Sarah Appleton - Textile Artist Blog

After the successful success of my previous tie bag (available in my etsy store) I decided to make another one all for me! I had this skirt which I bought at a jumble sale because I loved the kalidescopic/Op Art fabric: Because of the shape and the limited amount of fabric I decided that the best way to use it might be as a bag. Then I had some fun, bright flowery 60's fabric from Fabric Land so I decided that the juxtaposition of bright and monochrome would be good; and I ended up with this: Hey Mr. Lizard! Hey Mr. Cat! I've had the retro / Cadillac car tie for a while and have been desperate to use it, I quite liked the semi-mismatched patterns so I decided this was the project for the tie! The bag is reversible, so that I can be either colourful or a bit less colourful. The other not-so-exciting project I finished recently was 2 t-shirt resizes: Dark Side of the Coop From Large to AppletiniTiny! Terrible pictures but you get the idea. If you'd l...

This is a tutorial of sorts... although you may need to use your brain box to fill in any bits I've skipped over - sorry! I accept no responsibility for any drama that may arise from making your ex-boyfriend's t-shirt into a Shangri-Las t-shirt! What you need: Ex's shirt (or one of your own) Fabric paint / pens / acrylic paint might work Sponge / paintbrushes Sewing machine (optional) Transparent sticky back plastic Craft knife and cutting mat Computer w/ printer Iron and board Old newspaper Alright, it's time to recycle that old unused t-shirt into something rad! The beauty of this project is that if it goes completely wrong and looks like the worst thing ever then it wasn't your loss! It's resourceful y'all! First you gotta take the shirt and put newspaper inside it between the front and back (this is very important!!!). Then draw a big ol' broked heart all over the front of it! Use paint or marker pens or anything y...

I picked up this Joy Division t-shirt from my local Primarché, I knew they had them in from a previous visit and schlepped desperately through every rail in the men's section until I found the last one - a size XL and £3! Stoooooked. Here are the before shots; huge and I mean HUGE Aaaand the after shots: So much better! I intended it to be a dress but it's really turned out more like a tunic, so I may add a panel to the bottom if I ever take it off for long enough to do so... nah. I am currently into resizing all my shirts with this 'grown-on' sleeve effect which works particularly well with L / XL shirts but can also be done with smaller sizes. I think it looks cute but it's basically just because I'm really lazy and impatient and like projects that only take 45 minutes (including posing time). I made this with the power of Larry David's stare