Botanical printed leather/fabric dress

Set of botanical printed leather apron-wrap dress and espadrille just made.  Absolutely one of a kind.  I'm quite pleased with this own made wearable.  I must say that the garment made with huge thanks to Nicola Brown, my good friend I know since she taught me wool felting.  A couple of months ago I went to Ireland and we had a great time together for botanical printing interaction. Nicola is very generous to give me the exquisite "crust" hide and wool fabric for the printing with her own grown plants.  I made the big nice prints of leather and wool.  Back home with fabulous ideas to make them into memorable wears.

The leather Nicola bought from Linda G Illumanardi who is a brilliant eco printer based in the US. She prints so well on leather and was so generous to share her tutorial with me too. This big piece of leather I have never seen before.  At first I was hesitate to print with as it's huge to handle.  If I made it wrong I would have ruined such expensive leather. Nicola was so kind to encourage me to go ahead and make the most of it.  So that I combined with Linda's way of working and my own to print it.  It's a big piece but as usual "less is more" for me. I just put on a few leaves and flower is the main theme.

It came out so pleasing.  I was thinking to make it a work apron but seems a waste.  Finally I made it a wearable apron dress with panels of linen/silk printing. Just simple cutting and lining I made this wrapped dress. It's easy piece of free size and two-way dressing.

 The big wool yardage and the huge lambskin botanical printing done in Nicola's studio are the nice keepsakes of my holiday in Ireland.

From below images you will see how it looks in different style.

早前在愛爾蘭Nicola Brown 莊園印製的兩大片羊皮及羊毛氈植物染終製作成衣物，一件羊皮夾絲麻長裙及兩件袖子被肩上衣，很多謝Nicola 的濃情厚意送給我這些貴重物料作研究，成為那次旅程訪友的珍貴紀念製品。

 

Lined arm holes and neckline with printed scraps 

  

Intended raw edges of leather

Button at the back for tight waist style.  Small buttons on both sides to make it loose style.

The wool yardage I made into two wrap tops.

 

The three generations of us - daughter-in-law and granddaughter, we all in eco printing.

 

This easy to sew garment fits all size and age. 

 

Nicola Brown based in Ireland and teaches on line eco printing. She's great and brilliant to share her techniques of eco printing and wool felting.

Linda G Illumanardi  based in the US teaches botanical printing and supplies exquisite leather for printing.

 I have a wonderful stay with Nicola and learned a lot.  Such great memories bond in mind.

We walked up the mountain 

Gathered flowers and leaves in her house

Made the beautiful prints 

Nice drapping of the printed leather

Creating in such gorgeous environment is inspiring 

The big wool yardage printed and made into two wrap coats

Thank you so much my great friend, Nicola !

Series of botanical printed leather and fabric fashion accessories

Botanical printing could be addicted once you tried as seasonal flowers make us trials.  These days I just done some printings on leather and linen silk blend. You see some of the creations with seasonal flowers.

 

Printed substrates are mainly lamb leather which are so soft and with mordant printing is bold.

A little introduction of me (tk) Terriea Kwong, TerLing Creations is my brand. Hope you enjoy the area with crashing wave.    This is Hong Kong.

A small piece of lamb hide printed in one go and cut into two pieces to make two belts.

 

 Actually the main part of belt is leather and the other is linen silk.

Close up of the leather printing.

Lining and half part of the belts are silk linen blend, the fabric I like most to do botanical eco printing.

You see how curious my cat Mogi who is my approver.

 All these printing on silk linen.

The leather belts are going well easy with dresses, jeans or skirts. They're not hard to sew but making the botanical printing is a bit tricky and work of mordant.  Once mastered you can create own styles of layout and design your accessories.  I have the instant download pdf tutorial mainly for the mordant leather printing, silk linen and paper printing.  All materials for mordant and printing are natural dyes and ingredients. Feel free to browse if you're interested.

Botanical imprinted leather purses 植物印染皮包包

Another experiment of plants imprints just done. Simply a leather clutch of botanical printing. 

Raw leather printed with plants grasped from my urban yard. Swatches cut into pieces and sewed the purses.

This is layout on leather.

Background pink dye from logwood chips.

After some time of heating, botanical marks and dyes imprinted on leather then mounted to air dry.

Before and after of the leather prints.

Swatches sewed into purses. Size of this is good as cosmetic bag.

Another piece of rectangle size swatch just three-fold made into a clutch.

A simple clutch for little things.

So I’m indulged in experiments and my samples are sometimes made into something practical.

The video is about the making of prints. Hope you get inspired.