Lately, my older son has developed an interest in rockets, spaceships, the moon, and the like. We’re watching Tomorrowland videos from before the space race and the much more recent shuttle launches. We’re also reading a great pop-up book on the 1969 Moon landing, another book called Look to the Stars by Buzz Aldrin, and There’s No Place Like Space from the Cat in the Hat learning library. Out of all of this, he now has two rocket shirts. For both I used Tsukineko inks. These are really great inks for decorating on fabric. They don’t change the hand or surface quality of the fabric. They are also permanent once heat-set so you can keep working with them until then. Great for watercolor-like effects. The set I purchased came with a collection of inks and these tools they call Fanstasticks. They are basically marker blanks that you can tip into the inks and then draw on the fabric. A little bit goes a long way. You can also dip the sticks in water (this can also rejuvenate the ink already on the stick) to dilute the inks for blending or lighter colors. Setting the inks simply involves ironing over the completed design. It’s a great product, I can’t wait for the next project to try them on.
Anyway, here are the completed shirts:
Redstone Mercury Rocket shirt
Redstone Mercury Rocket shirt, back view showing the Mercury capsule
Space Shuttle Atlantis shirt
The designs were traced from suitable photos. The Mercury capsule was the hardest to find a suitable picture. I transferred the tracings to the fabric by tracing with pencil, using a lightbox. Finally, I used the inks to color in the pictures. I wanted to keep the design simple, to highlight the shapes and designs of the rockets themselves. I am really happy with how these turned out. The best part of this project was that these two shirts are my son’s favorite clothes to wear. It’s great when you know your work is truly appreciated. :)
tagged: atlantis, clothing design, Illustration, mercury, mercury capsule, redstone, rockets, space shuttle
A couple of years ago I acquired this settee via Freecycle:
Original uphostery/condition
Here is a side view:
Side view. Note the feline-caused shredding on the side.
It took almost two years to complete, but I managed to finally finish reupholstering it this past spring (fortunately before child #2 was born). Here is the result:
Setee, reupholstered
From a slightly different angle:
Settee, from an angle. Note lack of cat-destruction.
One of the reasons the project took two years was because it took over a year to find the right fabric. I eventually found this red Matelasse sporting a pretty chrysanthemum pattern at Fabrics Unlimited, a decorating fabrics store outside of Charlottesville, VA (they have another shop in Fredericksburg, VA). They have a large selection of fabrics and good prices. They even let you check out large samples to take home. Definitely recommend them.
The photos don’t do it justice, but the piping around the edges is a dusty, robin’s egg blue in silk dupioni. The silk is also used as a border on my window treatments in the same room.
Overall, I was pretty satisfied with the outcome of this project. It’s a comfortable chair to sit in, I was able to reuse much of the stuffing, though the outer layer of batting had to be replaced. And I didn’t have to retie the springs. This is my second-ever reupholstery project and far more complex than the last one I did well over 10 years ago. There are definitely things I wish I had done differently or better, but I’ll chalk them up to learning curve. Plus, most people won’t catch the errors unless they are pointed out, haha.
Soon after finishing this project, I managed to score a good deal on some ultrasuede for a second upholstery project. That one is still in progress. More on that to come.
It’s been an embarrassing long while since my last post. One of the reasons why, I’m proud to announce, is the birth of my second son, Zach. Is there any creative act more spectacular than the creation of life? Needless to say, this little bundle of joy has been keeping us all pretty busy. Add to that my firstborn’s new adventure into kindergarten, and we have had a busy summer and start to fall. I’ve been working on other projects, too, which I’ll post about soon. I haven’t made as much progress on the whole stash thing so far this year, but I still have a few months before the year is over. More on that to come. For now, let me introduce Zach:
tagged: family, summer