Any Which Way You Can

I finished another embroidered square for my quilt! This one is based on a lyric from the Scissor Sisters song 'Any Which Way' off of their new album 'Night Work':

"I'm gonna find that man the right shade of bottle tan, who smells like cocoa butter and cash"

I really liked the statement, a woman can go find whatever man she wants, be it a millionaire or a nuclear physicist :-)

I decided that I wanted the bronzed torso of a man in sunglasses to be the image to go with this lyric. I used orange cotton for the background to emphasise the image of a 'bottle tan'. I embroidered the lyric in complimentary metallic blue thread.

I stayed quite simple with my stitches to emphasise the lines of the body. I used an off-kilter font for the lyric to add some personality to the speaker. Satin stitching the sunglasses was the most difficult part as I needed the thread to be thin enough that it didn't overwhelm the shape, but thick enough that it filled it. I think it came out pretty well! Let me know what you think...

On another embroidery note, my Phat Quarter swap piece from Vegkat came in the mail today!! It's a quote from Pee Wee's Big Adventure and I love it!! Thanks Vegkat!!!

Enter the Labyrinth

Last month I took part in another swap on the Flickr group Phat Quarter. This time the theme was movies and straight away I knew I needed to do a piece based on Labyrinth. Labyrinth is my favourite movie OF ALL TIME!! I love David Bowie and always have because of this movie. I even realised in my early 20s that my fashion sense had been influenced by Sarah, the lead female character!

Luckily, my swap partner Lisa's Tea Time was open to me doing whatever I wanted so here is the result. I wanted to experiment with crayon tinting in this piece so created the background using crayons. If you look really closely you can see the labyrinth within the background. The colours were inspired by the movie poster and the sepia tones used for the labyrinth in the movie.

I wanted to express the power of David Bowie's character in the movie, Jareth the Goblin King, so thought very hard about what the main image would be. I chose to do a simple embroidery of just his eyes and the well known shape of his hair. His eyes and hair are really what make Jareth so recognisable. I embroidered this in simple black back stitch. I then embroidered the title of the movie in the font used on all the imagery associated with the movie. I used a harmonious beige to fit with the sepia tones of the labyrinth background.

The piece is backed on beige felt so it can be framed or stand alone. I'm really pleased with how it came out. At first I felt that it might have been too simple, but I think the simplicity aids the impact of the image.

I think I might have to sew a variation of this for myself soon, I love it so much and I know Lisa loved it too :-) Here's the photo she took when she received it:

I ♥ swaps!!

Urban Style, New York City Fashion

My current cruise ship is out of NYC and while running errands and wandering around I get the chance to see some interesting stuff. Here are a few photos I took while on a walk a couple of weeks ago that I wanted to share.



Macy's has some of the best window displays I've ever seen. Often they have displays in tribute the Broadway shows, but on this day they had Glee windows! The Nationals display above was my fave but I also liked how they were promoting regular clothing by showing it as the costumes from the show below:



After Macy's I went to Mood fabrics, my favourite fabric store in NYC. It's quite hard to find but well worth it if you're in the city. On the way I found this painting on the side of a building and thought it apt:



I like finding old signage particularly in cities like New York. I was having a costume and fashion filled day when finally I stumbled upon this display along Broadway:



Sidewalk Catwalk is an exhibition of fashion all the way along Broadway for all to see. Some pieces are more sculptural:



While others show actual clothing:



And others are just plain interesting:



I had three stand-out favourites of the pieces I came across. The first was a combination of natural fibres and traditional African style:



I like the odd use of materials and the exposure of the understructure. Though not necessarily actual fashion, Kenneth Cole's contribution is my second favourite:



Profound statement in the traditional black! Finally, my favourite of them all was this piece by Naeem Khan:



It is made from chain mail style metal links juxtaposed with an intricately embroidered body. The simple silver contrasts with the brightly coloured stitching on fine net:



I found the combination of soft and hard working together in this piece very interesting and was particularly taken with the pattern embroidered on the body. The colours are bright but not overpowering and work well with the silver of the metal.

I ♥ NYC!

Super Busy.... here's some embroidery!

So I've been super busy at work changing over casts and revamping shows.... I'll tell you more about that soon. But for now, here's some embroidery for you...

My Peacock shirt was inspired by the decorations around my current ship. The stage curtain in the theatre has a huge peacock appliquéd on to it and there are many paintings of peacocks dotted around the ship. There is one outside on the promenade deck that has it’s feathers shaped like hearts, which I really liked and decided to incorporate into my own design.

The blue shirt that I hand embroidered on to was given to me by one of my dancers, so I have given it a new lease of life with my design. I hand drew the design first, then marked the outline on the shirt using dressmakers carbon paper. I chose my colour scheme based on the colours you see on peacocks and that I thought brought out the blue of the shirt. Once I had finished the embroidery I added a few sequins to bring a little sparkle to the piece.

I think this is a simple but elegant piece that could be worn during the day with jeans, or dressed up with some accessories.

Ooh, That's Sublime!

Jenny Hart’s website, Sublime Stitching is having a contest called the Combo Contest. The object is to combine three of her patterns in an interesting way and produce an embroidered piece.

I have always liked Jenny’s designs and have both of her books, but have not had an opportunity to use them. This was the perfect time! Now, my embroidered piece may not be the most innovative, but it will be the springboard for something much bigger.

I chose to use the patterns Country Cool, Pinups by Gil Elvgrin and the book Embroidered Effects. I chose a cowgirl, a sailor pinup and the feather girl from the book (which I have wanted to stitch for a long time). I put them together on a 20" by 20" square with the quote ‘Well-behaved women rarely make history’. Each woman represents an aspect of myself.

The sailor pinup represents my love of nature and water and that I have been working on the sea for almost 4 years.

The feather girl represents my showgirl side, the entertainment industry that I work in and love, and the extrovert in me.

Finally, the cowgirl represents my hardworking side and my confidence.

I have decided to use this piece as the central square of an embroidered quilt that I plan to make. I need to create 20 more 10” by 10” squares all around the theme ‘Feminist Statement’. I want it to show the women and words that have influenced me throughout my life… so keep an eye out for the squares as I make them!

Beer Adventures...

Until about two years ago I didn't drink beer. I didn't like the stuff, you couldn't make me! Then, as with many things in life, I met a guy and that changed! He refused to buy me fruity drinks in the crew bar of our ship and introduced me to San Adams... and my love affair with beer began!

On my travels I have had the chance to try a lit of good and not so good beers. The New England/Canada run is the best for this, having been dubbed the Beer Adventure Run by my friends and I. To commemorate my achievements in beer drinking I wanted to make something that showed off all the beers I had tried.... and so the Beer Cap Belt was born!

I've been collecting beer caps since last October and I think I still need some more. This is going to be a continual work in progress as I find more beers that I like and want to show off the caps!

I started by laying out the caps in the order that I wanted to sew them. I cut out a strip of black denim, rescued from a pair of jeans I had used for another project.

Once I had an order I liked I used pliers to fold out the edges of the caps so I had something to Shisha around to attach them to the belt... yes, I shisha stitched every one!

Shisha stitching however pulled the fabric in more than I had planned so I may have to add another section... but that just means I have room for more caps!

The fastening is a button and a piece of chain currently, but I'm on the look out for something different... I just haven't found what I like yet...

And so, here it is! My beer cap belt! I love it!!!

Ashamed to Kiss

Oh dear.... Well, things have been a bit busy around here so my blogging has fallen behind... sorry!

But to make up for it here is a little preview of what I have been working on.

I was asked to design the costumes for a production by the English Theatre Company Theatre Nomad. They are doing a 30 minute version of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew called Ashamed to Kiss with three actors. I was given a burlesque/pantomime style brief and got going on ideas:



After the mood boards helped to to solidify my ideas I drew out some designs and sent them to Luke the Artistic Director for approval:



Luke loved them and I got to work on making them. Petruchio (the male character) and Katarina were already cast, Bianca hadn't been found yet so I just worked on the two costumes. As with theatre, Bianca has currently been cut from the production, so only two costumes were eventually produced:



I am very happy with the way the costumes have turned out. I think they look exactly like my designs! Luke is very happy with them as are the actors.

There will be three performances of Ashamed to Kiss in London in February so go take a look if you're in the area... more details soon!