less is more....

I'm failing badly to keep up with adding pictures of the adornments I've been making. So hard to discipline myself to do all the tedious photography, descriptions and uploading to websites thats required. 

It's a struggle to tear myself away from the obsessive joy of playing with all the glittering resources laid out on the work table....sigh...

I made this necklace - "The Glass Daisy" over the last few days and its now been listed in both my Etsy and Shopify shops if you want to buy it....

Etsy:         https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/pearlredmoon

Shopify:   http://boho-banjo-art-to-wear.myshopify.com

adornments for you

I've been off on an exciting creative tangent for 2 months. As a mixed media artist I've always enjoyed using a wide range of mediums and making a wide variety of adornment. Along with fabric beads have often been a medium I use. In using beads to make adornments what attracts me is the potential for creating micro scale 3 dimensional sculptures. (I find the description "jewellery" annoying, as I don't use anything that is "precious metal" or a "jewel" in my work. Sometimes maybe crystals and semi precious gems)

I will eventually return to cloth and clothing design but for the last few months I've been loving this foray into making adornments. Plus it can be justified in that it expands the range of "products" I make....

I recently started adding earrings and necklaces to the Shopify store and revived an old Etsy shop I'd let lapse since a brief experiment in 2008 (I found Etsy won't let you start a new shop from scratch even though I only tried it out for a few weeks in 2008)

 At present I've only listed a dozen items and have about 50 more to add. I find it so hard to discipline myself to do all the tedious photography and writing up the blurb to advertise them for sale as when I arrive in the studio and see all the gorgeous resources glittering on the work table, they call to me to indulge in the pleasure of creating a new piece of art, rather than the humdrum necessity of commerce.....

So please buy something soon so I can keep making these beauties....and I'll put my tortured nose to the grindstone over the next week or 2 to get everything listed. Most of these adornments are one of a kind or won't be reproduced in editions bigger than 4. It would kill me with boredom if I had to sit down and become a one woman production line....

Wrapt in Rocky

I'm very proud to announce that I've been asked to teach a class at "Wrapt in Rocky" in June-July 2016. Wrapt in Rocky is a 5 day arts workshop event in the city of Rockhampton, Queensland.

My class is "Bling my Cloth; 10 ways to make your textiles extraordinary" Students will spend the first few days of the workshop learning at least 10 techniques in fabric embellishment then be supported in the process of creating their own wearable garment.

I haven't taught any classes since 2008 through a self imposed need to just immerse myself in my own art. After this long break I'm bursting with excitement to share some great techniques I've been developing.

I've started a Pinterest board called "Wrapt in Rocky" to pin images of clothing styles and embellishment types that students will have the potential to achieve from what they learn in the class. Over the next 6 months I'll progressively add pictures of garments I've made with reference to how they were developed from specific techniques to be taught in the class. I hope that anyone who enrols in my Wrapt class or is considering it will join the board as a contributor so we can share ideas and it will help me adapt the lessons to suit what the students want to learn.

Today I'm showing my first completed project. This is a dress made featuring two fairly small swatches of embellishment measuring approximately 40x30cm each that were emphasised by adding lines of applique and machine embroidery stitches....

Swatch #1 above started out as fibres and fragments sewed on wash out solvy film. This was backed with the bright green cotton and more appliques were added.

Swatch #2 had a background of stenciling then over stitched with machine embroidery stitches, cords and appliques applied with free motion embroidery

The picture above shows some of the elements being combined in advance of sewing the garment together. Swatch #1 was cut into 4 triangles and swatch #2 was cut into 4 strips. Then I cut strips of the lime green fabric and another print to stitch along the sides of where the swatch pieces were appliqued on the garment....(...you'll have to take the class...!)

Heres detailed close ups and the finished garment

The dress bodice, with large applique from swatch #1 across the bust and a strips from swatch #2 horizontal around the midriff. Cords, buttons, reverse applique and machine embroidery stitches decorate the neckline

the skirt, with 2 triangles from swatch #1, cords and appliques. Strips from swatch #2 on the far left

the completed dress

Summer rose

One of the first of this Summers roses blooming this morning in our garden.

I'll be opening a new section in my Shopify store soon to sell cloth adornments. There will also be patterns and kits available shortly thereafter.

Get Stitched newsletter loosed to the wild...

HUZZAH! Get Stitched September (heh! a week late!) was sent out yesterday. Within minutes many were picking up the download for the instructions to make the "Pucker Up Pocket" It's in my pattern store for free for a few weeks - boho-banjo-art-to-wear.myshopify.com

I'm going off on a tangent for my next publication. As a textile artist I've always had a wide ranging interest in all the ways we wear cloth. Part of the reason the newsletter was late published was that I've been caught up my latest compelling obsession to make fabric adornments. And how very satisfying it is that I can justify my compulsion by planning to publish a book of patterns, designs and techniques for wearable adornments! The working title at present is "Boho Banjo cloth and fibre adornments" and the loose concept is to have 10-15? specific designs with step by instructions plus several chapters outlining lots of techniques for making parts as separate units that can be combined to make a finished piece of the makers own design.

Of course some samples have already been prepared but I'll hold off showing them for a while until the book is coming together in a more substantial way. Until then here are some pictures of beaded necklaces I've designed and made....but they are different from my design ideas for cloth adornments...

Beaded bracelets by Pearl Red Moon, 2013

Necklace of beaded beads by Pearl Red Moon, 2015

Necklace by Pearl Red Moon, 2012

mixed media necklace by Pearl Red Moon, 2015

The necklace above has some cloth components.....

What do you think? Do any of you make or wear cloth and fibre adornments?

next issue of Get Stitched coming soon

With the end of September less than a week away I'm working on pulling together the next issue of the bi-monthly newsletter to publish very soon.

One of the creative ideas I'll be describing is how to add these these lovely puckered texture pockets to a garment. You could add them to a jacket, tunic or a skirt....or perhaps you could suggest something I haven't thought of? 

The pictures below show the pockets as an added feature on my most recently published pdf pattern, the "Hester Skirt".

I also put the pockets on another version of the skirt made in a woven fabric, which was a natural colour seeded broadcloth, and they looked just as great. I placed them a little higher up on the second skirt version. But I like the pockets placed low on this first version shown here because I plan to wear it with a long line tunic and the lower placement allows the pockets to show below the tunic hem, though in practical terms they are below the natural reach of the hand  

Hester Skirt with pucker pockets

the two pockets, this skirt is a soft 100% cotton double knit

a close up of a single puckered  pocket.

Hester Skirt pattern release on Saturday

page 3 of the Hester Skirt instructions showing all the options for surface embellishment

The Hester Skirt is within a few days of being ready for publication. I'm biased of course(!), but this style is such a great basic staple for the wardrobe. Not only is it super comfortable to wear but the drop waist basque feature puts the fullness of the circle skirt below the natural waist and makes the design very flattering to wear if you're an "apple" or "pear" type figure, as the great fullness of the skirt is below the knee and the fabric swirls as you move.

I had a lot of fun coming up with 6 ways to embellish the skirt to give it all sorts of interesting alternatives that add texture and surface interest...I had to stop myself at 6 options!

Hester pattern to be published in a week!

Alls going well with writing up the new pattern....touching wood...

I hope it'll ready to publish in 7-10 days, then I'll get back to finishing and publishing the Scarlett tunic and jacket and that will be released to the wild hopefully by mid September. Heres some more pictures of samples

Hester Skirt with "popcorn". In my fabric print "Palimpsest in Grey"

Hester Skirt with Willara top, both in "Palimpsest in Grey" jersey knit

Scarlett tunic (over a teeshirt) and Hester skirt with dangling tape details

side view of Scarlett tunic, worn over Hester Skirt

If you love it and want it I have a special offer to make to the first 5 people who email me to pre-order the pattern. You can have the Hester pattern plus any other of my patterns that you choose, BOTH for $10.

the pattern factory

I finished the pattern making and made this sample for the Scarlett Jacket

....that was a week ago...

then I got all enthused and side tracked to work on this skirt pattern.

The "Hester" skirt is circle skirt on a basque with elastic waistband that has 5 options to decorate the surface. Heres pictures of 3 and I have some more samples to complete.

Hester skirt with tapes

Hester skirt with appliqued spots

close up of spots appliqued with hand stitching

Hester skirt with elastications

close up of elastic casings on the Hester skirt

So I have some busy weeks ahead to write up and publish 2 patterns by the end of September

Samples for the new pattern

I'm about a week into starting a new pattern design. This one is called "Scarlett" and will be a tunic and a zip fronted sleeveless jacket. Here's some pictures of the first makes....

The tunic is made in one of my fabric designs called Lime Leopard and this soft knit jersey drapes very nicely for this design.

More pictures to come soon....

Scarlett, zip fronted tunic

Scarlett has feature pockets with zips

Scarlett, tunic version

Add caption

Lets all GET STITCHED

After 3 weeks of full on work  running around like a headless chook this afternoon I pulled the big lever (with some trepidation) to deliver the inaugural issue of the "Get Stitched" newsletter.

About 10 minutes later I was delighted to get this gracious acknowledgement back from Florida..

"Thank you so much for your first newsletter. It is fabulous, well-done, and very informative."
C T
President, Tampa Bay Surface Design Guild

Heres some pictures of projects featured in Get Stitched

neckline embellishment with novelty yarn

Play with peplums

another elaborate peplum option

adding zippers as embellishment

Patchwork Polly tutorial part 2

PATCHWORK POLLY PART 2

Making the vest

The pattern for the vest can be found at this link, it is a free download

http://boho-banjo-art-to-wear.myshopify.com/

Make the Back vest from plain fabric. For this a square of fabric measuring at least 80cm x 90cm(32x36”) will be needed.

SIZES

Patchwork Polly	SMALL	MEDIUM	LARGE
USA SIZE	10 - 12	14 - 16 - 18	20 - 22
AUSTRALIA/UK	12 - 14	16 – 18 - 20	22 - 24
EUROPE	40 - 44	44 - 46	46 - 48
METRIC BUST	85 - 98	98 -108	108 - 120
IMPERIAL BUST	33 – 38”	38 – 43”	43 – 47”
FINISHED BUST MEASUREMENT	102cm 40”	112cm 44”	122cm 48”

Cut the pattern pieces

After taping the PDF pattern together cut out the size you require. If you want separate patterns for the Front and Back print the PDF twice and cut out each.

·          Back, cut I on fold

if you only want to print the pattern once, mark and cut out the Back from the fabric with the pattern  folded back along the fold line where the pattern piece for the Front extends beyond.

·          Front, cut 1 on fold

if re-using the single pattern piece cut off the Front neckline along the line indicated for your size, mark and cut out from the patchwork textile folded in half

·         Facings

cut out from the remaining scraps of the patchwork textile, 1 Front neck facing on fold, 1 Back neck facing on fold and 2 pair of armhole facings (mirror pattern by turning over)

Sewing Instructions

1.      Right sides together fold and sew the tuck at the centre front 3cm(1 ¼”). Spread and stay stitch close to the top edge into the “V” neck

2.      Wrong sides together (with the serging stitch on the outside of the garment) match Front to Back and sew the shoulder seams with 1cm(3/8”) seam, serge the seams.

3.      Wrong sides together match and sew the side seams of the Front and Back with 1cm(3/8”) seam allowance, serge the seams.

4.       Wrong sides together match and sew the Front and Back facings at the shoulder seams and the armhole facing at the shoulder seams and underarms, serge the seam joins, then the outside edge of the facings.

5.      Match the right side of the neck facing to the inside of the vest neckline, matching shoulder seams and sew with 5mm(1/4”) seam allowance. Do the same with the armhole facings.

6.      Turn the facings to the right side of the garment and iron.

7.      Sew the facings down by stitching through the middle of the serging stitch. Take care to match the tip of the neck facing to the centre join of the CF tuck when going around the neckline.

8.      Finish the hem by serging, starting and driving off at each side seam.