New Baby Cards - Baby Blue Bear and Baby Pink Bunny!

I have finally listed some 'New Baby' cards in my Folksy shop based on the Baby Blue Bear and Baby Pink Bunny applique characters I made recently.

I have made these cards by creating a textile transfer of my original appliqued characters. I have then applied the transfers to a fine white linen fabric and stitched it, along with a co-ordinating paper border, to the white card base. I have hand-stitched on a button as a finishing touch.

The 'New Baby' message is also a textile transfer and has been applied to a cotton tape with a hand-stitched border. The tape has been threaded through the card and secured neatly on the reverse.

I am still working on a personalised version for my NOTHS shop. So far I have come up with this design but am still not sure about it. It would be great to have some feedback from my lovely blog followers to let me know what you think.

I am not happy with the hand-written text, I feel it does not look professional enough. I am tempted to replace the congratulations banner (perhaps put it inside the card) with a personalised printed ribbon.

I look forward to your comments!

Appliqué Pink Bunny Motif

Remember a while back when I wrote this post about my Christening card design?

Well, I have finally managed to photograph the pink bunny motif that I have created to act as the girl's version of the baby blue bear shown before.

The two motifs are intended for use on personalised cards to celebrate Christenings and also for 'New Baby' congratulations cards. I shall add a new post soon showing the final card designs.

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.

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.

Appliqué Characters - Fairytale Princesses

I thought I would post a little patchwork of details from my Fairytale Princess designs today. I quite enjoy creating fairytale designs with castles etc but have to keep reminding myself to keep it simple - it is very easy to get carried away with turrets and flags!

I hope to be able to do a really detailed fairytale princess design at some point that will be a framed artwork. I would like to spend lots of time on it and focus on detail such as fancy windows and rambling roses climbing the castle tower. I will probably use the traditional poses of the princess in the tower and the prince on a horse but will try to make the overall effect quite different from what I have done before.

Appliqué Characters - Mermaid

These images show details taken from my mermaid appliqué artwork. The colours are fresh, the characters quirky and overall I like the effect. I carefully selected the fabrics for use on this design and have made use of some really nice textures including metallic sheers for the mermaid tail and rip-stop fabric for the jelly fish. The bubbles have been created using transluscent sequins with a tiny bead at the centre. This design would work well for either an interiors collection or stationery.

Appliqué Artwork - Emergency Services

I have been doing a lot of work on designs for girls recently so thought it about time I did some more gender neutral designs/designs aimed at boys. My first in this new collection is an emergency services design.

The images shown here are details from a larger appliqué artwork. I have tried to keep all the shapes quite simple and avoided detailed features on the characters to make this design an easy one to reproduce in bulk production.

Appliqué Characters - Princess & the Pea

This design is a return to the more bold and simple shapes suitable for easy reproduction and bulk production of interior textiles for children. The different appliqué fabrics used on the bed could also be used as borders or on co-ordinating items. The pea should be a contrasting fabric quality/texture or solid embroidery in order to make it stand out.

This design would also work quite well reproduced in print with some embroidered detail on top for added interest.

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.

Rapunzel Appliqué Design

Today's design is an appliqué artwork based on the fairytale 'Rapunzel'. As with most of my appliqué designs I have added details to this one such as buttons, bows, hand-embroidered flowers, and of course Rapunzel's plaited hair, in order to give more surface interest.

This design would be suitable for use on a girl's interior collection or simply as a framed artwork.

Appliqué Characters - Farm Animals 1

Spring is here (finally!) so I am working on some spring-time animal designs. I am beginning with farmyard designs creating simple characters and focusing on the textures of the fabrics I use. The result is almost nursery-like animals with a soft tactile quality. I am really pleased with the colourway of this design as I feel I have managed to achieve a fresh spring-like effect.

The images of this design have been removed from my blog as I have now sold the original artwork. I shall post more images once the design appears in-store (with production times this can take up to a year).

Appliqué Characters - Farm Animals 2

Here is my second installment of appliquéd farm animal designs. This design is made from patchwork panels and farmyard characters created using as few fabrics as possible.

Once again these images have been taken from a larger appliquéd artwork. With a pink and lilac colour palette this design takes a theme more traditionally aimed at boys and targets the girls' market .

Appliqué Characters - Cinderella

Continuing with the children's design theme here is a fairytale design. These appliqué details have been taken from a larger irregular patchwork style Cinderella artwork. I am pleased with the soft pastel colours of this design making it girly without being overly pink.

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.