art boutique

A piece a Week – Halloween Costume inspired by the Renaissance

| poppypeach
This week was all hands on deck to get everything done for my craft show. At least I only had one child to take care of as my eldest was in Science Camp for the week! As it turned out I had the time on minimum day to get a Halloween costume started for Missy. I let her loose in my craft room and she found two totally different florals that work together quite well. The idea for this costume comes from the renaissance fair and all the ladies there in their fine Victorian garb. I found a great tutorial online for the bodice and ended up making the skirt a circle skirt as the fabric on the skirt had such excellent drape that it cried out to be spun around. 
To me the outfit looks more Harajuku Girl  in Japan (not the Gwen Stefani kind!) check out the link for inspiration with the way they mix and match the patterns on their high fashion outfits. Still Missy loves it and has found the right shoes and tights to match the outfit – we worked together to make it happen and she was so excited to wear it! We went on down the park for a photo shoot and got some excellent pics of the outfit though Missy is looking way too serious in these pics 😉

The dress with the added apron on the front

Miss Harajuku

The big circle skirt with a ribbon down the center

Fun with the umbrella in light and shade

Swirling around in an action shot
So it was Sunday I wrapped up the costume as I had some free time to play and not concentrate on inventory! 
And on Saturday from 8:30am to 4:30pm I was at the FabMo Textile Art Boutique selling my ‘Urban Bicycling’ collection. I have to say that the show was an absolute success with 350 people coming through in the first hour and a half. I had a breather to eat lunch at my booth but afterwards it was all go, go, go. I spoke to so many people and got many wonderful comments such as you are very creative, the tulle skirt is just like Carrie from Sex and the City, you know what to do with this fabric (a lot of FabMo folks were inspired to make skirts with their fabric finds), you have such talent, the skirts remind me of Desigual a label from Spain (which was awesome to hear!) and gave out 21 business cards plus half my stock sold – I would say that the show was my best and I loved making the pieces for the show and it has given me faith that this is what I was meant to be doing all along!
My booth in the morning with all the stock ready to go – my $50 A line bedazzled skirt went to a lady who loved it!

The culmination of creativity happens this weekend at the Textile Art Boutique

| poppypeach
Time is closing in and it is my last week to prepare for the show this Sunday October 27th. I have been working like a busy little bee since the kids went back to school in August. The last couple of months has been intense and very challenging with crazy things happening like a power black out (therefore time dedicated to sew could not happen and I lost hours), my iron giving up the ghost (all fine till I could head on over to Target and grab another one) and a whole week of minimum days for the kids. Even with these time sucks I have managed to create an inventory of over 35 items (13 of which are small hair clips / lapel pins). So here are some highlights of my collection – more can be seen here.

I have loved the organic unfolding of the creations and just working randomly with the fabric. Knowing how many pieces of each item I wanted to create and letting the fabric and colours come together. It has been an incredible experience to be working with colour and experimenting happily. So here goes the following pics are some of my faves!

The colours in the bag are so vibrant – I would be a happy market shopper with this tote

This is a linen fabric by Jim Thomson and it is just beautiful 

The fabric on this reminds me of pixels and the pocket is a cool contrast to the colours

What a sweet little handkerchief embroidered onto a pillow

I used to do a lot of patchwork and my husband said do more so I came up with this with these incredible fabrics

More of the patchwork in a linen fabric

The handbag I have been road testing – oh my I love this fabric so much, it is vintage from the 1930s

This fabric was from a 1970s skirt and now it is a super cute hat – perfect for the beach! 
I love these and they are going to be hair clips or lapel pins as there’s an alligator clip on the back

10 days to go till the show…

| poppypeach
I am participating in the FabMo Textile Art Boutique on the 27th November in Menlo Park with 50 or so other textile artists. The show I have heard is wonderful and full of creative energy according to the folks at FabMo. The excitement is building and here is a postcard…

The flyer for the show!

Still the preparations are going along and I still have to make and attach the swing tags to all of my pieces – 40 in all. There are Pillows, Aprons, Brooches, Pincushions, Market and Tote Bags. Check out a preview here at my etsy site – finally updated with a new About page – check it out.