Craftside

How to sunprint with paint from the book The Complete Fabric Artist's Workshop by Susan Stein

As we enter November and the leaves are a-changin', how about entering to win a copy of the new book  The Complete Fabric Artist's Workshop: Exploring Techniques and Materials for Creating Fashion and Decor Items from Artfully Altered Fabric that this cool tutorial on how to sunprint with paint is featured in?

Just leave your answer to the question:

What is your favorite fabric project? It can be what you make with fabric, your favorite fabric to work with or your favorite way to modify fabric.

Answer by Midnight ET Wednesday November 9th, 2011 and you could be the proud new owner of a copy of The Complete Fabric Artist's Workshop: Exploring Techniques and Materials for Creating Fashion and Decor Items from Artfully Altered Fabric .

Click on these pages from  The Complete Fabric Artist's Workshop: Exploring Techniques and Materials for Creating Fashion and Decor Items from Artfully Altered Fabric for the full tutorial on how to make sunprints with paint on fabric.

More about the Creative Publishing international book:

The Complete Fabric Artist's Workshop:
Exploring Techniques and Materials for Creating Fashion and Decor Items from Artfully Altered Fabric

by

Susan Stein

The Complete Fabric Artist's Workshop is a comprehensive source of all the newest and most popular fiber art techniques! It is a compilation of the best of Fabric Art Projects (Creative Publishing international, 2009) and Fabric Art Workshop (Creative Publishing international, 2007). This technique-driven book explores a wide range of new possibilities and materials available to fabric and journal artists. Each unique technique is presented with brilliant photography and step-by-step instructions. Experiments lead to discoveries. Amaze yourself with exciting fabrics you can fashion, using everyday products and the newest materials on the market. Then turn your works of art into a journal, a quilt, a wall hanging, a garment—whatever you desire.

The Complete Fabric Artist's Workshop teaches techniques for altering the character and color of fabric to create truly personal pieces. Watch spontaneous designs develop when you try lasagna painting, monoprinting, splash and puddle, and other unique techniques. Burn your silk, rust your cottons, and distress your felt. For each technique, Susan has designed a project that makes the most of your newly crafted fabric. Fuse Angelina fibers into a colorful collage to wrap around plain jars or vases. Send your friends one-of-a-kind fabric postcards made with painted fusible web. Give the dining room cozy ambiance with gossamer silk candle covers and monoprinted placemats. Go to work in style with your brayer-printed lunch bag and a quilted, painted folder briefcase. Accessorize an outfit with a designer necklace made of unique fabric beads or drape your neck with a to-die-for rust-dyed scarf. Whether you are an accomplished fabric artist or a novice who's eager to learn, you’ll find The Complete Fabric Artist's Workshop extremely helpful and inspiring.

Susan Stein owns a successful quilt and fiber arts shop in St. Paul, Minnesota called Colorful Quilts and Textiles. She stocks all the cutting edge products for quilters and fabric artists who love to go beyond basics into fabric painting, dyeing, fabric manipulation, and other fiber arts. In 2003, Susan was voted Minnesota Quilter of the Year. She has written two other quilting books and has researched and contributed to numerous Creative Publishing international titles. Check out her store and some of her work at http://www.colorfulquiltsandtextiles.com.

 

How to make recycled wool felted sweater Christmas trees with the Sizzix fringe die cut

I know Halloween is this weekend, but when I got Eileen Hull's new Flowers 3-D #2 die and saw the part that makes a section of what looks like fringe to me, I thought of Christmas trees! And since Sizzix dies cut recycled wool felted sweaters like a dream, and being the author of Sweater Surgery: How to Make New Things with Old Sweaters, you know what's coming...these cute as can be recycled wool felted sweater Christmas trees!

Here is how I made my recycled sweater Christmas trees:

I started by cutting scraps of the recycled wool felted sweaters and getting all different shades of fringe sections. I had some cardboard cones already made in prep for this holiday season of Christmas tree making as I always make a few new ones each year. These cones were a bit too big and I knew I wanted to make 3 trees (as 3 is the minimum for a collection).

So off to the recycle bin, and I happened to have a cereal box, and a folder of some promotional material came in so I just rolled them into 3 cones of varying sizes. I recommend the color of your cardboard cone be similar to the shades of your fringe so if some peeks through it will blend.

I decided each tree would be a bit of a different collection of shades of sweaters, light, medium and dark.

I started at the bottom and hot glued each row of the die cut fringe.

All that was left to do was whip up a few pom poms to top them off. I did this using two different yarns and just wrapped around my fingers a bunch of times. Then I tied the loops around the center and cut the loops open.

If you want to see what else this fabulous die cut will make, use the Sizzix button on the top right side column to hop to a whole bunch more blogs to see what my fellow designers have created with Flowers 3-D #2 die cut.

Want to WIN a Flowers 3-D #2 Die? Pop on over to the blog Oh My Crafts and enter!

If you need more recycled sweater projects, might I recommend:

Sweater Surgery:

How to Make New Things with Old Sweaters

by

Stefanie Girard

Contemporary crafters are thriving on personalizing, modifying, and altering fashion, and as a way to take a greener approach to their creative lifestyle. This book shows you how to upcycle all your slightly worn, slightly damaged, or out-of-style sweaters into fabulous new items for your wardrobe and your home. Readers learn how to choose, cut, restitch, felt, and embellish old sweater fabric, transforming it into beautiful handbags, mittens, scarves, hats, hoodies, skirts, jewelry, soft toys, pillows, and more! You'll find complete instructions for 27 projects, plus a huge gallery of exciting ideas for further inspiration.

Stefanie Girard (Los Angeles, CA) has a degree in industrial design from Pratt Institute and worked as a set decorator and prop master for 10 years in the entertainment industry. She has produced, written scripts, and edited Web content for television shows and has been covering these creative topics for HGTV, DIY Network, and Lifetime TV. Check out more recycled sweater projects at  www.sweatersurgery.blogspot.com.

 

How to blanket stitch felt flowers onto a scarf from the book Knitting Scarves from Around the World

I always think about using the blanket stitch to sew elements down around the outside, but these cute felt flower elements use it to secure around the inside! See how to use the blanket stitch to embellish a scarf on this page from Knitting Scarves from Around the World: Patterns in a Variety of Styles and Techniques.

Click on these pages from Knitting Scarves from Around the World: Patterns in a Variety of Styles and Techniques to enlarge and get the felt flower pattern and directions for embellishing a scarf with blanket stitched flowers.

More about the book:

 
Knitting Scarves from Around the World:

Patterns in a Variety of Styles and Techniques

Edited by

Kari Cornell

Photographers:

Sue Flanders

Janine Kosel

Here are 40 patterns for scarves from around the globe—including stylish traditional projects from Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, the British Isles, the Americas, and Asia. Pattern introductions provide a background of knitting techniques from that part of the world, including schematics and charts.

Kari Cornell is a book editor by day and an avid knitter by night. She is the editor of several collections of knitting stories and patterns, including For the Love of Knitting, Knitting Yarns and Spinning Tales, Retro Knits, and Modern Knits, Vintage Style. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

 

Photographers Sue Flanders and Janine Kosel are authors of the book Norwegian Handknits.

 

How to make a recycled shirt apron inspired by the book Sewing Vintage Aprons

Today I have a fun recycling project to share with you inspired by the wonderful book Sewing Vintage Aprons: Classic Aprons for Today's Lifestyle. I also have the pleasure of being included in the book! (Well, a little story from my childhood about a fun apron experience in my grandmother's kitchen.) If you like aprons, good stories and recipes then I bet you will love Sewing Vintage Aprons: Classic Aprons for Today's Lifestyle. And since it's Wednesday, that means it's today's giveaway book!

Leave a fun apron, cooking, or kitchen comment in today's post by Midnight Wednesday September 7th, 2011 and you are in the running for a copy of Sewing Vintage Aprons: Classic Aprons for Today's Lifestyle.

This is the full apron I made from a shirt and a half apron.

I had scored 2 half aprons hand made by an older lady that were donated to a clothing swap. I don't wear half aprons so I flipped through Sewing Vintage Aprons: Classic Aprons for Today's Lifestyle and it occurred to me that I had a few shirts that I could repurpose into the top half of an apron, one of which had already been cut and altered into a halter style top. Perfect!

All I had to do was stitch the shirt to the waistband of the apron and trim off the excess shirt.

One other alteration I made was I felt that the apron was a tad too long but I didn't want to lose the cool ric rack hem so I hemmed it above the ric rack trim.

Here is a close up of how I used my cutting board grid to fold the hem up. I could see the grid through the fabric so it was so easy to keep the hem the right length!

I'll keep you posted on how the other apron gets a top half when I figure that one out! But in the meantime, check out:

Sewing Vintage Aprons: Classic Aprons for Today's Lifestyle

by

Denise Clason

For decades, smart stylish women have worn different aprons to suit their various needs. They are a must-have in the kitchen and elsewhere. This book brings new life to vintage styled aprons that women of today will find irresistible.

Denise Clason has been an artist/designer for over 35 years. Her designs have been published and licensed in the craft, decorative painting, sewing, and quilting industries. She is the author of 8 books.

Great idea on how to customize a black and white print with colored markers from the book Fashion Design Essentials: 100 Principles of Fashion Design

Sometimes things just come together in the most amazing way. Like today. I just got a copy of the book Fashion Design Essentials: 100 Principles of Fashion Design and inside is this great page that features a dress design called "Colour-In Dress" by Berber Soepboer and Michiel Schuurman. I also just scored myself a set of Jacquard Tee Juice Medium Point Fabric Markers. Is that karma or what? I can't wait to go digging in the stash to find some black and white fabric to customize with the colored markers!

I also love the fact that the girl in the photo is coloring the dress while she is wearing it!

If you like to get inspired by other fashion designers, then I bet you will love:

Fashion Design Essentials:

100 Principles of Fashion Design

by

Jay Calderin

Creative ideas are elevated by experience and expertise. This book sets forth a challenge to fashion designers—continue to expand your horizons, exercise your skills and experiment with strategies. The idea behind collecting and cataloging the essential principles of fashion design, is to build a framework for artful examination that the designer can revisit regularly for inspiration and instruction.

Fashion Design Essentials is divided into five easy to reference categories:

I. THOUGHT - This section presents intellectual exercises that are intended to serve as catalysts for channeling creativity.

II. INVENTORY - This section helps define and re-think the uses of tools and raw materials for fashion design.

III. TECHNIQUE - This section identifies a varied assortment of fundamental techniques for executing a fashion designer’s idea.

IV. ARTISTRY - This section is designed to conjure and cultivate the artistic instincts of a fashion designer.

V. NAVIGATION - This section provides the fashion designer diverse strategies for negotiating a path to success.

Jay Calderin teaches a wide variety of fashion and professional development courses at the School of Fashion Design in Boston, where he is also the director of Creative Marketing. He founded and serves as executive director of Boston Fashion Week. He is currently the regional director of the Fashion Group International of Boston. Calderin’s designs have appeared in the pages of Vogue and Elle magazines. He is also the author of Form, Fit, and Fashion.