Home-made, recycled baby bunting

Some of the second-hand children's clothing bought from the Salvo's for the bunting

Pinning the paper triangle template onto the washed fabrics and cutting out the shapes.  A very interested Jolly cat comes to investigate the crafty activity   

All the fabric triangles pinned face-to-face ready for sewing.  Jolly cat 'helps' by pressing the triangle pieces so they are nice and flat!  

After sewing the sides together the fabric triangles are turned inside out - so the front of the fabric is now on the outside   

The fabric triangles are stitched to the tape mixing up the colours and patterns 

And here is the finished bunting suspended from each corner of the ceiling - very cute!  

I've also made a few toys recycled from gloves and socks below (the monkeys rather fabulous jumper is an old pair of my thermal leggins!!)  I used the book Sock and Glove - Creating Charming Soft Friends from Cast-off Socks and Gloves by the very clever Miyako Kanamori.  There is a link here with some images of people who've made much better toys than me!   

Well, things are getting ever closer here in preparation for the baby!  So, I've been busy making a few things for the baby's room.  I recently made some bunting recycled from second-hand children's clothes, some old pyjamas of mine, and some offcuts of fabric.  

It's been fun to make the bunting, and I love the mix of all the different coloured and patterned fabrics!  I've used different fabric on each side of the bunting, and as we don't know what 'flavour' baby we're having I wanted to make something suitable for a boy or girl - and using the children's clothing has been perfect to get some cute patterns and colours for either.

The bunting was really very easy to make, and just requires a sewing machine and some time.  You could use any old or second-hand fabrics for different looks - vintage fabrics and teatowels would be cute, or un-used clothing and bedding for example.

Here's what I did:

1. Firstly I washed all the second-hand clothing (and pressed any particularly wrinkly fabrics so they were nice and flat), and made myself a paper triangle template.  Because I decided to have different fabric on either side, I made sure my triangle was about 1cm larger than I wanted the finished pieces to be, to allow for stitching the pieces together.

2. Then, I pinned my paper triangle template onto the different fabrics and carefully cut out the triangle shapes.  I made sure I had lots of triangular pieces of fabric in different colours and patterns - including some plain colours.

3. When the triangular fabric shapes were cut I pressed them to make sure they were all nice and flat, and then started to pair them up, making sure there were different colours and patterns on each side.

4. I then pinned each pair of fabric triangles face-to-face (i.e. so the front of each piece of fabric faces each other) and using the sewing machine stitched along the two sides of the triangles only - leaving the top unstitched and open.  The stitched pieces are then turned inside out - so the front of the fabric is now on the outside.

5. When all the triangles have been stitched and turned inside out, press them again so they form nice flat and neat little triangles!

6. Organise the tape you want to hang the triangles from, I went for a natural coloured twill tape - but there are lots of different coloured and patterned tapes depending on the theme of your bunting.  I made sure the tape was quite wide (about 2cm) and thick enough to support the weight of all the fabric pieces.  Measure the length you need the tape to be depending on your room size (or wherever it's to be hung) and make sure you include extra to allow the bunting to drape. 

7. Then pin each triangle onto the tape, making sure you get a mix of different colours and patterns dispersed along the tape length.  To do this I placed the top (open) part of the triangle halfway up the width of the tape and then folded the tape over, this way you should have an even amount of tape on either side of the fabric triangle (about 1cm each side) and when pinned the triangle should be firmly attached to the tape.  I also left about 10cm of tape at each end free of triangles to allow for hanging.

8. All you need to do now is to stitch the tape to the triangles using the sewing machine.  Et Voila!  Your own bunting is completed!           

Website & logo update

 

My updated website and new logo!

 'Portfolio' section with individual galleries to showcase the different work and design projects I'm involved with.  Including....

Children's textile designs - boys and girls 

 

Illustration examples 

Repeat pattern textile designs and bedlinen designs 

 

 Tableware designs

Images from my studio and personal sketchbooks

Me Old China 

And the online shop for my new melamine plate collection

I've been a bit behind in announcing my website and logo update.... It was about a year ago that I posted about changing and updating my logo (wow - where has that year gone?!) and after much consideration I did finally decide to go ahead and change my logo.  The logo essentially follows the same format as previously, with 'Lucy King Design' falling underneath each other and the graduation of colour from black to light grey.  The main change is I've updated the font to Jeanne Moderno which is a bit stronger and bolder than the previous font, and I love this fonts mix of modern and vintage appeal.

I've also been working on giving my website a bit of an overhaul and updating the content.  I've worked on so many different freelance projects over the last few years, covering textile design, tableware design and illustration, plus then my own side project with Me Old China and most recently developing the melamine tableware range.  Phew!  So, I needed to update the content of my website and organise a proper gallery to showcase some of the work I've been involved with.

And here it is!  If you get a chance do pop over and have a look to see what designs I've been working on over the last few years.  A big 'Thank You' to the guys at Bonsai Media for helping put the website together and for their patience with my questions and requests for changes!

You can visit the website at: http://www.lucykingdesign.com/          

Lucy King Design on Print & Pattern blog!

I am hugely excited to be featured on the very fabulous Print & Pattern blog!

Print & Pattern has been offering visual stimulation and inspiration for a number of years - and is a much loved blog for designers.  Daily posts of various new products, upcoming designers, high street store images and generally anything print and pattern related - phew!

So I'm delighted to have my new range of melamine plates included on such a fantastic blog.

A big 'Thank You' to Print & Pattern - you put a big smile on my face :)

(P.S Print & Pattern also has a fab book with the same name.  I have the book and it's a great image resource and source of inspiration.  It features a range of different designers and illustrators - including local talent Lara Cameron and Lark.  You can buy the book here)

Orange op-shop finds

Staffordshire Potteries cup and Broadhust saucer with stylised floral patterns in orange, ochre & black

Myott plate with rose pattern in orange and yellow

Retro salad bowl and servers

Orange and yellow floral tin with matching flour mill

I think I've posted before about randomly finding and buying objects in similar colours.  I've had another experience of this recently with some second-hand finds that all ended up being in the orange colour palette!

Firstly I picked up the retro Staffordshire Potteries cup and the Broadhurst saucer from the Daylesford Mill Market, and loved the mix-match patterns in orange, ochre and black - the cup in particular has a fabulous graphic floral pattern.

Then I found the Myott plate with the rose pattern in yellow and orange.  I love the hand-sketched feel to the rose pattern, and the orange and yellow colours help to prevent the plate being too 'pretty' or granny-ish!  The plate also has a quite beautiful scalloped edge detail.  

I also found the very cute tin with bright orange and yellow flower patterns at the Daylesford Mill Market.  The tin matches an old flour mill that I already have - perfect!

And lastly I found this adorable salad bowl and servers from Stockroom in Kyneton!  Whilst I'm not really a butterfly person, the bold style of the butterfly and flower pattern on the bowl, combined with the strong orange and black colours stops the design being too sweet and girly.  Love it!!

Lucy King Design melamine plate collection & online shop!

Watercolour floral plates (clockwise from top left) Audrey, Alice, Grace & polka-dot design Suzie in cherry colourway

Suzie detail

 Vintage tableware designs (clockwise from top left) High Tea, Tea Party & Fancy a Cuppa

Retro graphic florals Mabel in spearmint colourway (left) Mabel in candy colourway (right) and polka-dot design Suzie in mint colourway

Mabel in candy colourway with Suzie in mint colourway, detail

I'm very excited to be able to officially launch my first collection of melamine plate designs, and to finally have my new online shop up and running! 

I've launched the collection with 10 different designs - created to mix and match with each other and to encourage a 'this-goes-with-that' approach.  The range consists of three hand-painted watercolour floral designs (Audrey, Grace and Alice), three vintage ceramic designs (High Tea, Fancy a Cuppa and Tea Party), two retro graphic florals (Mabel in candy colourway or spearmint colourway) and two 1950s-esque polka-dot designs which coordinate with the whole collection.    

The plates are proudly Made in England in small quantities, and are designed to be used and enjoyed for sharing sweet or savoury treats with friends!  Perfect for picnics, bbq's, camping and garden parties etc...... a shame the weather here in Melbourne isn't quite geared up for any of those activities yet!!

You can visit the online shop here: Lucy King Design shop.    

Birthday prints

Willow teacups print by Paula Mills of Sweet William

 X-Ray Fish print by Marc Martin

 X-Ray Fish detail

I was very spoilt for my birthday a few weeks ago and received these two gorgeous art prints.

The first was the rather lovely Willow Teacups print by illustrator Paula Mills of Sweet William. Being a collector of old Willow plates and teacups, and of course making pendants from second-hand Willow plates for Me Old China, the print is just perfect for my studio or kitchen.

Paula has a beautiful illustrative style, drawing in inks in a lovely freehand style and produces her own illustrations and prints as well as working as a commercial artist. Like me she loves collecting old things - as well as drinking tea! Gotta love that!!

Paula has an illustration blog and a website, as well as a blog and an online shop for Sweet William.

The second print is X-Ray Fish by illustrator and designer Marc Martin. A very different style print, the artwork is much more graphic in style - but still with a hand-painted feel to it. Marc has an amazing signature style and I love how he manages to incorporate both the graphic and the hand-created aspect to his illustrations and designs.

His new collection of Illustrations are 'The Curious Explorers Illustrated Pocket Companion to Exotic Animals' where my X-Ray Fish print comes from. So many fab quirky animal illustrations to chose from, and the illustrations are also available as a whole collection in a book. Cute!

Marc has a fabulous website and an online shop to purchase his illustrations and the Illustrated Pocket Companion to Exotic Animals book!

New old furniture finds

Ooops - look what I happened to buy!  I've been after a large unit to store books and knick-knacks for a while, and spotted this one in Kyneton a few weeks ago.  It's a fab 1960's unit with plenty of storeage space - perfect for books and magazines etc.  I'm sure it won't stay this empty for long!  

I also found this cute little chair (1960's / 1970's??) at our local Salvo's.  The orange colour is perfect, and I love the splayed out legs - like a space ship!

I think I might have to stay home for a while and stop visiting second-hand shops, as our little house is beginning to get full up!  Somehow I always manage to find room for things though.....

Gift cards Studio Tomas King

Anemones (watercolour)

The Terrace (oil)

Lemon tea (oil)

La Chaise Rouge (oil)

Les Cerises (oil) - my favourite card!

I love sending out cards to people......maybe I'm a bit old fashioned, but for a special thank you, thinking of you, birthday, anniversary etc cards are so much more personal than sending an e-mail or e-card, so I like to have a few cards at home in case anything pops up.

I recently got these lovely set of cards from Studio Tomas King, with all the cards translated from Tom's original paintings.  OK, so you might have figured there's a family connection here.  Tomas King is my rather talented father who specialises in painting in oil and watercolour, and has adapted some of his paintings into several ranges of hand-made gift cards.

This sweet little pochette of cards contains 10 cards (with 2 cards of 5 mixed designs) on beautiful matt stock paper.  The pochette (wallet) is hand-made and perfect for keeping the cards all-together, or to make a lovely little gift.  I selfishly got these for myself :-)

You can see the range of cards, along with some of Tom's giclee prints at his online shop.  You can see more of his paintings on his blog too!