Pumpkin Satin

I have finally come across some pumpkin-hued satin in my second-hand perusing! The texture and colour are dreamy. My plan is to turn this scrap into a spaghetti strap shirt with a ruffle neckline. 

Pumpkin Spice Blazer

Latest find! Rust velvet blazer for mere cents at the local thrift! To make this even sweeter, it's Marjorie Hamilton, vintage Canadian made. I'm drooling over the fact that I get to wear this!

Textile-tastic

I'll be wandering through Almonte's Fibrefest this weekend, enjoying all the inspiring textile goodies. Feel free to swing by the MVTM gift shop to peruse or purchase some of my fat quarters and tea towels, and/or join me on Monday September 9th from 7:30pm to 9:30pm as I speak at the Ottawa Valley Quilters Guild. It will be a look into my creative process and a sneak peak of what I'm working on next!

Liberty Scarf

Loving the pattern and flowy hand of this Liberty scarf! Also the blue and orange contrast is so cheery. I dug it out of a scarf pile at the local thrift store and was not surprised to see the name. That iconic illustrative style!

Strawberry Shirts Forever

As per June tradition, the strawberries outside are flowering and I'm working on various strawberry themed creative projects. Here's a dress from Joe Fresh I found at a thrift store, shown partially deconstructed. I already own it in blue, so I decided to turn this pink version into a shirt. It will likely be a peplum crop top with puffy sleeves. I wish I knew the name of the surface pattern designer, as it is the fabric I love. It's like a fusion of my Strawberry Blonde and Splashy in Watermelon! Thank you, anonymous creative!

6th Blogiversary!

 Happy 6th Blogiversary! The suggested anniversary gifts for this year are iron and candy, so I had some fun designing a couple surface patterns accordingly. Now available for sale in my shop as fabric, wallpaper, giftwrap, and homewares, here's Nouveau Deco

Sugar

Thank you for following my creative endeavours thus far!

'40s Military Dress

This past weekend I attended Swingfest and swing danced surrounded by tanks and planes! This is the WWII inspired dress I tweaked and wore for the event. I found the original dress in the summer for mere cents at the local thrift haunt. I love its military green cotton searsucker fabric with the bit of stretch. The original dress was basically sleeveless so I spent months keeping an eye out for similar coloured fabric whenever I was thrifting, so as to have some material to make sleeves out of. Nothing turned up. Then one day I was trying it on again, and while taking it off it flipped inside out and I realized it had a slip! Glorious discovery! So I promptly ripped that slip out and started chopping it up to make the sleeves and lapels you see here. I also swapped out the buttons for these brassy ones. Lesson: always look under the dress' skirt for extra fabric!

Deco Table

I ordered my Deco Diamond design on linen cotton canvas and satin fabric to update this black powder-coated metal c-table magazine rack. The sling used to be a black faux leather, but I wanted to make it a little more interesting. The canvas is on the inside so it holds up to the books sitting in it and the satin on the outside to give it that black and gold gleam. I love the clean lines and airiness of the glass writing surface. 

Festive Fleece

This is my Christmas gift (project) to myself: I ordered my Nordic, Chunky Knit, and Bubblegum Calico designs on Fleece to sew up into some cute neckwarmers. Time to use the snowy weather to get to my pile of sewing!

Button up your Overcoat

Check out this fashionable ornament, complete with mittens, lovingly hand-stitched by my crafty mother!

Fibre Monday

These new designs in my shop are available as fabric, wallpaper, gift wrap, and homewares! 

Here's Chunky Knit

Nordic

Brass

Hot Daisy

Union Patch

Fab Eyes

Olive Cart

...P.S. here are some handy Christmas shipping deadlines! Happy ordering!

Olive Cart

My Olive Cart design is up for voting in Spoonflower's Retro Bar Cart Tea Towel challenge!

New Textile Goodies

Textile time! These new designs in my shop are all available as fabric, wallpaper, gift wrap, cut-and-sew patterns and homewares! Here's Deco Diamond

Decollect

August 1927

Preppy Lemon

Calico Cottage

Union Patch

My Union Patch design is up for voting in Spoonflower's Victorian design challenge!

Fat Quarters at MVTM

A delightful variety of Kona cotton fat quarters from my shop are now available for $15 each at the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum gift shop! They are a perfect souvenir to pick up during the museum's upcoming textile festival, Fibrefest, September 8th and 9th, 2018. Come to Almonte and frolic in the fibre goodness!

Hot Daisy

My Hot Daisy design is up for voting in Spoonflower's 1960s design challenge!

Fab Eyes

My Fab Eyes design is up for voting in Spoonflower's 1950s design challenge!

What I Wore: Pink and Black

Here's the wedding outfit of the summer, featuring this bright pink moire dress and various black and gold accents. The best part is that the retro glam number was only $0.30 from a recent thrift haul plus a half hour of easy peasy tucking and sewing on the bodice! Amusing note on moire: that fabric thoroughly repulsed me until this dress came into my life. It is strangely, satisfyingly crisp and water-repellent, and rather makes me feel like I am wearing an umbrella. The main new positive association is that now moire has been mentally transformed from dated drapery to sashaying like Barbie. Much classier! Oh how I love whipping an outfit together!

August 1927

My August 1927 design is up for voting in Spoonflower's 1920s design challenge!

Inspired by this Vogue cover

The Preppy Lemon

Right now I'm working on a surface pattern design collection of treillage-tastic lemon-filled delight!