Using collage to make the most of a mis-print

Marimekko pocket pattern riot

I've always loved a pattern mix but it was this dress that inspired me, a few years ago now, to start dressmaking using a mix-and-clash of printed textiles.

The dress is the "Iloinen Takki" dress by Marimekko. Much as I admire a pocket, I love the pockets far more for their scattered pops of colour and shape than their pockety-ness.

I much prefer the child's version of the dress to the adult's. Partly because of the proportion of the pockets against the dress, but also because I'm no fan of cuteness in adult clothing and I find this a tad twee for my liking.

This was the outcome of my first textile mash-up and still remains one of my favourites of my children's dresses. There was very little of that grey leaf-print 1950s' fabric I used for the border as it was once a curtain that someone had used as a dust sheet for decorating and most of it was covered in white paint. 

If you look closely you can see a couple of pockets too – their exact positioning was the subject of much deliberation at the time!

I used a simple 1960s' pinafore pattern with facings and a back zip which I have made so many times since I'm sure could do it blindfolded! (Just as well, as the old pattern has been used so often it is now as flimsy as a cobweb.)

This was a very versatile garment – it could be worn over tights and a long-sleeved top in colder weather and as a sundress in the summer. The A-line shape made it easy to run and climb in and the simple silhouette lent itself to any weight of fabric.

From A to B and Back Again

Hard at work!

…If you can call it work!

Birds, stage-by-stage

Here is the stage-by-stage process of my new bird print – from original line drawing to a selection of prints, finished and laid out to dry!

Original line drawing in Indian ink.

Re-drawn branch, feathers comb and tail detail.

Selection of finished prints on various wallpaper backgrounds, laid out to dry.

Why walk when you could run?

I think it's fair to say that the phrase "running before you can walk" was invented for me. After re-upholstering two vintage stools (requiring only common sense and a staple gun in the way of technical expertise) I decided to re-upholster a chair I found in the street.

Having stripped the grotty specimen of its previous covering using only a pair of tile nibblers (any upholsterers reading may have to go for a lie down in a dark room at this point), I discovered not foam underneath wool, horsehair, burlap and springs.

Ah, so we have jumped froward from novice to advanced in one go here, but I am a tenacious sort and it takes more than that to put me off.

Three excellent YouTube videos and a roll of wadding later, I was well on the way to a new chair. (And, so enthused with the project that I never even found the time to change from my vintage 1960s green paisley dress and glass necklaces into more "suitable" clothes.)

I used a single 1950s curtain I'd been saving for something special for a long time to cover the chair, I adore this fabric and I've never seen any print quite like it.

I'm thinking of getting a tattoo of the word "Crafts" over a pair of scissors and a staple gun rampant. Home brew or macramé next, do you think?

More makery

Last week a graphic design job I'd been working on for weeks and weeks finally went to the printers and I could not wait to get sewing again.

I had been dying to get on with a project involving making a large piece of soft furnishing from ties (see pictures below). I don't normally stop on any type of project until it's finished but I've already run out of ties so, in the meantime, it's back to bags again.

The bag on the left took far longer to make than it should have: errant thread from the first hour's sewing found its way into the guts of the machine and caused no end of problems. I was quite sick of it by the time I finished except for that lovely silk scarf lining (second photo). By contrast, the bag on the right and the little purse were run up in the blink of an eye.

I still have a huge bag of scraps and leftover fabrics to work my way through so no doubt there'll be more to come over the next few days. Beats working any day!

Why make one when you could make two?

When I was kid my mother used to make most of my clothes. As she always bought too much fabric (just to be on the safe side, eh?) she never made just one thing, and I think I've absorbed that habit.

The yellow cushion was made with leftovers and still I managed to eke it out to make a little bag. I bough this 1970s print skirt at the fleamarket and with the fabric I cut off when I shortened it, I was able to make a belt and use a buckle I've been saving for years.

As if by magic, the shopkeeper appeared

Walking along the street today I saw a woman with a clothes rail. Standing there in the middle of a busy pavement with all the people passing by.

There was a psychedelic A-line shift on the rail, the woman told me she was selling the dress on behalf of her friend in Germany and that the friend had made it for herself. I bought the dress and when I came back along the street she was gone. No sign that she had ever been there.

Great dress though, but not home made at all.