Art Smocks in Action

Just a very quick post. I have much to share and seemingly not enough hours in the day ...

Here is a picture I received of my most recent art smocks in action.

 

How cute? 

Smocks for Sisters

Two art smocks for two sisters. The fabric is Soleil Laminated Cotton Rose. Edged with a purple cotton and orange ribbon ties. I cut the pocket details from felt.
It feels good to finish some projects! Next in the art smock series ... I want to try sewing with some poly laminate - it certainly isn't as nice as the lovely cotton laminates you can find - but the price point is unbeatable. Has anyone sewn with poly laminates before - I'd love any tips you might have.

Motivation

I'm lacking in motivation. I think because the only real time I get to myself is nap time. Once both girls are quiet and resting it leaves me with a small window of time which I 'have' to use for crafting else I go a little crazy with a feeling of not having achieved anything for myself. I'm beginning to resent that pressure to sit down and be creative at that very moment - sometimes I'm just not in the mood and sometimes I'm just bit mentally exhausted from having battled with two gorgeous - but sometimes unreasonable - bunny's all morning and I just want an hour of mindless anything ... so I've be rebelling by filling nap times with other delightful activities such as laundry, cleaning, emptying and refilling the dishwasher ...

This is not a productive mindset ... I have projects I want to make/do/achieve falling out my ears.

But I have been doing some sewing. I've finished the top of my Valentine Quilt. I'm not convinced by the quilts size - so I sewed all the scrappy strips left over together in hopes to make a border for the quilt ... ... it all looked a little odd when I laid everything together so I made one of these long strips into this little baby mat/quilt (still to be quilted.) It has cute scrappy corners.
My other idea is to turn the Valentine Quilt into a picnic blanket by using some laminated cotton or a poly-laminate on the back ... I like this idea ... and I think it would be something we might use a lot.

Every evening I try and tackle a little bit of my paper pieced quilt. It is coming along - I don't want to paper piece the entire quilt - but use hand quilting to emboss unpatched areas of the quilt and maybe have scattered paper pieced blocks throughout the quilt top too ... ... I haven't quite decided on exactly how it is all going to come together ... but I have a vague vision at least ... somewhere over the top of that never ending laundry basket!!

I'm also making some more art smocks - birthday presents for little people. I beginning to like mixing up bright colors for these smocks - the color splashes seem adapt for little budding artists. I'm often much to shy with color - something I'm really trying to get better with.

Pocket or no pocket?

I've been making more art smocks - trying to tweak and adjust the pattern until I'm happy with it. For this art smock I used a satin ribbon at the back rather than bias tape. I rather like the contrasting color - which is also picked up in the bias tape on the smock. Big question - do the smocks really need a pocket/pockets?

Art Smock

A friend asked for some art smocks for her children made from laminated cotton. I haven't used laminated cotton before - but in our short acquaintance I have grown to love it - much less rigid than oil cloth and it can be washed and pressed easily. For this project I used Sugar & Spice Laminated Cotton (Riley Blake Designs) in Aqua and Red and the bias tape is made out of a plain red broadcloth. Little Bunny #1 was not at all compliant about wearing or being photographed for this post - I had hoped for adorable photos of her painting - her clothes being projected by my wonderful new garment ... unfortunately my little willful lady had other ideas.

Here are two I have made so far ...
... lets take a closer look ...
... the rear view ...
... cute rounded edges at the seams ...
... and a heart shaped pocket for little paintbrushes or other arty goodies.

Here are some sewing tips for laminated cotton from Pink Chalk Studios. And there are some great art smock tutorials out there to note from Don't look now! and Sew Mama Sew. I hope I will be able to post my own pattern with a tutorial soon - I feel there could be many variations on the art smock theme too ... just need to find that elusive free time free from children and not horizontal from exhaustion!