Why I love Wellington...

Buskers! Buskers are artists who perform on the streets, usually for tips. One of the hottest locations for these performances is Cuba Mall. This is not a mall in the American sense - it is actually a wide brick road for pedestrians (no cars). The buskers in this city are often extremely talented, and Wellington is so rightly the arts capital of the country. But this weekend, one girl brought street performance to a new level, with her acoustic guitar, vintage sweater, and hippie headband:

Finally!
Made a dress, found a model, and had the first Thimblescratch NZ photoshoot yesterday:
Have a lovely week!

News!

As you can see, I've not been very fastidious with blogging. But I do have a reason. Besides spending all my time sewing and making clothing, I have been preparing for a move. First I moved from Indiana to Illinois. And now we are making a BIG jump:
Wellington, New Zealand.
You can follow this adventure at my Escape Artists blog: http://artistsescape.blogspot.com/
Which, come September, will have videos and pictures of our new home (wherever that may be).

Will I still be making and selling Thimblescratch Clothing? You bet!
And in the next month I will be having a HUGE SALE. So stay tuned!

Automatic Lofts held a posh and modern fashion show in Chicago's West Loop this week.


The designers ran the gamut from hip formalwear (and I thought that was an oxymoron) to tee shirt and shoe painting; from crochet ensembles to urban day-glo pirate, and several stops between! Yet Thimblescratch wasn't the only designer with a touch of hippy in their spring collection. Zandustry and mylittleaura showed earthy crochet looks that would make the sun shine a little brighter.
As a designer, I was unable to see the show on account of my throwing the clothes to the models backstage as quickly as I could so we could get them on the runway on time. But there were many photographers documenting the looks as they came down the catwork, to the beats of D.J. Giotek. How can a person merge an eighties song with a nineties song and make it sounds like Ludacris high fived the Dust Brothers AND Frankie Goes to Holleywood? No idea.

But it was perfect.

As were every one of my models. They had wonderful, fun-loving attitudes which shined through every piece they wore. They were perfect.



By the end of the night, I was ready to sleep for two days. Fashion shows are exhausting.

In fact, I'm still recouperating, which is why my paragraphs are getting shorter and more vague.

Check out my pics on Flickr. We're still waiting for the professional runway shots.

Peace~

THATSFIT!

The AOL fitness blog That's Fit http://www.thatsfit.com
featured a segment on handmade workout wear, and showcased a couple of my shirts. Bhuri and a 2 screen printers were also
featured. The author emailed me yesterday and told me she would be
featuring my items so I listed some of my March Minicollection 2007
which had not been on Etsy til now. Just thought I would share my
excitement, and feel free to check out my newly listed collection on Etsy, including some really fun jackets and pants.

Hopefully the exposure of handmade clothing on That's Fit! will bring some traffic to designers on Etsy~

Spotlighted, oh my!

Just trying to keep up with custom orders, along with making new designs is a lot of work. I think I'll probably be working overtime because I just got 'spotlighted' on the Talentdatabase's fashion channel.
Stop by and check out my portfolio after checking out all the talented designers on this very expansive, amazing site.
http://www.talentdatabase.com/channels/8-Fashion

Oh and while you're here... here's a kitty too.

Custom work!

I've been busy with custom orders. I haven't even finished the Peace shirt from the previous post.
I have, however, been squeezing in time to work on a pair of skrousers for the Scratch Fashion "Every pant has a story" Contest. Stay tuned, because I will be posting the skrousers videostory here on the blog.

I'm really going to start blogging, really.

Not that I know how exactly to do it, but I'll use my gumption.

Let's start with a link to Etsy Milk by DanielleDIY.
And the Scratch Fashion Blog, where you'll find other fashion designers who sell on Etsy.

I just realized it's almost September, but with the heat and humidity still in full force, it's hard to imagine making clothes for Fall. The thought of a jacket, while fashionable, just makes me sweat more.

I'm still in light and summery mode. It's hard not to be with the heat advisories reminding us all the global warming isn't going to be a cakewalk.


But that's okay because speaking of sweat, with all the handmade goodness I've been discovering on TalentDatabase, Indiepublic, and Trunkt, sweatshops may well die off!

[Projects]
So here is what I am working on today:

Men's peace hoodie.

New! Improved! Veg*n!

Some of the talented Etsians over at Etsy banded together to start a street team targeted to and for Vegetarians and Vegans.
This is exciting because:
1) There are lots of veg*ns out there who would love to find Etsy
2) One-stop-shopping for eco-friendly products makes the world a better place
3) We can raise awareness for vegetarianism and why we do what we do
4) The name is EtsyVeg - does it get any cuter than that?!

So far we have a gathering of EtsyVeg bloggers HERE.
Enjoy and happy cruelty-free shopping!

T.C. Lyons - Oil on canvas 2004

Ever wondered what an artist does on the weekends?
Well, I'll tell you. They sleep, and sometimes eat ramen, and sometimes paint stuff, but they always sketch.
Here is a small selection of artworks, created by me.

T Shubert - Oil on canvas 2002


Spaceman Stan and the Stellusoid Secret cover art - T Lyons - 2005 Oil pastel


My art car. That's not a paint job, it's duct tape covering a huge hole in the car. Fiero's really are deathtraps - I hit a mailbox going about 10 MPH and it shattered the car, but the mailbox was fine. They do, however, get excellent gas mileage!

And of course there are nearly 100 works of textile art, known affectionately as Thimblescratch Clothing.

Hello from Thimblescratch

Welcome to the brand new Thimblescratch project area. I'll be adding behind-the-scenes pictures of works in progress, so you can get the inside scoop on what will be in my Etsy store in the near future.
You can check out my store to see what kind of handmade clothing designs I have for sale right now. I haven't been able to sew much lately so the store isn't as chock full as it will be in the coming weeks. But scoop up the one of a kind designs that you love, because once they're gone, I won't be making any more like them!

Also be sure to check out my Myspace page.

Have a spiffy day!