Cushions and Bags

Today I am taking a break from my embroidered artworks and have decided to post images of recent items I have been making for our home. I am really pleased with the cushions above, not only because they look good in our sitting room, but also because they gave me an excuse to use some of the lovely wool fabric I bought in Shanghai and a great Shinzi Katoh print I bought from nuno (http://www.nuno-plus.com/). I have only recently discovered the Shinzi Katoh's fabrics and am completely hooked!

These little storage boxes have been made from bags I no longer used but had been refusing to dispose of (yes, a girl CAN have too many bags!). The blue one is a Cath Kidston book bag that I had used so much I had worn out the handles. The purple one is a TopShop bag I was given a couple of years ago when I bought a dress there - much nicer than your usual plastic bag. I simply altered the shapes to the size I wanted, lined them with contrasting fabric, turned the top over and trimmed the edge. I am pleased with the result, they are great for storing all my notebooks. I seem to be slightly addicted to nice notebooks and have loads - I do use them all though, promise!

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 Artworks - Tea and Cakes

This afternoon tea and fancy cakes inspired appliqué design is aimed at both the kitchen textiles and the greetings card and stationery markets. The cupcakes have been given added detail with applied flower motifs, beads and buttons to make them more fancy and good enough to eat!

This appliqué artwork has been specifically designed for the wedding stationery market. I have used a very traditional and limited colour palette and made use of luxury fabric textures such as velvet, silk and metallic sheers. The cake decorations and champagne bubbles are created using ribbon flowers, flower motifs, sequins and beads giving the design more depth. The different fabric textures and added detail on this design will make it look luxurious and maintain the depth of the design when reproduced graphically.

Appliqué Artworks - Garden Vegetables

More garden designs today, this time with more emphasis on vegetables and using a brighter colour palette. The details above have been taken from a larger appliqué artwork created using appliqué, freehand machine embroidery and ribbon detail.

I particularly like this second design, it has more refined detail and I am pleased with the colour balance. The images are quirky and yet precise and the quality of the embroidery has come out well.

I have removed the image of this design from my blog as it has now sold. It was sold to an Italian company so chances are I shall not see this one in production in the UK - a real shame as it is one of my favourite designs. I shall keep my eyes peeled for it anyway and shall post images of the final product should I find some.

Embroidered Artworks - In The Garden

Today's post shows examples of some of my garden inspired designs. The Pea design above is appliqué with hand-guided machine embroidery and delicate fabric textures. I really like the soft tones of this design and the delicate pea-flower shapes.

This leafy trail design uses the idea of positive and negative. It is effectively two layers of fabric; the leaves have been cut out of the green fabric exposing the cream below and then applied to the cream fabric base opposite. I like the contrast effect of this design and the lovely green wool fabric from China, it is a really fesh colour without being too bright.

I have posted a detail of this design to demonstrate the effect of freehand embroidery on the sewing machine. This is a technique I intend to use more in the future as I really like the fine lines and the hand-drawn/sketchy effect achieved.

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.

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 Artworks - Butterflies and Flowers

Today it is back to children's designs, although I feel that these two designs would also be suitable for older girls/adults products. These designs have actually turned out to be two of my favourites and I would love to see them not only on textiles but also on stationery products. I think they would make really pretty cards and gift wrap.

The butterflies on this design are made up from strips of fabric and ribbon/trim and then appliquéd to the jersey base. All of the flower outlines have been embroidered by hand. The frill finishing off the bottom of this design makes it suitable for use on children's fashion, I imagine it as a layered skirt and t-shirt set.