New Design - Fairy Garden

Today I finally completed a design that I started working on a while back. It is an appliquéd and embroidered artwork for the children's market. This design would be suitable for both interior textiles and stationery products. It is a bright and cheery design with lots of nice fabric textures from suedette for the flower pots to glittering sheer polyester on the fairies' skirts.

Customer Feedback

As I am currently spending a lot of my time adding items to my Folksy shop I thought it was a perfect time to post some of the feedback I have received for a couple of my Christmas and New Year private commissions. It is so encouraging to receive positive feedback and really gives me a boost. I love hand-making cards and accessories, particularly when they are being designed for someone personally. It is such a delight to hear that what I have made is being used and enjoyed.

The recipient of this handmade Fairy Bag was a very happy little girl when she opened her Christmas present. The feedback that I have had is that she 'absolutley loves it' and has to be stopped from taking it to school and in to the bath with her! That made me smile, I am really glad she is enjoying it.


This image shows my new year Greetings Card commission all wrapped and ready to go. The customer that commissioned these cards wrote me such a lovely letter thanking me for them, it was really touching and a wonderful confidence boost. She described my work as 'beautifully made' and noted that 'such an excellent product and excellent service is worth every penny'.

So, todays post is a thank you to the lovely customers that I have had so far, many thanks for your orders.

Christmas Gifts and Commissions

Firstly - I hope you have all had a very Merry Christmas!

Now that these handmade items have all been passed on the the relevant people as Christmas gifts I would like to show you a few presents I have made this festive period for friends and also as a private commission.

This wash bag was designed and handmade for Aimée. The tortoise fabric was bought mail order from Japan and is a really fun, bright print.


This Ipod case was designed and handmade for my friend Laura. I have a shop-bought one that is great for my Ipod but is a very tight fit when I add my earphones so I made this one with plenty of room for both. The silk lining was bought in a market in Shanghai.


This bag was designed and handmade for a private commission. It was a Christmas present for a 5 year old girl with a love of fairies. The wool base fabric makes it nice and strong whilst the deep pink colour makes it practical for a young child to use.

Framed Children's Artworks - Part 2

This is the second installment in my series of posts showing my framed artworks for children. This design uses nice soft pastel colours and has the hand embroidered text 'Sweet Fairy Dreams'. There is a narrow patchwork border and fine ribbon detail top and bottom for added surface interest. Metallic fabric has been used for the wand and star and bead and sequin detail has been added to the wings. I think this picture would make a lovely addition to any little girl's room.

Framed Children's Artworks - Part 1

Today I am posting images of a pair of framed artworks I have created for a girl's room using Rainbow Fairies motifs. The appliqué fabrics are all polyester satin giving a really nice bright sheen to this design. The rainbow has been embellished with decorative machine embroidery in co-ordinating colours to create subtle surface texture. The raindrops are tiny beads and have the added sparkle of a tiny sequin behind.

Embroidered Illustrations - Fairytale

Today's images are examples of some of my more intricate embroidered appliqué characters. These designs are suitable for embroidered book illustrations or stationery. I enjoy the opportunity every now and then to do some really intricate work and would love to see these digitally reproduced. Perhaps I shall work on these designs further in Photoshop and get some greetings cards printed.

The top design shows seamstress fairies working on new fairy fashions. This design brings to mind the children's story 'The Elves and the Shoemaker'.
The bottom design is based on the classic children's story 'Sleeping Beauty'.

Appliqué Characters - Pink Garden Fairies

Having posted a Garden Fairies design for older girls last week I thought I would include one today aimed at a younger market. This design uses more simple, bolder shapes and traditionally girly pink/lilac appliqué fabrics.

With simple shapes and cute fairy characters this design would be suitable for a mutitude of products from interiors collections to stationery or clothing.

Appliqué Characters - Gardening Fairies

This design is aimed at older girls and is based on the traditional idea of fairies at the bottom of the garden. These fairies are planting vegetables, watering flowers and generally keeping things in order! The images shown are details taken from a larger appliquéd artwork.

With a slightly older target audience for this design I have been able to use a more sophisticated colour palette and am really pleased with the results. The lovely dusky purple linen and the darker purple stripe shirting fabric in this design were both bought in the fabric market in Shanghai. It is great to be able to use them and remember my enjoyable visits to the Chinese fabric markets, so much choice and beautiful quality fabrics.

Appliqué Characters - Fairy Cakes!

I love designing fairies! These three are my Fairy Cake Fairies and are part of a larger appliquéd artwork with cake making details in a patchwork style.

Fairy cakes are great subject matter for appliqué/embroidery designs as you can add plenty of bead/sequin/trim detail until they look good enough to eat. I like the combination of fairies and cakes together reminding me of the fun cookery books I used as a child.