grain & fibre

A zipper pouch made for a friend using Lara Cameron’s Bonsai Forest in deep red. Thankfully I nabbed a decent amount of this fabric so more sewing to be done!

Some people may be familiar with this print as I made a skirt from it a few years ago. It’s a vintage Sheridan cotton fabric called Sunrise. It’s vibrant and happy, and I thought it would be great for an apron. It’s being modelled by the lovely elisabeth, who was the perfect Christmas present!

(Ja, it will be for sale when I finally set up shop… maybe in a matter of weeks!)

It’s mostly been a slack Summer season but that applies more to posting than to making. Many of the sewn have been gifted before being photographed but there are a couple that can be shown off. 

Here’s a set of cushions that I made for my brother and his wife as a housewarming gift. Not the classiest of photos but I was doing the finishing touches en route on the train! (typically last-minute) Thank you CityRail for such an attractive backdrop.

I’m a bit of a fabric hoarder, and a decent proportion of my collection includes vintage kimono fabrics, and here some of them feature as panels in these cushions. I find I’m always thinking of panels when it comes to kimono fabrics. 

More to come shortly…

I guess I am going through a bag phase….

I actually finished this one before the Fujiwo Ishimoto bag but hadn’t taken photos of it. It’s made using Lara Cameron’s Rainy Day Autumn, which is hand-printed on an organic cotton/hemp blend. The base of the bag is reinforced with sturdy interfacing to hold shape and anything else that needs holding.

What I really enjoy about Lara’s textiles is her use of colour. My mum has a bit of a knack for combining colours that you wouldn’t expect to match traditionally. I, unfortunately, did not inherit this, so really appreciate when I see that blue, teal, grey, and mustard can come together to create the feel of the cutest rainy autumn day.

Made a trip to the button shop in Newtown to add the finishing touch. God, I love that shop, yet am still surprised that there are always several other people in there whenever I drop by…

I know, I know. A really compelling title for a blog post, right? But if you’d seen the mess I’d created with my fabric, thread and needles etc., you’d understand that it is worthy of celebration.

Also been brain-storming about some different bag styles with hemp as the base fabric. My drawings are lame though, so I’ll keep them to myself but will post pics once I get started!

A bag-in-progress using Fujiwo Ishimoto’s beautiful winter Kesästa Kesään

I know I basically committed textile sacrilage by taking the scissors to it but it’s *massive*. One half of it went to a wall-hanging, and the other half is being distributed across various projects.

The photos don’t really do it justice because the fabric is a very luscious, quality linen. 

Now, these people know how to make the most of an Ishimoto print.

Whoever came up with the idea to place the labels on a plate…

But then again, they’re not the suavest of labels. Lesson learnt: simple est mieux. 

A close-up:

LABELS!

Frustratingly, I’ve been putting off finishing a bunch of products I’d half-made as I’ve been waiting for ‘sewn by susie’ woven labels. Not being able to stand having all these bits and pieces lying about any longer, I decided I’d just start finishing some of them and (begrudgingly) hand-sew the labels in when they come in. Hopefully they’ll come soon. They’re nothing too flash but they’ll tell you who your goods are sewn by!

I’ll have a fair variety of crafty items up for grabs in the shop, but here’s the first fully completed sewn-by-susie! It’s made from a beautiful vintage medium-weight cotton fabric that has the slightest sheen to it and is quite sturdy due to it being lined with another lovely medium-weight cotton canvas.

    SATCHEL!

    Or book bag, uni bag, shopping bag…

    Whatever you want it to be!