Week 17: DIY Fabric Printing

A while back, this tutorial for Printing Your Own Fabric by Karina Manarin was featured on Poppytalk. Here is my attempt at it!

Materials:

Textile Ink - I didn't know exactly what counted as "textile" ink, so I asked at my local art store. They directed me toward this Jacquard Textile Color. It's essentially fabric paint, but it sets into the fabric nicely unlike that 3-dimensional stuff you used as a kid!
Contact Paper - For contact paper, I picked up some shelf liner from the dollar store. Either way, it's like one great big sticker.
Fabric - The fabric I used was 100% cotton canvas sample that my mom rescued from an upholstery shop that was going out of business.
Print Table - I created a makeshift padded table using some old towels and attaching them to my table top.
Foam - Instead of using the foam scraps to use in the paint, I used a regular foam brush.

Full tutorial and list of materials here.

For my first design, I cut out chevrons in a grid pattern, making sure to save my cutout pieces. I alternated between blue and yellow, but added a little punch of purple in there also. Can you see the spots I messed up? Yes, yellow and blue make green.

For my second one, I arranged the chevron pieces that I had cut out to achieve a pattern that I liked. This time I stuck to one colour.

What I enjoyed the most I love paint! And this is coming from a person who doesn't paint! And since I used a stencil, this project provided enough structure for my non-painting brain.

Next time I would... Try a smaller, more repetitive pattern. I don't think cutting a stencil would work as well for this, so maybe I'd try using a stamp.

Week 15: Create A Bouquet of Paper Flowers

Keep summer alive all year with this paper flower bouquet! These were so easy to make -I'll definitely make them again!

I started playing around with a few different materials and was able to create the white carnation and yellow daisy on my own. For the blue roses and the red anemone, I found a couple of great tutorials: DIY Crepe Anemone by Craftberry Bush & Paper Flowers by Haute to Sew.

White Doily Carnation Tutorial:

Materials:

• 9 paper doilies
• washi tape
• craft wire

Step 1: Fold each doily in half 5 times. Don't be too fussy with your folding. The main purpose is to add texture and dimension.

Step 2: Unfold your doily & poke a small hole in the centre

Step 3: Tape one doily to your wire stem.

Step 4: Layer all doilies onto the wire stem. Poke the wire stem through each doily and slide them up to the top.

Step 5: Secure with washi tape. You can use floral tape also -I just couldn't get it to work for me! I chose to continue with the tape down the entire stem for a fun look.

What I enjoyed the most: I enjoyed creating and designing my own paper flowers. I let the materials I was working with (doilies and twist paper) inspire me and I was pleased with what I was able to come up with.

Next time I would... Invest in some new paper. I just went with what I had in my paper drawer and luckily the colours I had worked. But next time I would like to go to the craft store and carefully select the papers and colour palette I'd like to work with.

Week 14: Simple Wall Art DIY

Painting is so not my forte, but I gave it a shot and ended up with this floral, pastel, geometric painting for my wall!

Supplies:

• plywood
• wood stain
• cotton cloth
• washi or painters tape
• acrylic paints
• paintbrushes

Step 1: Prepare the Plywood Canvas
I decided I wanted my plywood to be much darker in order to contrast well with my pastel palette of colours. So I stained my wood a 'walnut' colour before I started.

Step 2: Tape It Using my washi tape, I created some lines in a random criss-crossing pattern.

Step 3: Paint! 
Paint whatever you'd like! I must say that the final product was much different that what I originally had in my head. I expected it to be much more abstract, and much to my surprise, I had to remind myself not to be too detailed.

Step 4: Remove the Tape
Once your paint is fully dry, carefully remove the tape, being careful not to remove any extra paint.

And the tape was quite pretty too!

What I enjoyed most: I enjoyed experimenting as I painted. Being a novice, it was fun to accidentally discover what my brush could do.

Next time I would... Create something much more abstract. I think the wood lines would better compliment an image that was sort of a mish-mash of colours coming together.

Week 11: Piecing a Quilt

Gave myself 2 weeks for this one -it's a doozy!

Why I want to make this: Cutting and piecing together tiny blocks for a quilt is one of my favourite sewing activities. I find it extremely relaxing. This will be my 3rd quilt -I would love to do more, but it's so darn expensive to make them!

Ideas & Inspirations: Last summer, while visiting my Gramma in NB, we ended up sorting through her old fabric scraps that she had kept from various projects over the years. She remembered just about every project she had made with each fabric: a dress for herself she made in 1967, an outfit for my aunt when she was a teenager, or curtains from a previous house. I brought home a variety of small fabric pieces and vowed to someday piece them together in a quilt.

What I intend to do with said project: I'm not sure what I will end up doing with this quilt. Sadly, it may go into storage until I've got a bit more space of my own! Maybe I can lend it to a family member -I'm sure they'd be quite reminiscent as they examine each piece. 

Week 10: A Recovered Chair

This project has been a huge challenge for me. It was a tonne of work! Once I had put in a certain number of hours and made a certain number of mistakes, I had no motivation to complete it. But alas, here it is.

I loved the grey fabric that I chose but wanted to add a little punch. I found some cheap lime green floral fabric and used it to create the piping.

You can't really tell from the picture above, but there is a piece missing. There is a button on the front of one armrest, but there should be one on the left side too. This piece was the very last step in completing this epic project, but while trying to attach it -it broke! I think I'm gonna have to make friends with an upholsterer because I have no idea where to find this piece.

Have you ever lost things down in the depths of your furniture? Apparently the previous owners of my chair did. I found some cash money: a complete $4.36! Yay for coffee money!

What I enjoyed the most: I really enjoyed taking the chair apart, discovering how everything went together, and using the staple-gun to quickly put most of it back together. I thought my love of sewing would mean that stitching the chair pieces back together would be the best part. Oddly, this was my least favourite part. I'm not used to sewing in such odd 3-dimensional shapes.

Next time I would... Be sure to include all pieces when putting things back together again. There was a white batting-type layer stapled on the sides and back of the chair. I didn't think it was necessary, but turns out it helps keep the batting from falling into the frame. Who knew!?

Chair Re-Upholstery Progress

Where have I been!? What happened to my chair? I'm sorry for the lack of posting-ness. It's been busy, I've been sick, and it takes a really long time to pluck out thousands of staples from a little chair. Plus, I've started this really great new job that I'm sure you will be hearing lots about quite soon, but still have to maintain my 9-5 for a couple more weeks.

Yeah, yeah, excuses, excuses, right? Moral of the story is the chair is not finished yet and I'm still working on it, but I thought I would give a quick progress report. You'll have to wait a few more days before you see the real thing!

After thousands of staples, my chair was completely naked and exposed to the world, poor thing.

Refurbishing a chair is a lot of work, who knew? And no matter how many notes or pictures you take as you're taking it apart, when you go to put it back together you question whether or not you're doing it right. I've just got to finish up sewing the cushions and put the final touches on it, and then it should be ready for a big reveal. Stay tuned!

Week 8: Go Take Some Pictures!

Playing catch-up as my project from last week took a little longer than anticipated. Luckily my project this week is not nearly as intense.

Why I want to make this: There was a time in my life where I was very much into the idea of photography. I even took a class or two - but please lower your expectations because it's been a while. I got an entry-level digital SLR as a birthday/graduation present almost 5 years ago. Overtime I found myself lugging the thing around and rarely taking pictures, so eventually I just left it at home. It's been great having it to take pictures for the blog, but I feel that my Nikon has so much more potential!

Ideas & Inspirations: I plan to take a walk around the neighbourhood. I'm tired of taking pictures inside. I like back alleys. They are very visually interesting. Or just plain interesting.

What I intend to do with said project: That is a great question. With the popularity of digital photography, pictures get shared through various forms of social media, but not displayed as often as some should. I think I'll go old-school and get one photo printed, framed and on display.

Week 7: An Embroidered Pillow

I'm finally finished with my project of the week. Here it is!

Without a doubt the most challenging part of this for me was drawing out my pattern. I consider myself an artist, but more in a crafting/creating sort of way than painting/drawing. I can't draw something that actually has to look like something from real life, so I tend to go for something more abstract or geometric. Sounds great except then I feel the need for everything to be perfectly symmetrical. I swear it took over an hour for me to draw out the border.

Once the pattern was done, I used my handy dandy water-soluble ink pen to trace out my beloved pattern. And then began the 20+ hours of embroidering!

What I enjoyed the most: I love-love-loved doing the embroidery. Every. Single. Minute. I enjoyed experimenting with different stitches and paying attention to the smallest details. Plus, this project is super portable and I spent many of my project hours hanging out with people rather than my usual spot (alone) in the craft room.

Next time I would... Pick a smaller project? Haha! But I sure did enjoy all 14 inches of this pillow. So maybe next time I should get a head-start on it. Or just have an ongoing embroidery project with no set deadline.

Week 7: Embroider Something!

Why I want to make this: I love embroidery! I love how it looks and I love the detail that goes into making an embroidered piece. I've been wanting to do more embroidery for about a year now and I've got all of the tools required to make some fabulous pieces.

Ideas & Inspirations: There are too many ideas. You can embroider just about anything. Clothing, cards, art pieces, jewelry, kitcheny items, etc. This time around I think I'll embroider a pillow for my bedroom. I will make it super girly with pink and purple and flowers.

What I intend to do with said project: I will proudly display it on my bed. The bonus is that perhaps it will inspire me to make my bed look nice rather than the usual 2-second pulling the covers up to the top. Eventually it will be nice to make some other pillows to compliment the whole ensemble.