Saturday 18 August 2012

Distressing "Before and After"

Husband's at the cricket, too hot to felt....so...
Made myself pretty hot doing this actually! I'd had this piece of furniture in a shed for years. I am reliably informed it's called a tallboy. Slightly art nouveau would you say? I'd already sanded one drawer when I remembered to take a photo. 
I ended up distressing it a bit more than I'd intended, but I quite like it. I used a more liquid clear wax that  can be applied with a brush for the first time, which  found much quicker and easier. 
A bit of gold behind the green adds a touch of faded opulence. Might upgrade it from the shed to a bedroom.  

Wednesday 15 August 2012

Nuno notepad cover

I made this A5 size notepad cover to use up a piece of experimental felt that I had made! 

It was made with merino wool on organza which has a slightly metallic sheen. I added more pieces of organza, and nepps, trapped behind a thin layer of merino wisps, to add texture. Silk strands were used to give colour and shine. I liked the way adding the extra pieces of organza just under the top layer gave the piece areas of deeper folded texture. I was worried that the nepps (little knobbly balls of wool!) had not felted into the fabric well, and might come loose with handling, so I added a bit of machine stitching on these areas. 


To make the cover, I first made a fabric cover to fit the notepad, then sewed the felt onto this, leaving an extra border of felt around the edges. I then blanket stitched the edges of the  felt.