Teaching and Learning

Remember how I told you that I have been busy, busy, busy? Well, part of my busy week was demonstrating our fabric printing to a group of fashion design students from MSIT on their Thea & Sami studio tour.



Emily Tappenden is a graduate of the same fashion program and her skills are impressive. I have also taught Emily to screen-print with me. When you consider that it takes two people to screen-print yardage (or meterage) then you begin to appreciate the value of hand-printed fabrics.



These are our lovely visitors from Wednesday afternoon. Numbers had somewhat dwindled from the original group but since their end of year assignments are soon due, it's understandable. The girls were so happy to see that we screen-print our fabrics in Brisbane.



Today it was my turn to learn something new. One of the exciting things that is happening in my world is that we will be printing more eco-interior design fabrics. This decision has come from the increasing enquiries from within the industry, including from one overseas fabric agent. In preparation for this growth, I have ordered new 100% organic cotton twill and canvas for screen-printing.

To better educate myself, I contacted Jacqui McDonough of Macquarie Textiles and asked her to teach me the basics of presenting and selling interior design fabrics. This is where I can't emphasise the power of networking enough. I network a LOT!



I can't thank Jacqui enough for being so generous with her time and sharing of her expertise. I learnt so much today! From what information to include on fabric cards and the difference between a distributor, agent and end-user.

Now to find the time to design new fabrics!

Modern Retro Textiles

How cute is this elephant? You can buy the pattern for "Phoebe" from gorgeous on-line store Modern Retro Textiles.  The pattern is only one of many from creative sisters Melly and Me.



Modern Retro Textiles is based in Victoria, Australia and owner Samantha Millis runs her business from home while looking after two little ones, like many of you out there. She has assembled an eclectic selection of fabrics both modern and vintage, pattern books and other goodies for sewing enthusiasts.

I am proud to have printed our "Marguerite" design exclusively for her store in this lovely aqua colour on hemp/organic cotton.



Thank you to all who have commented on my giveaway and as a result we will be listing the fish tea-towel in our on-line store soon. I have also diarised Monday as a "do not disturb Thea" day so that I can finally create a new Thea & Sami fabric design. The new fabric will be based on the popular new fish motif.

We will soon be printing our interior design fabrics on 100% organic cotton canvas.

New Organic Canvas Prints

After a wonderful show in Melbourne, we are confirming that Thea & Sami will have a stand at the Brisbane Stitches and Craft Show in the Incubator Section (the coolest part) for Indie Designers. I will be conducting daily screen-printing demos.



I know that you all want more eco fabric choices and as we have been printing for our organic clothing line, we thought that we could share some of the fabric with you.

These 2 designs are hand-printed on hemp/organic cotton canvas and would be suitable for making tote bags or homewares. The striped design was achieved by ripping strips of black paper to create the film positive needed for the screen exposure. We really like the organic feel of it although the guys who expose the screens for me weren't as enthused as the amounts of sticky tape (biodegradable) used caused some buckling. This made it difficult to keep the positive flat during the light exposure process. I do tend to push their boundaries and they generally, at best, tolerate me.



The image above shows the laying out of the striped positive over the text one as the two prints also work well together as 2-colour design. See our Fashion Shoot for our upcoming canvas skirt for an example.

The text does have a meaning that if you are patient enough to read it and move across the square, you will be able to decipher it. You will probably have to have the actual fabric in hand to do that.

So what do you think about colours - any suggestions or preferences? And we are also printing the text onto other lighter fabrics such as organic cotton jerseys and hemp/organic cotton. Of course, we always customise our ink colours for minimum purchases of 6 metres.

After a short break, my screen-printing workshops are starting again tomorrow. Yay! You are now able to book workshops instantly via our on-line store.

Brisbane Congas

We love Latin beats!  Hubby Voyt and I have visited Brazil (twice) and Cuba (once) and those trips inspired him to play the congas.  Celebrating Voyt's birthday last Friday night was a wonderful excuse for other passionate Brisbane percussionists to come together and party.  

The group is a wonderful mix of international talents that meet every Tuesday night to practise their craft.  Voyt started the group for fun but as you can see they are taking it quite seriously.  They are always looking for new Latin wannabes :) 



Introducing the band (left to right): Voyt (Wojciech) is Polish-Canadian, Natascha is German and Brazilian guest Saulo is shaking the chekere.




Dave (white hat) is Australian but has lived in Cuba, Decio (at back) is also Brazilian, Paula our gracious hostess is another Aussie and Didier is French-Spanish.




Oh and here is a cute groupie of Greek heritage.
 

 

Here is the very excited birthday boy.  Obviously we didn't have enough candles for him as we forgot to buy them.  He is wearing his Christmas gift, a organic cotton t-shirt from Kindling.  The talented Nina offered it as a trade for one of Thea & Sami's printed hemp/organic cotton sun-hats.

Hats, Glorious Hats

Congratulations to Leah Littlehales who is the winner of our Blog giveaway.  Leah has won one of our cute Door Mice.  For updates on Thea & Sami future giveaways and offers, you can subscribe to our VIP newsletter.

Meanwhile, Brisbane has been so hot lately that we were inspired to make these lovely sun hats.  After experimenting with different materials we found some hemp/organic cotton canvas that was a nice weight and wonderful to screen-print.  We will be offering this printed canvas for sale in the near future as it is ideal for sewing your own projects such as bags.  More fabric designs will follow so contact me if you are interested.

This first batch of sun-hats is now available for sale at Brisbane's wonderful boutique, Bliss Ecowear, specialising in ethical and eco-fashion.