Sinamay Lilies

I have been working with manipulating my own Sinamay this week. Today I have been testing out making curved Calla Lilies.

Sinamay is great to work with like this because it is soft & flexible, but it also hold shapes & twists and turns into interesting forms.

They’re not finished yet, but you can see how the shape is holding up.

I have used a curled green biot goose feather as a stamen in the large one.

I think as well as using them on my hats I will sell them individually in my supply store too.

The small collection of hat blocks I have amassed just this month

I already have several, but this month there seemed to be loads of hat blocks floating around eBay and Etsy at really low prices. Of these I managed to get my hands on 4 – shhhhh!

Left – 22” flat sided with asymmetric crown dome.
Centre back - 24” regular crown dome.
Centre front – 6” mini beret.
Right – Large beret. (this one arrived just this morning)

Cant wait to get working with them.

The mini beret turns out great -

And right now I’m working on the flat sided one after blocking a buckram base from it.

And then today there was a The Storque article…

I’m watching the item counters & notice one set of buttons had risen considerably in views today alone. After some investigation I discovered they had been picked as a Related Item to a How-Tuesday article on making reusable lunch bags, sweet!

You can read the whole article here!

And these are the little darlings featured! Available here.

A little more Front Page Exposure

So August was a very busy month in both Etsy Stores!
This was mainly due to being featured on the Etsy front page 3 times in late July/early August.

I also bought loads of new hat making supplies, including new fabrics & lots of feathers.

So keep an eye out lots of new designs & mini tutorials coming soon :)

Just a little something I couldn’t resist!

I was out shopping today for ‘something smart’ for a temp cover desk job I’m doing in a few weeks (note: Summer is the WRONG time of year to look for smart work trousers) & this little beauty jumped off the shelf at me in Forever21. It was the last one on the shelf so I really couldn’t leave it there with the big gaudy gold numbers circling it like a jealous gang ready to jump on it & steal it's enamel beauty!
And the real beauty is it was less than $7! It is that perfect fun summer statement necklace & is going to look awesome with the new long black jersey maxi dress I picked up last week for less than $30.

Recession busting at its best :)

Lady GaGa Inspired Finds

Today I have been pottering about looking out Lady GaGa inspired items on Etsy.

Avant Garde Polka Dot Top by LolitaVintage

Mattamorphis Dare Dress by Mattamorphis


Silver Ruched Jumpsuit by TripleGemini


Dynasty Dazzler Dress by unseenforce1


Avant Garde Puff Sleeve Sweater Dress by nstylevintage


Faux Hair Bow by blacksatinshoes

Buttons Buttons Buttons…….

Fabric Manipulation Collection in Silk Dupion.

www.liddesignssupplies.etsy.com

Front Page Exposure

 

I recently started a new Etsy venture, LiD Designs Supplies, currently specialising in Glamour Lux fabric (mainly silk) covered buttons.

www.LiDDesignsSupplies.etsy.com

We only started 19th April & so far we have had good start up success! Including being featured in a load of treasuries (thanks) and on 2 front pages including being chosen by admin themselves (thanks).

Inkjet Printing onto Fabric Tutorial

To print your own fabric on an Inkjet printer you will need:

1. Inkjet Printer (for this tutorial I used an all-in-one, but you could use a separate scanner if you don’t have an all-in-one)
2. White paper.
3. Cotton fabric (thin is best)
4. Fine marker pen.
5. Scissors.
6. Masking tape.
7. Spray mount.
8. Spray lacquer.
9. Newspaper.

Step One:
Draw your design onto the top corner of a sheet of plain white paper with your marker pen.

Step Two:
Place image into the scanner part of the printer, and use the colour copy function to print straight out.

Step Three:
Lay copy next to first in the repeat position that you want. Use masking tape to fix into position. Slice far edge to match the edge of the original sheet, you want it to fit into the scanner properly else you will get dark shadows it the sheet doesn’t lay completely flat inside the frame on the machine. Copy again.

Step Four:
Lay second copy on original & repeat step three.

Step Five:
Repeat step three again.

Step Six:
Repeat step three for the last time.

Step Seven:
Put complete sheet into scanner & copy for one last time so that you have a neat sheet to copy onto fabric from (you can skip this step if you want)
BUT place full sheet back into scanner ready to print fabric from.

Step Eight:
Lay fresh sheet of blank paper onto fabric & cut out 1 1/2” bigger than the sheet of paper all round.

Step Nine:
Lay out newspaper to protect your surfaces, and spray Spray Mount all over top side of the sheet of paper.

Step Ten:
Smooth fabric down over sticky side of paper.

Then cut neatly round side so that fabric matches the paper.

Step Eleven:
Lay fabriced paper down on paper tray in printer with the fabric side whichever side up/down that your printer prints out on.

Step Twelve:
Hit print/copy & wait for your newly printed fabric to print out!

Step Thirteen:
Peel paper backing from fabric and place back on newspaper and use Spray Lacquer to seal ink onto fabric.
Not sealing it will result in the ink running if it gets wet.

Then print away on all your favourite background fabrics & make what ever you want with it.

Mini Tutorial – Felting a Crocheted Hat

You will need:

1. A ball of 100% wool. I like Paton’s 100% Merino Classic
2. 4mm Crochet hook. (with this particular wool)

3. A round plastic form. (to felt shape to. I made mine from the bottom of a plastic food tub)

4. A Knitters Sewing needle.

5. A regular sewing needle
6. Thread matching wool colour.
7. Shiny glamorous button.

This tutorial is for those who already know how to crochet & have a hat pattern to follow. Make sure the pattern works up larger than you want it to end up being as it will shrink considerably during the felting process.

Start to crochet your hat, make sure you leave a long enough end of yarn at the centre point start as you will need it later.

Use a loose long stitch, at least a double crochet stitch, as the stitches need to shrink together & too tight a stitch will stop this happening & very limited felting will occur. I have used treble for this beret.

Finish your hat.


Thread your wool needle onto the long spare end from where you started the piece.


Take your plastic form, thread the needle & yarn through a hole in the centre.


Slide form down yarn.


Tuck form inside main body of hat.

Remove needle & tie yarn securely (several times over)


Put hat inside a pillowcase or lingerie bag.


Throw into the machine on as hot a wash as your machine will do, with a small dash of soap.


Wash several times over to create the desired effect. Once the main shape has been safely formed you can remove the plastic form to finish it off & make sure it is evenly worked. Adding a towel can agitate it further & work up a better finished result.




Thread normal needle with matching thread & secure to inside of the centre hole which should still be just visible.


Poke shank of glam button through hole & stitch securely in place.



As this is a mini beret you will need to attach it to your head some how, so, take a small crocodile clip and stitch to back side of beret at the top.


And the bottom.