Greater Los Angeles Area Heatwave

As you may or may not be aware of, the greater Los Angeles area has been the victim of a series of heatwaves. Yesterday it was over 100 degrees! 

Lately I've been going through my fabrics and combing through my closet for clothing to tear apart for fabric to make new creations with. I've sewn a lot of nice fabric fashion scarves, made black lace short shorts, and most recently, last night actually, using a kid's Lady Bug Halloween costume that was donated to me by an acquaintance, this large handfan:

This was made by deconstructing the lady bug wings from the Halloween costume and hand sewing the areas I wanted to secure together. It's not done yet but it should be soon. I'm still brainstorming how to make a handle for it. There are a variety of ways I can make the handle, but I don't want to ruin the overall aesthetic. It needs to not only match and/or complement the current design, but it needs to be functional as well. As for the rest of the lady bug Halloween costume, I will be making a scarf using the red velvet lady bug fabric! 

In any case, I have a large handfan to keep me cool for the hot day ahead. Take that, heatwave! 

GoFundMe App

I got the GoFundMe App for my phone, and have created a GoFundMe Campaign for my small business, DeniseDoesCouture. Here's a link:

http://m.gofund.me/denisedoescouture

I assume that's a mobile link for the app, but if you're on a desktop, I don't see why it won't re-direct you.

Anyone have any experience with this app? How do you like it?

New Painting in my Etsy shop!

https://www.etsy.com/listing/248174663/fuchsia-magenta-purple-pink-white

It's an abstract painting; acrylic on canvas in fuchsia, with differing shades of pink, purple, and white with glitter and great texture. 

I am selling the original painting, as I do with all my paintings so far. I do not sell prints of my paintings at this time. 

Here are some photos that aren't so great. 

I feel like my paintings would sell a lot better at an art show where people could see them with their own eyes. I'm looking into craft fairs in the Southern California area so I can apply to be a vendor and begin doing the craft show circuit. I have a lot of inventory that wouldn't translate well onto my Etsy shop because it's not worth shipping because of pricing issues, or it's just too difficult to photograph, or because it's better presented in person. I would also be able to sell items from my shop and accept cash, or credit cards with my Etsy credit card reader, and it would give me an opportunity to meet with people and hand out business cards for my online store. I may even get some craft show regulars! 

I feel like there is reluctance within the local crafting community to share information about craft fairs. Hopefully I can get some leads from Google. There's just so much information to sift through!

Custom Print Clothing

I'm researching how to make custom printed t-shirts, because I want to make tank tops with cool quotes and sayings for the gym, for daily living, and for my Etsy shop. I was inspired by a Buzzfeed article about tank tops that will inspire you to go to the gym. 

I love tank tops, especially in the Fall and Winter, they are so fun to layer under cardigan sweaters (and I'm a little obsessed with cardigans)

Here's a great wikihow on how to do this. I like method 4 and 5 the most, and my first attempt will be with using bleach to draw a design onto a tank top. I'll do a simple heart and see how it works for me. The bleach is my favorite method right now because it's simple, straightforward, you don't need many supplies, and the results are permanent. I also love white one black. 

I'm not sure if I have any bleach right now but as soon as I gather all my supplies I'll take some photos and share my results.

Here's a link to the wikihow article I just read:

http://m.wikihow.com/Design-Your-Own-T-Shirt

Hand Sewn Fabric Flowers How To

Okay so this is how I made my last batch of hand sewn fabric flowers. 

I used a Geometry compass or whatever to measure as large of a circle as I was comfortable with, for the purpose in which I intend to use these fabric flowers, which is as hair barrettes. I decreased the radius on the compass to get a smaller circle, until I had four circles ranging from large to small. I cut these out on felt cloth to use as a gauge when cutting out fabrics for my fabric hair flowers. 

Below is a photo of the fabric circles I cut using my felt circles as a guide...

I'm planning on making an insane amount of fabric flowers, but I digress...

This is a stack of felt circles to be used on the back of the fabric hair flowers, for purposes of stabilization. These are all the same size as my smallest felt circle, in the first photo in this post.

Okay. Step one. Begin with the largest pile of fabric circles. Using one piece of fabric at a time, fold in half, and then fold in half again. Thread through the center of your felt circle...

Tie a double knot in the back, like so. Don't worry about how the felt circle looks in the back because when we're all done, we're going to use a piece of the same fabric we're using for the flower to cover the felt.

Since I have four stacks of four fabric circles, I will begin to add all four of my largest pieces, one at a time, to create the foundation of my flower. Each circle of fabric should be folded in half twice, so that it will look more or less like this:

It's not looking perfect, but it doesn't have to. Especially not at this point. Here's the completed first layer of fabric petals:

Repeat the process with your second largest fabric circles. Here's my second layer...

For your third layer, continue the process of folding your fabric circles in half twice, using the next smallest pile of fabric circles, and focusing on creating one flower petal at a time. 

And finally, with your remaining fabric circles, which should be the smallest ones, repeat the process. You can move the fabric around as you see fit, securing with your needle and thread as you go along. 

When you're done you can add a piece of fabric to the back of the flower to cover the felt. I sewed mine on. 

Then use a glue gun or whatever fabric/jewelry glue you prefer to secure a hair barrette or clip to the back. Let it dry, and you're all done!

Have fun 😊

DeniseDoesCouture: Hand sewn Fabric Hair Flowers, Painting, Crafterno...

DeniseDoesCouture: Hand sewn Fabric Hair Flowers, Painting, Crafterno...: These are some hand sewn fabric hair flowers I made yesterday using a different technique than usual: *four stacks of different sized fabric...

Hand sewn Fabric Hair Flowers, Painting, Crafternoon, and YouTube crazies

These are some hand sewn fabric hair flowers I made yesterday using a different technique than usual:

*four stacks of different sized fabric circles (I had four pieces of fabric per stack) I didn't measure exactly, I just cut four different sized circles.

*a round half-dollar sized piece of felt fabric

*needle and thread (don't poke yourself a million times like I did :( though)

~ starting with your largest stack of round fabric, fold one piece of fabric in half, and then in half again. It will be in the shape of like a slice of pizza. Lay it flat on your felt with the pointy end touching the center of the round piece of felt. Sew it in place with your needle and thread. Continue with the three remaining pieces of your largest fabric circles. 

~ next you will repeat this process with your second largest stack of fabric circles. This will create a second layer, which will go on top of the initial layer. Then repeat with your third largest fabric circles, to create a third layer on your flower, and finally, using your smallest circles, thread those through just like you did all the other layers, to create the fourth and final layer of your flower. I'll take some photos today of the step by step process. That should be helpful if you're more of a visual learner. 

A rabbit silhouette painting I finished up yesterday....

I'm going to be sewing more hair flowers today, doing some painting, enjoying a Saturday Crafternoon, Chromecasting Pandora Internet Radio, and pretty much just see where the day takes me. 

Part of my plans for today also include painting a Fleur de Lis. So, Yesterday I looked on YouTube for "How to draw a Fleur De Lis" & found a video by a crazy man. He rants it's "The Devil's Flower" for 35min. My Little Pony is also "demonic, evil", because one of the ponies has a fleur de lis symbol, and I don't

know what he has against Mary, but he calls her Lucifer's mom or something, I don't even know. It was kind of funny at first but then I realized he's like delusional and stuff and then it just got creepy. So yeah. Be careful out there!!! http://t.co/yJxMHzBVRS