Down the Rabbit Hole.

''If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?'' ~Alice in Wonderland

And so it happened that an ugly abandoned armchair fell down the rabbit hole...

Down it went and its ugly paint and upholstery blew away.

Magically it became colorful and the flowers could talk and sing!

The roses had to be painted red, but please don't tell the Queen.

It ate a cookie and got a little bit rounder and bigger.

It got hearts to please the Queen of Hearts (and to save our heads in the process).

After many hours of patching, puzzling and appliqueing we created this truly wondrous armchair :)

Tadaaa! It has the Queen of Hearts...

The Cheshire cat with lots of hand embroidered details (the fur is vintage embroidery!).

Lots of flowers, tea cups...

 This chair is the craziest one we've made so far. It was super fun and we are very happy with the results. You can see more details at StarHomeStudio where this one of a kind beauty is available for purchase.

Mr.Walker

A very good friend of mine has a cat that she loves dearly named Mr.Walker.
For her Christmas present we thought to make her a bag picturing her cat.
We have documented the process so that maybe you can also make yourself a bag (or a wall hanging) of your favorite pet.

We had only a picture of Mr.Walker, a bit too crowded for the purpose, but it was meant to be a surprise, so we went ahead and made first a line drawing of it in Photoshop.

Then we printed that image on thin fusible interfacing, on the side where the glue is, other wise the image would be inverted.

After ironing the interfacing to the wrong side of the main fabric, I went over the main lines with a neutral colored thread on the machine with a free stitching foot. This will be my guide for the further steps.

Then, with the picture in front of me I spray glued a piece of white upholstery fabric on the right side of the fabric and went again over the lines of the body of the cat at the wrong side of the fabric. This step is repeated several times: spray glue a piece of fabric on its place, stitch at the other side and cut off the fabric outside the lines.

Here is a black patch where Mr.Walker's chin is.

Stitch and cut.

Now the black part on the cat's head is stitched and cut, the white nose is outlined from the back.

You can't see it here, but the eyes are taffeta, that shimmers yellow and green, just like cats eyes.

A white patch for the nose. The fabric is called colt hide and has a fur embossing, perfect! By the nose the direction of the 'hide' is up. By the body is down like in real life.

For the interior of the ears, I needle felted with the machine some wisps of white roving.

And stitched on top of it.

A bit of paint for his nose.

The background was too crowed to apply in the same way, but here came an English chintz in handy.

All these further steps are done at the right side of the fabric. The chintz is stitched in free motion along the print and the fabric is cut away with sharp embroidery scissors.

Continue to apply pieces of fabric till the effect is to your liking.

But what is a cat without his whiskers?

Fishing line makes fine whiskers.

And here is sweet Mr.Walker in the garden.

There are quite some steps, materials and tools involved so if you can not make it yourself you can order a customized bag with your furry kid in our bagshop :)

Our Creative Space...

A new project which is part of a larger new project.
These details are from one skirt, now in progress, entirely made with vintage materials as embroidery, quilts, patchworks, doilies and trims and then with lots of patience embellished.

Appliques and lovely details will make this skirt very unique.

Now as for the larger project: a new shop has been in the planning for many months, a clothing shop with all kind of embellished treasures made with vintage materials. We are now working on pieces to start the shop.

Another skirt is ready and is waiting to be photographed and to be soon introduced to the world along  with other pieces, so stay tuned :)

Our Creative Space...

I've been making some applique to adorn a bag. I will show you how I do it. I've seen this method in blogs but using freezer paper. Freezer paper is only available in the States, as far as I know, so I use iron-on interfacing, the thinnest, non woven kind, that is transparent enough to trace the pattern on.

Trace the pattern on the glue-y side and put it glue side up on the right side of the fabric.

Machine stitch all around the shape. I've reduced the pressure of the presser foot to very light. That allows me to turn the small piece of fabric very easily under the presser foot with my left hand. The feeding dogs are up. You have great control over the stitching this way.

Cut around the shape with a very small seam allowance.

Make a slit in the interfacing. Don't cut into your fabric!

And turn it inside out. If the shape is tiny, tweezers will help you here.

Iron on the back.The interfacing will adhere to your shape, making appliquing a breeze.

Do the same with all the pieces of your design.

For the skinny stams I used a very old method, from the time before Clover had those smart pants bias makers.
Insert a big needle on your iron board cover or  a piece of batting. Insert in and out twice, with the middle part of the needle that is out of the fabric beeing the desired bias tape width.

Pull with tweezers a strip of fabric through your 'bias maker', ironing as you go. Spray starch will help you.
Have fun!

See more creative spaces at Our Creative Spaces.