Things to make from Christmas fabric

I was sitting at home marking when I noticed how tatty and worn my slippers were, so I decided to make myself another pair. As we had been making things at college to raise funds for our next exhibition I had some Christmas fabric lying around my room. So they were Christmas slippers ...

I decided to show you some other items made by myself and my family over the years.

Obviously you can make stockings

Here are two made by my children some years ago

My daughter and I made two of these many years ago and this one comes out every year.

This one is printed and has applique and quilted baubles on it.

These hanging decorations also have bunting and door hangers to match

Gift tags                                                                                         Baubles for the tree

... and this is a beautiful piece made this year by my friend Natalie

How To Make A Removable Book Cover

As you can see from earlier posts I often make covers for my books, diaries, folders, etc. Here is a really easy technique for making a removable cover.

Here is the prepared fabric. This has been hand dyed and printed but you could use any fabric. You do not need the wadding unless you are intending to quilt the fabric.

Hem the two side edges

Measure the fabric around the book, making sure the book is closed and fold over the two side edges to make the flaps

Cut a piece of lining fabric. Place this on top of the cover (right sides together) and stitch along the top and bottom edges.

Turn through to the right side. All rough edges are now beautifully covered.

Finished cover

What to do with fabric scraps ...

You know when you work on a project you keep all the scraps and as you use them up the scraps get smaller but you never seem to have any less ...

I thought I would share some of the ways that I 'use up' my scraps.

I use a lot of strips in my work. Here are some stuck down with bondaweb onto cotton fabric and machined in place.

As you can see, a mainly pink theme, using dyed and overdyed fabrics. Additional net, ribbon etc are added.

A blue theme.

If you look carefully at this green one you can see I have started to add hand stitching - lazy daisy and herringbone

Here are some of the lovely thread colours I will be using - I obviously have too much time on my hands as you can see the threads are all beautifully wound onto card holders.

This pink piece has been stitched and is not made from strips. Instead this uses the fabric swatches that you can get from mail order companies.

Here are some things that I then make:

A kindle case

A diary cover

Needlecases

When you have created these new fabrics and made your lovely objects, as you trim them you seem to create more scraps but this time much smaller. Here is what I do with these:

The small pieces have been stuck onto pelmet vilene - they are about 5cm (2 inches) in length.

These are then embellished, backed with felt and a brooch pin added

This is my small box containing the small bits of fabric, threads and, if you look carefully, some finished badges.

Alexandra Palace

I have just returned from this years visit to the Knitting and Stitching Show. As we are expecting our students to record their experiences using a blog I thought I would share some of the wonderful things that we saw.

We have been working on improving the breadth and quality of handstitching . We started the course by looking at just running stitch and what could be achieved. Look at this lovely still life by Audrey Walker a member of the 62 group.

www.62group.org.uk

This piece by Surjeet Husain of the New Embroidery Group also showed a wonderful use of this stitch.





















www.newembroiderygroup.net



More unusual pieces incorporating hand stitching included this one of a series 'Healing Sutra' by Erin Endicott

www.erinendicottart.com

and this piece called 'Way of Roses' by Severija Incirauskaite-Kriauneviciene.

www.severija.It

We have also been working on machine stitching and these next two artists had a range of work on display.

Carol Naylor

www.carolnaylor.co.uk

Richard Box

The last project completed by the first year students also incorporated applique, which does also feature in Richard Box's work. Another artist who mixes it with other techniques is Jan Beaney.

This piece of shadow applique with hand stitching was absolutely exquisite but I neglected to write down the name of the artist.

For their next project the students are moving onto dyeing and printing so we wanted them to look at examples of this work too. Here are some examples of work that I liked.

This was a quilt featured in the 'Color Improvisations' exhibition curated by Nancy Crow

'The Ghost of Farmer Smallthorne' by Liz Ashurst

'My Garden Full of Tulips' by Peggy Field

Both artists are members of the New Embroidery Group

There were also plenty of examples of dyed and printed fabrics from other countries, including these resist dyed fabrics from Burma ...

... and these from Africa, including some mud cloth.

I spent some time talking to lots of the wonderful artists including Sian Martin about her printed and stitched life drawing ...

... and to Jo Smith, the Embroiderers Guild Scholar 2012, about her fantastic wire and wool sculptures (which you can just see sitting next to her)

Over the years Gilda Baron has not only produced fantastic work but has always been willing to talk to and offer support to students. She has helped a number of my students with their projects and this year was no exception - my students were very excited to actually meet her in person.

www.gildabaron.com

'The Knitted Miniature Village' exhibit featured work from a variety of people including one of my very own students ...

... and here is the wonderful Florists Shop.

Using recycled fabrics

One of the things that everyone knows about quilts is that they were often made of scrap or old material. I had been collecting my husband and son's old shirts, pyjamas and nightshirts for a number of years because I liked the fabric but with no end in mind. One hot summer (yes we have had them) I decided that we needed a throw for the bed rather than a duvet and set to work. I used large and small squares and rectangles. (The flowered fabrics were added to balance the strips and plaids)

 For those in the know 'jellyrolls' have become very popular and I liked some of the quilts made from them. So I collected more shirts/blouses and just used strips.

After the single bed size quilt I made a lap quilt.

Then I went back to the squares design but added appliqued hearts.

Then I tried the strips alongside plain fabric in a different format.

This one had a fleece background and was made using the 'quilt-as-you-go' technique.

All of the quilts are cut out using a rotary cutter, machine pieced and then hand quilted.