Just published some listings to my Etsy store! I finally opened it a few days ago. And I have all kinds of better pictures from my new camera. These headbands are made to order.... visit my etsy to find out more!!
I'm also trying out some names for the headband styles. I can't decide if I should use girls' names or birds' names, so I'll put the tentative names here... Let me know what you think, especially if you have any ideas!
Also shoutout to my sister Darby for her modeling talents!
Today was my last class for Textiles I. Sad day. But I got my final project back! Here it is:
One of our assignments in textiles was to do a photo emulsion on a silk screen. I'm not exactly sure what photo emulsion is, but it involves putting chemicals on the screen and putting it in a huge machine that sucks all the air out and makes a really scary noise... Anyways we had to make a Commemorative Cloth using a symbol that defines us, and I chose geraniums. Red geraniums are my favorite flower and I'm also so excited to have them in our yarn every summer! I think this was the picture I used:
And here is a detail of the Commemorative Cloth:
First I dyed the yellow background stripes, and then printed layers and layers of green, black, and pinkish red.
Next I scanned it into the computer and used photoshop to grab details from the print. I used my tablet to draw this sketchy flower design, and I made it into a repeating pattern.
Next my design was printed on fabric, and here's what it looks like in real life:
But I couldn't just turn in some fabric! So I bought a small vanity chair at Goodwill, painted the frame pink, and reupholstered the cushion. Voila!
Yes, a few days ago was birdfriend's very first craft fair. It was held in the Indiana Memorial Union at IU, run by the Union Board. There were around 10 other booths: mostly jewelry, scarves, and art. I had been very busily (and stressfully) knitting and crocheting as many headbands as I could, and ended up with a decent amount! But not before making a huge mess in the lounge putting them together.
Here is a sampling of what I had:
knitted with a seed stitch; crochet and wrapped middles
sparkly buttons!
and of course my favorite, BOWS!
I borrowed a little card table from a friend and got everything all set up. We had a pretty steady stream of people in the three hours we were there. And I sold two right off the bat!
And I had a bunch of friends who came to visit me and brought me dinner and stuff :)
I also set out the t-shirts I printed (seen here) but didn't sell any. But I'll be trading a few for some prints by Mike Ferris who contacted me on tumblr, so that'll be exciting!
edit: I have officially surpassed 1000 views on my blog! first stop views, next stop comments? :)
did you see my adventures in screenprinting the other day? if not, here ya go!
as you can see, i'm wearing my lovely t-shirt featuring a whole bunch of bows. and as is so often the case, instead of creating an outfit around a cool t-shirt, i just put on a cool t-shirt and then put a bunch of other stuff on too. sometimes i am proud of the results. in this case i wore the blazer because i wanted to be slightly dressy for a friend's birthday dinner but also didn't want to change out of the t-shirt...
t-shirt: handmade (obviously!)
blazer: forever 21
jeans: gap i think
socks: american eagle
shoes: mystery brogues (someday i will peel off that sticker and see what the real brand is.)
braided leather bracelet: bought at a fair-trade fashion show, presumably from africa
feather earrings: forever 21
hat: also handmade. see the post from a long, long time ago here.
and you may marvel at me matching a pink bow shirt to a pink bow hat.... but i basically just wore that hat because it was really cold outside. serendipity, i tell you.
So this weekend I decided to use my newfound screenprinting prowess for fun and not class! I had ordered a bunch of white t-shirts wholesale and decided to print my own designs.
Number one and probably my favorite: bows bows bows!
and anther variation, modeled by my lovely assistant Julian:
I also acted as Mama Mackenzie and helped out Kylie and Julie with their own designs. Here they are using the Eagle Stance:
Making me cringe but getting it done. Their shirts were a quote from Merlin, which they translated into runes and cut out by hand....
We also got to the point where we started printing on things we were wearing. Like Julie's jeans. Here she is wearing a skirt she constructed out of spare t-shirts for the half hour she wasn't wearing any pants:
And here we have the finished product, jeans with bows!!
My final design: MAKE EVERYTHING! I really love these t-shirts and definitely will be making more.
I'm planning on selling some of my designs, so leave a comment and tell me if you are interested! Otherwise keep an eye out, I'm sure I will be posting more soon.
I haven't been very good with updating my blog, I'm so busy! Here are a couple of things I've been up to:
1) I've been helping out my friend Courtney win the BlackBerry Mobile Challenge! She is one of Whitney Port's protégés in the fashion challenge.
If we win, we get to go to NYC! See the rest of her pictures and vote here:
Whitney Port's Protégé: Courtney
2) We went to a pumpkin patch a few weekends ago! Read my article about it on HerCampus...
3) I've also been doing a lot with nail polish. I did this big tutorial for Halloween... it's a bit late, but this one's my favorite!
The rest of them are up on HerCampus here! Don't worry, I'll be doing a lot more original stuff soon!
Here's what I've learned about screenprinting: IT IS AWSOME. It's what we've been studying in my textiles class lately. Here are my two samples; the designs were made using a stencil I cut out with an X-acto knife and they're meant to be deeply layered. Each is around 2 feet long--these are just details!
They took about 5 hours each to finish. After each color the screen, stencil, squeegee and spatula had to be rinsed and dried, and the fabric had to dry as well. Who knew that screenprinting was mostly about clumsily spraying myself with water and then using a hair dryer to blowdry the paint?
(Second post about Chicago coming up next!)
So, this semester I'm taking Textiles I at IU, which is definitely my favorite class ever. The technique we're learning right now are shibori (traditional Japanese tie-dye) using fiber-reactive dyes on cotton fabric. We had to make 8 samples using different shibori techniques and dyeing them different colors. Then we cut each in half to make 16 squares, half of which we dyed again. This created a really colorful, layered look. Of course I just had to take pictures of them to share! After a long epic journey to acquire clothespins, I decorated this tree in the courtyard of Collins at IU:
Here are a couple of detail shots:
And here is some colorful bunting that I knitted not long ago. I'm going to decorate my dorm with it. I should be posting a tutorial on it soon-- so simple!!
birdfriend
As much as I love sewing, clothes and other larger things tend to scare me. I tend to stick to small things like pouches and bags. I've made a simple dress before (that turned out pretty shapeless) as well as a pair of pajama bottoms, but I've never made anything I would actually want to wear. Until now!
I discovered this lovely blog (grosgrain) and the 20 minute simple skirt tutorial! Finally something I was confident making. And it really was super-easy, just a bit of cutting and sewing. What took the longest was hemming it, which really wasn't necessary. I used this magical iron-on hemming tape from the 70's that smelled like fish.
I still have the fabric for one more skirt, but I don't think I'll have time to make it before moving back to IU. Hopefully over Thanksgiving!
All in all, amazing experience and I'm super proud to wear my own handmade skirts!
~birdfriend
purveyor of cute things since 2010!
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