Art Sale - Pay what you decide.

The Church on the point 120 by 120 cm acrylic on canvas

I'm hoarding art works!
They are no good to anyone stuck in the spare room.

The church on the point - detail

I need to clear some space and raise some funds for my next art project (which I cant wait to share with you!!!!).

The House on the Hill, 50 by 100 cm. Acrylic and mixed media on canvas

So I'm selling.
I have a range of work - on canvas and paper, from large to small. All I ask is that you pay what you think it's worth, plus the postage and packing. I'll be sharing works for sale over the next couple of weeks. These are the first three.

The house on the Hill  -  detail

Depending where you live will affect the cost (within the UK most postage will be under £20). I'm willing to post world wide, but please be aware my work sometimes contains, grass, sand and other natural materials which can be restricted for import.

Night Sky. 50 by 100 cm, Acrylic on Canvas

Message me if you are interested or find my event on facebook.

60's Shift Dress AKA Awesome Autumn Dress

Have you ever made a dress that epitomised the seasons?
I think this dress is my most amazing autumn dress. But it's also rather 60's in style.

Last week it was the school half term here. I took time to have a break and did a bit of sewing too. After making my Vivienne Westwood dress I had some fabric left. enough to make a skirt for myself and my daughter, but more on that another time. I also decided to make this dress. It's not the first time I'd used this pattern from Burdastyle 09/2015. I made my handbag dress from the same pattern last year.

I really wanted a long sleeve version and was considering drafting sleeve, when a closer look at the magazine revealed that there was a long sleeve option for this dress, but the sleeves were narrow and I wanted something that fit the 60's vibe a bit more.

The sleeve was a two piece one with a seam running from the shoulder to the hem. I decided that Id like to make a one piece sleeve, similar to a bishop sleeve. The bicep line was pretty narrow, so I spread the sleeve to keep the armscye line the same, but add more width and reduce the sleeve head slightly I lengthened the sleeve slightly and widened the hep to allow the hem to be gathered into a bias band at the wrist. The sleeves are very well drafted for this pattern and went in beautifully, first time, with no trouble at all.

I added the funnel neck collar, and like how it sticks up. It's actually very soft and comfy to wear.

I made the dress in a very very fine cotton corduroy. Its so fine that it only feels slightly textured. The fabric was bought from a market in Hengyang (Hunan province), when I was there in the summer and cost about £8. I bought the zip there too that cost about 40p. It's an invisible zip, the kind with the nylon tape. I prefer the cotton tape ones as the stretch less. but as I hand basted the zip in place first there was no issue with it.

I think I'm going to get a lot of wear from this dress over the cooler months.

Have you every used Lightroom for your photos? I used it for these ones and tried to achieve a more vintage effect with it. It was my first attempt at using the programme and I've got a lot to learn! The photos were over exposed to start with and I should have worked with the raw files to try to correct this a bit, but as they are so big I ended up deleting them to make space for other things. What tips do you have for working with Lightroom?