Design, Printing & Sewing All in One!

Recently I was given a wonderful opportunity to get to know a bit of the creative inspirations of a wonderful textiles artist, Mariam! Mariam self describes as "a French-Malian artist born in Africa, raised in Africa and France, and now living in Brooklyn." Her blog and Etsy shop launched in 2007 due to her "desire to create a new, young, and multi-cultural home fashion brand."

Check out her Etsy Site: www.etsy.com/shop/Angelshair

And of course her blog too: http://theangelshair.blogspot.com/

Q:Tell us a bit about yourself.
A: Hi and thank you for having me on your blog! My name is Mariam. I am a French-Malian artist and home fashion designer living in Brooklyn. I love multiculturalism, and originality. This is what I try to show in my creations. All of my ideas take roots in my double culture. I love to travel the world and to discover unique and different approaches of art and design. I have a special passion for fabrics, and they are one of my favorite medium.

Q: What events and/or people have led you to become an artist?
A: As far as I remember, I have always been an artist. So being an artist has come naturally when the time has come to choose a career. I do not have the feeling that I choose to become an artist, I do not feel I had a real choice. This is the only way I feel true to myself. More than a way to earn my life, this is who I am.

Q: How do you come up with your creative ideas?
A: At every moment, by traveling, spending time with family and friends, having a coffee, watching a movie reading a book, listening to a music. In general, by having fun.

Q: What’s your quirkiest attribute?
A: I speak 3 languages (almost 4) and have lived on 3 continents. I am not sure if this is quirky, but this has become an attribute to me.

Q: What would you say to someone who says they aren’t creative?
A: I think everybody is. I would tell them to start creating something, anything, and put themselves in a creative mindset. This will allow the ideas to flow. Like anything in life, creativity is something that you need to develop if you want to excel in it.

Q: Where are your items available for sale?
A: My items are all available at http://www.angelshair.etsy.com/

Q: What project/s do you currently have on your plate?
A: I am working on my 2011-2012 collection which will as usual articulate around 3 themes: 
Africa, Europe, America. I hope to be able to introduce it in a couple of months.

A gigantic thank you to Mariam for letting us get a glimpse of her creative spirit!

How to Make Curtains Out of Sheets

Happy Monday! Last week was an amazing launch week - thank you to all the followers and thank you for sharing this link. Your support and kind words mean the world to me. I have had such a wonderful time booking guest bloggers to the site and being astonished at the crazy talent out there! You wanna see talent??? Pam from Bibbidi Bobbidi Beautiful has offered a guest post for us today - thanks Pam!

Project Details:

Level: Beginner

Topic: Refashion

Time to complete project: Expect 1-4 hours

DIY Drapes and Valance from Sheets

This image from Decorpad was one of my inspiration pics for the nursery drapes (I have no idea why blogger is cutting off the right side of the photo, but if you click on it to enlarge you can see the full image):

I pulled down the valance to show you a photo of the top of the drapes:

If you were using a decorative rod, the drapes would look just fine by themselves, but adding the tailored valance allowed me to hide the cheap rod and the top of the roller blind!

How to make drapes from a king sized flat sheet:

• Cut the sheet vertically down the center (so that the top edge with the wide decorative hem is at the top)
• Finish the raw edge you just created on each panel by turning it under twice and either sewing it in place or using hem tape (you can face that edge toward the wall if you're worried about any imperfections)
• At this point you could just shirr the panels onto a rod (you may have to open the side seam of the decorative top hem part to do this) or hang them from clip rings, but I opted to make slits on the back side of the wide top hem allowing them to hang like back tab drapes which forces the drapes into nice folds. Clip rings have the same effect, but why pay for clip rings when you can do this for free?
• For each "back tab" just cut two vertical slits into the back side of the top wide hem (be careful not to cut through the front layer of fabric) about an inch long and an inch apart (make sure not to cut too close to the top edge- leave about half an inch from the top edge) with 5 inches in between the "tabs".

Here's a photo of my "back tabs"- make sense? The tabs will have raw edges, but no one will ever see that part. If you want to be able to wash them, run a little fray check along the edges of the tabs.

• Hang your panels on your rod, mark the length for hemming and either sew the hem or use hem tape. I read on a professional drapery site that you should always mark your hem line all the way across, because the hem will pull up at the edges and I have found this to be true. I don't quite understand the physics behind it, but you have to leave a little extra length at the bottom corners if you want your drapes to uniformly brush the floor.
• Lastly, add some trim! I just used inexpensive grosgrain ribbon and fabric glue.

Now on to the valance! Here's a closeup (and could you please pretend not to notice my ugly ceilings?!):

It's basically just one long rectangle of fabric, pleated in the corners and attached with duct tape to...


the very cardboard box the sheets were mailed in!!

And attached to the wall with...thumbtacks!

Now you know all my dirty little secrets.

Here are the specifics:

My window is 41" wide. I hung my curtain rod 56" wide to give me room for the panels to gather on either side (I actually hung my rod a bit off center to camouflage my off-center window.)

The first step in constructing the valance is to make a form out of cardboard or foam core for the fabric to hang from (I actually got this idea from Jenny's foam core pelmet tutorial!). You really only need a top and a back- the back edge will slide behind your curtain rod. I opened up the box completely until I had one large flat piece of cardboard and used duct tape to tape the flaps together so that I had one large solid piece of cardboard to work with.

You want to end up with a piece of carboard slightly longer than your curtain rod (mine was 56 1/2"), with a horizontal fold across the middle. The portion above the fold will be the top/overhang and the portion below the fold attaches to the wall.


My overhang was 6" and my back side was 4 1/2" so my cardboard started out as 56 1/2" long x 10 1/2". I cut away about an inch and a half of the bottom part on either side to allow it to slide behind the curtain rod.

You can kind of see in this photo how the back side of the cardboard is notched out on the side to allow it to slide behind the curtain rod...


Now for the fabric. I actually used one of the king sized pillowcases for this part. I just cut open the top and bottom seams of the pillowcase, leaving me with one long rectangle of fabric measuring 21 1/2" x 80" long. This seemed to be the perfect length for my window, but you could just as easily cut up the fitted sheet instead if you needed more length. I hemmed the long bottom edge only (the side edges were already hemmed for me- they were originally the open end of the pillowcase) and added the trim to the same edge. My finished valance has a 12 inch drop.

To attach the fabric to the cardboard:

• Find the center of the long edge, measure 12 inches up from the finished bottom edge, and temporarily attach it to the front center of the cardboard with a pin.
• Keeping the fabric straight, pull it smooth to the front corners and pin.
• Line up the ends of the fabric with the back edge of the cardboard and pin.
• Pull the excess fabric into a pleat at each corner and temporarily pin.
• Now just smooth the extra fabric over the top of the cardboard form and wrap the corners like you're making hospital corners on a bed and use duct tape to attach the fabric in the back.
• Remove the pins.

Now just slide it in place and use a few tacks to attach it to the wall. I think this looks best hung all the way up at ceiling heights. It weighs next to nothing, so the tacks really are adequate, but I suppose if you were using heavier fabric you could use a couple of "L" brackets from the hardware store.



That's it!


It's a little tricky to write a tutorial after the fact, so if you're confused about any part of this, please contact me or leave a question in the comments and I'll be happy to help!


Here are a few more fun sheet options I found...

Overstock $39.99




Smart Bargains $29.98


Smart Bargains $34.98

These last two are available in blue, brown or linen (beige)

I particularly like the first two options for the same reason that I like my Carleton Varney sheets- a) I love graphic prints and b)the larger scale makes them appear less obviously like sheets in the final product!

Love,

Clothing Designer Kate from Katetowers on Etsy

Meet Kate. Kate is an amazing artist & designer. You're assignment is to go to her Etsy site, KateTowers because, well, you just should! A trillion thank you's Kate for taking the time to answer some questions for Liberate Creativity. I'm mad in love with her custom pieces!Kate's photos, interview and site should certainly get your creative juices flowing!

Q: Tell us a bit about yourself:
A: if you asked me 4 years ago i would have said i'm an artist. but now i'll say i'm a mother and an artist. because right now it's all about finding the balance - and taking care of the kids comes first. i'm very passionate about what i do and there is never a lack of ideas - just a lack of time. i am also very passionate about my kids, so hopefully i'm using that same burning creativity in my child rearing, lord knows i need it!

Q: What events and/or people have led you to become an artist?

A: i have made some kind of art for as long as i can remember. both of my parents are very creative and art projects were always encouraged. there was never any holding back as far as running with it. i feel lucky that they understand how important art is in ones life.i never studied apparel design formally but sort of fell in to it and fell in love with it. it feels very sculptural to me.  i've been very experimental with the whole process.

Q: How do you come up with your creative ideas?
A: they are constantly burning in the back of my head! i think creativity just sort of hits you, rather than coming up with ideas. it's rare that i'm "searching" for something to inspire me.

Q: What’s your quirkiest attribute?

 A: hmmm, this is a hard one. i'm fairly quirky.  i talk really fast - sometimes i think this is a result of my east coast roots but really it's probably because i have ADD and am trying to keep up with my thoughts, spit them out before i forget.

Q: What would you say to someone who says they aren’t creative?
A: i think everyone is creative in their own way, just as people are smart in their own way. creativity doesn't have to come out on paper - it can live in the mind alone. i think when someone says this they mean more that they aren't crafty with their hands - just a guess anyway.


Q: Where are your items available for sale?
A: most of my pieces are one of a kind, so also very limited. i can only produce so much with my own two hands so right now i'm only selling privately out of my studio and on etsy. i ran a clothing store for 8 years here in portland so i sold there and to a few select boutiques. i hope to do this again in the future when i have more time and can produce more.

Q: What project/s do you currently have on your plate?

A: i'm working on a few custom pieces and just starting to design some completely new things for a small collection. i don't do typical seasonal collections, but rather a group of pieces that compliment each other or have the same feel to them, a theme. i've sort of just bee working on what i like to call "survival" pieces for the last few years. i know i sound like a broken record when i say how little time i have due to being a mom, but it really has put a hold on things. i think i am feeling sort of desperate to challenge myself again, make a comeback of sorts. we shall see.

Our First Giveaway

Join in on our first giveaway! I adore Amazon because you can get such a variety of things in one place! If you haven't checked out the craft books and supplies available then you definitely should. Go ahead, I'll wait.....

You loved their site, right?! I know this to be true. Of course they have many  items available other than just crafting items. Because of my love, I think you should get a little extra fun while shopping there too! 

WIN $25 GIFT CARD!!!!

 Entering to win this giveaway follow these easy steps:

1. "Like" Liberate Creativity on Facebook here

2. Complete the form below (Your email address will not be shared with anyone)

3. Be sure to tell me one of your fav items from  Amazon.com

Giveaway entries will be accepted until Tuesday, Feb 8th at midnight. The winner will be chosen through at random through Random.org and announced on Wednesday.

Good luck - happy browsing!

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Fancy Flower out of Yoga Pants

I'm thrilled to have Sara from CraftSnob join us on Liberate Creativity! Sara offers amazing projects and was brave  nice enough to offer one of her beautiful flower projects with us! Thanks Sara, come back anytime!


Be sure to check out her entire site - a direct link to the "Shari" project can be found here
Level: Beginner
Topic: Accessories
Time to complete project: Expect 1 hour or less

Shari

Are you surprised to see another flower tutorial? Let's call her Shari. 

Shari was born from the bottom of a pair of my yoga pants. Okay, I'm not a yoga fan. That's beside the point. But, I LOVE yoga pants. You know how the length shrinks when you wash pants like these? Since my pants became high-waters, I just cut off the bottom to make them knee length. 

Start with 5 large circles, 8 medium circles, and 8 small circles. I used 2.5", 2", and 1.5", respectively. Make 4 sets of stacked circles. One large on bottom, 2 medium in the middle, and 2 small on top. 

The fifth large circle will be the piece that all four stacks are sewn onto. Thread a needle and knot the end of the thread. Pick up one stack of circles and enter with the needle from the bottom center. Pull the thread through.

Send the needle back through the stack of fabric. Pass the thread through the center of the single large circle. 

Pass the needle back through the single fabric circle. Pick up another stack. Enter the bottom center of the stack with the needle.

Pass the needle back through the stack and through the single fabric circle. Do this for the other 2 stacks. Tie off the thread on the underside of the single fabric circle. Cut away the excess thread. Notice that each stack is sewn through almost the center of the single fabric circle.

My high-waters produced a lovely flower, don't you think?

The Real Deal: It pretty much cost me $0 since I used clothing material on hand. 

How to Make a Leather Wallet

Project Details:

Level: Beginner

Topic: Accessories

Time to complete project: Expect 1 hour

Hi! My name is Erin and I'm honored to be the first contributor for Liberate Creativity! Becky and I have been friends since our oldest boys were just tiny babies and we've grown closer as our children have grown. One of the things that we have in common other than our children is our need to create. Although our styles and techniques can be very different, we love to share ideas and collaborate on projects together. I thought I'd share a project that we've both recently worked on

I've certainly tried my hand at a lot of different craft "mediums", but I enjoy sewing the most. I also love repurposing materials. Repurposing can save you a lot of time by incorporating elements and details of the original item into a new creation. Plus, you'll save money on materials, and it's earth-friendly, too!

I'm sure a lot of you can agree that many crafts out there appeal more to women, but this is a project that can be customized for just about anyone. Let's make a wallet out of an old leather purse!


To begin, of course, you'll need a source of leather. For this tutorial, I'm using an old purse bought from a thrift store. When you are looking for a bag, there are a couple of things to think about. First, pay attention to the thickness of the leather. You don't want something too thick or rigid and you don't want anything too flimsy, either. Try to find something that feels like it has some flexibility, but is also sturdy. Second, for a bifold wallet, try to find a purse with some seaming detail in the middle of the bag, rather than on the sides. For example, the bag below has some seams, but they are too close to the sides.

This bag has a great seam right down the middle with plenty of leather on each side.

This is what we're looking for. We will use this seam for the outer fold of the wallet.

Cut this entire panel of leather away from the rest of the bag. Remove any lining and padding from the back.

I use a bill and a credit card to give me an idea of the dimensions I need to cut the leather. Take care to keep the seam right down the middle of the panel. I'm making this bifold wallet about 8 inches across and 3 1/2 inches deep.

Next, cut the inside panel of the bill pocket from a solid piece of leather just slightly narrower than the outside. Also, cut two smaller panels for the credit card pockets. I made these approximately 3 3/4 inches across by 2 inches deep. You should have four pieces of leather now and that's all you need! Woo-hoo!

We're ready to sew!! It's best to use a leather needle in your sewing machine, but I've forgotten to change my needle before, and it worked pretty well. You don't want to use pins in leather, but I've found that mini binder clips work great to hold all of your pieces together while you sew.

First, sew the card pocket pieces onto the inner bill pocket panel just a the two inner seams.

Next, lay the inner bill panel with the two card pockets on the top of the outer panel and stitch all the way around the entire outside panel sewing over the outer and bottom edges of the card pockets.

Tie off and trim your threads and you are done!!! Hooray! Now, go grab a bunch of money and fill it up!

There are lots of ways to personalize this wallet. Before you sew the outer panel to the inner pockets, you can applique a design or image with some contrasting leather or fabric, or hand stitch a design, name, or initials.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! After I made my first one, I started looking at old bags in a totally new way. I bet you will, too!