Cushion Cover Finished

 I've been working on this cushion cover, on and off, for a couple of months and I've finally completed it.  I thought I'd show you, stage by stage, how I did it.

 Firstly the inspiration came from my friend Helen who drew and then screen printed this gorgeous face and script onto a piece of cotton.  I'd seen it and asked if she had any spare if I could have one to embroider and make into a cushion.  Isn't she clever, I couldn't draw that in a month of Sundays.  Then as I was taking a batik class and had been experimenting with lace as a stencil to two ideas came together and I got to work.

 I stretched the piece on a frame and used a vintage piece of lace from an antimacassar (it may have been my Grandma's but as I collect this type of lace anyways I can't remember) as a stencil for the beeswax, and 'framed' the image on two sides.

 I was very concerned not to get the dye on the face and yet I wanted to have a crackle effect over the script to the left.  This called for some serious, careful scrunching of the wax!

 I first painted over the dye (Dylon Burlesque Red) but was happy with the light results, I wanted a stronger, deeper colour.  So I ended up immersing the whole piece in the dye bowl.

 Then, obviously I couldn't waste the dye so other batik lace pieces went in together with scraps from my stash.  I love dying all different fabrics and trims in the same pot as they all take up the colour slightly differently and I have lots of pieces to then use to embellish a piece and they automatically 'match' the main piece.

 Here it was, all dried and the wax taken out by ironing and washing.

 Now came the auditioning and patchworking of pieces to enhance the main piece

 Maybe this....

Or this?....

 When I'd settled on an arrangement, and sewn the main pieces together with my trusty machine, (or I'm liable to keep changing things and not getting on, lol), I began embroidering.

 I used simple back stitch to enhance the hair and a kind of satin stitch and couching on the lips.

 The crocheted piece was dyed with tea to give it a more vintage look and couched down into place

 

 Now I all I have to decide is where to use it! 

 And try to keep the cats off of it!

 The back I kept deliberately simple, just two offcuts of co-ordinating fabric and an envelope finish.

I've really enjoyed working on this and now have to find another project to take my interest, sure another project will present itself soon.  Maybe if I use a vintage photo as the focal point and do something similar......

More Dying and Collages

I've been playing around with fabric, images, vintage buttons, lace etc and been having fun :)




One of my friends went on holiday to Wales and brought me back this lovely mosaic coaster, it twinkles with glittery bits, that don't show up too well in this photo. My mug of tea now looks great on this, thanks mate

I decided that I was going to try dying some more fabrics, laces and artificial flowers with the humble tea bag.

The results are all hanging up to dry, just hoping that they are alittle lighter when dry.


And I had to do a cat collage of course. I think all the images I used are from The Graphics Fairy, a great blog for vintage images.

Black Gold and Dying

Above are some pieces of cotton lace before I dyed them with advocado skins. The lace came from some chair backs that my grandma had, my grandad always had brylcream in his hair so she used to have to protect the chair fabric.

During the dying process, alittle bit whiffy but not too bad, but not looking like a pale pink, mmm
And indeed it came out brown as you can see above with a piece of cotton undyed so you can see the difference. I still like it though and I'll try again for a pale pink.

Harvested my compost heap yesterday and was so pleased to see the most gorgeous black, crumbly compost in there. All from my vegetable peelings, old houseplants etc, so I spread it around the garden with glee, tee hee.

I put some around my precious tree peony which as you can see does not exactly look like a tree and I've had it two years and it's not flowered. Fingers crossed for this year, if Bill will only stop leaping on it. Can you tell from his face that I've just admonished him severely, well, ok, as severely as I can given he is just sooo cute :)

Cup of Tea ATCs

Above are some ATCs that I made for a recent swap on Milliande and I enjoyed doing them so much I decided to do three more on the same theme when some girlfriends came over for an art day yesterday



I'm contemplating mounting them on greetings cards but I'm not sure at the moment. Must away and tend to my dye bath, trying to dye some cotton and lace with advocado skins. I've read that I can get a delicate shade of pink but it's not looking that way at the minute, it's more a murky, greeny brown but time will tell, lol.