Do you have a fabric collection? Is it getting out of hand? Mine too! Believe me this box and basket are just the tip of the ice-berg.
I love fabric, what’s not to love? I love the colour, the texture, even the weight and sound of different fabrics as they move around. I am a great collector of fabrics; salvaging scraps from ruined items of clothings, believing I will one day find a use for them. I am particularly attached to some of the fabric I have taken from the dresses Beth used to wear when she was a little bit…well…littler.
I saved one or two items but gave the rest away so that other little girls could enjoy them. Where possible I have cut fabric from garments with stains, plucks, tears etc. But what to do with them? How about this?
What do you think? There are two pieces of Liberty fabrics I had left after other projects (namely chair pads), a couple of pieces of Cath Kidston The large white one is an undamaged section of a beautiful dress that Beth once spent the afternoon destroying on the park a few years ago. Here’s a photo of her wearing it….aswell as a fair amount of my make up it would seem!!
The piece below is a piece of a shirt I wore whilst I was pregnant. Post pregnancy, it was obviously too big for me to wear but I still adored the fabric. I’m so glad it will still be seen.
I have a larger hoop which I plan on using for Cross stitch, though I can’t decide whether ‘Home Sweet Home’ or ‘Welcome’ would be the best sentiment to go with this collection. I plan on making more! Lots more, all different sizes. Why not give it a try?
You will need:
Various sized pieces of fabric
Various sized Wooden Embroidery Hoops (I used 4″ 6″ 8″ 10″ here and the cross stitch will be 12″)
Iron
Pinking Shears
Method:
- When creating a collection of items, odd numbers work much better than even; 3s, 5s, 7s etc, bear this in mind when deciding how many hoops to buy.
- Dive into your collection of Fabrics and select as many pieces as you need.
- Lay them next to each other to ensure that the colours compliment each other.
- It is best to use a mixture of patterns; different sizes, styles etc and alternate them. eg. smallest ring has a small pattern, the 2nd smallest has a large print, 3rd as a small pattern and so on….
- Iron all of your fabrics.
- Unscrew your hoop and lay your fabric over the inner ring. Move it around a little until you find the section of the pattern you wish to frame.
- Place the outer ring on top ensuring that the screws on each ring face the same way.
- Push into place.
- Pull the fabric taught and tighten the screw, repeatedly checking that the fabric is pulled very tight.
- Once you are sure that the fabric is secure, trim the excess fabric with pinking sheers.
I’m sure you will agree the effect is beautiful. I can’t wait to show it to you when it is hung in our new house (yes that right – new house!). For now, I’ll get started on that cross stitch.
This is another one of Beth’s which she feels is ‘artistic’ 
See how much neater the overall look is if you fix the hoops with all the screws facing the same way?
I hope you’ll have a go and let me know how yours turn out.
Love Rachel
xxx
