Been loving unique and artistic embroidery lately, I think I blogged about it last week too. I can’t seem to help myself, it’s so intriguing, inspiring and the wilder the subject matter the more fun it seems. Simplicity rules in my book.
Leila Montero
Happy Friday, have a great weekend!
While procrastinating my duties, I stumbled into CEDOK bookstore, an online Japanese store, (I think- I don’t speak or read Japanese) and found all of these delightful illustrations in children’s picture books from 1960 – 1990′s. I couldn’t help but waste extraordinary amounts of time browsing the images.
They call to mind the books of publisher Harlin Quist an avant-garde publisher in America (1966 – 1984) who published over 60 children’s books featuring some of the finest American and European artists and illustrators. Mention of the name can bring me to tears with visual memories flooding back remembering the images of favorite books of my own childhood, Millicent the Monster being first on the list.
So, let the vintage or from-my-childhood-era reward be yours as well, I’ll show off some of the favorite illustrations I found today. I’m not sure what language is on the pages (do share if you know) and who’s the illustrator or the author, so I jotted down what info I could decipher.
Ze zahradky do zahradky, 1989, Jiri Kahoun
Postcards
Domecek z kostekj, 1961, Ela Perociova, Gabriela Dubska
Tajny lodni denik, 1966, Ladiskav Dvorsky, Jan Schmid
Sroubek v cirkuse, 1963, Marcello Argilli, Vladimir Fuka
Svetlusky, 1996, Jan Marsicek, Eva Frantova
Pahadoky pro obe usi, 1978
Nevyplazuj jazyk na Ivan, 1986, Daniel Hevier, Kveta Pacovska
Karlicka a bily konik, 1968, illustrated by Branka Jurcova, Kveta Pacovska
Since I’m most comfortable and quite happy behind a sewing machine, I’m always intrigued to find new and interesting sewing methods in play. Here are some inspiring, imperfect and delightfully messy examples of scribble or freehand sewing, however you call it- I love it. Who needs a straight line anyway?
I need to practice this drawn portrait method by doodling more with a pen and paper, then experimenting with the feed dogs down on the sewing machine.
A tutorial on how to scribble on fabric for those who’d like a lesson in scribble sewing.
I feel like too many t-shirts these days are so in-your-face and obnoxious in their text and graphics, I prefer this subtler option for a T-shirt design, so free-thinking and open-minded. Perhaps I’ll try this and make a scribble t-shirt this week. You could even cover a stain on your favorite plain tee with some scribbling to distract the eye.
I love the simplicity of these freehand sewn flowers.
This birdie sits upon an iPhone case by Poppy Treffry a front runner in the scribble sewing world.
Text sewing, as demonstrated here, if you recognize the text then you are a Jared Hess devotee because it comes from his movie, Gentlemen Broncos (2009). An extremely weird film, it will leave you alternating between shock and awe at the silliness/immaturity and the full-on giggles throughout the film and forever after.
Swirls hand-stitched on a custom diaper bag I made a few years back. More pre-meditated than scribbling but freehanded nonetheless. Could also work quite well on a t-shirt.
Here is one of the first experiments I did with scribble sewing, my intro to the sport you could say. I put this bird on the front of a purse, then just really wanted that beak to be orange…
Have you done any scribble sewing or even doodling lately?
