I was browsing through one of my favorite fashion websites the other day, looking for a particular piece of jewelry for my other blog, when something caught my eye…
Oh look, it’s a cute little pin that looks like a child sewed it:

Actually, I’ve taught 5 year olds to sew who had neater stitches than that…
And then I took a look at the price.

These brooches retail for $188.00, US funds.
That’s right, pennies worth of fabric and sloppy stitching will run you the cost of a big grocery shop or a good pair of shoes.
I think I’m in the wrong business…
images: Yoox …read more

Okay, so do you have everything I asked you for yesterday?
Good – let’s get sewing
To begin, we need to interface the back of the fabric with a heavy-weight interfacing.  I find it’s easiest to cut a square of fabric out with the motif in the center, rather than trying to fussy cut the fabric.

 Interface the backing fabric:

 Now fuse a lightweight fusible webbing (I’m using Heat N Bond Lite for this) onto the wrong side of the backing fabric, according to the webbing package directions.  Fuse the backing fabric and the front fabric motif together.
Let cool and then cut …read more

I’ve got this fabric sitting on my studio table right now:

I’m planning on sewing a hobo tote with it – but I was looking at the butterflies and got a brainstorm.
What if I made a 3-D pin or brooch from one of the butterflies that I could wear, or pin to the bag?  It would have to be stiffened somehow, which then of course means I want to embroider it…
Come back tomorrow and bring some heavy-weight interfacing, light-weight fusible webbing and a fabric with motifs that you’d like to turn into something three dimensional!
image: C Findlay-Harder

I just came across this pattern on the fabric.com blog and had to share it with you all!

It’s for “Moniqa’s Flowers”, just click here for the instructions.