alice and ginny

Textile fish & West Dean College

2012-02-07T04:26:00.000-08:00

Today we have been photographing fish.

We were asked to design a project for a workshop in September for a West Dean College Pop up event. We will share more details nearer the time.

But in the meantime if you haven't heard of West Dean you really must check out their wonderful website and creative brochure, full of the most amazing short courses.

We were so thrilled to be asked to teach a beginners sewing machine course there last November over a weekend residential.

We had a ball and were blessed with an lovely group who produced great projects and came on leaps and bounds during the weekend. here are a few images of work in progress;

and a couple of the finished results;

very impressive! We have the same workshop planned for this autumn and are really looking forward to helping some more novice sewers gain more confidence and get going with sewing using their sewing machines.

Festive baubles!

2011-12-05T15:26:00.000-08:00

Tonight we ran a workshop at the West End Centre in Aldershot as part of a 4 week course called 'Inspired by Christmas'. The group of 9 had all created projects with the pottery, willow and mosaics tutors in previous weeks and it was now our turn.

a beautiful classic red and gold bauble - very successful

The project we designed was called ' Festive Baubles'. The baubles were created on a styrofoam ball base and were decorated using a variety of different materials such as coloured tissue paper, organza, trims, sequins, glitter and feathers. As you can see each person brought their own creativity and personality to their piece.

i love this flamboyant bauble by Julie, really bold and very effective!

a tangerine dream by Laura

this gilded bauble reminds me of an arabian desert

Tara used layers of paper and fabric to make a really textural effect. I love the contrast of pink and yellow.

Isn't this just gorgeous! a delicious holly and berries glitter ball, wow, love it!

a strong contrast of red and gold here and i love the movement in it too.

i also love the simplicity of Wendy's purple and gold bauble.

And finally look at this one, so inspired! a cat decoration, just fabulous!

Alice and I always love how each person puts their own spin on a project and we came away from tonight's class feeling very inspired ourselves.

Festive Wreath Workshop

2011-11-26T10:15:00.000-08:00

I have just returned from an enjoyable day with a lovely group of participants at Farnham Maltings where Alice and I were running our Festive Wreath workshop.
The wreaths are made using a wire base which is then padded and covered with fabric. Decorations such as leaves, doves, robins and Ivy are then added along with buttons, beads and ribbons.

a lovely shaker style wreath in progress by Sally-Anne

As with all our workshops we show a few samples and provide templates and then encourage each person to spend some time working on design and using the fabrics and materials as inspiration to come up with something unique and individual to them.

We always find it exciting to see how each finished wreath varies (this is the third year we have run this workshop) and today didn't disappoint. So here are some of the gorgeous creations from today's class.

a really sumptuous wreath with gorgeous birds by Sam. i especially love the tail feathers

a simple but effective, doves and holly in progress by Sarah

these beautiful 3 dimensional gold flowers were stunning on Ruth's wreath

Lucy went for a traditional holly and berries with a gorgeous glimmer of gold

Anna's charming pale blue and green wreath worked really well too

this wreath in progress by Jo was designed to be used all year round so flowers were added.
and a pretty flower hung at the centre.

and finally this joyous colourful floral wreath by Tamsin
was also designed to be used all year round.

The other wreaths created today were a gorgeous large white wreath designed by Sarah to be used a table centre piece. Sarah has created lots of misletoe leaves in eau de nil silk, some green leaves and four cream soft doves. She will tie it all together with embellishments. I cant wait to see it finished! Liz designed a red and white nordic style wreath using hearts and stars which she has highlighted with beads handsewn in snowflake design. And finally Tamasin used leaves in greens and a central hanging large stufffed heart for her country style wreath.

So as you can tell such a rich variety of wonderful creations!

And if you feel inspired to make a wreath you can find all the instuctions in our second book Home Sweet Sewn or in Make me I'm Yours Christmas where it is included with some other lovely Chrstmas projects.

January competition winner

2011-02-01T02:57:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to Sally Willis who has won our January competition.
I will be sending out the books & some fabric goodness to you later this week.

Thank you to all who entered and signed up for our email club too.
Our first newsletter will be sent out when Spring finally arrives which hopefully will be at the beginning of March.
I don't know about you but I am really looking forward to some warmer days and the chance to sit outside and craft, now wouldn't that be lovely!

Kick Start to sewing student creations 2010

February brings some exiting new projects for us here at Alice and Ginny.

On Wednesday we teach our first class at the Farnham Maltings. We have a full class of 12 and are really looking forward to meeting you all (hello, if you are reading). If you missed out on a place this time we will be rerunning this in May.

Family Creative Workshops 2010

We will also be teaching a short course in Tadley, Hampshire and two workshops at theWest End Centre in Aldershot, Hampshire; a Monthly Make evening creating fabric roses and a family Valentine Art canvas.
So it's busy busy.
To sign up to our email club please visit our website

Hello 2011

2011-01-29T03:48:00.001-08:00

Well hello crafty sewing loving friends. Happy New year to you!

Welcome back to our blog and yes we appreciate it has been a long time since we wrote here. I daren't actually look at the last date we posted but we are back now and plan to update a little more frequently.

2010 was a really busy time for us and the teaching side of our business really took off. Between us we ran over 30 workshops and 4 course programmes so we hope you will forgive us for being a little slack with posting here.

We so enjoy teaching and it is a great feeling to use our training and professional experience coupled with our passion of textiles to inspire and encourage others.
Particularly popular during 2010 was our introduction course, 'Kick Start to Sewing' launched at The West End Centre in Aldershot, designed for new sewers to become confident with machine sewing and to learn basic sewing foundation techniques.
You can have a look at the images of the fantastic work produced by participants on our recent courses if you click over to our website.

In 2011 we have many new workshops planned and some new venues too. Some are still in the pipeline but we will update the website as these dates are confirmed.

We have also set up an email club which will include receiving our seasonal newsletter full of information about upcoming workshops, occasional giveaways, tutorials and offers.
Please visit our website to sign up. If you subscribe by the 31st January you will be entered into a competition to win the two fabulous sewing books pictured above.

These books include a few of our projects plus projects from talented artists including Dorothy Wood, Marion Elliot, Mandy Shaw, Helen Phillips, Ellen Kharade and Sally Southern.

'Make me I'm Yours Sewing' published by David and Charles

Music to go by Sally Southern

Sewing roll by Mandy Shaw

Tealights by Marion Elliot in 'Make me I'm Yours Christmas' published by David and Charles

If you do subscribe you can unsubscribe at any time. We also promise not to spam you and please be assured that we never pass on your details.

If you however would like to receive more regular updates of workshops and news you can also follow us on our twitter page at http://twitter.com/aliceandginny

Looking forward to meeting some of you over the course of this year.

warmly
Alice and Ginny

Last two Summer workshops

2010-08-01T10:07:00.001-07:00

Just a quick post to let you know that places are still available on our last two Summer Boredom Buster workshops ~

Sew Delicious Day ~ Cushion Cover ~
August 17th 10.30 - 4.30 Cost £25 A workshop for ages 12 to 16 years

Create your very own cushion cover in a day. The session will begin with exploring design ideas. We will then show you a variety of techniques such as stencilling, applique and embellishment which you will then be able to apply to your creation. to make your cover more meaningful we ask that you bring in any fabric you may wish to encorporate into your design and lots of ideas! We also have stacks of fabrics for you to choose from. Beginners very welcome.

and

Mother and Daughter Junk Jewellery day ~
August 18th 10.30 - 4.30 Cost £25 per person - young ladies must be aged 10 +

A chance to enjoy a creative day with your mother or daughter (or aunt, grandmother, sister) creating your own fashionable brooches, fun jewellery and hair accessories from recycled fabrics, papier mache, buttons and beads. Materials will be provided but why not bring along your old broken necklaces, trinkets, recycled fabrics and old magazines to use on the day. No experience neccesary. Please bring a packed lunch.

Both workshops take place at the West End Centre in Aldershot, Hampshire. For further details and to book contact the box office on 01252 330040 or see their website.

Turtle Love x

2010-07-19T02:05:00.000-07:00

The great thing about our Sew Westy sewing class is that each individual can work on their own projects with Alice and I there to guide and support.

We also run a 6 week introductory course (which re-starts in September) which teaches students sewing machine skills and techniques through creating two set projects. After this students can go onto to the Sew Westy class where they can, with our guidance choose suitable self initiated projects.

This term the projects have been pretty diverse; A roman blind, an evening skirt for a ball, tunic, trousers, cover and canopy for a hanging seat, childrens dresses, cushions, peg bags (post below), a sleeping suit for a toddler, draft excluder and more.

Interspersed with technique masterclasses the Sew Westy course is a relaxed and supportive class and a real pleasure to teach.

Last week Pip wanted a quick fix project so we helped her create 'Myrtle the Turtle'.

The pattern is by Jhoanna Monte Aranez and was published in Issue 6 of Sew Hip magazine.
She has now made a friend for Myrtle too though I am not sure of his name!
Cute aren't they?!

More of Jhoanna's work here.
Sew Hip is available from WhSmiths.

peg it out!

2010-07-15T05:46:00.001-07:00

Ditch the tumbledrier and peg out that washing!

These two pegbags were stitched by lovely Marimar who is member of our Sew Westy adult sewing class. Considering she came to us just 11 weeks ago as a complete beginner I am sure you would agree that these are amazing. The machine applique on such a small scale can be terribly fiddly but she has so mastered it. We are very proud of you dear Marimar.

We are in fact so proud of the whole class who have been a delight to teach. Next week is our last session and I am hoping to share a few more of the group's creations in the next few posts.

The peg bag pattern is from our first book Sew Fabulous Fabric.

getting organised

2010-07-13T04:35:00.000-07:00

I have just noticed that a free tutorial of our wall planner project from Home Sweet Sewn has been added on Cut and out Keep with a book review. To view please follow the link here.
Please note that they have called it a pin striped planner which is actually the variation project.
The instructions are for the family wall planner.

This is the pin striped planner which is made in a similar way except for the decoration and the pockets. Instructions for this variation are in the book or you could create your own design or use a design from another project as Sarah from Wordtrapping has done. Follow this link ~ here ~ to view the beautiful Tree of life wall planner she has created. Sarah has cleverly used the tree of life template from our cushion design (also in Home Sweet Sewn) as the image at the top and has used saved scraps of precious fabrics for the applique. It works wonderfully well, don't you think?!

wow long time gone...

2010-07-06T06:34:00.000-07:00

Hello,
It seems that we have neglected this little blog but hopefully that is all about to change.
We have had a busy few months and have been leading lots of workshops at the West End centre in Aldershot. We love coming up with new ideas for workshops and really enjoy meeting everyone and seeing how they interpret our ideas.
The Monday Monthly Makes have been great fun. At the April workshop we had full a full class of 30! We demonstrated how to make simple beads from old magazines and rolled felt and thread. These were combined glass beads and a decorated pendant to make necklaces or bracelets. Here are a couple of photos of some of the fabulous finished creations.

At the June Monthly Make flower brooches were created, sadly i did not have time to take any photos but if you are reading this and you attended, we would love it if you emailed us a photo of your creation to add here.

Last night the July Monthly Make was in full Summer mode with some fantastic strings of bunting produced. With a large pile of fabrics to choose from, a template sheet and access to stencils, stampers, embroidery threads and bondaweb for decoration we demonstrated, guided, advised then stood back and saw the creativity emerge. It was fantastic to see the bunting come together. What felt especially lovely was that about 6 of the group had never used a sewing machine before and to help them loose their fear and realise that they could actually use the sewing machine without it 'blowing up' was really rewarding. I managed to snap only a few images which makes it look like it was all cupcake stencils, which it so wasn't. There were also skull and crossbones, boats, flowers, names and strawberries created using different techniques. Arn't they fun?!

so if you would like to come and join in the fun whilst learning some new skills at one of our workshops please ring the West End Centre on 01252 330040 and request a brochure. The new Autumn one is just about to come out!
ginny x

'Homestyle Sewing'

2010-04-23T10:20:00.000-07:00

We are delighted to be included in a new magazine called Homestyle Sewing.

The Fabulous Fabrics feature on recycling fabrics is an exert from our second craft book, 'Home Sweet Sewn' and offers advice on where to source different types of fabrics.

The simple 'Patches' project from our first book 'Sew Fabulous Fabric' has also been included as a tutorial.

..along with some cheesy photos of us...please don't look too closely!

Homestyle Sewing also features 15 great projects from a variety of textile designers including Poppy Treffry, Mandy Shaw, Sally Southern, Tone Finnager, Ellen Kharade and Pam and Nicky Lintott. This one off Spring special comes with a free bag kit gift complete with bag handles and a large piece of red and white polka dot fabric, contains an interview with Poppy Treffry, has 10% off a variety of books at RUCraft and a fun 'design and make a cake' competition to enter.
Priced at £7.99 it sounds steep but really is fully packed and covers a range of techniques and many of the projects are great for newer sewers too.
If you fancy a copy of Homestyle Sewing, try your local WHSmiths.

Little Sew- and - Sews

2010-04-13T13:31:00.001-07:00

Little Sew-and-Sews is a new after school sewing club for 8 t0 11 years olds which takes place at The West End Centre in Aldershot.
Last term our group of 10 all created a pin cushion using felt and basic stitches. Here are a few of the results...fab aren't they?! I love them all but particularly like the sweet hedgehog centre right created by our youngest class member!

During the 5 week course we taught the girls a variety of techniques and they completed three finished projects... Pin cushions, suffolk puff (or yo-yo) brooches/hair accessories and an appliqued bag with a plaited strap.

The pretty yo - yo brooch above was created by Katie and given to her mum as a surprise for mother's day. The picture shows her mum proudly wearing it.

Lily made a brooch during class and enjoyed it so much that she carried on making them at home. She layered three puffs together and created this fabulous hair accessory.

All the girls created an applique bag too but i only have a few photos of these...

a lollipop and an owl

and a sweet applique rabbit... i hope it was filled with chocolate at Easter!

We are starting a new 6 week course next Tuesday 20th April and we have a couple of spaces available.

For further details please see our website

or contact the West End Centre on 01252 330040

'Sew Westy'

2010-02-10T13:56:00.000-08:00

Now don’t faint everyone but Ginny has finally managed to get me to write a few words for our blog (not before time I hear her mutter!)
So I wanted to tell you about the ‘Westy Sew and Sews’, a rather special course that we have been running at our local art centre over the last five weeks which has proved to be a total joy for both of us. The idea of the course was to introduce beginners to the wonderful world of sewing or to act as a refresher to those who haven’t sewn for a while. The students were encouraged to bring their own machines and we went through the essentials of sewing such as understanding your machine, preparing fabric, pinning, cutting, sewing seams, finishing, pressing, clipping, lining and even machine appliqué.
On the first evening, despite heavy snow and me being convinced that no-one would turn up on such a foul evening, our students all turned up nearly all having trudged though the snow to get to the centre. Our lovely students comprised a mixture of beginners, novices and those that had lost confidence.
Over the five weeks they made a patchwork cushion that was made up of a variety of seam finishes and a lined tote bag with machine appliqué. They all excelled themselves and achieved the most fabulous results.
The next 5 week course starts on Tuesday 23rd February and we hope to see a few familiar faces as well as some new ones too.
How lucky are we to be teaching a subject that we both love to such a great bunch of gals! So to Maz, Jacquie, Jenny, Lisa, Philippa, Jenny and Marilyn – give yourselves and A+ and the pleasure was all ours!

it's a love thing...

2010-02-02T14:13:00.000-08:00

well the monthly make valentine night was a fun one last night... we had a great group attending. 18 in total, all ladies save one very brave guy. we were thrilled that he attended as we totally believe that sewing is for all.

the cream wool fabric was first stenciled with a heart, and whilst that was drying everyone dived into the fabric stash to choose fabrics for the wording. This was then appliqued on to the cushion front using double sided fusible web.

this one was created by Phil for his wife...

on the reverse was a secret pocket (for a love note) some of which were embellished with beads or applique...

then they were all blanket stitched together, stuffed and scented and when the wine was finally finished some were displayed proudly for photos... we think they were all fabulous.

we love how Gemma used denim for the letters on her cushion...

thank you so much to everyone for attending , it was a fab evening and we hope you enjoyed it as much as Alice and I did.

Valentine Monthly Make

2010-01-24T08:16:00.000-08:00

Alice and I are getting ready for our next Workshop on Monday 1st February. This is a Monthly Make, Valentine special and the project we have devised is a small scented cushion which includes a tiny pocket on the reverse for a secret love note.

These informal 2 hour evening sessions take place in the bar area of the West End Centre, include a free drink and are great fun. The idea, launched in September 2009 by the wonderful Dale at the 'Westy' has been a huge sucess. The sessions are run by a different artist each month and focus on quick acheivable projects.

In October we ran our flower brooches workshop and in December ran 2 sessions on Beaded Decorations. Luckily I managed to get a few photos at the end of the evening of some of the beautiful decorations that were created... the photos are a little dark but you can still appreciate how gorgeous and individual they all were...

So if you fancy booking onto our February workshop (men and women equally welcome),or finding out about other courses available then ring The West End Centre on 01252 330040 or book online at www.westendcentre.co.uk.

hello!

2010-01-21T11:10:00.000-08:00

Hello, i am Ginny, one half of aliceandginny

I have been blogging since April 2007 but thought it was about time that I got Alice on board and that we started an 'aliceandginny' blog. So here it is...
I am a little rusty with using blogger as i am now more familiar with typepad so please bear with me a little.

Firstly we would like to welcome you to our new space. Please say hello and leave us a comment to say you have visited (to do this you can use the comments link below).

We hope that this space will be an extension of the news page on our website and cover all news aliceandginny related from showcasing the work created by students at our workshops, to keeping you up to date with our upcoming projects and hopefully a few tutorials thrown in for good measure too.
that's all for now... back soon ginny x