Sewing for the Outdoors

The birds are chirpping and the sun is shining. It is time to spruce up my outside patio and I think these two pillows just might do the trick. I loved the variety and bright colors of all of the berries in the fabric and was able to find the perfect colors in the stash of batiks to create some fun piping. Not settling for only one row of piping, I doubled up, creating a two for one. It is a lot simplier than you might think. Simply create to rows of piping using cording between bias strips of fabric and your zipper foot, butt the two rows of piping together and stitch. They are now one piece and can be used as any other piping might be used. For full instructions on creating your own outdoor pillows as well as an article on outdoor fabric choices- click on the Clotilde Sewing Savvy logo next to this post and you will be directed to my latest newsletter post on this subject.

As these pillows will be used outdoors I chose Weather Soft™ Pillow Inserts for my pillows. http://www.fairfieldworld.com/product-cat/74-outdoor-pillow-inserts They are available at your local Joanne Fabric stores.

If you find yourself in the area stop by and I will make us a pitcher of lemonade.

An interview with my friend, Jonathan Fong

I was so fortunate to be able to meet up with my good friend, Jonathan Fong at CHA this past January. Jonathan is a creative genious that walked past the booth Eileen Hull and I were sharing in the License and Design section some years ago. Jonathan was wearing a two piece suit created from floral images from his latest book. He was at the show to sign copies and check out CHA. Luckily, we stopped him and commented on his suit and became fast friends. Jonathan lives in California and we have been able to stay in touch via email and stopping by when either of us happens to visit the West or East coast. Jonathan is one of those people that make life fun and I am so glad to have connected with him.

BTW: If you happen to be looking for some inspiration, Jonathan produces, directs and stars in some great video shorts. Check it out at http://www.stylewithasmile.tv

Easter Eggs - Two Ways

Back a few years I was working with air dry clay, placing designs with a number of magazines as well directly designing for the Dow Chemical company. Those are the folks who bring you all the great STYROFOAM products. I had the pleasure of working with Sharon Currier who has put together a fun blog entitled CraftsnCoffee. Her most recent post was about Easter Eggs and my clay eggs were one of the featured designs. Thanks for the shout out Sharon.

As this blog is entitled It's Sew Lorine I just had to show off show Easter Eggs that I created as a challenge a year or so ago that involved sewing. Using wool blend felt I crafted my eggs using decorative stitches on my sewing machine and finishing them off with buttons. They currently are hanging from a set of shelves in my kitchen. I hope they inspire you to craft your own Easter Eggs this year.

Thanks for stopping by_ _ _ _ _ _

Again with the Tshirts!

I seem to be on a theme these days but you know how you come across an idea or concept and you just have to go with it. Well I am facinated with T shirt strips lately. It actually is not a new passion as I wrote Fashion T Shirts at least five years ago but playing with the strips pulled into tubes is fasinating to me. Here is a quick hairband I made for the Sewing Savvy e-newsletter I write every three weeks for Clotilde.com. Check out the newsletter for full instructions - but to give you a hint it starts with an inexpensive hairband from the dollar store.

Here is the hairband, I beleive it cost $.33 cents and I liked the wavy pattern. When looking for hairbands to cover, be sure they are not too flimsy as you do not want them to break while you are wrapping them with the fabric tubes.

You got it. Now you just wrap and viola you have a fun hairband made from an old Tshirt.

That's it for now, Lorine

Creating items from old T shirts

Creating fun accessory items is so easy when you cut T shirts up into strips and braid, weave or knot them using techniques you might have picked up in Girl Scouts or perhaps if you are old enough from macrame projects. I love the look I get when creating items from dyed T shirts as you never quite know what you are going to get until you start knotting. I just found out yesterday the I will be teaching a class at CHA in Chicago this summer showcasing the variety of looks you can get when working with T shirt strips. It really is quite amazing when you start playing around. I suggest you perhaps cut up a T shirt next time you are looking for something to do. Well that's it for now. Take care and for heaven's sake do something creative today. Lorine

Sewing with Friends

I entitled this blog post Sewing with Friends however it really should have been Fusing with Friends as there was no sewing done today. It was all about a group of friends with similar interests meeting to work on a project inspired by a blog post our dear friend, Pat Sloan came across and forwarded to us. In Jane LaFazio's blog there was a wonderfull project that Jane created and teaches to interested folks. Check out all the colorful blocks as some are really wild.We decided that our little group would take inspiration from Jane's projects and do our own thing. After much confusion, much discussion and a little planning we were ready to get together and create our own version of a recycled circle themed block. One of our dear members, Sue volunteered her house for us to meet. We each chose a color palette and packed up our fabrics and necessary tools, our enthusiasm and arrived ready to fuse. After much coffee, cold drinks, laughing, talking, lunch and a lot of fusing we each left with seven blocks. Mine are featured above. One of our members no longer lives in the vicinity but wanted to join in so we each made her a block and she will be sending us each one bringing the number of blocks each person has to work with to eight. I plan on creating a fun wall hanging from my eight blocks and will post photos as the project progresses. Stay tuned.

Lorine

Sailor Knot Bracelet

I have been working with T shirts for a number of years now, with my first book on the subject released in 2007. In the book I not only cut apart, stencilled, painted and then sewed back together T shirts for adults and children, I created some simple jewelry designs with the leftovers. It got me thinking and since it is now 2012 (time flies) it is time to update some of the jewelry concepts.

I have since been dyeing T shirts, cutting them into strips and creating all kinds of jewelry pieces. It is so much fun as you never quite know what you are going to get until you are finished. Here is a very basic design I did with the idea that it would be fun one for a girl scout troop or frankly any group of girls to get together and try. It is basic braiding and then a wrapping technique with a pony bead slide closure. Simply put it is bright, fun and inexpensive.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this simple design - it opens the door to so many other possibilities that I find it hard to 'stay the line' so to speak with my other deadlines. Oh well, I guess that is price one pays for being creative.

Thanks for stopping by,

Lorine