Squirrels clutch

This fab lil' clutch purse is made from original 60's recycled screenprint. I've sewn a big plastic white button on the front. Would look so cute with a summer frock!

More news: I have made it as finalist in the 4 categories I entered for Blue Mountains Business Awards. The categories are: Environmental Business, New Business, E Business, Home Based Business. I can't believe it and am so excited. Winners announced 17 October at Fairmont Resort where we have booked 2 tickets.

Kara

Creation's Doom

Just finished, a belt and detachable pocket made from hand-dyed hemp silk. The belt was quilted with images from a favourite book of mine, a Pictorial History of Science Fiction. I stitched Icarus falling to earth from a Durer woodcut, a few monsters and lightening bolts, and 'a city of the future' as imagined by a 1920s sci-fi artist. The pocket flap says "Creation's Doom, See inside", a phrase pinched from the cover of a 2 shilling sci-fi weekly.

I quilt with the image I've chosen propped up beside the sewing machine, so I guess it is stitch - sketching.

The belt is fastened with big siver press studs, and lined in black hemp silk. The pocket detaches to be a little clutch purse, also lined in black with a touch of turquoise round the opening.

A

Busy little bees...

Yep, we are all slack and so busy that we have been neglecting this blog! Sorry...

Last night we had a catch up: Freedom is exhausted with big wholesale orders, Alice busy with teaching at UTS now and children, Kara with custom orders and graphic design and poor April is going through some turmoil too.

Back on board soon!

Clutch purses go to Texas

Today I finished these 2 clutch purses for a girl in Houston, Texas. She bought five clutch purses to give to her bridesmaids as thank you presents. What a great idea!

Kara

Jean Genie

With all the talk of recycling and upcycling and so on, I was intrigued by a DVD I watched the other day featuring Charlene O'Brien, a Western Australian fashion designer. One particular process was using denim offcuts to create a yarn.

The scrap denim was colour-sorted, then shredded, then respun into a sturdy yarn (like an 8 ply) that is then knitted or crocheted into new garments. She made the point that denim is heavily processed with dyes and finishes that mean that even though it is a natural fibre, it will not biodegrade. The resulting knitted garments had that lovely denim colour, ranging from indigo through to washed-out blues.

To take the idea further, the yarn that has been created this way could be claimed again from the knitted garments, and then knitted once more into fresh garments. To me, it is a start towards a cradle-to-cradle design model.

Lucy carry-all by kara smith

Yesterday (Sunday) I made Lucy.

I was feeling a bit out of sorts and wanted to be creative and try something outside my regular patterns. I had some old vinyl bag handles that I had been meaning to use for a while and the base of the bag is an old 60's hot pink heavy cotton dress that I wanted to make something funky with.