Monday, October 31, 2011

Urban Doodles on the Road

Recently I was asked to teach a 1/2 hour class to the ladies at our Northern Virginia American Sewing Guild's annual meeting. I decided my foray into doodling might make a good class and hopefully the ladies would enjoy something different although still sewing related yet very different from traditional sewing based classes. We had a total of 81 ladies sign up for the event. The photo above is the project.


Why you might ask did I call it Urban Doodles...well I probably should have called in Suburban Doodles but that just sounded a little strange at the time. My good friend, Cyndi Hansen designed the logo for me and I love it.... Here I am just getting started.




I showed the project photo and the ladies could be heard collectively saying, I can't draw or doodle what am I supposed to do with this. I reassured them - and moved on with the basics. My wonderful helpers from my local Sew n' Sews group handed out cardboard templates of sewing machines and dress forms and we got started. The ladies traced their choice of outlines and I showed them how to outline the image and then divide it into sections using a ribbon like line.


Here are a couple of examples of pattern fills that a couple of the ladies chose for their design. I started getting a little worried as the room was so darn quiet I thought I had bored them to death. No, I was okay they were all concentrating on their work. I was awed by what I saw. These ladies apparently can draw.



Now this one is fun. The fabric piece underneath the drawn design is an example of doodling with fabric. Whether hand stitched, sewn by machine or simply fused to a backing fabric this is real fun!

Monday, October 24, 2011

Playing with Dolls

It is so funny how things come about. I was with good friend Eileen Hull last week and she mentioned the upcoming 'suitcase' project for the Fresh Vintage bloghop. I had participated the previous week and was not planning on going another round of hopping but since my new book, Love to Dress Up 18" Dolls, was just released and would be the perfect fit for the suitcase, I thought it was a wonderful fit. I decided to dress my doll in the Outdoor Explorer outfit which went perfectly with some Monarch butterfly fabric I already owned in my stash.

Here is how I created my suitcase so full of butterflies, that some seem to be escaping.


Fuse Steam a Seam 2 to the back of your chosen fabric.

Remove paper backing from the fusible web and cover a piece of matboard with the fabric.

Create the magic sandwich: cutting board-die-fabric covered matboard-cutting board. Slide the entire sandwich through the Sizzix machine.

I colored the edges and inside of my suitcase using my Mepxy markers.

I added brads to the corners and a 'lock' shaped brad to the front of the suitcase.

Using the project photo as a guide, create your suitcase.

Use leftovers to create a mini luggage tag, adding some embroidery thread as the hanging loop.

Cut out two Butterflies, once again a great die provided to us by Eileen and Sizzix.

Create wire coils and attach them to the back of the butterflies, attaching the opposite end inside the suitcase using foam tape.

What fun!

Be sure to click on the Hop Forward button on the Fresh Vintage logo at the side of my blog page. Thanks for stopping by.





Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Sizzix Fresh Vintage Blog Hop

Visions of Bali by Lorine Mason


Welcome Hoppers! When Eileen Hull asked me to participate in her current blog hop I was honored as I am not a consistent blogger but a good friend. I want to be, a consistent blogger I mean, as I think I qualify as a good friend despite my lack of blogging skills, but it seems I let life get in my way at times!
My contribution to the blog hop involved the use of the leaf die that Eileen designed within the Fresh Vintage collection as well as some wonderful wire and Katydids from the folks over at Beadalon and a wonderful designer named Katie Hacker. What was I to do with all this great stuff?


The Design Process Step by Step

1. My first love is fabric and I love to fuse things so that is where I started, I simply fused fun batik fabric leftovers to bamboo felt and then slid them through the Sizzix machine cutting out leaves of perfectly predetermined sizes.

1a. Yes, I could have changed the entire design listing process to add a step I forgot but that is just not me so we have 1a. I had to sew something so I 'clothesline' sewed down the center of the leaves using a fun variegated thread on my sewing machine. I then cut apart my leaves and moved to step 2.
Clothesline Sewing: means to sew in a continuous row without breaking your thread, just keep feeding in the next leaf until you are finished.

2. My second love these days is t shirt fabric strips, I rummaged through my design trunk and found a matching strip and used it for the base of the necklace.

3. I love just a touch of sparkle and since I come from all things fabric I filled my Katydid with hot fix metallic rhinestones from iLoveToCreate using glue as frankly it was just a little too delicate to hot fix anything into the channels of the finding.

4. Just so I did not stray too far from my roots I wrapped the wire around a fabric turner tube to create fun coils and then created some spirals to add to the magnificence of my creation.

5. I think I am ready to put it all together. Does this count as a step?

6. Break time: I must get a cup of coffee before I finish.

7. Back to work, I find the center of the t shirt strip and use it to tie five of the leaf stems together with a beautiful knot.

8. I moved up either side of the necklace and continued to tie additional groupings of leaves. Live dangerously and don't measure.

9. I then spiraled the coils around the t shirt strip between the leaf groupings.

10. I added a touch of glue to the back of the Katydid and the spirals made earlier and glued them to the top of the center grouping of leaves.

11. One last look to decide if it looks finished or not! I think it is.....

12. Take a sip of coffee and call the master of all things Fresh Vintage!

13. Be sure to continue hopping - just click on the hop forward button on the Fresh Vintage icon along the side.

14. Thanks for stopping by......


15. Almost forgot -please stop by the Oh My Crafts blog and leave a comment for a chance to win the Leaves die used in this project. Wow! if I did not already have the die I sure would......

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Sew Much Comfort




Sewing our support for the Troops!




We will be adapting much needed clothing for our wounded Warriors at Walter Reed National Medical Center and Bethesda.


Veteran's Day Sewing Workshop


Friday, November 11, 2011


10:00 am to 3 pm


Fairfax Presbeterian Church


10723 Main Street

Fairfax, VA.



If you would like to participate please contact MsLynneTsews@aol.com for more information and to reserve a spot. For deatils about Sew Much Comfort check out http://www.sewmuchcomfort.org/