I'm loving making as many things as I can out of my fabric scraps. It's a wonderful side effect of having the opportunity to buy bulk fabric lots for my lily pad liners - their unusual shapes mean I end up with a large stash of scraps perfect for crafting.
Mostly I cover unusual shaped tins and boxes, to create more storage; or I make face washes with flannel on one side; or I make cushion covers. At Christmas time I made Santa Sacks with appliques. Waiting next in line for a rainy day are fabric covered buttons and pegs.
But I also love to share my fabric scraps around, as one girl can't use them all! Recently I sent some to one of my favourite crafters, Helen at Tinch Design Studio.
I was delighted when she sent me some photos of what had become of them - gorgeous little bird magnets.
Only one or two of each colour exist and they are up for sale on her felt.co.nz store.
Do you love upcycling fabric scraps? If so, leave me a comment below - I've bagged up three bags of mixed offcuts and I will randomly pick 3 New Zealand bloggers addresses next weekend to send them too - just tell me what your project will be by either leaving a comment here - or on my facebook page.
Each bag contains a random collection of offcuts from designers such as Amy Butler; Anna Maria Horner; Valori Wells; Studio E; Patricia Bravo or Robert Kauffman.
FREE IDEAS AND PATTERNS!
This week I was also delighted to find a funky collation of 24 projects on Make It: Love It full of ideas for how to make great modern stuff by upcycling fabric scraps. All the projects and patterns are all free!!! What a find. Two of my favourites are below. I hope you find something you love in there too!!
This winter the colour and fabric trends are all about wrapping ourselves in comfort and warmth and nostalgic, happy feelings.
As you’ve no doubt seen in coming out in the shops, the women’s and men’s wear fashion colours for Autumn – Winter 2011 are quite dark, warm, rich and regal. There is still a layered, boho French Parisienne flavour – with stripes,spots, vintage florals, and the 1950s longer hems to skirts. The top most used colours in fashion are camel shades of brown, with warm red berries and purples. Add layers upon layers of knits as the key wardrobe look, along with gold, lace, military and aviator styled coats, platforms, boots and wedges.
Overall, the fashion looks are much more reserved than we’ve been used to in Winters’ past. It’s as if the world’s natural disasters and economic situation is keeping us in check, stirring up a desire to hold onto treasured trends, comfort, grace. Of course with a little bit of luxe to perk us up!
The fashion world’s influence on crafting and interior decorating trends in fabric is really literal this season. The colours follow fashion’s lead exactly with the hot new trends in printed fabrics focusing on nostalgia, French inspiration, and cute, old fashionedhappiness.
If you’re a crafter, designer or interior design home decorating fanatic, read on for my take on the fabric and print trends.
THIS SEASON’S FABRIC COLOUR STORY:
Pantone’s Fall Fashion Report for 2011 surveyed once again all the fashion designers in New York Fashion Week and came up with a colour palette for the season that rotates around ‘camel’ or as they call it, ‘bamboo’.
Pantone called the season’s look “sensible, but spirited”. “Designers take a painterly approach to fall 2011 by artfully combining bright colors with staple neutrals, reminiscent of how an artist would construct a stunning work of art,“ said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute®. “Much like a painter's masterpiece, there is a certain romance to this season's palette.
“Taking cues from the great masters, sepia tones of old Hollywood, Chinese opera, cityscapes and countryside, designers are paying close attention to texture, contrast and color for fall 2011 – pairing menswear with feminine twists, warm prints with cool metals, incorporating both old and new influences, and creating an intriguing balance between colors."
Check out their top 10 palette below, and my mood board (top of this blog post) I’ve put together to illustrate it. My favourite new colour in the palette is the gorgeous deep ocean-inspired teal greens and blues – so amazing and such a modern take on the winter dark forest green we’re used to.
I’ve just got to get that shade into my next home project – or maybe a new lily pad?
Just the names of the palettes alone make it clear what the home trends are.
In terms of a favourite colour combo for roomschemes, the American home and design magazines and blogs like Apartment Therapy have picked grey and yellow as their favourite interior colour scheme, and Ty Pennington’s first collection includes this palette. I’ve also noticed design leaders in New Zealand such as Homestyle magazine , LÃl Magoolie and crafter Dear Colleen highlighting the sunny yellow trend.
However downunder in both Australian and New Zealand interior magazines we’re still seeing the bright red, black and white combination that’s been strong for a couple of years now continue.
And how jealous am I of this 'office in a cupboard' in white, teal and red:
TRENDS IN PRINTS In both fashion and interiors, everyone’s looking for texture, so we’re seeing tartans, houndstooth and checkers. The tribal ikat from last season has become more refined, often resembling casual stripes and spots.
The French influence keeps nautical stripes in vogue, and large print spots from Parisienne blouses and scarfs comes in too. Supporting this theme is an astounding number of US and European quilting and craft designers bringing out prints with Eiffel towers; fleur de lis; poodles, French postage stamps, and love words in type.
The other key quilt and craft fabric theme is a fluid, bohemian group of patterns that include some abstract florals and damasks, flowing circular patterns, and styles emulating the lace look that’s so central in the fashion trends.
Following on from last season, typography continues to dominate in prints – mostly showcasing old style postal stamps, war posters, and coffee sacks.
CHILDREN’S PRINTS
For little boys, the nostalgic trend introduces patterns such as view finders, old fighter planes, rustic robots, bicycles and buses. For little girls, the French theme provides a range of patterns, with gorgeous poodles, cute cherries, apples and spots.
KEEPING IT LOCAL
This year I love that New Zealanders have also invented their own special, localised theme - with “Kiwiana”, prints, typography, place names, and heritage images really hot on t-shirts, baby clothes, cushions, tea towels, wall art like bus roll canvases, and more. The ultimate style symbol this winter: appliqued cushions made from old fashioned, snuggly upcycled New Zealand woollen blankets!
This weeek another of the projects on my " i {heart} redesigning list for 2011" has just been completed. This one is reusing some awesome Summer retro fabric from a 2005-ish Trelise Cooper top (that was bought pre-children, and will never fit again).
But I also really like the modern Billabong kids 'revo hats' out this Summer in the surf stores - their designs takes a bucket hat, gives it a wider, floppy brim, and crosses over the brim at the back and fastens it with a velcro bit. They call it a 'pony-tail' hole, and it's meant to wrap around a little girl's pony tail (ie like a cap has) to help keep it on.
So taking these two ideas and mixing them together I came up with a wider-brimmed bucket hat, with the brim extended at the back to cross over and tie together, like a vintage bonnet. All I did to the original Butterick Baby 3782 pattern was extend the two pieces of the brim by around 15cm each, and taper them off into a point.
My bubba is having a lot of fun taking it off, putting it on, taking it off, putting it on....
And I'm pleased as punch that another project can be crossed off my project list.
For more amazing creative spaces this week check out Kirsty's blog.
When times are so sad and distressing in New Zealand, I'm wondering if other people, like me, are turning to their favourite art, design and craft blogs for a bit of escapism. If you are, and that's why you're reading this: welcome. I hope you and your family are safe and warm.
Hopefully these lovely gems I found on Felt.co.nz and wrote about for my column on http://www.babybites.co.nz/ recently will bring some cheer to your home.
Now you can buy ones especially for the little ones in your life. Instead of listing locations though, these typographic-style art works list fun, positive “Family Rules” or a list of “Beach Rules”, “Dreams for your Child” or “Wishes for your child”. I love the thought of my little girls staring up at this poster and attempting not only their ABCs and starting to learn to read, but memorising such neat messages. Made by Almond Design in Melbourne, these artworks are available in colours perfect for all nurseries like yellow, pistachio, pale blue and mocha.
PS: Don’t forget to get yourself one of these fabulous WWII motivational ones especially for mums ( “Keep Calm and Carry On”!) See Studio Dollmain on Felt.co.nz
Today was a super highlight for me professionally - Maddie at L'il Magoolie reviewed my lily pads and it was a super brillant review with lots. Of. Exclamations! I was thrilled as we think L'il Magoolie is THE coolest design blog for parents in New Zealand.
Here's a snippet of what Maddie said:
Oh. My. God. I have fallen in love with this thing. Instead of having to regularly wrestle the carseat out and shake out food/toys/miscellaneous items that seem to always find their way down the side of her seat, I just remove the liner and shake it out and/or wash it. So easy! It’s great that the fabric is a breathable cotton instead of the polyester on Aspen’s seat so she’s not Little Miss Sweaty-Neck at the end of every trip. Plus it looks great (we’re sporting a lovely grey and yellow fabric) and is very robust.
Also? It’s sometimes hard to see how well an item is made when you view it online and I was very pleasantly surprised to find that the attention to detail in its construction was top notch.
To celebrate, Maddie asked if I would consider doing a giveaway...to which of course the answer was yes! So, if you don't have a lily pad yet, or would like another please enter (I use one for the shopping trolley, two in my car seats, and another one in my baby's pram - that's the bonus of being the inventor I suppose!).
To enter the giveaway, hop over to Maddie's blog, and leave a comment on the blog post on my lily pads. You get extra points for facebooking it or tweeting it. Don't forget to follow her blog - it's a fantastic discovery point for new designs, new Kiwi products, and international trends!
When I was away on holidays this year, Baby Bites online magazine wrote a really neat story on my new lily pad collection. I was absolutely rapt when I came back! Ok, ok, so I DO write for Baby Bites...but the review was by the editor Jodi and I didn't write it so it totally counts :)
I really like the angle that Jodi took on the lily pads. Which is that - the lily pad is perfect for flashing up an old pram that's seen better days. Just because we all need to reuse our prams for babies no 2, 3 or 4....we don't need to sit our precious siblings in the mess or mold or broken bits left behind by no 1. They are just as important, and deserve a comfy spot too...and we deserve an easy way to still look fresh, clean and fashionable!
But I also love to share my fabric scraps around, as one girl can't use them all! Recently I sent some to one of my favourite crafters, Helen at Tinch Design Studio.
