Bunny in Ski and Snowsport Fabrics

November 24, 2022November 24, 2022 | Inspire by Kim

In the week leading up to Boston Snowbound Expo I brought my ski and snowsports fabric designs together in this ski bunny character.

The fabrics are all in my Spoonflower shop here. The fabric used is the Petal Signature Cotton.

The fabric designs used for the bunny are Ski Icons, Snow Crystals on Warm Colours, Ski Goggle Reflections, Ski Peaks, Ski Isometric Pattern, Heart Plaid and Ski Fun. He has a heart on one paw symbolising love and the sun on the other paw for light.

Here is the bunny as part of my display at Snowbound Expo at the Hynes Convention Centre in Boston, Massachusetts last weekend.

He was alongside the swatch book of my designs and on fabric samples used as tablecloth sections.

I chose from my 25 fabric designs to cut, sew and stuff this new character.

He started as a sketch, after taking shape in my mind for a while.

I planned the fabric pieces for contrast and variety.

After cutting all the fabric pieces, managing not to start sewing before I had done this, I then started to bring the pieces together.

I’m not the best at sewing but I wanted to show one way that the fabrics could be used, to help inspire people for their projects.

The shoulders and feet were particularly tricky.

When I previously made a stuffed character I struggled with the fiddleiness and small seam allowances. So this time I added interfacing on the reverse of all the fabrics to make them easier to work with.

It feels like magic to sew with fabrics that I designed. Thanks to Spoonflower for printing them so vibrant and detailed.

This little dude is set to travel. He got his eyes sewn on Monday and flew to the United States on Tuesday.

It was great to chat about sewing projects and discuss ideas at the booth. So he now just needs a name. You can email your suggestion or add it in the comments.

See this short animated video clip of him here. No sooner was he completed that he went off skiing! Animated in Aardman Animation’s ‘Animate It’ app.

The Inspire by Kim shop on Spoonflower has over 20 ski, snowsports and winter themed designs to choose from. Select the designs you wish to order, select the type of fabric from voile to velvet, decide the quantity, and Sooonflower print it on demand and ship it to you. Find my shop here.

I’m keen to see whatever is made in the fabrics so please share it on email to inspirebykim@outlook.com or on social media please tag it @inspirebykim

Thank you so much, happy making!

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Latest Posts

Uplifting New Ski Art

March 4, 2022March 1, 2022 | Inspire by Kim

My latest ski art pieces are here!

The first is a ski-themed band taking centre focus in the après-ski by performing in a cable car suspended above a crowd who are dancing on the snow.

The characters and mountains are painted in watercolours. The setting has been created from scratch digitally in Procreate app.

The ski band is available as a limited edition art print in my shop.

The following illustration recollects a challenging ski run, whilst teaching children to ski in Austria. Due to circumstances outside of my control I had three children under four years of age that I needed to get safely from the top to the bottom of a run. A slow, thigh burner of a descent, with the combined weight, but it worked.

The next piece is an ‘uplifting’ illustration of a ski gondola lifting passengers to the top of the mountain. Painted in watercolours, with a fresh colour palette, finished digitally with my iPad and pencil.

As a challenge I decided to give some animals the chance to enjoy some winter sports. I designed this festive greeting and rendered it in coloured pencils and made the final touches digitally. Including adding snowflakes with the brushes that I created in the Procreate app.

As a Valentine greeting I created this illustration in coloured pencils.

These pieces follow on from my illustrations for the Ski A to Z book – which contains over 100 of my ski illustrations. For more information and/ or to buy the Ski A to Z book click here.

Ski A to Z – illustrated introduction to skiing. Published by Meyer & Meyer Sport (UK)

Please subscribe to my website to see new work, news and inspiring projects. As social media is becoming increasingly advertising heavy, my website will be the focus of my posts in the coming months.

If you know someone who would also be interested please share a link to www.inspirebykim.com with them.

Thanks so much

Kim x

Ski Trip Packing Tips

November 27, 2021November 27, 2021 | Inspire by Kim

I’m pleased to see that Dan Egan has a copy of Ski A to Z in his bag for this winter season in this packing tips article.

See Dan’s ski trip packing tips in this article…

Ski Tips: Packing for the next road trip

I worked with Dan late 2020 on his book co-authored with Eric Wilbur, 30 Years In A White Haze, producing 22 illustrations for the book, mostly while I was in lockdown in the UK.

We held meetings over Zoom when working on 30 Years In A White Haze so it was great to meet Dan at The National Snow Show a few weeks ago and put our books together.