Creative Collective March Project - Green or Green

Well I'd love to say I've been very environmentally friendly with this project, and recycled something for the challenge.

To be honest, I recycle all my household rubbish, but haven't done much in the way of actually recycling materials OR up cycling them for projects. This is a challenge for me. Storage is minimal at home and so is work area, hence a lot of my small project magic happens on the computer and printer, or my sewing machine, and on occasions when I'm at the family holiday house I get stuck into the BIG projects (like my ottoman, which I am yet to complete the instructional post for!!)

Where am I heading with this...whilst I would love to be able to scout more op shops, vintage shops etc etc, I have to focus on where I am going with this blog and 'the business'. There will be time for all the other stuff when I get past thinking I have to do ALL the projects rattling around in my head. Not all of them fit in with where I'm heading...

So to get at least ONE of these projects out of my head, I decided it fitted fairly well into the criteria for this month over at The Creative Collective.

Behold my new Sling bags, in my own fabric design.

My level of satisfaction went through the roof when I finished them, I'm so happy with the fabric design. I'd have to say my favourite one is the one on the left, the one with the circle fabric on top and the complimentary stripe on the bottom.

My fabric designs have been uploaded to Spoonflower, and they print them on natural fibres with eco-friendly inks.

That's one part of the 'green' criteria for this project!

The other is...the design has an olive green background colour.

The fabric is part of the 'Circle Circle' collection, with a complimentary stripe. There are about 25 of my designs up on Spoonflower at the moment, some of them are the same but in another colour way. I still have about another 10 coming, again the same or similar designs in different colourways, or as part of a collection.

I took my favourite one to work on Friday as we were having a team day, and a couple of the girls mentioned they wouldn't mind one, then one of them thought they'd be great for Christmas presents. 

Next step, try a couple of different colourways, and make a few more bags. I have a quick job to do first, some bunting as a gift for a new baby girl. This will be in another of my collections 'Pink Diamonds'...some samples are over here on 'jane on jane st', my other blog.

I'm off now to start the bunting and to post about a little trip I took today to Berrima and Mittagong. I have some goodies to show you from the trip and I'll post about the bunting when it's done too!


Have a good week everyone!

Florence Fanatic

I think the verdict is in.

I AM A FLORENCE BROADHURST FANATIC!!! Yep...that's right..a definite fanatic!

Confirmation... a little thing like 6 degrees of separation as part of my fanaticism. Actually I'm not sure if that's what it's called, but there is a connection.

1. Florence comes from Mt Perry in QLD and went to music lessons in Bundaberg. Mt Perry is about an hour or so north of Bundaberg.

My home town is Bundaberg.

2. Florence was a designer with a screenprinting business.

My first job during school was at a screen printer. I later went on to work for another in about 1986/7.

3. Florence's business premises was in 12-24 Roylston St Paddington.

One of my old customer's business premises was 13 Roylston St Paddington.

4. Akira Isogawa used Florence Broadhurst designs in some of his first collections.

One of my old customers printed fabrics for Akira Isogawa (drawing a long bow here, I know!!)

Ok, so it's not 6...close enough I think!

This is my loungeroom featuring the Ottoman and some cushions, all in Florence Broadhurst fabrics. The 'Canvas Art' from a previous blog is on the wall.

Ottoman in Florence Broadhurst fabrics 'Bamboo' and 'Circles and Squares' both in Lime. Cushions are in 'Fingers', in a red colour way specially printed for a client, the lime green 'Bamboo' left over from the Ottoman and a brown 'Japanese Floral'. Everything is done from offcuts purchased at the Signature Prints 'Pop Up' store sales.

Another version of 'Cranes' below. Here I have covered the fronts of an Ikea set of drawers. This is another DIY project. I bought this piece back in 2007 when I was doing my Certificate IV in Colour & Design. We had to do a project from a few different eras. Everyone else had taken Art Deco, Bauhaus, Art Nouveau, Georgian. The usual. I chose to do the project on Florence as she spanned a couple of eras and included influences from a lot of them in her designs.

Japanese Floral

Horses Stampede

Egrets

Aubery

Coming back to my sewing background. I love this and would give anything to find a reasonably priced manequin and cover it myself.

One of my many visits to Signature Prints in Sydney. This was an excursion for my Certificate IV class to Signature Prints.

Rows and rows of orginial and refurbished screens. The guy who does the renovations of the screens is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. To watch him work is an experience.

Machine printing left of picture and the hand printing tables on the right. More rows of screens, hundreds and hundreds.

Another hand printing table and more rows of screens. Signature Prints release new designs every now and then.


My Florence Broadhurst project from 2007. There is another 2 pages to this. These were the technical specs of the techniques, some history and background of Florence and current uses of her designs - fabrics, handbags, Designer Rugs, soft furnishings etc.

Getting started

After following the Flying Ducks blogspot for a while, I decided it's time for me to get started. (I'm proud to say I have known Kylie from Flying Ducks for a number of years). Visit My Flying Ducks to see how Kylie has transformed her Brisbane apartment into a home.

designed to a T is going to be a bit of a mix of things, so hopefully you'll get some surprises each time you read my blog.

I mainly wanted to give other people the option to create beautiful things for themselves or their homes. My thoughts have been around all the projects I have done for my home and am planning to do.

It's going to be a bit of a DIY how to guide, what materials I used, and some step by step guides. Everyone's budgets are different, so I'm really only going to suggest materials and where I got them from, then it's up to you to decide how cheap or expensive you want to go.

The first step by step project I'm hoping to complete very soon is an Ottoman. I have a number of other projects already completed, just need to photograph them and put together some guides.

designed to a T will also bring to you some design and style tips, links to other blogs I'm following, and COMING SOON, my website.

Stay tuned.