Future Fashion NOW! Learn how to KNIT!!

Hi Ya!  If you are into fashion and creating your own individual style, come along and celebrate a night of fashion with the future in mind.

I will be holding workshops at the BeeHive Knitting Workshop from 4.15pm until 5.55pm - 3 x 25 minute sessions.
  

Friday 3 June

4pm - 7.30pm St Kilda Town Hall Auditorium

Future Fashion Now is the City of Port Phillip’s key community event World Environment Day on 3 June 2011 celebrating sustainable fashion and creative skills to avoid over-consumption.

The event showcases a range of Australian fashion designers, vintage suppliers, and crafty-people who apply environmental or social sustainability principles to their creations by reducing waste, water consumption and greenhouse gas emissions linked to the purchase and disposal of fashion related items.

"Future Fashion Now is a step forward to improve community understanding on climate change," said Mayor Cr Rachel Powning.

"It also increases community action in caring for our environment and provides an opportunity for the community to get together and have some fun while helping the planet". Participants are encouraged to bring along clothes to swap. They will learn how to make gorgeous jewellery from old/broken pieces, 

sew necklaces from fabric off-cuts, transform worn t-shirts into funky accessories, make a bolero from old jumpers, make sock monkeys, dolls and baskets from reused materials, and even learn to knit.

Attendees will be treated to the hip-hop dance talents of RISE, and see Elwood College students parade outfits designed from material waste during the event’s ‘Trash to Treasure,’ design race. A range of workshops will also be on offer at the event.  ‘Green Queen’ of St Kilda, Kaye Sera, and Port Phillip's very own ‘Vintage Beauty,’ Louarna will MC the fashion parade. Kaye is known for the flamboyant 

outfits she often re-fashions instead of buying new clothes. She will be accompanied by old school funky beats spun on good old fashioned vinyl records by DJ Damian Laird.

The event will also feature a photo exhibition from the ‘I Made This!’ Facebook competition with winners decided by a secret audience ballot on the night.  "I Made This!" is a competition for amateur makers of clothes, shoes, accessories, craft, homewares and decorations. First and second place prize packs will be awarded to the winners, valued at over $600.

Audience prizes will also be handed out including vouchers from Passionfoods, Frocks and Slacks, South Melbourne Market, Knit Knit, and some of the featured designers. The event is free and everyone is welcome.

Photo and interview opportunities available. 

Media enquiries: Katie Elles, Media Adviser 9209 6163/0435 657 336 

kelles@portphillip.vic.gov.au / http://www.portphillip.vic.gov.au/

Things I have made (or collected) this week.

Last Saturday was my niece Katia's Birthday.  I made this lemon meringue tart to bring along to the party.  Yes.  It was as good as it looked.  Apologies to my sister for overshadowing her very valiant attempt at a mermaid cake .... ;)  As a gift for Katia, I made this quilt, cushion and door stop set (you have probably already seen this.  

A quick visit to the Mental Health OpShop yielded some very colourful Queen's head stamps.  All kinds of designs and colours.  Some look really old.  I think I have a decoupage project planned for this.  An old wooden tray is crying out for the royal treatment!

I have picked up a lot of small scraps of leather lately at Reverse Art Truck.  I thought I would test the mettle of my machine and try and make a novel or notebook cover.  It is abit St Kilda football club in its colours but when one is  working with what one has, one must make do.  I think it is very useful and will prevent my novels from getting beaten up in my bag.

 So my creative space is a mess.  I am constantly moving my stuff from the loungeroom to the spare room or to my "office".  It is doing my head in and making me a bit sad with the state of affairs around the place.  Looking at lovely studio spaces online has become a little bit of an obsession.  I know I am lucky to have a room of my own so now the challenge has presented itself to create a space where I can store, spread out, and make all the things I want to make.  I can close the door on my mess or I can chose to keep it very tidy and ordered.  On my limited budget I could have gone down the path of second hand furniture but I am determined that the room look modern and bright so I have opted for some very basic white furniture.  Shelves, roller storage and a big work table from Ikea.  I would love to find a feature chair in which to sit and knit/crochet/read/dream.  I know I will find one if I put on my wishing hat before entering opshops.  Here is my plan that is a) to scale, b) held down by my favourite glass apple, and c) incredibly achievable!

In the spirit of studio orderliness, I made these pin board frames from things I bought from Resource Rescue.  Clean, tidy and totally ready to display my ideas, colours, pictures - whatever I darn well want to display! YAY!

My nieces are getting so cold on these wicked Melbourne mornings so I have made them these lovely little Tunisian Crochet neck scarves with matching brooches an buttons.  Two of the girls love pink.  The one in the middle is blue although this picture makes it look grey.  Hope they love wearing them as much as I loved making them.

This was the big project of the week.  It all started with Pip Lincolne and her Zpagetti floor rug.  I thought it was such a cute idea and looked really easy.  Well whilst out at Resource Rescue, I found some fabric rope that looked kinda like what Pip was using.  I'm on a budget so I thought this might be the cheapster's option.  It was available in limited colours - black, white and red.  I picked up some black and white and grabbed my giant 9mm Tunisian Crochet hook and started the giant potholder.  As I continued it dawn on me that this would actually make a super floor cushion for my new studio!  So I finished the round piece and started on the wall - this is being done in a Tunisian simple stitch on an 11.5mm giant hook.  It is really solid and structural.  I have finished all the fabric rope I had so I will be heading to Bayswater for some more.  While I am there I will pick up some foam sheets to fill it with and something sturdy for the base part.  It is all going to be finished by hand - all pieces hand stitched together.  

So that has been my week.  Giant crochet is a great way to work off tuckshoparmitis.

Gee ya later

xo Miss G

This week in Indefinite Space. Fun-raising!

I've loved this week.  Its been lovely to catch up with some of my friends with more to come tonight.  This week has been a little bit about fundraising for James' kinder and Alexi's school.  Coming up with some ideas on how to raise money through a Trivia Night the kinder is holding and thinking about things to make for a market day the school will be running.  We've put our thinking caps on and have started the ball rolling with asking local businesses for donations of goods and services (they are ridiculously generous, these businesses!).

picture from skip to my lou

As for the market, I think we may need a meeting of crafty minds sometime soon to come up with a few choice wares to sell at our craft stall.  There will also be treasure (no trash :)), books, toys & clothes, a sausage sizzle.  A fun day held by the school for the parish of St Anne's.  I think maybe crochet pot holders and tissue cosies might be my contribution.  We have quilters, card makers, jewellery makers - the works.  So a cool little craft stall should be fun to pull together..... And jams! don't forget the sweet stuff!  I think a few jars of homemade jam always go down a treat!



We fundraised for cancer with the Biggest Morning Tea at school, too.  That was fun - we raised $288 for this very worthwhile charity and we got to drink tea, eat yummies, chat to friends, and for some of us, even win a raffle!  Not me this time.

Op-shopping this week has also been rather outstanding.  The vinnies had some wonderful wool which is a rare treat.  I will be putting together my Knitting Workshop materials from some of this wool.  They also had a remarkably good selection of dressmaking patterns - all in lovely condition and in a size 12 - 14.  Perfect! picked up quite a few of those.  Also found an old typewriter - lovely!

Very excited by my visit to Resource Rescue Inc this week.  James and I headed down to Bayswater and found Peter Van Os and his treasure trove of surplus offcuts from local industry.  You can become a member for $80 and that lets you have 6 x 54 litre garbage bags full.  If you want to head down as a one off, a bag will cost $25 but if you grab less than a bag it is charged accordingly.  For all the great stuff I picked up, I paid $15.  I have already made 3 of these pinboards out of the frames and pinboard material I found.  So easy. So modern. So inexpensive!



I also picked up some fabric rope (the trimmings off fabric manufacturing) in black and white.  This is slowly becoming a cute little round crocheted rag rug.  I am loving making it and will post pics when I've finished it.  Thanks to Pip at Meet Me at Mikes for the great idea!

What else?  Keeping it all up and running with only the occasional spanner in the works.  Nice.

Gee you later!
x Miss G

The thing about quilting .....

I love quilting.  This has taken me by surprise as I never thought it would be something I would love.  It can look abit chintzy and naff at times but I have seen some amazing quilts which are neither.  They are beautiful and inspirational and full of love and passion.  I was ridiculously lucky a few weeks ago on a visit to the North East.... bored out of my brain, I took the boys into Corowa for a look around on Sunday.  Whilst there I found that the local quilting group were holding their annual exhibition.  I was AWESTRUCK.  Struck by Awe.  These quilts were enormous, amazing, uplifting and exquisite.  There was a whole room full of small quilts which were to be donated to local hospitals to comfort children with cancer and other serious illnesses - I cried.  I was truly moved.

These ladies were so lovely that they even gave my small boys a pair of cotton gloves each so they could TOUCH the quilts..... how amazing is that!  I looked at the tiny stitches and the intricate detail and was completely blown away by the commitment and love that went into every piece.   Some were bright and energetic while others were serene and elegant.   I was in goosebump land with every quilt expressing something beautiful and meaningful.

I finished my first quilt and made another over the last week or so.  This has been super rewarding as I've learnt so much along the way.  My quilts are not perfect (in fact a pretty long way off that) but they are good attempts at something new.

The sewing machine I have been given recently has really made life easy and sewing fun again.  I am eternally grateful to my gorgeous father in law and his supreme generosity.  This machine belonged to my beloved mother in law who passed away a few years ago.  I think of her every time I use her machine.  I have had her serviced and bought her a new foot for quilting.  She is lovely!

My boys have been asking for a quilt each so I will take them shopping and get them to chose a feature fabric which we can put together with some thrifted fabric (like the ones above).  I heard the word skulls and spiders in relation to quilt fabrics from my eldest.... not sure about this but will check out the selection at Darn Cheap Fabrics in Heidelberg or GJ's in Brunswick.  

So there.  Quilting is fun and the finished product brings warmth and happiness! xo

Happy stitching

xo Miss G