Bacon and eggs and fibre fanatics

Bright and early yesterday, we hit the road for the Geelong Fibre Forum. Zipping down the freeway for an intense morning of fantastic fibre inspiration, we were armed and ready:

• flask of coffee, check.
  
• homemade muffins, check.
• bacon-and-egg pies, yum yum yum, check.
  
• spending allowance, of course!
  

The Fibre Forum is a residential week-long study conference, held every year at the Geelong Grammar School. It's organised by TAFTA, the Australia Forum for Textile Arts (and they also hold an annual Forum in Orange, NSW, in April).

At the end of the week, participants celebrate with a show of their works, artists sell their hand-made goods, traders offer tempting stalls, and the doors are open to all. Best to get there early, as the Forum displays run from 9AM-12noon only, and there are seven different areas of delights to get through, with everything from shibori silks to felted fashions, guest artist exhibitions, demonstrations, artist's books, and dozens of traders to visit.


Classrooms are open with displays, and teachers and students alike are often available to talk about what they're been doing for the week. These magnificent felted vests and the died silk scarves (above) were just two of the dozens of displays of student work. The enthusaism of the participants was infectious!

We started our visit with a peek in the main hall, where the Seller's Bazaar provided treats for the eye and temptations for the wallet. Artist-made work in the Bazaar ranged from intricate garments and unusual jewellry, to screenprinted socks, exquisite fabric dolls, Indian embroideries and hats galore! We spent careful time checking out all of the goodies before deciding what we had to buy...


My bag filled with screen-print socks and embroidery bags, I joined my friends to check out the traders' stalls, where supplies of every sort were to be found. We found kimonos and kerchiefs, felt and fabric paint, stencils, silk, threads, dyes and fabric samples of every sort.


More calssroom shows - below, this is what you can do with an op-shop shirt. Inspired? I was!

And this colourful beauty is an amalgamated skirt made of many op-shop shirts and garments. The student who made it was pointing out her favourite bits - shirt collars running lengthways down the skirt, buttons still attached. Behind, you can see a deconstructed orange shirt, and more costume creations.


These wonderful garments were made in India Flint's class, Embelly-ish. For me, they were one of the most exciting things I saw!


Upstairs, a fascinating exhibition of artists' work was inspired by a trip to India to a conference on natural dyeing techniques.

Floaty wraps by Kate Reilly:


And natural-dyed silk by Glenys Clissold.


We came away from the morning footsore, happy, inspired and with lovely bags of goodies that we admired in the sunshine. We'll be back next year!

Thrifty delights for a thrifty gal

This weekend, just before I spun myself into a sniffly downward spiral, I spent a Saturday morning at Savers, the Sydney Road superstore-sized thrift shop.

Sydney Road is a fun, eclectic place, and Savers - well, it's a treasure trove of dangerous delights! I have only been for two brief visits before, but this time I managed to sneak off on my own for a couple of carefree hours, to find some new clothes for autumn. The weather's going colder, and it's time to rug up!

There was another delightful reason for my spree: over the last 6 months I've lost almost 10kilos (that's 22lbs in the old style), and none of my clothes fit anymore! This is a pleasant predicament, but it could be expensive, and we are soon to spend every cent on a round the world trip. So I told myself my limit was $50, and off I went to the emporium of delights.

Now, as anyone who can sew will attest, there's a danger in all this. Every garment prompts ideas: 'Oh, I'll just remodel this, take off the sleeves, add a new lining and...' Presto, the unfinished objects pile reaches sky-high.

I'd like to think I contained myself on this particular jaunt. If you could call 5 jackets, one top and a handmade piece of embroidery restraint. It came in nicely under the prerequisite $50, and I am all rugged up in new and lovely jackets for fall.

Now all I need to do is to add some darts, replace the lining, and maybe add some ribbon from my stash to the inside front....

Playtime!

This weekend is a long weekend, which means.... extra time to sew!

A valiant and enjoyable battle is waging in my front room - fabric is flying, snips are being snipped, threads are all over, the iron is hot (and I've even set it up properly), and there's a companionable whirring coming from the sewing machine.

Here's the first item to emerge, completed, from the wreckage:



This t-shirt was given to me this Christmas by my Mom, and I loved the design on it - really cute, and well drawn. But it was a little too long, and I just wasn't wearing it. It was what I call, an American-style t-shirt - high neck, long straight body, and longer wide sleeves. Here's an idea of what it was like:



Nothing wrong with that!~ I just wanted to wear it more, so out came the scissors and the pins. I don't pretend to be anything of a seamstress, but I love remodelling t-shirts! It's easy, and you can be pretty courageous and wait to see how it will come out.

I had a little trouble getting the neckline right, so in good t-shirt remodelling style, that means covering the oops with a scrap of beautiful quilting fabric:



And one on the sleeve for good measure.



Two more t-shirts on the way! And the applique project is taking shape, too. I love weekends....