Orla Kiely - Pattern

I've been wanting to get my hands on this beautiful book for a while now and finally it has arrived on my doorstep, yay! The book is full of fabulous patterns; bold, graphic, colourful and unique. I can't stop flicking through pages every spare minute I get. What is also great about the book is the insight Orla gives us into her creative process and the path she has taken to create this world of pattern. It definitely gets the thumbs up from me!

Here are some of the patterns that have caught my eye so far!

Here is the Orla Kiely website.

Satchel Bag

So the holidays are over and I'm back at work, time to buy some bits and pieces to start the new school year.......but wait......I have some fabric remnants left over and I really need a bag to carry my books and folders to class. Project 3 is a satchel bag, check out the pics below!

Shane was more than happy to model for me!!

Refurbished Lounge

Hey folks! Project number 2 for the holidays is now complete. Yay!

So my poor old very much loved red leather lounge has been falling apart for about a year now, a slow demise at first which quickly developed into a severe case of rippage!!! So seeing as how I am now a surface designer (very early days.....maybe an apprentice SD) I thought that instead of buying some fabric that already exists and was created by someone else I would design, print and sew my own fabric panels to replace the fallen apart bits of leather.

Step 1. Inspiration, then a design...........So whilst walking Clive (the scruffball ferret I call my dog) down to Bicenntennial park in Glebe and absorbing the sights and sounds around me I was taken by the pattern made when looking at the trunks of these palm trees.......Aha an idea!


















Step 2. Ink sketches. Sorry I haven't scanned these so not here.


Step 3. Design a repeat pattern in AI.

Step 4. Get some plain fabric, some inks, already got the screen and squeegee, a dining room table and I'm ready to go.

So now...........my first attempt at some serious screen printing of a repeat pattern. Luckily for me my skills as a maths teacher came in very handy for all the measuring, lining up and spacing of the pattern. Here's the work in progress.

And the final printed Fabric, I love it soooo much, absolutely stoked about how it turned out!

And now........the new........one of a kind.......original........designed, printed and made by moi........new but old red leather/canvas lounge!

TADA!

Sew now I have no excuses!

Yay, this year for Christmas I was very lucky to recieve a brand new sewing machine. So now I have no more excuses and have to get started!

My fabulous boyfriend also got me some sewing kits from Bird Textiles, one of my favourite fabric shops. I think he wants to keep me busy while the cricket is on. It's been a very long time since I did any sewing so I just hope that I can do these fabulous designs justice........

Chook Doorstop Kit

Bird Purse Kit

Patchwork Kit

Mokum Industry Awards

I was very excited to find out the other day that my Mokum design from the Surface Design course I did at ISCD this year received a highly commended award and can be seen on their studio98 blog. Congrats to the other ladies who also recieved recognition from Mokum for their fabulous designs! Here they are.................

Highly Commended - Alexis Vassett

First Place - Pascal Rajek

Highly Commended - Nancy Constandelia

Pippa Bradbrook

My New Stencilled Floor

So my first project for the school holidays was to paint my very daggy kitchen and living room floors. They are made from old cork tiles and whilst I have painted them before I have never been quite so adventurous and always stuck to one colour. I figured since I had some time on my hands that I would be a bit ambitious and paint my own designer floor.

I'm so happy with how it has turned out! Let me tell you that I completely underestimated the whole process, thinking that I could knock this out in two days.....It actually ended up taking about 5 days and some very late nights. Sometimes things just don't work the way they should or I guess how you think they should and there was a lot of trial and even more error  during the process. Stencils falling apart, paint seeping under the stencil, paint drying too quickly (or me working too slowly) , having to break up the pattern into many pieces so that stencils weren't placed on wet paint, Clive's print appearing from nowhere, and sometimes my footprints appearing from nowhere. Anyway I got there in the end and am loving the new look, I'm even keeping it extra clean cos its' just too gorgeous to get dirty.