I love getting handmade Christmas presents!  I know it takes a lot more effort than dashing into the shops, but I think it's worth it.  Here are some I made this year - a make up purse and handbag from Yuka Koshizen's book Carry Me. (not for beginners, but very inspiring!)  And a sweet pinafore cloned from another of my niece Elke's little frocks...

The gang at Afesip Fair Fashion in their showroomHere I am in Cambodia!  That's me on the left, visiting an amazing social enterprise called AFESIP Fair Fashion.  Prostitution is a huge business in Cambodia, with many unwilling participants.  Afesip Fair Fashion workshop employs rescued sex workers who are starting a new life and career in my favourite occupation, sewing.

AFF Production roomThe AFF workshop is light, clean and airy.  No sweatshop conditions here!

Looking through racks of patterns with Mr Rotha, the operations manager Everyone sews complete garments (ie.  it's not piece work where you sew, say, zillions of zips all day long.)  It's slower (maybe only one or two garments finished in a day) but teaches girls great all-round sewing skills that they could use to set up their own businesses.

A couple of older ladies look after all the kids in a room upstairsI loved the great conditions - free childcare, accident and health insurance, trainees receive a decent wage (comparable to a policeman's.)  Wish all my clothes were made by this workshop!

Went to a real live fashion parade on Wednesday! (Usually I'm too cheap and just watch rehearsals...)

Graduating Advanced Diploma students showed their wares alongside some visiting students from Bunka University in Japan.

Congrats to very talented Grace Cross - she won the big prize of the night - a scholarship to study at Central Saint Martins in London.

Fascinating stuff!

My big college project this term is inspired by Sweden and in particular fairy tales illustrated by Swedish Art Nouveau artist John Bauer.  Here's my inspiration board, created in Photoshop...

Cover of the selling guide presented to BillabongAt college this semester, we tackled swimwear.  My swimmers were inspired by vintage movies like Doctor No and From Here to Eternity.Every girl needs a knife belt on her bikini!

We even arranged a photo shoot - which was a bit of an eye-opener for me!  Our first model pulled out 2 days before, the next emailed me at 12.15 am on the day to say she couldn't come. Finally we found someone to shoot at 9 am on the day. Unbelieveable!

We made up a brochure of our designs and presented them to some very lovely ladies from Qld surfwear company Billabong. 

Instant tan courtesy of AdobeBraving the cold in the middle of winter...

White Orchid swimwear patternLife's going by too fast! It's all been a blur of college work,  honest... here's some proof. We've been working on fabric designs in Illustrator, that are printed onto lycra at a little warehouse here in Brissie.  From there it's draw up your swimwear design and stitch it up.  Fun!  Will post the end result once it's photographed...

If sewing machines were made of icing...Suspect the family know I'm a little sewing obsessed.  They made these lovely cupcakes for me, complete with sewing machine, ironing board, scissors, thread (yes, that's a roll of thread, not toilet paper as someone guessed), pins and buttons.  Sweeeeet!

Khmer Aspara dollsReceived a shipment from AFESIP Fair Fashion, a factory that employs 13 ladies who were rescued from the human trafficking sex trade. AFESIP provides an 18 month sewing training course for these lovely girls, then a steady job with great working conditions.  Goodbye humiliating, very dangerous old life, hello self-esteem and dignity!

Spanish Collar shawlAFESIP Fair Fashion make some lovely products, like this beautiful silk shawl.  Also bought some lovely dolls styled after Khmer Apsara dancers.  Please buy one at the Clothesline store - proceeds go towards my next order from AFF. 

Sewn in beautiful Fair Trade silks, the story behind these clothes  and toys makes them extra special!  Please keep an eye on the Clothesline store - clothing items will be available to order soon!

Wishing you a wonderful year in 2011! Hilarious card by Alicia Holland.Around New Years a friend and I decide on a theme for the year. 2011 was set to be The Year of Being Pretty - I do need to tidy myself up a bit!  But it was a tad too shallow, even for us. 

May have to settle for The Year of Being Pretty Thankful instead.  In true Oprah fashion, every day I list in my diary 3 things I'm thankful for. 

Today it's: 

1) a dry floor to walk on (not underwater like so many other Queensland homes)

2)  electricity ( I whine about the bills but having the power cut during these floods is no fun) and

3) just being alive. (We know some lovely folk at Murphy's Creek who were tragically drowned a few days ago - that puts a whole new perspective on just losing a few material possessions.)

Hope 2011 finds you with plenty to be thankful for!

 Flood sculpture on the Brisbane River...before the real flood began...

Picture from Knitivity by Fiona Goble. Text from Luke 2 verse 14.After spending a year working at the Prop House, a company that does corporate Christmas events, I've decorated enough Christmas trees to last me the rest of my life.  But I do have a few tricks up my sleeve. 

At the Prop House, Christmas trees are never dismantled.  Instead, lights and decorations are wired tightly into place with little wire twist ties.  The whole tree is then wrapped in swathes of metre wide plastic (like giant Cling wrap) and stored in garages until the next shopping centre or corporate event needs it. 

Having abandoned the idea of undecorating trees and packing them away in little boxes, I find decorating easy as pie.  Unwrap the tree and wreathes, fluff them up and  I've just decorated my house in 20 minutes.  Ho, ho, ho... hope your Christmas is a beautiful day!

Somaly MamSomaly Mam founded AFESIP, a wonderful organisation that rehabilitates girls who have been forced into prostitution as she was as a young girl.  Among many other projects, AFESIP runs a sewing school and an clothing business for it's graduates  - AFESIP Fair Fashion.

To honour Anti-Human Trafficking Day, please read Somaly's moving story below, as told by Angelina Jolie for Time magazine.

By the time Mam was 5, the Khmer Rouge controlled Cambodia and had proceeded to kill 1.5 million people as Pol Pot implemented his radical form of communism. Torture, executions and forced labor were widespread. Families fled for safety, and massive internal displacement decimated Cambodian society in the years that followed.

Against this backdrop, 12-year-old Mam was sold into sexual slavery by a man who posed as her grandfather. She eventually ended up in a Phnom Penh brothel, beginning a decade of horrific rape and torture. She describes this period of her life simply: "I was dead. I had no affection for anyone."

Terror is the weapon of choice for those who hold women in sexual bondage. They depend on their victims' being frozen with fear. Traffickers hope that with enough pain and degradation, women will simply accept their fate as inescapable.

But Mam was able to escape. With the help of an aid worker from France, she fled Cambodia in 1993.

The fact that she escaped makes her unique, but what makes her truly extraordinary is that she went back. While, understandably, most people would spend the rest of their lives quietly recovering from their wounds, Mam decided to confront the system that continues to victimize Cambodian girls.

In 1996, Mam created a nonprofit organization called AFESIP (Agir pour les Femmes en Situation Précaire, or Acting for Women in Distressing Circumstances) that works with local law enforcement to raid brothels and reintegrate the trafficked women into society. It is estimated that between 1.2 million and 2 million people are currently being held as sex slaves around the world. Mam, now 38 or 39 (she does not know her birthday), has established a model for addressing this issue and has already helped more than 4,000 women escape the brothels.

She has paid a terrible personal price for doing so, enduring death threats and assaults. In an effort to deter her work, brothel owners even kidnapped, drugged and raped Mam's then 14-year-old daughter in 2006.

Most people would have walked away. Mam continues to fight back so that others can be spared the pain she once suffered.

Pages from a visual diary - my inspiration - desserts! (Click on pics for a closer look...)Mood board inspired by diary entriesClothing designs inspired by mood boardCollege projects all done and dusted! 

Feel like I've learned a lot this year.  From visual diaries, to mood boards, to design boards, to drafting patterns, to sewing them up. 

Next - draft patterns - these are drawn manually onto brown paperCut and sew up designs - (see figure on left of design board)It's been fun taking an idea and turning it into a 3-D object you can wear!

Welcome to the world, Elke! Here's my new niece, wrapped up like a tiki, with her brother Finn.  Just as soon as I have a few spare minutes, I'll be making her some of these great softie birds.  They make a lovely gift - free pattern and  instructions are here on Spool's website.

Student designs made up in tissue paperMinji looking pensive...Long time no update blog!  But I have an excuse.  We've been trampling sacred sites at Carnarvon Gorge(-ous) over the holidays.

But it's back to the salt mine at college.  (Here's some piccies taken on Banallee's new camera.)  Have been whining about a few late night classes this term.  On Wednesday night, was still wandering the halls at 6.30 pm. Peeked in on some classrooms - people making  patterns, sewing garments, designing hats.  In the hallways, racks of lovely garments all ready for the big (fashion) parade.  And I thought to myself - there are worse places you could be!

Natural food dyes can  produce the prettiest colours! These samples show the results of frozen blueberries and raspberries on silk.  Even the mordants (stuff you add to enhance colours or make them more permanent) can be kitchen items like vinegar, salt and bicarb.

Basically this berry dyeing involved boiling up a pack of  frozen raspberries or blueberries in a couple of litres of water and stewing your fabric for half an hour.

My experiences with using chemical dyes (Drimalene K) are not so much fun.  My whole laundry looked like a battlefield, with red stained door, sink and almost a red and black Border Collie (sorry Monty!)  Just the tiniest dusting of chemical goes everywhere. I think I lowered  the water level on our local dam just from rinsing colour out of the cloth.

piccie from http://blueberrydyeworkshop.blogspot.com/Natural dyes are not so concentrated and of course, way less toxic. Try Google for dye recipes - even spices like turmeric and paprika can be cooked up to  turn out some pretty colours.

Find templates like this in fashion drawing books or onlineColoured with markers and watercolour pencils, background is photocopied fabrics"Croquis" (rhymes with okie-dokie!) -  is a fancy French word for sketch.  They're great for expressing your ideas - sketching is a basic skill that can be learned, just like reading and writing.  A little practice goes a long way!

My college project (above right) was drawn using a template on a light box.  No light box?  Tape your template to a window in daylight hours, tape to the TV at night!  Pencil in the basic shape and add your clothing design.  Use a fine line pen (I like 0.1!) to define your sketch.  Erase original pencil lines and colour.

When I was in sixth grade our teacher made us stand up in front of the class to show our best drawing.  I had to borrow a picture from a friend!  Couldn't draw to save my life and avoided art at high school in favour of maths and physics (unbelievable!).  But at age 27 I decided I wanted to learn to draw - it's never too late to start.

The life-changing book I read was Betty Edwards' Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.  For a totally left-brained person, it helped me learn a skill I thought was only for the chosen few!

To make a mood board, take an A3 size piece of mount board and fill it with images that inspire you. Don't stop at 2D -  use foamcore or mounting tape to raise images you particularly like.  A hot glue gun will attach small props. 

At college, our inspiration boards are usually themed and include a title, samples of fabrics and a colour palette.  They work in tandem with a visual diary, and are a handy way to see all your influences in one hit.

My pictured board is inspired by (you guessed it) desserts!  From here I'll draw up clothing designs focussing on a berry coloured palette.  We've been doing some natural fabric dyeing using blueberries and raspberries, creating some yummy colours.  Have also been experimenting with ruffles and pleating to suggest layers of creamy icing on a cake.

Pattern Making 101Layout and cut out your patternSew Thomas the Tank Top

Don't drop your coffee cup, but I've finally posted a new project, Clone your Favourite Tank Top.  Great for girls and guys (yes, some do sew, I've seen it firsthand!) it involves making a pattern from your favourite tank top/singlet, cutting it out and stitching it up.

Top Tips for Thomas the Tank Top:

1) When making your pattern, be as accurate as you can.  If in doubt, err on the big side (ie. make it slightly larger - you can always take it in, but you can't take it out if it's too small!)  Learn by my mistakes - I was sloppy making a T shirt pattern for Aaron, and it ended up a whole size too small...

2) Buy fabric that's at least as stretchy as your original tank top otherwise the fit could be nasty.

3) Email me if you have any questions. Otherwise enjoy showing off those big Rafael Nadal sized guns in your new tank!

My favourite handmade gift from my sisterI love giving and getting home-made presents.  Often they don't cost much to make (except if you count your labour at say, $50 per hour - now they're expensive!) My sister Jeannie told me not to show anyone her craftsmanship, but I love this crocheted cup too much. Stamped and sewn teatowel

Got this lovely hand carved Indian stamp for my birthday.  Printed and sewed up a sweet tea-towel for Kia that really is a one-off.  (I have a very short attention span and only made one!)

Make-up bag made for (Crazy) Judy out of garage sale silk remnantFlaws are part of the charm of handmade pressies - they're living proof that this is not a mass-produced item! 

Why not have a shot at this little make-up bag?  There's a great little tutorial here at Three Bears.

Fascinated by an episode of Blood Sweat & T Shirts, a 2008 doco about 6 British fashionistas who go to work in India's textile industry.  They work lots of places, from a high-end designer clothing factory to backstreet slums.

I'll give your wife my mascara if you sew the sleeves for me!Depressingly, at a good factory, they make enough to buy a can of deodorant at the end of the day.

Richard would rather work an all-nighter than sleep at the factoryElsewhere, they stay up all night making 36 blouses (in preference to sleeping on the floor under their machines as other workers were!)The factory's overnight accomodation - tucked up under your sewing machine! 

Unfortunately only 15 of their blouses pass the factory's quality control, and they make 30 rupees each (about 75 cents AUD)  for their efforts.

Is this factory even legal?Worse still are the rabbit warren of backstreet slum factories. Conditions are so dismal,the British workers are amazed that they're not illegal. 

Carrying a load of brand name jeans through the Mumbai slumsWhat is illegal is child workers under 14  (but they still meet a 16 year old who has worked since age 10!)

What can I say?