Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

 Background: Seam  are a contemporary textile collective based in Bath, England. We are emerging and established embroiderers, printers, knitters, weavers, dyers, fashion designers, eco-designers, makers, artists… …who want to make textiles that are irresistible, and find their way onto your body, into your house and onto your walls. We share a commitment to pushing the boundaries of our craft and making high quality objects realised in the hands and thoughts of the maker. We hope to make a sustainable living from textiles, work locally and bring textiles into contemporary focus This month, all textile artists are enouraged to share their love of textiles and respond to  30 different textile prompts for on  Instagram  during September. You can respond to as many of the prompts as you wish, this could be only a few or it may be all of them - with the hashtag #SeptTextileLove   Here is my first week of #SeptTextileLove  Days 1 & 2 - Introd...

Here is a blast from the past .... While cleaning up the spare bedroom, I found a photo of  some of the first dolls I made - cloth dolls  from 1980-1981. Dating them has been fairly easy  from the photo below.  I am sure the location is Bombala ( heavy blue curtains)  and my daughter, pictured below with the dolls  had lost her front teeth. ( Naomi was born in February, 1975) The doll on the left was from a Simplicity pattern, the next one is an attempt at a sock doll, and the other two were made from a Style pattern. In those days, Bombala was  a small, fairly isolated town (no sewing shops) and there was no internet  or online shopping, so the patterns were mail ordered, or perhaps I had brought them with me from Tenterfield where I would have ordered them from the local haberdashery shop. I do remember at least making a few of the large "Simplicity " doll while living in Tenterfield, and I am sure my niece, Melanie owned one of those. ...

Free Wednesday workshops starting 20 May 2015  at  Timeless Textiles , 90 Hunter Street, Newcastle .  10.30am - 12.30pm.  Textile art birds - 2016 International Women's Day Project.  In March 2015, visiting British textile artist, Abigail Brown kindly designed this bird and gifted Timeless Textiles a bird pattern for International Women’s Day 2016. Every Wednesday in our free creative workshop program, we will be creating birds -using some of the 2000 fabric tiles (from the ‘Letting Go’ celebrations: 2015 International Women’s Day) The birds will fly free amongst the Norfolk pines outside the gallery, attached by white ribbon to celebrate next International Women’s Day (March 8 2016). All proceeds will be donated to women's and children's refuges in the local area.  The fabric and Abigail Brown’s template will be available for participants to use at each free workshop on Wednesdays. “Flying Free” kits may also be purchased for $20 if y...

Border pattern   ( February 2015 - Wilma Simmons)  Was this on my bucket list ?  No,  not really, but after completing Stages 1 & 2 of the Creative Embroidery Correspondence Course with the Embroiderers' Guild about twenty+ years ago, this year I decided to enrol in Stage 3 - finally.  As I want to record what I do, I am sharing each month's exercises with you right here. If you are unfamiliar with these courses, what you get each month is an envelope with instructions, handwritten comments by your assessor and some threads and fabric and then the completed work is returned to the Guild each month for assessment. February's threads and fabric  For February's lesson, the theme was inspired by border patterns, emphasising the way stitches turn into patterns when used close together to fill shapes and spaces. Besides the embroidery, there were drawings to do - three border patterns and three square patterns like tiles. I love doing this part, bu...

Adeline featured in Aspiring Designers Challenge  Pearl Red Moon is an amazing designer and artist with her own  label," Boho Banjo" .... and again Pearl let me test her new pattern, "Adeline". Previously I tested "Zelda " - you can read about that first experience of testing Peal's patterns here.  But, let me tell you about Adeline .... this is one of the easiest patterns I've made and it's stylish , versatile  and most of all  comfortable. The pattern comes in multiple sizes and two lengths. I made the small pattern ( suitable for sizes 8-12 Australian) and the shorter length. Even though I am definitely on the larger end of the small scale and very short , I was very happy with the fit and the length. Adeline pattern available from Kollabora The pattern comes as a downloadable PDF file. While you can get this printed off locally at your favourite print/photocopy shop in large sheets - 2 A0, I opted for printing off  the A4 sheets...

'Zelda' by Pearl Red Moon  Recently, I was very fortunate to have been chosen as a pattern tester for designer Pearl Red Moon  - Boho Banjo Art To Wear. I should say firstly that I don't usually make garments although I can operate a sewing machine and that I am very short in stature, so regular patterns need to be significantly altered. However, as one of the pattern testers, I  made "Zelda" exactly according to the instructions. http://boho-banjo-art-to-wear.myshopify.com/ This is a great pattern for those of us who don't fit "exactly" the normal  commercial sizes - aren't we in the majority?  It is a loose fitting, contemporary and stylish top. I loved the design  because it's "different" and can look as conservative or as funky as you like depending on your choice of fabrics. My choice of fabric ? I must admit just before closing time one day late in December, I ran into a fabric shop and chose two of the small range...

To herald the beginning of Winter, the weather has been cold, rainy and stormy this week, so like most people who live in Newcastle ( NSW, Australia), I have been thinking of that memorable June weekend in 2007, now known as the Pasha Bulker weekend when this huge ship ran aground on the beach during a winter storm ... but I have bigger challenges related to Seasons to contend with. My doll makers' group, Hello Dollies, has a challenge to create a cloth doll, using the theme " Seasons" as inspiration and with only one rule that the fabric used must be of our own creation. As usual, I have left it to the last few weeks and although I have been thinking about the project for months, it is only in the last week or so that I have been propelled into action. I chose the stump doll pattern from the choice of two patterns provided. Idea No.1 was to paint fabric and then machine embroider it and use it as the body for the doll and I was going to use the tree template to create t...