Scrap N Grow

Archive for the ‘Sewing’ Category

Good morning everyone!  It is finally Friday and also the start of a long holiday weekend for many including myself.  I have a few things planned but no travel, just staying close to home this weekend.  In lieu of sharing a new project today, I instead wanted to take the time to thank everyone for the wonderful comments and encouragement regarding my new blog feature called Paperie In Bloom that I launched earlier this month.  I started this feature on the first of August and featured the hydrangea bloom.  Throughout the month of August, I created several other projects that highlighted or showcased the hydrangea.  So I thought that with today being the end of the month,  I  would compose a recap post featuring each of the Paperie In Bloom projects featured throughout August with their appropriate hyperlinks.  I have decided to hold till Monday before showcasing September’s Paperie In Bloom since it is a holiday weekend, otherwise my intention is to showcase each month’s bloom on the first of the month.  Thank you  again everyone for making my new Paperie In Bloom series a success. Be sure to stop back on Monday for September’s featured Paperie In Bloom bouquet.  Until then, enjoy a recap below of each of the projects I featured throughout August showcasing the beautiful hydrangea.  See you on Monday.  Have a great and safe holiday weekend.

Michelle

Paperie In Bloom: August 2012

Blooming Hydrangea Bouquet

Paperie In Bloom: August 2012 Hydrangea Bouquet

Hydrangea Note Cards

Paperie In Bloom: August 2012 Hydrangea Note Cards

Hydrangea Picture Frame

Paperie In Bloom: August 2012 Hydrangea Picture Frame

Hydrangea Mixed Media Canvas

Paperie In Bloom: August 2012 Hydrangea Mixed Media Canvas

Etched Hydrangea Glass Vase

Paperie In Bloom: August 2012 Etched Hydrangea Glass Vase

Hydrangea Stamped Candle

Paperie In Bloom: August 2012 Hydrangea Stamped Candle

Hydrangea Pillow

Paperie In Bloom: August 2012 Hydrangea Pillow

Thank you again for stopping by and have a great Labor Day weekend.

Good morning everyone!  Hope you weekend was a good one.  I am over the moon excited to share today’s project with you, a hydrangea pillow.

Paperie In Bloom: August 2012 Hydrangea Pillow

Paperie In Bloom: August 2012 Close Up of Flower Petals of Hydrangea Pillow

Paperie In Bloom: August 2012 Close Up of Hydrangea Pillow Leaves

This pillow is part of an ongoing series on my blog called Paperie In Bloom.  Each month, I showcase a bloom crafted from paper, and then throughout the month, showcase additional projects and ideas that further highlight the bloom of the month.  This month, I am highlighting the hydrangea.

Today’s featured pillow features 500 petals that were die cut using the new Borders and Hydrangea Sizzix die. After petals were die cut from wool felt, each petal was hand sewn 2 times in each direction (like a plus sign) in order to pucker each flower petal. Afterwards, I attached each puckered petal with needle and thread to a 14 inch round pillow form covered with muslin. Next, I hand sewed the leaves to a 26X26 pillow form covered with burlap. Lastly, I used a heavy duty thread to attach petal covered 14 inch pillow form to 26X26 pillow.

Supplies Used:

Bloom:

Sizzix Borders and Hydrangea Die (Used my Vagabond to Die cut 3 petals at a time)

14 inch round pillow form for the bloom

.50 yard of muslin to cover 14 inch round pillow form

1.5 yards each of cream and white wool felt for the petals

.25 yard of green wool felt for the leaves

Needle and Thread: White and Green

Pillow:

26×26 pillow form (the bloom is sewn onto this form)

1 yard of burlap for the 26×26 pillow form

Heavy Duty Jute Thread to sew bloom to pillow form

I absolutely love how the pillow turned out!!!! I will outwardly admit that this pillow was time and labor intensive, but so worth it in my opinion.

I have provided links below to previously featured projects in this month’s series below.

Hydrangea bouquet

Hydrangea Note Cards

Hydrangea Picture Frame

Hydrangea Canvas

Hydrangea Vase

Hydrangea Candle

Thank you for stopping by, I would love for you to comment and tell me what you think.  I hope that you stop by again for more inspiring projects and invite you to subscribe to my blog updates if my work inspires you.  Have a great day and see you again soon.

Michelle

Welcome to Scrap N Grow.  Today I am very happy to share my latest creation, a blooming dahlia pillow.  I just love how this pillow turned out!  It was overall pretty simple to make once I tweaked the assembly technique.

Blooming Dahlia Pillow

The pillow itself is a pillow form purchased at Joann’s and measures 12×16.  The pillow cover’s fabric pattern is a favorite of mine, vintage garden ads.  It was hard to cut up as it is a favorite fabric of mine and I only purchased a yard, note to self… purchase more than 1 yard next time.  I then approximated the size of fabric needed to cover the pillow, cut the fabric, and used my sewing machine to create the cover with a generous 1/2″ seam allowance.

For the blooming flower petals, I used Eileen Hull’s Sizzix Bigz Flower Die, Petal Power.  The die cuts 2 different size petals. I cut several petals (kept losing count while counting) out of 100% brick red wool felt that I purchased at Joann’s.  Afterwards, I used coordinating thread and pinched and sewed each petal in order to create the puckered effect shown here.  This was time consuming but worth the extra time and effort.  Lastly, I used Fabric Tac adhesive to apply each of the petals to the pillow. This adhesive is washable after 24 hours.

Tips learned along the way:

I initially began to assemble the petals as cut and found that the flower overall appeared to lack dimension and appeared flat to me.  Anyone who knows me, knows I love dimension and movement in my projects. So as I stated above, I individually sewed each petal. Initially, I tried to sew each petal on the sewing machine, but found that to be a bit too fussy for me. As stated above, I found it easier for me to sew each one by hand.  After a few petals, I developed a rhythm and this seemed to help keep the project moving along in a reasonable timely fashion.

My other tip that I discovered was Fabric Tac adhesive.  The stuff is magic!  Prior to using the adhesive, I had begun to sew each petal to the pillow directly.  While this worked well, I found it difficult to maintain the shape of the dahlia, and was very time consuming and difficult to conceal the threads.

I would love to hear your comments on my pillow.  I am also planning to make a few other blooming pillows once I complete my pattern design.  Thank you for stopping by and I hope that you will visit again soon.

Announcement: Tomorrow is big day for my Tripazon travel business (Website is www.vacation4cheap.com or click on my invited sponsor ad on the right hand side bar on this page).  They are throwing a pre-launch webinar party tomorrow night (Thursday 4/26/2012) to celebrate and plan on making some special ground breaking announcements of which I will share on Friday along with a cool project I made for the occasion.

Michelle

Welcome to Scrap N Grow.  My name is Michelle Nun and Scrap N Grow is my new blog where I will showcase my original mixed media artistic creations.  You will soon notice that I enjoy exploring the possibilities within various mixed media and mediums including paper, metal, wire, and fabric to name a few, and credit Mother Nature as my primary source of inspiration.

I remain yet in the initial planning stages regarding the format and content for this blog and invite you to check back again soon as I plan to kick start this blog’s future posts with pictures of past projects. Thank you for stopping by and I hope  that you will visit again soon.

Michelle