Oi! Meet Me Boys!

Who is familiar with these Bad Boys?

These are the River Boys from the Australian “melodrama”¹ Home and Away.  I have a real soft spot for this programme- I get a real kick out of it, can’t explain why (ok, the beautiful boys above are a compelling reason).  The boys are brothers² in the show, members of the troublesome River Boys gang. Daryl “Brax” Braxton is the eldest and has looked after younger brothers Heath and Casey since they were nippers- Dad was in prison and Mum is an alcoholic gambler. They have many tattoos between them, and super-sculpted abs.  So I made dolls of them.  As one does.

This is Brax. He’s the Daddy-Brother.

spot the difference

Brax has many tattoos; they’re on his hand, arms, chest, torso and lower back.

This is Heath; he’s the Irresponsible, Hot-Headed, Don’t-Give-A-Damn Brother.

Heath has tattoos on this chest, shoulder, arms and neck.³

This is Casey.  He’s the Baby Brother.

Casey has only one tatt, gotten in a fit of teenage angst about his actual in-prison-for-armed-robbery daddy.

 

They took me many months to make; a bit of sewing here, a bit there,  a pause, start again.   I made MANY mockups before settling on their body shape, emphasising their wide developed shoulders.  Each doll has a double skin on their chest so I could put stuffing in between them to make their abs.  Their board shorts and flip-flops (thongs…) are very simply made.  They’re going to take a trip to Wexford soon so I can take pics of them in their natural habitat, the beach.

 

Their skin tones are all different, mainly due to the fact that one cannot buy decent fabric off the shelf in this country for doll making (for any making really).  So I got it online, but its hard to know what colour fabric really is when looking at it on a monitor.  So I bought 6 shades of Kona Cotton, but not enough for 3 dolls of any of them because I AM NOT RICH.  Hence the 3 different skin toned dolls.  What a pain.  The sooner we open our own fabric shop, the better, eh Tricia?!

 

(they’ve got such cute bellybuttons, doncha think?;-)

 

¹This is what it’s called on the TV Guide section of our DVR box, a melodrama.  According to dictionary.com, melodrama means: “A dramatic form that does not follow the laws of cause and effect and that exaggerates emotion and emphasises plot or action at the expense of characterisation”. I am outraged at this.  H&A is so real, so lifelike, the characters so well-rounded; how can anyone think the word Melodrama is appropriate.  I think it should be listed as a documentary.  Or an anthropological study of attractive people and a beach.

²There is another brother too, Kyle; he is a half-brother, same father.  He only appeared in the show earlier this year.  He has no tattoos that I am aware of, so I left him out.  Tough luck Kyle…  For symmetry’s sake, lets call him Other-Brother.

³ In the show, Heath has gotten another tattoo on his chest since I finished sewing- the names of his children.  Oh the inconvenience!  Tisk.  And I noticed that he has a tramp-stamp of a gun wedged in his shorts too- who KNOWS when he got that one… *shakes head sadly*

Cushions for Clara and Emma

I made some cushions recently; for Clara and Emma.

This was a commission; I was told that daddy was a big Superman fan, so if I fancied incorporating this in some way…  I didn’t want to go all-out Superman, so instead I just went superhero.  The buttons were an ebay purchase; I love them!  I didn’t even use them all…

Pow!

All the fabrics are mostly basic cottons I had in my collection; the Space Police fabric is from a pair of charity shop curtains I bought years ago.  The Care Bears fabric came from a Walmart in Arizona somewhere (or maybe Texas?), and the Dr. Seuss was a present from New Zealand.

********

Emma’s cushion is a house-warming present- she recently took the plunge and became a home-owner.

 

 

 

 

While I like the design, this cushion didn’t turn out as well as I’d hoped.  The design on the front is situated too close to the edges, so when the pad is inserted, you don’t see all the detail.  Oh well, live’n’learn.  Love the colours though.

Again, most of the fabrics are basic cottons from my collection. The two on the back are vintage; one is from an old skirt I blogged about before, and the other is from a stash of new polyester and nylon (yum!) sheets and pillowcases I got in Wexford at the sale of the contents of an old drapery.

(I also got some classy thermals; 85% chlorofibre minimum I’ll have you know- only for best for me;-). Sunny wanted in on the photo action; she knows where it’s at).

 

 

A Wedding Present

Was looking through some photos from last year recently and realised that I had forgotten to post pictures of this!

Friends got married in July last (July! talk about tardy on my part); I made them a portrait in case they weren’t willing to use a photographer to record their special day.

The happy couple are both from places they didn’t grow up in, and live together in a country that is home to neither; the background to this piece names a few places on their personal journeys before and after they met.

Now, Lisa made her dress- I didn’t quite capture how beautiful that was; and Mo, apologies for the skin tone- dunno if you’d believe me if I told you how I chose the fabric (we are sososososososo limited in fabric choice in this country).

You guys are awesome- I know you’ve years of happiness together:-)

And now, because how else does one get their jollies on a art/craft blog, a gratuitous  shot of Lisa’s boobies.

Róisín’s Library

My godmother Róisín had a significant birthday at the end of August.  She loves nothing more than to curl up with a good book and is a huge Agatha Christie fan, so this cushion didn’t take too much thinking about.

I had an accident with this when I was making it.  I mentioned in a previous post that I tend to work by eye; I don’t always mark things out.  Well, this time I decided to use some dissolvable* fabric.  So far so good.  Turns out that you need colour-fast fabric when rinsing out the dissolvable* fabric.  That lovely red gaberdine fabric I used for the background was absolutely NOT colour-fast, not even a tiny bit.  When immersed, it promptly turned the water (and my hands) a vibrant red colour.  All the detail went a lurid pink.  And I may have cried a tiny bit.  I made some frantic phone calls; did a bit of googling, and then left it in a bucket of cold water and lemon juice, and went to see a film, because that’s how I roll with pink hands.  I mention this because the logo across the top of the cushion that says Róisín’s Library came into existence to cover the next problem that occurred.  The colour run remover that I bought on the way home from the cinema left a lovely (not so lovely) orangey stain where the logo is now.  Never rains but it pours, right?  Or to use an opposing idiom, every cloud has a silver lining?  Because, in the end-up, the personalisation makes the cushion.

Róisín loved it.  And I reverted to type, I didn’t use dissolvable* fabric to embroider the covering for the stain…

(*Dissolvable is not a real word apparently.  Dissolve is.  Dissolved.  Dissolving.  All real.  Not dissolvable.  The wiggly red line tells me it’s wrong; it suggests dissoluble.  I checked dictionary.com, it suggests dissoluble.  Really, I think I need the word soluble.  But I prefer dissolvable.  So there, dictionary.com and wiggly red line. Dissolvable.)

Molly Julia and Usain Bolt

Finished two things on the to-do list this week.

*woop!*

 

Molly Julia was a commission.  I got heart-shaped buttons to go with the heart-shaped fabric and the green heart on the front.

I hope she likes it!

And now to something completely different….

The Big Man himself!  Not a commission, this was all just for me:-)

Heeheeheeheeheeheeheehee!  Ah, still making me laugh…

Ongoing Projects

Work has been a little crazy recently and I haven’t had as much time to make stuff as I’ve wanted to.  Thought I’d share a little of what’s in my to-finish pile…

Usain Bolt is nearly finished:-) ZOOOOooooooommmm!  I’m knitting his boots at the minute.

Two of the three cushions I’ve had to make recently.  These two aren’t finished yet… YET.  It’ll happen…

Some sewing stuff.

This is only a fraction of what I’m working on at the moment.  And the amount of stuff in my head at the moment… well, it’s epic.  I’ll get it all out some day!

Father’s Day

Ok, t’was ages ago; made this wee piece of embroidery for Dad for Father’s Day.  It’s part of a song he used to sing to us when were kids (were kids? He’s been known to still give us a bar or two!)

Hey little Hen…

…when,when,when…

…will you lay me an egg…

…for my teeeeeaaaaaa?

As I may have mentioned before, I am a self-taught embroiderer; since making this I have done some research (backward thinking, yes…).  Apparently if I use interfacing,  the base fabric won’t wrinkle (who knew?)  And I think the time has come for me to stop embroidering freehand.  I have it in my head that its cheating in some way if I mark out what I am trying to do first.   I am being stubborn.  Or something.  So. My resolution?  To purchase a few different types of water-soluble pens/pencils and finally draw what I plan to embroider first.  Chances are, my hen could have looked a bit better.

Dad liked it, that’s the important thing:-)

And if you’re wondering what the song is, well here you go…*

* I found some interesting versions on Youtube; this one has a clucker…then there’s one that’s “suitable for old folks homes” and one with a bad animation of a cat meowing the song… Seriously odd…

Ben’s Mobile

A bit of house-keeping here; I actually made this about 6 weeks ago…

This mobile was a commission.  It’s the same style as the one I made for Simon, but as Ben’s name is short, I made little animals to balance out it all out.  They’re removable too, with wee bells inside to jangle-jangle if it tickles someone’s fancy to actually remove them…

*check out the ever-so-cool Dr. Seuss fabric on the letter N… One Fish, Two Fish I believe:-)

Snapshot

Way back in January Amy posted about the Art House Co-Op’s Limited Edition Sketchbook project and begged someone to take part in it with her. I signed up. Slightly against my better judgement as I was already over stretching myself with various projects. Sure what did I only go and do a few months later but sign up for their Photo Response Project. Time is only a concept, right? Well, both projects are deadlined for Monday and I’m pleased to report I am finished them both and will be popping them in the post on Friday. Yes, yes, cutting it fine- but not as fine as some, hey Amy?

A Postcard of a Postcard

I found this dapper gentleman in a vintage shop in London a few years ago. I’ve a few old postcards- this one is definitely my favourite.  Of course, it was his mighty fine moustache that drew me in, I am that predictable;-)

When I buy an old postcard, what’s written on the back is as important as what’s on the front.  But they always throw up so many questions.  In this case- who is Mrs W and what does she have that Miss L H and Jerry need to see?

The postmark is a little obscured, but this card was originally sent between 1900 and 1909- I’d hazard a guess with 1904.  But it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that this postcard has survived for over 100 years.  How did this happen?  What has he seen on his travels from London to Shawbury, back to London and then to Dublin to my mirror where he currently resides?

Anyway, to the question of why I’m writing about this postcard.  Well, I signed up for the 4×6  exchange with Art House Co-op a few weeks ago.  I send them a piece of art that measures 4x6inches with an SAE and they send me back something by someone else.  When I read 4×6, my immediate thought was “postcard”; I’ve made quite a few postcards in my time (I like to utilise the postal service as much as possible and  I’ve been known to make myself postcards while travelling and send them to myself… yup!)  So, I decided that Herbert (he looks like a Herbert, right?  Or Horatio.  Or Harold.  Nah, definitely Herbert.)  was going to travel again, this time to the USA.

I used Dylon image-maker to transfer a copy of the postcard to fabric, then machine-embroidered over it.  Unfortunately, I’m a lazy thread-buyer; I tend to make-do too much.  I used a black thread from Ikea here. It’s a tad on the bulky side.  Bah.  I used a quality beige thread for the writing up the centre, it gives much better, cleaner line and my wonky sewn handwriting is less geriatric looking.  Live and learn.

Hope you enjoy your journey, Herbert!  Godspeed!