Sarah Appleton - Textile Artist Blog

While I was trawling through old links yesterday I found this cute shirt I designed for my brother in law's (now defunct) merch company Teepot. I think I drew this around 5/6 years ago... I kinda like the beat up piratey/Duane Peters look of the cassette face, all black eyes and broken teeth. I never actually got one of the shirts for myself, although other people bought it! It's so weird (but awesome) to think that people paid money for something that I designed. Might be time to revive this little guy; maybe in embroidery form?!

Knocked up these beauts in an hour or two, nothing special but I thought I'd post them because they're the first garment I've made from a pattern all by myself with no help from Mummy! I did use one of her 80's / 90's patterns though... they turned out kinda like ele-pants too (huuuuge) but hey - they're comfty! I couldn't be bothered messing about with elastic either so I just used ribbon in the waistband for a tie, I used a nice wide one so that I could have a big bow (I stole borrowed the idea from here ). The best part... that fabric GLOWS IN THE DARK IN ACTUAL LIFE! It's from David And Goliath but I bought it The Fabric Fairy (check the links page). And yes, those are my Elvis sheets that I sleep in when I wear them! I must have used the wrong stitch though because after a couple of months they are starting to come apart at the seams. Should have used a stretch stitch - the fabric is only slightly stretchy so I thought I might get away with i...

If you are wondering why there was a 3ish month hiatus on the blog... forget about that and look at this: I have completed 5 more squares for the throw! Hot dawg! On the left and right hand sides we have two more granny squares, the left one probably being my favourite colour scheme so far. I think that one came out so awesome because I was watching Die Hard With A Vengeance when I hooked the turquoise layers. All the granny squares seem to pull in at the edges, but they do this in the magazine pictures too so I guess it can't be all bad. I think this is a side effect of crocheting in the round. On the top is another treble square with diamond cross-stitch pattern, purple this time! The bottommost square is a half treble square with 'aztec' style (their term, not mine; mine is 'messed up S') cross-stitch pattern. This was a lot of fun to make and super quick... if not a little confusing for my simple mind. It turned out rad though, so that's all I ca...

I finally got round to finishing four more squares for the blanket, clockwise from top left they are: half treble crochet square with star motif, classic granny square, half treble square with star motif again and some openwork mesh thingy square that looks like it has worms (it does not). I am super happy with how they turned out... the granny square is my favourite and the mesh patterned one a close second (it didn't photograph very well though). The hooking continues... These squares were made using the power of: Gok's Fashion Fix, Supernanny, Pinapple Dance Studio, Wife Swap U.S.A. and Jennifer's Body.

This is our friend Helen's website Recycled With Love ! We spied her stall at a gig and noticed her striking eyeballs. Not the ones in her head, silly! These ones: Eyeballs modelled by 'Lucky' James McGuinness. She also makes clothes from vintage fabric, cards and other bits, zoweeee!

I subscribed to the 'Art of Crochet' magazine a few months ago and the issues have been arriving Vin Diesel style (Fast and Furious). As a total and utter beginner I was confused by the pictures in the magazine, which didn't always seem to match my samples. I tried searching online to see if anyone else was experiencing the same problem but couldn't find anything. I then ended up even more confused by Googling the terms because after much research I found that there is a difference between American and British terms for the same stitch... probably seems dumb to the veteran crocheter, but no one explained it to me! Eventually I found this chart which helped a lot. Anyway... it's taken me a while to get the confidence together to end the practice runs and start an actual bonefide project - but I've finally cracked it! These are the beginnings of a patchwork granny vintage style blanket, I did the squares in this order: On the left is the 'Redcurrant'...

This was designed to be a really quick and simple project to make, because it was one of a few tasks I set myself whilst recovering from my appendectomy! Firstly, I cut my fabric a little longer than the length of the handles and then used some educated guesswork for the other dimensions. The main body of the bag was made using the basic principle of this tutorial up until Step 4 (remember to leave gaps at either end for space to open the bag, or you will have to unpick it all like I did. D'oh). Instead of sewing all around the top of the bag and then turning it inside out, I then put my little plastic handles inside and hand sewed them in; eliminating the need to turn it inside out. The Toilet Boys denim and the Cinnamoroll swimsuit fabric in the background is from The Fabric Fairy and the Tiger print cotton is from Abakhan (although I think it's all gone now). The handles are from a local place called Inkspot, I think they were around £3. Not as nice as real bamboo, ...