DISORDER

Weekend antics:

Ipswich road trip for mate's gig, driving home in a blizzard, charity shop mooch, Cambridge Botanical Garden, Wetherspoon's lunch, friend's over, drinking, pub, Q Club, dancing, drinking, Rev's Sunday roast, pub.

The botanical gardens are so pretty, I especially love the greenhouse parts with cacti and an indoor jungle-like environment. I have a roll of film to develop from the weekend too, I hope it turned out well as my camera is very temperamental in the cold!

Me in one of the plant houses, looking nerdy as standard.

Our friend's utterly amazing band, Lonely The Brave.

HELLMOUTH

Two of my food obsessions at the moment, honoured with a quick bored-at-work illustration.

Started on my Buffy boxset tonight with the housemates, so good. I was (am) a massive Buffy fan :) Only seven seasons to go...

DIY # 1

As I make/customise/rip up a lot of my clothes I've decided to start posting up some DIY projects... I think a lot of them have been done on other blogs etc. but hope you enjoy them anyway!

PANEL DENIM SHIRT

I have a big short sleeve denim shirt which I stole from my mate John after a fancy dress party.. you can use any denim shirt for this though, stolen or otherwise :)

So firstly cut out the back panel, or whichever panel you want to replace. Denim shirts tend to have quite thick rolled hems so this is good to cut out against.

The back panel of my shirt had two darts (small folds) at the top - it's a good idea to mark where these are and copy them onto the new back panel so it fits well.

Choose your fabric - I have some vintage Laura Ashley cotton which I got at a church fete! But anything non-stretchy is fine like cotton, lace, or even a different colour denim.

Then measure how much fabric you'll need by placing the cut-out panel flat onto it. It's a good idea to iron the fabric first, but I'm just lazy so didn't. Then fold the fabric/panels in half and line up the folded edges. Use this to cut out the section (as then both sides will match) Leave about 1-2cm seam allowance around the edges.

 

Next you need to hem the bottom of the cotton panel - again, it's good to iron it down first. You could overlock the edge and fold once, but I did a double fold to avoid having to do this! Pin along the edge and sew a straight line using a matching colour cotton.

 

Then it's just a case of sewing the new panel in to replace the denim - pin the right side edges together, keeping the darts in (if the shirt had any) 

It can be a bit difficult to sew the fabric neatly in the corners, I had to go back and sew over some dodgy bits!

Lastly, you can cut out the sleeves if you want - mine were huge so I decided to make it into a sleeveless shirt :)

Luckily I didn't need to hem mine again as the denim rolled edging stoped the fraying. But a little fraying isn't the worst thing on a sleeveless shirt!

FINISHED RESULT:

It's not the most complicated DIY project ever but it looks pretty cool :) I migh wear mine to work this week... with a cardi! Brrrr.

WAVES

Have had a chilled Sunday so far, been to Sainsbury's for a shop, had a cuppa and now trying to start doing some work at my desk... but have plans to watch a bit of Jonathan Creek or Buffy later. How productive.

Birdy is being extremely chirpy and cheeky today :)

A couple of phone snaps of the snow here in Cambridge, with my little Metro looking very cold.. I swear it's colder driving in it than being outside!

And one of my favourite songs at the moment - has been bigged up rather a lot by the lovely Radio 1 Mr. Grimshaw. Love it, can't believe he's seventeen?!

FOXY

I've been working on my fox animation this weekend, for a group project with some friends. Quick peek below of it so far... I've never done animation before so am finding it fairly difficult. I was told to make it sketchy and loose, so that helps as it's quite rough!

Have also been working on the book illustration competition, althought the deadline is Tuesday so it's debateable whether I'll be finished in time. 

Had a nice mooch to Mill Road today and found a lovely coat for two quid; it's kind of suede feel burgundy colour with paisley lining. I've been thinking about whether to feature more 'fashion' stuff on here but I do tend to just wear mostly charity shop clothes. I've been told my style is a bit weird and that I dress like a nan... I have lovely friends! 

  New (old) coat and my trusty Docs.

  And more photos of Birdy because he is just too lovely.

EMP

Some late night Wednesday inspiration from this week.
I've had a pint and a chat with a lovely northern friend this evening, now off t'bed. x

GIRLS

Up bright and early today after taking Matt to work, I had a mooch down Mill Road and picked up this book, 'Strange People' for 20p - might be great for some weird illustration inspiration?!

 

Have also finished reading 'Brave New World' as I want to enter the House of Illustration's competition... although there's only about three weeks till the deadline! I've had a few ideas on what chapters I'd like to illusrate though so have made partial progress.

 Birdy is singing next to me, he's found a new favourite perch courtesy of my desk lamp.

THIRTEEN

I'm going to start the new year with one of my favourite ever bands:

I haven't done a fat lot so far, I spent NYE at a house party in London which was great – have since been back behind my desk at work…
I'm pretty busy already though, I'm determined to be freelance by the end of this year so have been trying to source experience and interning for art departments, production, events and running. After talking over freelance stuff with a friend I've realised I probably won't be where I want to be straightway through illustration alone. Although that's ultimately what I want to do I also love making things, meeting new people and travelling and don't want to be stuck in the same office for eight hours a day. I think if I can get regular work doing various art/film jobs it would keep me on my toes, enable me to meet the 'right people' and stay varied and interesting. After two years doing the 9-5 I think I'm done, I want something new!

Anyway, after two days assisting with the creative events company at the end of last year, I've been emailing people like mad, trying to get more of the same. So on Monday I've taken a day off work for an initial meeting/leaflet distributing in London as I'll be running backstage at a West End play throughout the February weekends. A little off subject (but very excitingly!) I'll also be stewarding at the BBC Stargazing LIVE next Thursday evening :) I must admit I was in the hope that I might meet the lovely Mr. Cox, but I won't be at the event which is being filmed, damn! Although there will be a live stream into the BBC Studios so should be a great night! I don't really know a lot about stargazing and physics but I always adored learning about space at school and it'll be a great chance for some possible night-sketching of the crowds!

In the meantime I'm trying to juggle lots of illustration projects and save money after Christmas…