Home Ec - Resized Dress

My next fun Home Ec project was resizing a dress. Some of the other girls in my class found the cutest muumuus and dresses to alter, but I didn't have much luck. So I settled for this striped number. I figured I could practice on this one, then when I finally find a real gem at the thrift store, I'll be more experienced when I fix that one.

One challenge I had while shopping was determining the potential of the dress. I've never done anything like this before, so I wasn't sure of the qualities to look for (beyond the obvious color / print). Since I am still a relatively new sewer (is that a word?) I can't take on anything too difficult, but what's difficult? I wish I had a list of things to look for that would guide me in finding a dress with the most potential.

The original dress was HUGE and it had shoulder pads. Yuck. I really like the style of shirt dresses, so I found a few styles on the internet and used those as my inspiration. I ended up hemming it up about 7 inches (maybe a wee bit short, considering it rides up a lot when I'm sitting. Note to self, always have a spare sweater or jacket I can lay over my lap when I'm feeling especially drafty...). I took in the sides a couple inches and the sleeves about an inch.

The alteration went smoothly. I rolled up the sleeves, added a little belt to give it more shape and voila! A cute little dress! Though it's still a bit wide in the shoulders, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Now I feel I'll have a lot more options when I go shopping, knowing I am capable of making it fit my shape better.

Back to work. Have a happy day!

Halloween Monster Sale

Happy Monday!


I would apologize for the lack of posts, but I have a feeling they're going to be scant until the end of the year. The amount of projects that are piling up is mind blowing! 

I did want to share some very exciting news, though: I am now an official member of the Etsy Plush Team! I am so thrilled to be involved with this group of mega-talented plush artists! So far they have been absolutely wonderful, welcoming me into the group with open arms (or appendages). Being part of this team will help me grow more as an artist - I will be making special plush for the Plush Team Shop, there are several challenges every year which will stimulate my creativity, there are gallery showings and tons of other opportunities to get my Fuzzies out there. Plus, the support of the Team will be priceless. I cannot wait to jump in and get my feet wet!


With that news, I opened a new shop on Etsy, specifically for my Fuzzies. Please check it out and give it some love! The shop is called BluestarFuzzies. 

And...I'm having a special Halloween Sale right now - 25% all of the scary Monsters!  Wooooooo!  Prepare to be spooked...

Of course, all of my illustration, screen prints and other handmade goods will remain in my original shop, BluestarInk. 


Thanks again for all of your support!

Zip, Zip Zip

The next project in the Home Ec lineup was hemming a pair of jeans. Stephen had gotten a steal on a nice pair of jeans, but they were REALLY long. (Which is probably why they were so cheap). He asked if I could hem them, and I said I should be able to, with the help of Home Ec. I practiced first on a pair of his old jeans, just in case I messed up, and I'm glad I did. Though the process itself was pretty easy, I learned I HATE, I mean LOATHE invisible thread. At least the stuff I bought. It was like fishing line, and it had a mind of its own. It wouldn't stay wound tight around the spool, so it kept getting knotted around the peg the spool sits on. After all those frustrations, I figured for future hemming jobs, I'd forgo the invisible thread and just use regular thread that matches the color of the pants.

So when I did Stephen's real pair of jeans, I used a navy thread and it worked great! You can barely see the stitches. And he looks awful handsome... I figured y'all could probably envision hemmed pants, so I didn't need to post photos.

The above Home Ec project is the zippered pouch. I can now say I have successfully installed a zipper! Of course, my color scheme involved red and turquoise again, and I used some super cool striped thrifted fabric for the outside. There's not a lot to say about this project - I thought it was pretty easy - I used my zipper foot which helped a lot. I think I'm going to make more of these in different sizes for all my stuff. You can never have too many pouches!


Cheers,

New Product in the Shop

Hi There!

I'm so happy to finally unveil some of the new products I've been working on for the shop. Now that I've been adding some new skillz to the arsenal, I'm constantly trying to come up with ways of combining my love of illustration, screen printing, fabrics and now sewing. This first batch of product does just that!

These totes all feature an original Bluestar Ink illustration screen printed onto cotton. The main pattern fabric is all thrifted, so the fabric dictated the feel of the illustration. The tartan plaid seemed "woodsy" so I created a moose wearing a trapper hat and logging boots. The bold floral fabric (which you've seen before in my Home Ec tote) looked totally hippie, dude, so I thought a happy-happy-love-joy van full of giraffes spewing love and flowers out of its tailpipe seemed appropriate. The green plaid looked very retro, so I drew one of my lovely ladies wearing a 60s-inspired outfit to complement the fabric.

This was my first time printing on fabric, so I was a bit nervous, but I think they turned out really well! And I figured out how to line the bag in a fun fabric to add some more color. And pom poms! Oh, how I love pom poms. I thought they were a nice touch to turn these into totally stylish totes. (Though I will offer them without pom poms, too.)

I have some ideas for different products using the same technique of patching/combining fabrics, screen prints and pom poms. I just need to find the time to do some more illustrations and prints. One thing at a time, right?

You can find these totes in my Etsy shop. Check em' out!

Cheers!

New Website!

Howdy!

I am so happy to announce that my new website is finally LIVE! 

It doesn't seem that long ago that the original bluestarink.com was introduced to the world wide interweb. It hasn't even been 2 years, but I feel like I have learned so much since then. At that point, I really didn't spend that much time on the internet. I'd use it for checking my email, using Mapquest or Google. I had heard of blogs, but in all honesty, I didn't read them and I really didn't get the purpose. With that being said, I still felt that it was important as a professional designer, that I have an online portfolio.

Shortly after my website was up, I started perusing the internet a bit more. I discovered Twitter, and found that there is a whole community of artists/designers/illustrators out there sharing their work, interesting tidbits and advice. I couldn't believe it - how could I have missed such an interesting resource? It was through Twitter, that I finally came to realize how much the internet has to offer. Since then, I have been gobbling up every bit of information I can get my hands on. 

Source

Don't get me wrong - it has its drawbacks, too. Because I've finally found this wealth of info, I can easily get sucked into hours of staring gaped-mouth at the screen - reading...looking...longing...then eventually questioning...second-guessing...  Between the hours I miss actually getting any physical work accomplished, all of the amazing work out there eventually becomes intimidating. I start to ask myself "Why am I doing this? Who do I think I am? How do I think I can compete in this sea of creativity? How can I make myself known?" Then I start feeling really down on myself. I really don't like getting to that point. It's sad.

That's when I have to pick myself back up. Yes, there are tens of thousands of talented creatives out there. But that's great! They are an inspiration to me - I read their stories and find that they, too, were once floundering in the sea of artists. But now they've made a name for themselves...so why can't I? I have great ideas, too! 

And this is also when I started imposing the Google Reader limit. I can read my blogs up until 8 a.m. Then I can read them again over lunch. Then I can read them again at night, because the night is my time and I can do whatever I want. So far this has been working pretty well. I am able to focus better during my work days, and then I really make the most of my blog reading times. It is allowing me to get the best of both worlds - I get to read my blog roll, but I have quality time to be productive. Score!

So...back to my new site. Here are some screen shots:

One of my main issues with the original site was that it was very text-heavy. I had Stephen, who is a wonderful writer, write some very creative copy for my intro pages. Though it was brilliant, (and he made me sound REALLY wonderful), after looking at it for a few months, I realized that there was way too much reading for a visual artist. There weren't enough images! No fault to Stephen - it's what I thought I wanted - until I realized that people don't want to read a lot when they're visiting a portfolio site.

There is lots of white space to allow the images to breathe. There are thumbnails of all the work in the category, so people aren't blindly clicking around.

And there's a really nice area for descriptive text (If I want to add some). 

Plus, I added some hand-drawn type for my category pages and the dotted pattern - both very indicative of my illustration work. My old page looked too cold - too clinical. This is much more "emily".

If you can't, tell, I'm really excited about this! And it is nice that I finally have all my sites in one spot. You can access not only my portfolio, but this blog and my shop all in one place. And you can even find my Twitter and Facebook pages if you look  really   closely.

Thanks to Tony at Hexbreak for building the site - I couldn't have done it without you!

Now don't spend too much time on my site...Go make stuff!  ;)

Home Ec - Bib (and Purl SoHo!)

Hello! I'm back from fabulous New York City, but unfortunately my to-do list is miles long and the blog posts aren't taking priority. I figured I'd do a quick Home Ec update to prove I'm still alive.

Here's the next project on the Home Ec list - the quilted bib. This was a quick one, but I really enjoyed it. These will make nice baby gifts, because they're fast and make good use of fabric scraps. The new skill we learned was applying bias tape. I love how the tape finishes the edges and gives another hit of color. I think the tape was supposed to be wider than what I ended up buying, but I like the proportion of it to the relatively small bib. Though it was quite the challenge keeping it even on both sides and only having a 1/8" seam allowance! 

A quick note about NYC - I ended up visiting Purl SoHo, and it definitely lived up to the hype! I didn't have a plan before I went, so I just got really overwhelmed and wanted everything. The yarns were gorgeous, but it was the fabric selection that blew my mind. They had a whole wall of Liberty of London fabric! I don't think I've ever actually seen any real LoL fabric, and it was absolutely gorgeous. It was so soft, and the level of detail in the patterns was crazy! Someday, I'll do a project with LoL fabric. I will. I did buy a whole bunch of amazing fat quarters and fabric scraps, and a fun piece of bike-themed Kokka Fabric for my laptop case Home Ec project. I think I have a new love...FABRIC!

Purl SoHo fabric (Liberty of London is on the right)

The Kokka fabric I bought for a future project

Everyone have a great weekend! I'm hoping to play a little catch up with my L-O-N-G to-do list.

Cheers!