Marvels and Dreams

I will get around to posting some more of our Thailand adventure soon, but for now I have been hit with a creative urge and have been designing some new skirts. Inspired by the lace and frills and bustles of 1870's clothing and the Steam Punk fashion I am currently working on a bustle wrap skirt.

It will be finished soon and up on my newly designed shop website. It also has a new name Marvels and Dreams.
I wanted to change the concept of my shop and here is the new spiel about what I am doing there.
I'll let you know here when it is up and running again.

Most of the clothing at Marvels and Dreams is designed and hand-made by me, Ariad. 

Each piece is a unique creation. I don't have the desire to recreate my designs; to create a mass-produced range of clothing; I'd rather create when I am inspired.

I love the idea of everyone wearing unique clothing that reflects their personality/mood/look. My passion is to create one-off pieces that will resonate with someone and become a beloved garment.

Each piece is created with love and inspiration.

Each piece is created with quality craftsmanship and attention to detail.

Techniques include machine stitching, hand-sewing, embroidery, applique, crochet and beading.

Often a combination of these is used in each garment. I use a wide variety of materials in my creations. Reclaimed fabrics and yarns, acrylic yarns and fibres, pure wool, alpaca and hand spun and naturally dyed cottons.

My creation is a continually evolving experiment. I love to discover new techniques and invent new ways of doing things.

Most of my creations emerge without a pattern, just a seed of an idea in my head. Sometimes it takes weeks to find the right materials to finish an item. Sometimes it takes months to flesh out a design.

Some other items for sale are re-designed clothing and interesting accessories.

I off back to my sewing machine now, have a lovely day all.

x

Frills and bows

Another frilly girly skirt :)

Let it rain

It's been raining all week and I now have a tank of water! Oh I love the rain.
I love that when it rains it's a great excuse to do crafty/ inside things. The kids have been construcing cubbie houses in the lounge room, doing heaps of reading and snuggling by the fire and watching DVD's.
We have been busy too. Monday we went to a homeschoolers French class.Tuesday was Rain's birthday.
Thursday night we went to see the Circus Out of Africa. Amazing acrobatics!
Yesterday Rain and Mr T went to a homeschooling group craft meet up and did some papier mache.

I've been crocheting some baby longies, they are not quite finished yet but I have been sewing a bit this week. I wanted to make a pattern for a frilly, girly, floaty kind of skirt, it worked and I love this new skirt I made myself.

Going to make some more like it :)

Pixie dust and chocolate sprinkles

Ariad

While we were at the Rainbow Gathering recently I fell in love with Tipis. Well, I have actually had Tipi lust for years. There is something so simple yet so beautiful about these structures.

After talking to one guy who had made his own Tipi I was inspired to try making one.

My first attempt is to make a kids play Tipi, based on full-sized Tipi plans, so I can see if I think I'd be able to make a large one.

So I have started making one for the kids as a Christmas present.

The first run is the most difficult, actually has all the real work in; the smoke flaps, lifting straps, the button holes for the lacing pins.

I have done most the sewing now but got a bit stuck on how to do button holes. I haven't hand sewed button holes since my Nanna taught me how to do them when I was 15! I thought I might be able to do them on the sewing machine but this proved too tricky. So back to hand sewing them...

I started on the flap that goes underneath so you won't be able to see  my first couple of attempts. I started to get a bit neater after the sixth one!!! Only 24 more to go!

I finally finished this little skirt that has been sitting down the bottom of my crochet bag for about a month, and have started another pair of women's crocheted pants in purple.

So it looks like I will be busy for awhile...and then I've got a whole list of Christmas pressies to make!