Fabric & Paper plus Sewing!

I spent the weekend with my friend K. and decided to explore the ideas in this magazine, SEW Somerset.

K. had book-marked a couple of ideas - the first was to make dresses on card stock.  

We were inspired by these paper and fabric party dresses by Collette Copeland. 

 K. made this dress - reminiscent of the dresses we made last year you can check out HERE.   I made the one shown at the top of the page. K. has yet to complete the composition - but look at the beautiful skirt made with torn fabric strips, test paper and lace.

 For my next dress i started with a piece of muslin cut into a classic ball gown shape.

 I tore little bits of paper and added some fabric  - the black and white checks and the paisley butterfly.

 I glued it down with a glue stick then added bright red thread.  i don't know how to "free motion" sew - we just used a normal machine and rotated the paper to get around the curves.  i wanted it to look sort of messy and loose!

 Next based on the inspiration of the magazine - i wanted to make a dress/birdcage!  I used a vintage map image for the background.  added three fabric birds and a few other things thrown in.  then sewed the birdcage with the red thread.  i added some stitch lines around the birds with a black sharpie pen.

 The next day i decided to add the frayed edge ribbon jauntily sewn on one side.

Next we both tried another idea from the magazine - a paper/fabric quilted wall hanging.

The piece shown was SEW beautiful!  by Kristen Robinson.

 I started with a heavy raw muslin background and laid on top various laces, fabrics and emphemera.  then added bits of lace and sayings stamped onto fabric with a brownish sepia ink.

 I sewed down all the larger pieces and glued down the smaller bits.  it is not quite finished - needs a few more chunky embellishments to fill in some of the empty spaces.

 K. started her wall hanging with a piece of muslin covered with ecru lace.  then she added patches of colourful pink, black and white fabric.  I love how she left visual "space" on the background.

Next she added words and phrases she had stamped on bleached muslin.  Touches of lace offset the bold black rick rack and felt hearts.  Thanks Somerset magazine for some great play date ideas.  And thanks K. for a great crafty weekend!