Retro Rainbow Hat and more!

This week's Spoonflower Fabric of the Week contest called for Hat Patterns that fit on one yard of fabric. I am not much of a hat wearer, besides cloche hats, and even then I typically only wear them in the fall and winter. I wanted to design something for summer, and something I would possibly wear. Unfortunately, I had to get my computer fixed last fall, and lost saved files and bookmarks of hat resources. Luckily, I found an awesome vintage hat pattern.

Click image to go to the fabric page.

My entry is Retro Rainbow Hat. This vintage pattern is made so that the hat can accommodate a ponytail. I thought that detail would be perfect for summer. I had to modify the pattern a bit and fix some errors before I added my designs to the pattern pieces. The crown of the hat has faux stitching in faded rainbow colors on a light tan background. The brim is made up of "petals" that have faded rainbow arcs on them that follow the shape of the pattern pieces. The lining pieces are solid colors of the rainbow colors used for the design. I guessed at the sizes needed for the bias cording, and gave them rainbow stripes on a tan background. Since there was extra space, I also included pattern pieces to make two keychain fobs. I am currently waiting for the fabric to arrive so I can make it! More details on the hat will come in the project post.

You can vote for this week's Spoonflower contest here. There are not many entries this week, but they are still great and cover a variety of styles. Voting for this contest ends Wednesday.

I'm on a slight retro kick, and it started with this entry, "Retro Sewing Stripe" for the Sewing Celebration contest. It finished 47th out of 111 entries.

Click image to go to fabric page.

It's in a much softer colorway than I'm used to doing, but it works well for this design. The fun stripe is made up of zigzag stitches, pins, straight stitches, buttons, needles, and bobbins.

The Book Love fabric contest was one of my favorites because I love books. I haven't been reading as much as I would like lately, but nothing compares to a good book. "Ode to the Keeper of the Books" was my entry, and placed 99th out of 143 entries.

Click image to go to fabric page.

The print is made up of elements representing three major genres (horror, adventure, fantasy) over an open book. In the background are the words "horror adventure fantasy" repeated in a transparent brown. The whole print uses transparent colors at certain areas, and adds to the idea of imagining book scenes. It was fun to do, even though it took quite a while to create. I still have to get a proof of this to see how it will print. (I have no idea at this point!)

For the Bag Pattern contest I entered "Creativity Tote", which finished 44th out of 76 entries. The kit prints on one yard of fabric.

Click image to go to fabric page.

"Creativity Tote" is an art tote bag that can grow with a child. It has pockets to hold items such as crayon boxes, scissors, pencils, markers, glue, glitter, paints, and whatever else needed to create works of art. The right side is designed to have elastic to hold coloring books, construction paper, coloring pads, and art paper pads up to 9" x 12". The tote has a flap with hook and loop tape closure that allows the tote to expand. I also included a name tag on the back of the tote for the child's information. The white shapes print pieces are made so that the child can draw on the pattern pieces to create images from the shapes. I haven't made this kit available for sale yet.

I have some patterns done for upcoming contests already (!), but I will wait to show them until it's time for their contest. Please check out the Hat Pattern contest at Spoonflower, and vote for your favorites.

Winter Wrap Up

This post will be a summary of some projects and designs from this past winter. It's officially spring; when did THAT happen? (I know it was yesterday, but where did the time go)? Well, I will try my best to get back to regular posting. Starting with this post.

1. Cookie Advent Calendar found here at Spoonflower.

I designed this Advent Calendar for the Spoonflower Advent Calendar contest. The yard sized kit includes cookies, oven mitt (not pictured), cookie sheet, and instructions. I used hook and loop tape to attach the cookies to the cookie sheet. I also put a piece of board inside the cookie sheet (left the top open then sewed it shut) to add some stability to it. The idea is that the oven mitt (I will add pictures of it to this post later; I thought I had a good picture of it) holds the cookies until they are needed for the countdown. I did make a few changes after getting my fabric and making it. The "7" heart cookie wasn't the right red I used and I changed the "1" and "13" to black since the white didn't show up well against the yellow. "Cookie Advent Calendar" finished 9th, and was my second time making the Top Ten.

2. Road Trip Collection. Complete collection can be found here at Spoonflower.

Printed swatches of the current collection

My "Road Trip Coordinates Sampler" placed 170/200 in the Coordinates Contest at Spoonflower. There were a lot of great collections! I'm really happy with how the designs printed. I do have another stripe that I will add to the collection, but it will but solid colors. I'm really happy with Film Strip Stripe. It actually lines up with 35mm film, frames and perforations! (Well, the film I compared it to wasn't Kodak, so the perforations didn't line up at a certain point, but I'm sure it would line up exactly with other film). I still have ideas for two more prints, but haven't started them yet. They will eventually be added to the collection.

3. Contest results!
* Evergreens- Retro Evergreens 108/149
* Coordinates- Road Trip Coordinate Sampler 170/200
* Cityscape- St. Louis Skyline Border Print 57/180
* Art Deco- Deco Geometric Teal Medium 136/275
* Jellyfish- Dangerous Beauty 69/226
* Bicycle- Simple Bicycles Green 65/199

I am working on two contest entries right now. One is a kit, and will have new coordinating prints. The other is a print being done is a style I haven't done before. So far, so good. I will have an easy project in an upcoming post.

Collection Sampler: Road Trip!

Wow, I've been away for a long time! I will do a post on a couple of my past contest entries, complete with pictures of a finished project I designed. (The project post is a bit late, since it was Christmas related, but it's fun and it's never too early to think about later this year. Right? I still can't believe it's 2012). But first, is my current contest entry, and a new collection.

My new collection Road Trip was inspired by a trip on a section of Route 66. It includes things you would see or bring on a trip, such as neon lights, luggage, sunglasses, and film (not anymore though). I plan on adding a few more prints to the collection. Until then, here is the collection so far.

Click on the image to see it in detail.

This is my contest entry for the current Fabric of the Week Contest: Coordinates at Spoonflower. You can vote for the contest here until Wednesday evening when voting ends. The Coordinates Contest was for a one yard image that included four coordinating fabrics. One of the fabrics had to be a stripe and one fabric had to be a dot of some sort. It's really interesting to see all the mini collections and the wide variety of subjects, color themes, and pattern choices.

My coordinate sampler includes Film Strip Stripe: Small, which is half the scale of my Film Strip Stripe found here. The Film Strip Stripe is a vertical stripe print made up of strips of film negatives and are the exact size as actual negatives. Once I get my samples, I can test actual film negatives against the fabric to see if the perforations match up.

Film Strip Stripe: Small. Click image to see it in repeat.

The large scale print for the sampler is Sunglasses Outline. It is a 4-way print made up of various types of sunglasses. The shades all are about 4" wide. The outlines of the sunglasses are in varying thicknesses. I also have a half scale version of this print, better suited for smaller craft and sewing projects. Sunglasses Outline Half scale can be found here. Sunglasses Outline is my favorite print of the collection. I think it would make an awesome circle skirt or summer dress.

Sunglasses Outline. Click image to see it in repeat.

Pink Luggage Ditsy is the small scale print for the sampler. It is a ditsy print, which is typically a smaller 4-way/scatter print. Luggage in retro shapes are scattered in various colors on the print. The same print is also available in a blue colorway, Blue Luggage Ditsy, which is available here.

Pink Luggage Ditsy. Click on image to see it in repeat.

Last is my dot print for the sampler, Neon Dots: Night. The dots are similar to how circles are done in neon form. The colors pop against the black background, and look very bright, but are actually the same colors used throughout the collection. I also have a dot version on a white background, Neon Dots: Day, which can be found here. For the Day version, I made the white neon grey in color. It's neat to see how muted the colors look on the white background, even though the colors (excluding grey) are the same as on the Night version.

Neon Dots: Night. Click on image to see it in repeat.

You can see the entire collection here, but I will be adding more prints eventually. My next post will be a sort of Winter/Holiday wrap up, complete with two contest entries and project photos. Until then, please vote for the current Spoonflower fabric contest, and check out the talented designers there.