Cartography and beautiful places

For my next project, I will be looking at maps and places around the world and how they can affect design. In preperation I have started to collect loads of maps for inspiration and maybe even drape them as garments!?

Some maps collected from charity shops and kindly donated by fellow students :)

Some examples of maps used in fashion...

These pieces are by Elizabeth LeCourt who folds maps to suggest garments.

The attention to detail here makes such a difference to the piece, with the collars, cuffs and even little buttons!<3

I think her work is lovely and so effective as art...but I do wonder if it's possible to make actual wearable clothes out of maps?? But I'm sure I will find that out!

The following pieces are by Clare Tough

Clare Tough is an edgy knitwear designer who combines constructed knitting with streamlined silhouettes. Here she has used skylines in a contemporary yet urban way.

 Wow! How much do you want this backpack!?

Oh, the possibilities...

I will be posting at a later date to show you what I come up with!

:)

A good book and other inspirations...

So I know I promised to post my faviouite finds each month...but clearly that didn't work so here are a few books I found as a way of a catch up!

The Liberty book of home sewing

This can be purchased form Amozon but I bought it form 'The Book People' and I am sure it is widely available.

 A lovely book with some simple sewing projects. The projects I thought were much like any you would find in a standard home sewing book (not that that's neccessarily a bad thing), but what made it stand out to me were the print pages which featured some of Liberty's beautiful patterns.

This was definately my faviourite page in the book-'The print Glossary'

and it features a floral fabric that I own and it is one of my faviourites!!

 And here it is (bottom right) as a bird perching on a cage. I purchased the fabric from 'Fabrics galore', they don't have an online shop :( but they do have a shop in London (search 'fabrics galore' to find the address) and you can catch them at craft and textile shows- I found them at the Festival of quilts at the N.E.C. They buy end of line fabrics from Liberty so you can get them at a reasonable price! The other fabric is from C and H fabrics and comes in other colourways.

Vintage books

I found this World Atlas at R.F.R Charity shop in Queensway Bognor Regis (one I have come to visit rather often!)
They have soo many books that they had to put them on a 10 for £1 offer just to make space!!!

So of course I had to buy some!

 The map pages look charming in their colour and font.

It would look lovely to cover a book with or as some sort of background...but I'm far too attached to it at the moment!

And most exciting of all was what I found when I go home! Two portraits that were hiding in the index!

 :O And look at the year they were sketched!-1940!!





And last but most certainly not least is 'The Vintage Tea Party Book'

I think this is probably my faviourite craft/cook book...ever.

Although essentially an eccentric cookbook with many weird and wonderful recipes, it is full of inspiration for throwing the perfect tea party from invitation ideas to making an apron and styling hair and make-up.

 Wonderfully British and truly eccentric. I loved this book!

 And it is full of charming illustrations.

This pretty little Robin illustration inspired me to paint a Robin myself. I used a poem called Robin Redbreast as a background. 

This also got me thinking about Christmas decorations so I made a Robin tree decoration too!

I used woolfelt form 'Blooming felt' which has a lovely texture and rigidity to it. I am really happy with my Robin, who is yet to be named so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! I am going to experiment with scale and features and some brief instuctions and plan to post that before christmas.

Wow this has been quite a long post; I hope I haven't rambled but I'm far too excited by all the lovely things I have found.

I hope you have enjoyed reading,

Millie

x

Cards, jewellery and apologies!

I must start this post with an apology as it has been months since I last blogged, but I have been far too busy! I am still planning to post some tutorials...but I'm not going to say when!!!

So here is what I have been up to for the last few months (in between work, college and university plans!)

I have been adding to my range of cards, like the ones that I posted in July, which are now available at the gift shop 'For You' in Felpham village.

Special Occasion cards...

                                                                         1st Birthdays

                                                                          New borns



Picture Cards...

 Nautical

It's coming up to christmas so I thought I needed some christmasy cards. I didn't want them to be too obvious or cleshaed (pretty sure I've spelt that wrong!?)

Elf Hats on a washing line...because after Christmas there has got to be loads of washing to do!

 And Father Christmas's suit of course!
I decided that he wouldn't have cool pants!

This card was done by special request. My sisters boyfriend asked for a thank-you card for his music teacher. And it had to include piano keys and a bass clef. Rather than adding fabric to this one I just used embroidery, which can be a little tricky when sewing onto card as it tears easily. But it worked!! :)

I put this tag in every card as a sort of signature

As well as cards I have been working on products that I could maybe sell at Craft sales etc. I came up with a range of jewellery based on wodland creatures.

Here are some

'Friendly Creatures'

 I thought that these luggage tags were perfect for displaying them, the white string was a bit harsh so I replaced it with some Raffia. You can buy the tags really cheaply form Ebay or Amazon, I also find them useful for sketchbook annotations or gift tags.

So that is what I have been doing!

I will do my best to keep posting!! (I think I use too many exclamation marks!!!?....Oh well!)

Thanks for reading

Millie



x

Bags

I think making bags is my faviouite thing, ever!

I needed a new all-purpose bag for work and college, so it needed to be spacious and easy to carry!

Here is what I came up with...

 I used a linnen/cotton blend fabric for the exterior and a lightweight floral cotton for the lining. I also ironed fusible fleece to the back of the exterior fabric to create some rigidity and strength.

Exterior fabric purchased at : The Eternal Maker, Chichester (£14 per metre)

Lining fabric purchased at : C+H fabrics (around £6 per metre)

Fusible fleece purchased at : The Eternal Maker, Chichister (but this is widely available in other shops too) (£11 per metre)

 Ooooh...and it's reversible!!

It has proven to be very useful! I was really pleased with the finished bag and it might be my faviourite so far...?
 But here are a few of my other faviourites...

 Messenger style bag, with panel
If you look closely you will notice that the characters on the panel are acting out the 'Emperors robes'.
I'm not sure if the characters are pigs or little naked men.
Either way I thought it was suitably wierd!

I love an Echino selvedge <3

so I left it as a feature on this bag

This reversible tote bag was made out of a boys T-shirt and long sleeved top that were purchased from Tesco in the sale! So the total cost of the bag was £3!!!

Its a really useful sized bag for books etc. and its strechy so can fit lots in too!

 Anohter bargain bag story...

I found this PVC coated fabric in the bargain bin at Falcon fabrics in Chichester, and I got over 2 metres of it for £2!!
This was all very exiting so I had to make a bag right away!
I thought a backpack would be most appropriate.

The Rabbit is irrelevant but I thought she looked cute!

 

I have been working on some step by step bag tutorials I could post here so hopefully they should be on here within the next few weeks. I was thinking of a Laundry bag and reversible tote??