This Week at Sedbi Design Studio: Nita Lou's Pattern Optional Sewing Method

Vintage Paris Postcard Work in Progress #1 (with vintage jewelry)
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

I'll tell you a little secret: what I set out to sew is seldom what I actually end up making. This happens even when I use a pattern.


It's uncanny how often my sewing projects tend to take a sudden veer in a completely different direction from where I thought I was going. You might call this making a big darn mistake, but I prefer to think of it as...well, embarking upon an adventure in creativity. 


By the time I declare something finished I may not even remember what I originally intended to make! I guess it could be useful to document my process step by step in order to analyze exactly what happens to maybe figure out a way to prevent it. Except the exact moment a veer occurs is not always clear to me. Besides, some of my favorite creations have ended up being things I never even set out to make.


This time, however,  I'm well aware that my project took a turn in a different direction. See, what I set out to make yesterday at the studio was a table runner. A table runner for my very own dinner table featuring vintage travel postcards from the Exposition Universelle. Because I'm hosting a dinner party for some friends tonight and the menu I came up with features coq au vin as the main course so I thought...


Well. It doesn't matter now because the so-called table runner I set out to make dramatically morphed into something else along the way. Something that at present consists of four raw-edged pieces of fabric-transfer-appliqued whatever. In a desperate bid to hold onto the concept of a table runner, I experimented with displaying the fabric pieces overlapped in intriguing ways along the center of the table, sparkly vintage jewelry strewn amidst them and purple ribbon tied around the base of the candle holders and, and--


It so wasn't happening.


At the moment I'm not sure what these partially completed pieces are going to end up being. Who knows what will transpire  with them the next time I sit down at the sewing machine? For now, please consider this a sneak preview of  work in progress. Samples of Nita Lou's Patented Pattern Optional Sewing Method for you (and me) to ponder.


I'll have to say, though, I do still kind of like the way they look with that jewelry...


Happy adventures in creativity to you!


P.S. Dear Readers, if these fabric whatevers suggest anything at all to you in the way of a finished product (other than a table runner), do let me know. Evening bags? Jewelry travel cases? Wall hangings? Shadow boxes with jewelry? A quilt or sofa throw? 

Vintage Paris Postcard Work in Progress #2 (with vintage jewelry)
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Vintage Paris Postcard Work in Progress #3 (with vintage jewelry)
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Vintage Paris Postcard Work in Progress #4 (with vintage jewelry)
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

These Past Three Weeks at Sedbi Design Studio: Seashells and Wedding Bells

Whoa.


I can't believe I haven't posted my weekly blog for three weeks! Where did the time go? I guess I've mostly spent it settling back into home life after being away for a while, first to Scotland and then to Tennessee. Last week I spent a lot of time planning and preparing for hosting a Spanish-themed birthday dinner for some close friends, for which I concocted my first-ever paella (which was deemed a great success--yay!). Let's see...I cleaned out a closet, reorganized the laundry room--did more of that kind of stuff. Oh, and I've been practicing singing and playing on guitar the new song I wrote while I was in Tennessee. As for sewing, I'm afraid I don't have all that much to report, but here we go.


Before I left on my travels, I was commissioned by a friend to create some sofa pillows and wall hangings for her waterfront home on Long Island Sound. She wanted a seashell theme in peach and aqua. Being a nut for fabric transfers, my first thought was to do something that features photos I've taken of shells on the beach at South Padre Island, Texas. I'd had this idea about using really big images on smallish pieces of  fabric, so--knowing, of course, that the colors weren't at all what my friend wanted-- I made up the pillows, below,  using  upholstery fabric I had on hand to test out the concept.


I call these Funky Seashell Throw Pillows.

Funky Seashell Throw Pillow #1 (front)
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Funky Seashell Throw Pillow #1 (back)
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Funky Seashell Throw Pillow #2 (front)
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Funky Seashell Throw Pillow #2 (back)
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Funky Seashell Throw Pillows #1 & 2
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Okay, that was a lot of fun but not really the direction in which I needed to be going!


Since the seashell wall hangings are destined to be hung in a long, narrow space above a high window at near-ceiling level, I realized I needed to find a simple but bold shell graphic to place on a colored background. I found what I was looking for at this wonderful site of public-domain images: http://karenswhimsy.com/seashells.shtm


So far I've only "sketched" in fabric and thread what I have in mind making, but my friend likes the design and says she wants sofa throw pillows to match. As you see in the sneak-preview photos, below, I'm using wavy lines of stitching (in black and in a metallic blue thread) around the black and white fabric transfers of the shells. These are two of the five images I've chosen for the wall hangings, which I'll alternate on  two different fabric backgrounds. I've not yet started on the throw pillows, but should soon have something interesting to show you.

Sneak Preview of Seashell Wall Hanging #1
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Sneak Preview of Seashell Wall Hanging #2
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

The other piece my friend commissioned was a commemorative wall hanging as a gift for a young couple whose wedding she recently attended. The wedding was held here in hot, drought-stricken Austin, Texas in late June,  so guests were provided with clever little cardboard fans on which was printed the order of service. I made fabric transfer images of the fans and sewed all around them in different colored threads with different stitch patterns, creating a versatile two-sided wall hanging that could also be hung in flag-like fashion to be viewed from both sides. (See photos, below. Note: the photos have been retouched to remove some of the names and other personal information.)

Commemorative Wedding Wall Hanging (front)
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Commemorative Wedding Wall Hanging (back)
photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Commemorative Wedding Wall Hanging (back) close-up showing detail

photo by Nita Lou Bryant

Wow.

I guess I've actually gotten more done in the studio than I thought!

Happy cooking and sewing and closet cleaning and laundry room reorganizing and songwriting and guitar-playing and what-have-you to you, my dear readers.