Dear Creative Friends, It is warm here in Ashland , Oregon this month…and my projects tend to be on the playful side…I tend to wear what is easy and cool…and I am always looking to my closet or the closest thrift store to have something to play with for the afternoon.  Here are  2 of my favorite remakes to share with you. Linen Jacket Start: Rule of thumb: ONLY use fabric you  like… no sense spending time on making something more interesting if you don’t like the fabric in the first place…. Even though that sounds obvious…it is easy to get caught up in feeling like you have to use everything you have…just because it was great in it’s last life. THE NEW LINEN TOP- Here is what I did. I cut off the collar. Added a bias band is a favorite piece of fabric…and repeated that fabric in ties and lining in the sleeves. I have used bits and pieces of some of my stencil designs ( )and combined them with some of Marcy Tiltons silk screen designs (www.marcytilton.com). I am always using Jacquard textile paints for the stenciling and the silk screening. For easy ways to get  great results with stencils, see tips for stenciling on my website and my DVD, Stenciling on Fabrics, also available on my site. I love the combination of colors and designs. often colors opposite on the color wheel provide a pleasing accent to the colors we are initially attracted too. I recommend a good color wheel in the studio-it is a great reference and can be wonderful teaching tool for expanding the way you play with color. See the tools and materials section on my website for my favorite color wheel. LINEN DRESS REFRESH- Here is another redesigned piece. Aside from removing the belt  (and using for ties across the back and a line on the pocket in front), I removed the original buttons and printed. I love the way the natural linen takes the rubber stamps and stencils. I like the look of stencils, silk screen and rubber stamps together. They print differently and add more dimension to the fabric. One of my favorite parts of the process is replacing the buttons…in this case, a collage of some of my favorites! Some of  my current favorite stencil designs- Eucalyptus Leaves (#16) Spring Leaves (#24) Of the Wall (#25) Jakarta (#26) Bamboo Forest (#4) Calla Lillies (#9) Spring Vines (#13) Bugs in Flight (#20) Think about what you do with your clothes when you wear them- this can give you ideas on where to print design details. For instance, do you fold back your cuffs? if so, how about printing on the inside of the cuff for a hit of color when you fold them back. I print on the underneath side of the collar (photo to the right here) since I like to stand them up in back when I wear a collared garment. Added Surface Design- Some machine embroidery came along the bottom of the dress(see below) . As you can see, I worked the stenciling into the design …sometimes over and under. I always want my printing to look natural …like it was always there. I do like the combo with the embroidery and printing together. I hope you are enjoying summer projects too! Diane