Folksy

Braving the dizzy new heights of online retail!

I've made a Folksy Shop!

There are only a few things on it so far... but its a start!

Here are a few of the things I've been making for it...

Out of the Rag Bag...

My Degree show

I have just updated my website too! There is a lot more info on this project over there now!  Jaime Greenly

Owls are my friends...

I've been kinda lonely at home since all the busyiness of Uni has finished. I've been making new friends for myself though!

In the form of these owl doorstops!

this last guy is my favourite!

  I've made loads and given lots away and sold some, which is exciting. these are a just a few I still have at home.

I've also made lots of flowers and bows!

and some patchwork cushions!

I'm thinking about setting up an esty or a folksy soon, I might get my nice photographer to take some better pictures of these things before I do that though!

I am however selling some of them in the Governor’s Gift Store in Hereford by the Bus Station! It's a really great cause with lots of lovely things made by Hereford Crafts people. Its worth a look, and buy my stuff because I'm a broke graduate now!

:o)

I'm Been Busy...

I have been very neglectful of this little blog whilst finishing my degree... But I promise I was busy and working really hard. My hard work paid off and I got a First Class Honours! Yay!

I will follow this post with many more now i have lots of time on my hands and I will write all about my final project/degree show and New Designers!

But first, I recently did my first ever craft fair! It was really fun and well worth it, even though I did turn my house into a bit of a sweat shop in the week running up to it...

Here are some pictures

There are also some goodies my mum made. I think I need to work my displaying skills for the next one, but it was a really lovely day at the Affordable Craft Fair and I hope I get to to do the next one too!

Good News and a day of sewing!

I have very exciting news! My project Out of the Rag Bag... was chosen as the West of England and Wales regional winner of the SDC International Design Competition. Yay!!

The theme was "Fashioning Colour Responsibly." The week of stress the design boards took me to make was all worth it! I have never fought with foam board as much or cut pieces of paper as straight in my life!

Now I have to go to the UK final in Bradford where I have to talk to the judges and go to a black tie dinner, then whoever wins the national heats goes to the International Final in Shanghai! Eeeee! So fingers crossed!

Anyway, to Celebrate and to take my mind of uni work I have spent the day making and sewing all the little things I've been meaning to do for ages...

Firstly I made a lovely new laptop case for my little dell. 

 I've had this felted jumper in my rag bag for about 5 years, I remember the day i bought it charity shopping with my mum. I'm glad I kept it this long and didn't waste it on making a cushion.

 

My lap top loves it's snuggley new travel case! 

 .

 Complete with soft inner lining made from another old jumper, inside pocket and badly sewn in recycled zip!

I'm also half way through making this dress for myself, but i must dash and get the train home! My lap top is surely looking forward to the journey too!

 

Maybe when this dress is done I could wear it to the black tie dinner for the competition...

Happy sewing day! 

Illustrations

Experimental fashion illustrations.

Out of the Rag Bag...

I haven't put very much about my new project on here so here goes a whole load of it! 

 Here are a few example patterns I've been working on... there are more on my website! www.jaimegreenly.com

Out of the rag bag was born out of my ever increasing pile of scrap fabrics. I began to apply the discarded patterns to newly drawn shapes and motifs and then digitally manipulate them into bright, colourful kaleidoscopic designs; a kind of updated patchwork.

The work is intended to highlight the wastage associated with the textile and fashion industries.  Of the 1 million tonnes of fabric thrown away each year only 25% are actually recycled. By using ‘readymade’ patterns in my work it shows the abundance of fabric already present in the design world that often do just go to waste. Reproducing the patterns digitally also leaves the actual fabrics to be recycled in other ways.

My website...

So I guess this life thing is looming over my head! Very close to graduation time and then what will I do? I've made a website so I look professional and like I know what I'm doing with this surface pattern designer thing... it's over here ------> Jaime Greenly

Still a bit of a work in progess but it's getting there...

Also...

click on the picture...

Rusty Photo Shoot

On probably one of the coldest days of the year so far I took two lovely model friends and a lovely photographer to a rather dindgy alley way to take some picture of my rusty collection... ( I paid them in coffee and sweets) we all froze but the pictures are great! thanks Dan Carroll - Time's Relentless Melt

Covered Button Bracelets

I recently became a bit addicted to making covered buttons. With this addiction I decided to make some bracelets; the buttons are just sewn tightly onto sheering elastic. Volia lovely hand made gifts.... If I ever get round to giving them away that is...........

Dresses dresses dresses

So I like dresses. I have too many dresses! But at least I've started making my own not just buying them... 

 My good friend Kelly-Jayne taught me how to make these circular skirt dresses over the phone! She's got a blog too about making clothes and up-cycling, its over here... Ethal Nunn

The white dress was meant to be just a practise run; hence the mis-matched fabrics but it worked really well so i added a peter-pan collar and i wear it all the time! I think its made from an old table cloth and a bed sheet; just some random bits and bobs I found in my ever expanding fabric box.

The lovely green fabric was donated to me by a friend. In return I have to make her one of these dresses... which I promise I will be doing soon; I've said it on the internet now so I'll have to!  

Rusty & Musty

 I like to call this project my rusty musty collection, but I'll probably have to give that re-think soon to make it sound more appealing! 

I have been looking into eco-friendly ways of applying design to fabric and for this I  have been experimenting with rust dying and up-cycling used garments.

 These first two examples started life as plain men's shirts. 

I took the pattern from one of my original charity shop rag bag finds (left) and given that I could not bring myself to cut or dye the orginal I made a brand new, well not strictly brand new, top in the same style with a bib front and gathered in waist. 

 To be truthful the first example was a complete revelation! Feeling slightly disheartened with my work at the time I made this mock up out of an old shirt and literally shoved it in a bucket full of damp rusty nails. I forgot about it for two days and when i took it out it revealed this beautiful rusty pattern. I then used shibori to gather in the fabric and give it a crumpled effect.  

So after my first success I tried a different approach and made a second top out of another mans shirt and laser cut into the collar and edges to make a slightly lacy looking finish and brought the waist in with a couple of carefully positioned stitches.

 Further developing this idea; I began using iron fillings to create the rust and a paper stencil to produce more intricate patterns on the fabric. This is something I am still experimenting with and will have more examples to show soon! 

To this i wanted to add colour. An  eco-friendly way of doing this is heat transfer printing. These are some examples where i tried combining shibori, transfer print and rust dying onto found bits of polyester.

The trouble with using clothes I have found in the rag-bag is that the fabrics they are made from indefinitely determine which techniques I can use on them. As it turns out people don't give away nice silk shirts or cotton blouses... Most of what I come across is dreaded polyester! But it does present an interesting challenge and is something I want to persist with. Being a man-made fibre it does not breakdown at all and therefore it is essential that it is re-used as much as possible and not just thrown away. 

and in any case I have come across so many interestingly shaped garment it is an exciting challenge to make them into something new and desirable.

"Empty Dresses"

These garments were destined for the rag-bag. I saved them after lots of rifling and sorting through the, rather musty, unwanted clothes bags at Cancer Reasearch UK Swansea. They are part of my lastest up-cycling project. 

 More about this another time......

Photography by the lovely Dan Carroll Time's Relentless Melt