Etsy Favorites Promotion #2: DotandLine

DotandLine is today's featured Etsy shop. Gone are the days of boring white lamp shades! These graphic prints will turn a boring necessessity into a fabulous feature of any room, and whether your style is modern, rustic, traditional, retro, or totally unique, if you can't find it already in their shop, a custom lampshade is sure to be the right choice for your space.


Here's what Annie from DotandLine has to say about her company:

Hello from Dot&Line Home Accessories. We are a small but growing company! My name is Annie Bierma and I am the owner/founder. I have my degree in Theatre Lighting Design and now find my joy in designing pieces that allow you to add your own story to a room.

As a company, we do our best create pieces inspired by nature, vintage materials and light itself. We try to keep our designs as "green" as possible, reusing materials and lamp bases as much as possible. Using hand printed and vintage fabrics also keeps our footprint small and results in one of a kind, handmade items you can't find anywhere else.

In addition to making pieces inspired but us directly, we also enjoy collaboration with individuals to create something that is uniquely "them". This guarantees that our clients get exactly what they want and need for their space and nothing makes us happier!

Green is the new purple

I made a few little things this weekend while reorganizing my craft area. In the interest of "going Green", I tried to use up some things I already had.

This was a white kitchen towel I had found at Target for $1. It's very simple and basic, but looks much better with some appliqué and embroidery. It is completely hand-sewn because my sewing machines are both misbehaving.

I started by drawing the design on some scratch paper, then I traced over the leaves on velum and created a template for five or six different leaf shapes that I then used to trace onto some green linen that I already had. Prior to cutting the linen I ironed on lightweight interfacing to the back of the fabric. Lastly I penciled the design onto the towel, stitched the main vine then contined one leaf at a time until finished.

Our kitchen bar tends to collect an assortment of pens and pencils. I tried to make a place for them in the craft drawers, but a handful still ended up on the bar counter space in an ugly flourescent yellow plastic cup. I decided I needed to make something that matched the rest of the kitchen better.

I found this wooden cup at Michael's and brushed on a thin layer of "eucalyptus" acryllic paint. I like seeing the wood grain beneath the paint. Adding the leaf design from the kitchen towel in white was an easy choice.

Looking back I think I would prefer green-on-white rather than white-on-green, and I may just paint over this some day. For now, it looks cute and serves its purpose well. I think something like this could make a nice gift for a coworker or a male family member that is difficult to shop for - perhaps in a different design though.

Lastly, I used some of the same green linen as well as some old felt scraps and fiber fill that I had sitting around, and a button leftover from a quilting project to create this little emery. I actually did need a place to stick all of my "in use" needles. I have a drawer for assorted needles from sewing machine needles to embroidery needles but I usually have two or three that are currently in use for hand-sewing projects and they typically end up getting mixed in with my pins or stuck in the fabric of my ironing board.

I love how this turned out and I think I might make more, I certainly have a lot of these materials left over. Next time I want to try using a large hole punch to cut out the flower(s) though, I think that would look even better. For this one I hand-sketched a design on paper, then traced it on velum to create a template.