Polder Sofa Suit

My clothing designs are influenced by everything around me - and by some things that I wish were around me.  I fell in LOVE with this sofa the very first moment that I saw it.  I have a tendency to fall deeply in love very, very quickly.

It will be some time before this sofa is likely to find it's rightful place in my home.  In the meantime, I have decided that the next best thing would be to dress my son as a Polder Sofa.

The unexpected combination of greens is what attracted my attention to this sofa initially.  I used several different t-shirts in different shades of green to form the base of this little suit.

This sofa was designed by Hella Jongerius.  She is currently one of my very favorite designers.  Down to the last detail.  Check out the choice of buttons!

In an effort to mimic the lines and details of the inspiration piece, I used freezer paper stencils and screen printing ink to add details to Arjun's suit.

 He's a good sport.  I think if he were to choose........he would order the sofa in red.  With dragon pillows.

Dragon Shirts

Arjun and I each have a new favorite shirt!  Each one has a dragon on it and we can't get enough of them.  I've been trying to wash them as soon as we finish wearing them so that we can wear them again as soon as possible.  Perhaps we each need more than one?

Here's how we got them:

Somehow, I came across photographs of the beautiful batik work of Kate from Pink Bunny Batiks.  Most likely it was via the Dharma Trading Company website, but it could also have been through Etsy.  I cruise around both sites with frequency.  I ordered Arjun an adorable fish T-shirt - which he also loves - and asked Kate if she ever made dragon shirts.  She said that she hadn't ever, but that she'd be happy to try.

Hooray!

I stitched two white blanks for her and left the side seams and one shoulder seam open so that she could work flat.  Then I sent them off and waited impatiently for their return.  A few weeks later, the shirts came back to us and I stitched them up right away.  We are SO pleased!
Kate took pictures of the shirts as the work progressed.  I find them fascinating....

Here they are stitched together:

Arjun's shirt - front view

 

 

Arjun's shirt - back view

My shirt - front view

My shirt back view

We've been sick for a few days, with mucky weather so we have limited photos of the shirts in use.

We are both already planning our second dragon shirts.  I want an olive colored one and Arjun says that his next dragon shirt will be pink.

THANKS KATE!

Lovebird Dress for Lil Blu boo / Dharma Trading Co. Design Challenge

 

Here is the dress I am submitting to the Lil Blue Boo / Dharma Trading Design Challenge

Around Valentine's Day I designed a shirt for myself to wear to school.  I used the Iggy Suit screen to print designs on the sleeves and my own lacy heart screen for the heart design.  I love the shirt and I wear it a lot, but after I made it I thought the design might better suit a little girl's dress.

I happen to know an adorable little girl whose mother is a professional photographer, so we made a swap.  I stitched up a dress for Ariel and her mom took these fabulous photographs.
I designed both the shirt and the dress to have the red ties streaming down the back, so technically, the dress is being worn backwards in these pictures.  I think it works this way as well!









The neck line is adjustable and the dress is roomy.  I figure that a little girl can get a lot of use out of it this way.  She can wear it as a long dress until she needs to
let out the neck and wear it as a tunic with jeans.

Ariel is really an excellent model.  She very clearly knows what she's doing!

Here's a photo of Rigby wearing the dress facing forward....