Tag: #project

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How to Make An Educational Resource – Blanket Book

This project was made in less than a week.
I received a call requesting a resource full of garment fasteners for a young autistic boy.

After thinking about it’s design, I started rummaging around the charity shops looking at everything in a different way. Usually I shop for textured fabrics for embroidery, but this time it was any and every garment and bag fastener I could lay my hands on. Luckily I sourced it all in one big shop –  zips, toggles, hooks and eyes, magnetic poppers, poppers, buttons and Velcro. I had a stash of vintage wool blankets at home and set about thinking about its construction.
If you would like to make one too, here’s how I made it.

  • What you’ll need:
    1. Wool blanket to make the pages
    2. Garments with suitable fasteners (dependant on the ages of the users, be aware of choking hazards such as buttons and laces)
    3. Thick Perle cotton thread and a long needle (Trapunto or Mattress needle
    4. Ribbon or cotton tape for top stitching onto the cut edges of garments.
    5. Sewing machine and thread (I used a walking foot too for stitching some of the pieces).
  • Wash and press everything before cutting.
  • Cutting the blanket.
    •  I looked at the dimensions of the largest piece to be appliqued onto a page – a baby’s vest – and took this as the starting point for the page’s measurements.
    • Cut pages 17″ x 17″. Some I cut 17″ x 12″ to make narrower pages.
    • Cut front page 17″ x 17″
    • Cut a piece of blanket 22″ x 17″ for the back cover (which wraps around the front to make the spine of the book)
  • Cut the garments and the fasteners ensuring there is enough seam allowance to stitch the piece down.
  • Arrange the pieces onto pages, leaving a 3″ gap at one edge of the blanket page for stitching into the spine. I sourced a book fastener too from the white trousers.

 

  • Pin and using your sewing machine, stitch into place using a running stitch or zig-zag stitch. Add ribbon or tape to the raw edges if needed.
  • Layer the pages, the front page and back page. Wrap the excess fabric from the back page around to the front to cover to make the spine.
  • Use an odd number of long pins (I used Quilting pins) to hold the spine edge ready for binding, spaced around 2″ apart.
  • Measure enough thread – 5 x the length of the spine – thread the needle, double the thread and knot (I tried using single thickness but double thread will be far stronger). Using the position of the long pins as a guide, make a book binding pamphlet stitch to hold the spine together.
  • Add extra stitches to hold the pages in place.
I am thrilled with the finished book, especially the book fastener.

The laces were stitched down to stop them being removed

 

Shirt sleeves were added between the pages

I’ve had a brilliant response to this book from teachers and parents who feel it would be a perfect resource for infants and special needs students. I’d love to hear if you make one or have made something similar in the past. Please share and leave your comments below.

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Colour theory using a colour wheel – make one yourself!

Before starting my embroidery course I had very little experience of using a colour wheel. The style of work I create is mainly self taught and I have become accustomed to using my own instincts when it comes to mixing and matching colour. If it feels ok then I used it.
One thing I hadn’t accounted for was my own colour tastes. There are selections of colours that I always gravitated towards – colours I feel comfortable with – colours that have influenced my work.

 

I would like to share with you what I have gleaned from making my own colour wheel.
A colour wheel can be made of anything you like – paint, crayons, paint charts from the DIY store or even clipping from magazines. I made mine from paint.
What ever you chose, ensure the colours are of the same tonal value or shade.  Red, blue and yellow are the primary colours which are mixed in equal quantities to make the secondary colours; ie red and yellow to make orange. I used my Sizzix Big Shot and a Tag die to cut out the tag shapes.
It wasn’t until I made this wheel that the fear about the ‘unknown knowledge behind a colour wheel’ became clear. Complimentary colours appear as opposites on the wheel, and by mixing white or black with a colour you change its tonal value. To expand your knowledge, there are other things you can look into, for instance triad, tetrad or split complimentary colours, but I will leave this for you to seek out on your own.

The next thing to look at is how the primary colour hues work with each other, this is red, blue and yellow all in the same tone; which might explain why some embroidery and fabric combinations work better than others; ie working with blue thread on a red fabric will not have the same clarity or impact that a blue thread has when worked on yellow fabric. I have always ‘auditioned’ thread with fabric to see if it works for me. The primary hue theory explains why some of my initial choices have required changing for threads with more clarity.

Finally,  an exercise which was rather enlightening.
I started a small box of magazine clippings, collecting colours I liked which I made into a collage.
I collected these pieces of colour over a period of three weeks and was quite astounded at what I ended up with – a definite slant in my colour choice.

I hope you have enjoyed this post and hope you have a go yourself.

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Hens Teeth at Hope and Elvis – 2013

Last year I was a very lucky girl and managed to get a place on the Hens Teeth workshop at Hope and Elvis. The idea was to make a sewing or needle case, but as always, I tend not to follow rules and ended up creating something else!

I started off with scraps from an old blanket then added vintage red bias binding and vintage calico from my Arnold’s Attic stash. The wonderful Viv from Hens Teeth gave each of us a screen print for us to embroider the date onto, plus and a selection of screen printed figures to choose from too – I chose her iconic running hen. The whole thing was finished off with flurries of embroidery, inspired by Viv,  and some vintage linen buttons from the stash from Arnold’s Attic.
Here is my finished piece…..I hope you like it .
Thank you to Viv for sharing your work with us and to Louise for sharing your relaxing Studio at Hope and Elvis.

The front cover – complete with vintage linen buttons
Viv was a sweetie and signed my work

 

 

The back cover