First off, I have to say how much I love the sewing blog community. Without you guys, I'd never see cool stuff happening with sewing. It's truly inspiring. And today I found a super awesome independent pattern maker (Something I want to be someday) and she is AMAZING. I bought one of her patterns right away, and I can't wait to make it. Seriously, check out Victory Patterns now if you know what's good for you. (I got ANOUK, and I'm eying HAZEL). I love how simple and complicated the designs are (at the same time! it's fantastic). I know I usually never see such unique designs in the big four pattern company's catalog. (for shame)

And now to something else new! I finished my midterm for my Computer Graphics (Kaledo) class yesterday, and presented it this morning. I don't think I did too bad. Our assignment was to pick an artist and design something inspired by their paintings. So of course I chose Mat Barber Kennedy (who else?) So Kaledo is this big program for fashiony people and it helps you create prints in repeat, and other cool stuff I haven't learned yet. And you can make these prints in multiple colors n such. It's pretty cool, but if you're used to the way Adobe does things (Photoshop/Illustrator) it takes some getting used to (very frustratingly so). So here's my 2 prints. One is a border print (as modeled by my croquis), and the other is a normal print repeat. Fun stuff.

 

I promise that soon I'll post pictures of non computer related stuff I've been making too. Sometime soon. Yes. Oh, and quite possibly some history of costume stuff I did. :)

Black and White Photography

So during the fall, I was in a B+W photography class. I got to learn how a darkroom works, and using a film camera was pretty awesome. I thought that only having 36 exposures on a roll would be too little, since usually I can take my digital somewhere and come home with anywhere between 100-500 pictures. But I was wrong. All that did was make me really think about what I was shooting and take the time to figure out the perfect shot. It made me careful and thoughtful. And I came up with some pretty awesome prints. Well I think it was the process of making them that was the cool part. There's something about dunking a piece of paper in chemicals and watching an image emerge. Anyway, here's a few images from the class...

 B+W Film

Hand Spinning and other yarn related things

Hey! I hope everyone's holiday has been fabulous. I know mine has. :) I spent the week before Christmas knitting my pretty little fingers off so that (almost) everyone in the family could have a hat to keep warm. It was really fun to knit for the girls, but a little harder for the guys. I kept asking my husband, "Is this too girly of a pattern to use?" lol, as it turns out I didn't use any fancy stitch patterns for the guys. I figured it was too risky. :)
Anyway I have a few photos of the hats for the women in my life:

Pamplemousse for mom

'Quick Cable Slouch Hat' - Andrew made this one!

'New Sweetie Pie' hat for sis-in-law

'Thistle Cap' I modified the brim too - for my moh

 I didn't actually get any pics of the hats for the guys. They aren't super inclined to model anyway.

This year for Christmas, hubby made me a drop spindle and got me some hand carders, which are actually dog brushes, but same difference. He pulled a fast one on me and changed the packaging so it'd actually look like hand carders. He was pretty pleased with himself.

I took the brush out, but you can see what he changed.

I'm not sure this is what a real one looks like,
but it gets the job done.

Anyway, I had an idea a while back about deconstructing yarn scraps and possibly fabric scraps back to the original fibers then re-spinning them into a new yarn. The original plan was to get rich off making and selling lots of yarn, but after trying it out I can see that it's going to be a very long process. It might actually be a few years before I even complete one ball. If I had to guess I'd say that I had maybe 3 yards? and that might be pushing it...

Other stuff I've been making for myself is Purl Soho's Big Herringbone cowl. It. Is. Amazing. It's super addicting to knit, that it's hard to put down. At first, I was a little wary of my yarn choice (pattern calls for Aran weight, a bulky yarn, and I bought DK, a light-medium yarn) but so far with sizing the needles down, it's been no big deal. And I find it quite easy to knit, though a lot of fellow Ravelers thought it was a tad difficult. I suppose it just depends on the knitter.

Herringbone Cowl

I also just finished my Shipyard Mittens today! It was a nice feeling to actually finish a pair of something for once. I've started many sock and mitten projects where the furthest I got was knitting up one and stopping. I'm super pleased with how they turned out too. I also bought smaller yarn for this project too. I guess my recent ability to gauge projects properly is paying off. haha :)

Shipyard Mitts

I'm also doing the Earth & Sky shawl that was a mystery KAL earlier last year. It's very interesting, and I'm loving the color blocking technique called intarsia. It's my first shawl, and I'm in love with the Madeline Tosh yarn I found when I was in Chicago. :) Love Loopy Yarns.

Earth & Sky

 Last but not least, I'm knitting up yet another Pamplemousse for my Aunt. She saw the one I made for my mom for Christmas and said that she has to get her hats custom made because hats are usually too small for her. Of course I'm all too happy to accommodate. I added 2 repeats in the ribbing for the brim, and I'm adding at least one more repeat in the main pattern, and I'll see from there if I need more, though I doubt I will. This pattern is already a loose fitting hat. And is a fantastic knit, any excuse to knit it again and I would jump on it. :) Oh I also made one for myself back in November. It was my first exposure to Manos Del Uruguay Silk Blend, and I fell in love. I used the same yarn for the shipyard mitts.

Pamplemousse take 3

Phew! and that was only 2 1/2 months of knitting! Oh.. and I started a pair of socks today, but I wont get into that just yet. ;)

So if any Ravelry people want to know more about my projects - what yarn I used etc., check out my project journal here.

Happy knitting!
~Kate

Off Switch Magazine Launch

Amazing! Fantastic! Lovely! <--words that describe Katie of Off Swtich's new magazine. I'm very proud to say that I'm a contributor of this magazine. Katie had approached me and asked if I'd illustrate an article for her, and it's just a lovely magazine. Feast for the eyes. I strongly encourage you to check it out and spread the word :) Oh, and my drawings start on pg 41. ;) p.s., the mag is free to view online, but if you want to order a print copy, just $15. I think it's worth it.

http://www.offswitchmagazine.com/magazine/

End of the Semester

Hello! Guess what?! I'm done with school! (almost) All I have left is to turn in some final projects next week. One I still have to write up a little essay for, and I'm set :) It's been a nice school semester. It was pretty easy since a lot of it was review, but that's not to say I didn't learn anything. Also, it was a heap of work near the end. During the semester it was super slow and I had hardly any homework over the weekend then BAM finals. haha. Anyway, I can show you the project I put together. It was pretty fun working on it. I had to design a group of 6 outfits and draw flats to go with it.

This is the 'moodboard' or 'concept board' I'm not sure if I really need one to even design a line since I designed the clothes, then created a moodboard to go with that, lol. They just said I needed to have one, not that I had to make it first. :)
 I don't know where the images all came from, but the images in the collage aren't originally mine, but everything else is.

All the illustrations were done with Watercolor and Ink. The flats are done with Illustrator. I designed the chevron pattern myself with Illustrator. It was pretty fun putting this all together. I hope you like it :)

Fashion School

Sorry for the little hiatus I've been on. Since going to school, I haven't wanted to do too much extra stuff since my schoolwork has been on the heavy side. I have one teacher that just recently let up on his 5 assignments a week thing. I think after he spent an entire Sunday grading all of our work, he got sick of it, lol. Anyway, I've been wanting to show the drawing/painting I've been doing. There is a whole lot of work, but it's not all blog worthy, most of the stuff he's had us do is copying... which I'm not a huge fan of, and I see them more as assignments than actual creative work that I'd show people. So This week I'll be posting some paintings (Fashion illustrations!) and some of my black and white photography if I can scan it in. A lot of that is hanging up in the hallway at school still.

This painting was our first assignment. He said "I want you to draw me something." He's so specific, yes? Well I thought since it's a fashion drawing class, I'd try and just paint my version of a dress I saw in the Banana Republic ad showcasing their Mad Men line. This dress is my favorite. And of course, I wanted to show off that I knew what I was doing with watercolors. So of course it's not perfect in terms of a fashion illustration, but it wasn't too bad for my first attempt.















The next few I have to show you are the 3 illustrations I did for the fur assignment. We had to design and paint 3 different fur outfits (in 2 days) for this competition that's held internationally. If you win, you get to go to Milan and watch your design walk the runway and afterwards you get to keep it and get $8,000 scholarship money. The fact that he gave us such short notice for this assignment plus the fact that I had to stay up late finishing it (and I was NOT slacking at all) made me a little upset.






































These are definitely more "fashion" proportioned, but my teacher really does give me a lot of crap for giving my ladies curves. I'm not referring to these specifically, but any kind of hip action and my drawing needs to "lose 20 pounds" Definitely the down side to this industry... all the focus on stick thin being beauty... Anyway enough about that. I wanted to show my base croquis, The basic drawing that I get right once, then trace new outfits over before transferring. You can see the ridiculous proportion better here, though I tend to make my girls look at least healthy. Look at those looong legs... haha :)

















So there's a taste of some of the drawing/painting I've been doing in fashion school. I also have a lot of flats I've been doing, and some random sketches I've done in my awesome Fashionary sketchbook.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Thanks for stopping by :)

How To Freeze Wedding Cake

So, 10 days ago was our first wedding anniversary.

And you know what we got to eat finally??? Our CAKE! I'll admit I'm still a little miffed about it, but the hall we rented out never served the head table any cake... so the only bit we got to eat was that bit that we shove into each others mouth... so in other words, not too much...











Anyway, my mom froze it for us, and my Aunt Sharon is the one that told her how:

1. Take the top layer of your cake and wrap it with plastic wrap (directly on that frosting). One sheet goes one way around, the other sheet goes across it, like an x.

2. Take some aluminum foil and wrap the same way as plastic wrap. (2 sheets)

3. Put it back in that little cardboard box, and put a box of open baking soda next to the cake.. inside the box.

4. Seal the exterior box with more tape on the edges that would let air into the box.

5. (IMPORTANT STEP!!) Keep your box of cake in a freezer that does NOT circulate air. An easy way to check, if you arent sure what this means, is to see if there is frost in your freezer. If there is, then you're good to go. If not, find a friend or relative that does have frost in their freezer and ask to borrow a square foot for a year. If they're nice, they'll let you have it rent free ;)

At the wedding

One year later...

Alright, so it's lost some color, and looks a tad squished... but honestly, it tasted pretty fresh. I kept hearing all kinds of horrorible reviews of 1st anniversary wedding cake, but ours was good!

Sorry there's no pics of the packaging. The hubby surprised me by dropping it off at the restaurant before we ate, so they brought it out after our meal. It was pretty much a perfect ending do a delish meal. <3


Here's a peek of the inside. Marble cake with a mocha filling.

6, 7, 8, 9.

Wow, 4 days behind again... I wonder how this happens... haha, well to continue my 30 Day Challenge here are days 6, 7, 8, and 9:

Day 6: Childhood memory. 

This whole picture packs in a lot of kid stuff for me. First, there's the couch that was in my parents house since I can remember, and since have inherited myself. And when I was in Kindergarten, my teacher had this stuffed elephant that she'd let one student take home for a weekend. His name was Elmer. Flipping cool elephant. Well, I just had to have one for myself (of course) and I'm not sure how I did get one. My parents must have found it for me and gave it to me for Christmas or something. One thing to note, is mine has a different inner ear color from Elmer. Or was it his blush color?....

Day 7: Something New.

Got this from Andrew for our Anniversary. LOVE <3

Day 8: Technology.

My favorite technology I own. I use it almost every day. :)

Day 9: Faceless self portrait.

Me in the Sorbetto Top I just made for myself (I added the sleeves). I'll talk more about this in another post ;)

Woo! all caught up! :)

<3 Kate

Day 5: Someone I love

Here's a pic of the man I love. We're celebrating our first wedding anniversary tomorrow. I'm gonna wear my bombshell dress to dinner. Then we're going to eat our wedding cake (FINALLY, they never served the head table at our wedding, I was super upset about it)

I took this picture on our little picnic next to the waterfall that's near our apartment. He brought me Subway. What a sweetie. <3

Day 3 and 4: Clouds+Yellow

So I'm doing another twofer here, just to make things simple. One more tomorrow and I'll be all caught up :)

So side anecdote of the clouds picture.. I went outside (I live in an apartment complex where all the front doors are outside, and all the garages are lined up in a row) and when I got even with the one garage that is always hanging open (they got lil kids in and out, so I understand) I looked up and snapped a picture of the clouds. As I was walking away, I saw the car driving up of the person who owns the garage, and as soon as she got out the car she's like "Can I help you??"..me, "No?" ... "You were standing in front of my garage"   "Oh, I was taking a picture of the clouds"..... and imagine me clad in all yellow head to foot... had to look strange. All I know is now if anything goes missing from the garage, the woman is gonna think it was me.... anyway, goes without saying that their garage was closed by the time I got back from my walk. haha.

Next photo (Day 4) I'm supposed to take a pic of my favorite color... which is why I'm wearing all yellow in the previous story...

I went to the prairie that's right next to my apartment. The yellow flowers I took photos of early on in the summer are  kind of dying, so there weren't as many as I'd hoped, but at least I was looking sunny. :)

Stay tuned tomorrow for Day 5+6: Someone I love, and a Childhood memory. 

<3 Kate

Day 2: What I wore.

 So technically, this isn't day 2... I'm just playing catchup for day 2. But you get a twofer since it's what I wore AND what I've been sewing. ;)

Jacket: Simplicity 2250
Top: H&M
Skirt: I made it, no pattern used
Shoes: Arizona
Necklace: A shop in Savannah.. it's some kind of tiger stone... :)

   So on a recent Joanns pattern binge (love the 99 cent sales) I found another fantastic one by Cynthia Rowley. I adore her patterns. She has such a good eye for simplicity in her details. But what caught my eye more than the main dress was the jacket pattern. So clean, so simple, what a great blank canvas. So, of course, I made it with awesome striped linen. :) :) And what better to pair it with but a striped shirt? ;) The skirt is something I'd made a while back but never wore because I did such a hack job on the hem. Today it was what went best with the outfit so I took the opportunity to fix the hem. And I'm glad I did :)


The jacket came together fairly easily. I made it harder by fell stitching the back of the bias tape, and catch stitching the cuff hem to avoid topstitching. I also added a layer of muslin in place of the fusible interfacing on the front piece after reading a few people's un-stellar results with it. I think it gives this fabric a nice weight with the added muslin. This fabric is super lightweight, and probably could have been lined, but I wanted to keep it a lightweight jacket. Also, the jacket calls for shoulder pads... which look ridiculous on me because I have such square shoulders already. So what I did was trace some shoulder pads and cut out some cotton batting instead. I used the real lightweight stuff, so it doesn't add any height, just some much needed support in the shoulder cap.

Oh! Also, I'd like to welcome my new followers! Hello! It's truly nice to have you here. There are a lot of blogs to choose from, and I'm honored you chose mine. :) Thanks for stopping by!

<3 Kate

Day 1: Self Portrait

It's a 30 Day Challenge!
Ok, so I'm late to the party, but today a blog I watch (WildOlive) posted about this, and it's something I've been wanting to do for a while, so here I am. :)
Over at Oh So Lovely, they posted this lovely pic, and challenged the blogosphere to take 1 photo a day.

It sounds like a fun group of photos to take, and I think I'm going to play catch up today. Or maybe just do 2 a day until I'm caught up.

Well anyway, here's my first pic:

And the jacket I'm wearing is a sneak peek of my next sewing post ;)
Have you done any 30 day challenges lately? did you learn from them? I'd love to know if anyone else is doing this photo challenge. :)

Perfect Fit Sarong Dress

I had a BLAST making this dress. It's kind of strange when I think about it though. I'm usually not one for all the hand sewing since I'm super impatient. I think having a great instructor, and having fantastic fabric to work with are great motivators. :)

It looks so simple, but a lot of internal work is put into it, just to make it flawlessly formed and fit to the body. Bust padding, self facings, easing and stabilizing the neckline, waist stay, lapped zipper, hem vent, and hem tape.... oh! and boning, how could I forget, haha :)

If you want to know more about it, you can watch the intro video, and if you want, sign up for the class. The best money I've ever spent on an online class, ever ;)

 This dress is made with: 100% linen outer, and cotton lining. Spiral steel boning, grosgrain ribbon (zipper guard/waist stay), regular zipper, satin ribbon (for boning channels), and lace hem tape for the hem.



















Here's a peek of the inside to see what I'm talking about:

On these pictures you can see the insides of the bodice before I sewed it to the skirt and inserted the lining, etc. On the right, a picture of the completed inside of the dress. You can see the zipper guard (pink ribbon), the waist stay (yellow ribbon) and if you look close enough you can see the boning in there.
What do you think? Will you give this dress a try? It's pretty much a fabulous dress to work on

:)