Lately, I’ve completed some lovely leather projects that feature interesting and unusual color combinations.

The Adlan Cruz Continental Bag was custom designed and created for a world traveling concert pianist Adlan Cruz. This versatile tri-tone travel bag has exterior side pockets, a magnetic business card pocket, and front zipper pocket. The interior features a paddled sleeve for a laptop and several additional pockets. Available for custom order in other color options as well.

The Evelyn Belt was designed and created on 11/11/11 and features 11 pieced together leather remnants and adjustable tie closure.

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The instinct to reuse, repurpose, salvage, recycle, and reinvent has long been a part of Ladybird’s DNA. Like a bowerbird, this Ladybird compulsively saves odd bits and scraps with visions of a future purpose for materials that would often be considered trash or waste.  This new pillow design was created out of Ladybird’s stash of selvedge edges of fabric that she has been collecting for several years now, and include many nice silks and wools from numerous pillows, suits, curtains, and other textile projects that have been cut out by Studio Ladybird.

Selvedge stripes are lined up side by side, raw edge to selvedge edge, and then steam fused to a backing layer of fabric, with diagonal topstitching across the stripes for extra stability and dimension. The back of each pillow features an overlapped envelope closure that also showcases the selvedge edge of the fabric whenever possible. Each of these 10″ X 18″ pillows is one of kind, and represents close to a dozen feet worth of selvedge edges from Ladybird’s collection.

This bird especially loves finding selvedges that have script along the fabric edge; this pillow includes a stripe with the words “Tasmania Stretch Extra Fine” woven into the selvedge.

Back envelope closures showcase another selvedge edge. Read the rest of this entry »

Grommet header curtains hung with ball chain loops on industrial pipe with plumbing fittings…the latest of Studio Ladybird’s custom curtain projects at TAXI’s creative mixed-use development in Denver’s River North neighborhood.

Olive canvas curtain panel covers a storage closet in the 34 Degrees office inside TAXI’s newly renovated FREIGHT building. In keeping with TAXI’s reuse and redevelopment focus, their third building FREIGHT, formerly a trucking terminal and now converted into hip new commercial space, features creative reuse and raw industrial details: wood from a local bowling alley and hockey glass from the Colorado Avalanche stadium are used throughout the 30,000 square foot building, which is now fully leased to 13 businesses. Each unit has exposed raw industrial architectural elements and glass garage doors that open to loading dock parking spaces.

View of NIMBL’s new curtains from inside one of their office spaces in the TAXI II building. Orange suede curtains with lime green stitching, hung on 2″ pipe with 1/4″ ball chain loops that roll to reduce friction when sliding across the pipe. Stainless steel pull rods are custom cut and machined by my in-house mechanical engineer/metal worker/installer/master electrician/artist husband.

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I’ve been sewing alot of suits lately, and these two jackets were a delightful diversion from the more standard styles I regularly put together for AJ Machete & Sons Custom Clothiers.  I’ve been itching to post these pictures since I finished these pieces a few weeks ago now, but I’ve been so busy with other projects that it hasn’t been high enough priority.  Until today. I’m taking a break to share these completely custom jackets with you.

Lining and Interior Pocket - Rockabilly Blazer, Custom Tailored for AJ Machete & Sons, 2010

Do you love the zebra print charmeuse lining?!  How about picturing a full band, all in matching “Rockabilly Blazers”?  I think that’s the costumer in me coming out…picturing the clothes on a stage where the contrast details would really show up.

Rockabilly Blazer, Custom Tailored for AJ Machete & Sons, 2010

What other kinds of contrast fabric and color details can you imagine on a custom blazer?  Pick your fabrics and styling, we’ll make a cotton muslin mockup first to develop a custom fit pattern, and then construct beautiful garments just for you.  Great fitting clothes will give you confidence in your appearance and help you be sharp and stylin’ at weddings, shows, themed conventions, or other special events.

View the Etsy listing for more info on AJ Machete & Sons’ “Rockabilly Blazer” here.

The next project has captured my attention with ideas for future gear-themed appliques on clothing, pillows, bags, and more….now if I can just squeeze some time in for some new designs!

Custom Applique Tailcoat: Leather Gears on brown linen. Jessica Montoya for AJ Machete & Sons, 2010.

A soft, contrasting brown leather gear on the back… Read the rest of this entry »

Ever wondered what the inside a blazer looks like? Here’s a few shots of some typical inner construction details you will find inside a suit jacket.  The front of the jacket is interfaced with a hair canvas backing, fusible in this case.  Weft fusible is used in addition as a softer stabilizer at the shoulder/chest area.  Sleeve caps are supported by shoulder pads and sleeve headers.  The front welt pockets are supported by a muslin strip connected to the armscye.

I just finished making this “Rockabilly Blazer” for MacheteNSons.etsy.com – stay tuned for pictures of the completed blazer!

Here’s a recently completed Machete & Sons project: a custom Uncle Sam tailcoat that will be worn this weekend in celebration of the 4th of July.  Hope everyone has a safe and fun filled Independence weekend!

While I’ve mostly been staying busy sewing various clothing projects lately, these two custom home decor projects have been a nice diversion and I am pleased with how they turned out (and so are my customers!).  The first piece is a box-style cushion that sits in a metal bench frame.  The edges are piped and I placed a lapped zipper on the backside as you can see in the first image.

I used some handy techniques for constructing this style of piped and gusseted cushion with clean edges and sharp corners (it can be tricky to make those corners look good!), and I promise to take pictures next time and post a tutorial.

Next up is one of my favorite pillow designs.  I love the organic nature of the raw edges of leather hides, and I enjoy piecing together scraps in ways that highlight this detail.  This brown and tan pillow features decorative machine stitching along the raw edge in a variegated brown and tan thread.  The backside of the pillow features the same detail in an envelope closure, complete with horn button.  This pillow was made to coordinate with the other two leather pillows pictured below that I sold on Etsy; I can’t wait until I have some more free time in the studio to make more of these designs in a variety of colored leathers!

It’s been an exiting week so far…actually, it’s been pretty busy in my world lately.  I haven’t had the spare time to blog, and decided to take a few minutes tonight to continue acquainting myself with my new home here at Studio Ladybird.  I’m excited to have my new site up and running, but I’ve been working on so many other projects the past few weeks that I haven’t even had a chance to break in my new nest!  Lots of sewing has been happening this week, and multiple new custom projects and alterations are in the works.  Plus, I’ve sold 3 sets of napkins and a couple of my favorite leather pillows on Etsy in the past 4 days! As a new shop (launched at the beginning of 2010), these first sales are quite exciting and I can’t wait to hear feedback from my new customers once they receive their items.

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Welcome to my new home! I’ve been busy building my blog’s new nest here with WordPress.  I’m still working out all of the kinks and learning oodles about coding and formatting with all of the options available on this platform, but am excited to have my own domain and am looking forward to expanding my knowledge of web design and blogging in the process.  I’m also in the process of building my home page, though it might be a few weeks before I get that up and running. (It will be my first website building project ever and I’m doing it from scratch in Dreamweaver…I’m a teach-myself-how-to-do-it kind of girl!)

What do you think of my new nest?

(collection of nests by gooseflesh)