Hello, and welcome to my blog.

My name is Lavender George and I love to make things. I have been painting, creating and crafting since a small child, firstly from sheer pleasure, and when my children were small, and money was tight, from necessity. Now I hope to make art my main source of income and keep the sewing, crochet and knitting for fun.
I hope you enjoy looking at the things I make, and reading about my inspiration and work in progress.
If you would like to purchase any paintings you can find my shops at:
http://www.folksy.com/shops/LavenderGeorge
http://www.etsy.com/shop/lavendergeorge?ref=seller_info
You can also follow me on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/#!/LavenderGeorge
and Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/lavender.george

Tuesday 30 August 2011

A Black Fascinator




I made this black and red fascinator for my friend to wear to a wedding with a dark red dress. I hope she likes it!
I made it by drawing around a large saucer onto two layers of black sinamay and cutting out the circles. I sprayed them with water and ironed them with a steam iron between two tea towels to fix together. Then once dry, I ironed the joined circles over a small mixing bowl that was covered with a tea towel to make a shallow bowl shape to fit the head and then turning the fascinator base over I ironed it on the edge of my ironing board to turn the top up and out. I wired the edges and trimmed with black bias binding, made black sinamay loops and fixed this to the dip in the top of the fascinator crown and added dark red berries, (which started life as a Christmas decoration) and a silk rose, that I pulled apart and put back together with a black button in the centre. This was fixed in side the black sinamay loop decoration, and then after adding some thin black elastic to hold the fascinator onto the wearer's head, it was done.

Sunday 26 June 2011

A Red Summer Hat



Here is a red straw hat I made from a straw cone. I blocked the crown in my millinery evening class and wired the brim and added the trimming at home. It's a bit wonky, but then so is my head! The sun has finally reappeared, and I'm off out tomorrow on the New Forest Tour Bus, so I will wear it then.

Thursday 9 June 2011

A Poppy Print Summer Dress

Had a massive wardrobe crisis recently. Stood in front of my wardrobe taking out stuff, trying it on, and discarding it all onto the floor. Just hated everything. I wanted something light and summery, but also something I could put a cardi, or jacket over and wear with trousers or leggings as the weather is still so changeable. So, finally, I took myself off to my local fabric shop and bought this lovely soft cotton fabric and made myself a new dress. I made this from a free pattern from Prima magazine. I made it slightly shorter than the pattern recommended, it comes to just above the knee, so that I can wear it with linen trousers or leggings if it's a bit cold or showery out. And I added a pocket, which wasn't part of the pattern and made the sleeves a bit longer as well. We don't like showing the tops of our arms, do we ladies?!
So there we are, a lovely new dress to cheer me up no matter what the weather.

Saturday 7 May 2011

A Swirly Summer Dress

Here's a summer dress I made yesterday afternoon from New Look Pattern no.6936. This is so amazingly simple to make, and although it doesn't look much on the hanger, it is surprisingly pretty on. It has a nice wrapover top and ruched shoulders with ties, and has an empire-line waistband. I can't wait to wear this with a white vest top and white lined trousers, sandals and maybe some jangly bracelets. Perfect for a daytrip on a sunny summer's day.

Friday 6 May 2011

A Love-ly Empire Summer Dress


I've just made myself a new summer dress in a soft polyester fabric that's printed with words of love - in French. Ooh la la. I used my favourite pattern, which is Butterick B5245, should you wish to give it a go. I added side seam pockets to my version, made by simply drawing around my hand to make a pocket pattern and leaving a gap in the side seams where I want the pockets positioned and sewing them in. Also, instead of the short sleeve from the pattern, which was a bit too short and didn't quite cover my dinner lady arms, I traced the sleeve pattern onto new paper and added a couple of inches in length to make it more flattering. This is a brilliant pattern though, which I have used to make winter dresses in stretch and crushed velour and now in a summer weight polyester. It's so easy to make it only takes a couple of hours to run up, and I'm looking forward to wearing it.

Friday 15 April 2011

Two Wedding Fascinators

This is the first of two fascinators I made for my friend's wedding at the end of April. This is a 1950's inspired fascinator made with a teardrop base, which I covered in a mauve shot silk material. I then added a small frilled circle from the same material, a mauve button and three small pink feathers.
Here is the second fascinator I made. This is made from a straw circle base onto which I have sewn a bright orange feather flower corsage, and black sinamay whirls, which I made by hand.

Saturday 2 April 2011

A Hippy, Summer-of-Love style Handbag

I was given this handbag some years ago by a friend and it has been a very well used summer staple. However, I thought it was looking a little tired, so I crocheted some purple, lavender and pink flowers and a little white butterfly and sewed them onto the front to refresh it and bring it up to date for this year's 70's inspired fashions. It will look lovely with a long maxi dress, crochet waistcoat and gladiator sandals, or palazzo pants, vest top, floppy 70's hat and big sunglasses. Fab! Now all I need is the summer .......and some love!

Friday 1 April 2011

Hollywood Film Star Snood


Here is a snood I made for cold winter days, when you want to keep your ears warm, but still be film star gorgeous. I had some fabulous, soft fake fur fabric that I bought a metre of in a fabric sale and I had a small amount of soft white lining material left from another project that I thought would go together. I measured my head from my forehead to the back of my head to get the width required and added a couple of inches for a seam allowance. Then I cut out a long strip, like a scarf from both the fur fabric and the lining material. Putting the two right sides together, I stitched around them, leaving one of the short sides open to turn the fabric out. I trimmed the seams, turned and gently pressed the edges on the lining side of the fabric, and handstitched the open edge. Then I made a tassel from some crochet cotton, in the same way you make a pompom, using card, but tying off near the top of the cotton after it has been wound and then snipping the bottom windings. I folded the scarf in half lining side together and pinned about six inches together at the top and tried it on to see if it was a good fit. Then I hand sewed the two pieces together from the inside, so that the stitches didn't show on the outside, and included the tassel at the top most point of the join. And there you have it. A fabulous, 50's style snood.