sewing machine (or needle and thread)

  1. We’ll start by pleating the beginning of the lace with your hand.
  2. Place the pleated section under your pressure foot and start sewing slowly down the center of the lace (alternatively you can sew down the pleats by hand). Continue pleating the lace as you go by lifting up a section of lace and fold it down so the fold goes under the pressure foot.
  3. Keep going until you have a length of pleated lace 2 inches longer than your headband. You can use fray check on the ends if you like.
  4. Using hot glue or fabric glue, place a line of glue along the center of the headband making sure you wrap a small bit around the bottom. Continue all the way around.
  5. You can add a bit of buttons or small ribbon flowers if you like.

And you’re done!

{ 0 comments }

← Previous Entries