Following Directions For Using Transfer Artist Paper

We all know that men have a hard time asking for directions or even looking at the enclosed directions for items needing assembly. It's true I've experience this first hand. So really with that assumption I thought I was good, ask for directions, look at the enclosed directions for items I'm either assembling or using and I always do that.

But truth be told it has come to my attention that I think I'm above the whole direction thing.  I read them and then just do my own thing.

Below you will see a photo of a pillow I made. I used my Lesley Riley's Transfer Artist Paper (love this stuff) and I can't even tell you how many times I read the directions. I don't use this paper that often so I need a refresher just to make sure I'm doing it right.

There's the part though that says to iron on a hard surface. My ironing board is really not a totally hard surface and I know that mentally I kept saying "it's okay nothing bad is going to happen" I just sort of dismissed this and went ahead and just ignored sound  advice.

So as you can see by my photo my image has left an impression of my metal iron board. I just sat there and shook my head in disbelief that this happened. Really don't know why I would be surprised the direction said Hard Surface  not hard surface with holes in it.

So I took out a towel and used that on the ironing board for the next image I was doing and it work, surprise surprise.

I don't know that I will ever make the comment that men don't follow directions cause I just experienced first hand that I'm just as guilty of doing the same thing. 

Stay tuned on Monday I'll be showing you how I made these pillows and a few others from fabric napkins and tablecloths.  Yeah this one will be included.

Which Fabric Glue To Use For Trims

Not too long ago I posted about doing one of a kind pillows and I did make one that sort of had me feeling "wow this could be good" until I glued on the lace trim.

I used Fabric Fusion by Aleene and the glue dried so hard that the edge of the pillow with the trim (and the glue) was as hard as a rock.  This glue really holds but it's not good the way it hardens the fabric and trim that it touches.

Now I've also used Fabric Fusion to attach my fabric buttons onto my pillows and it works like a charm and I'll continue to use this glue for that purpose but not for adding trim to my pillows.

So today I decided to try another glue (Fabri-Tac)  to see how it works and it performs perfectly.

My trim is held in place and the fabric doesn't feel any different than before I added the glue.  Here's the pillow I'm working on now with it.

So when you need a fabric glue to attach something to your fabric try the Fabri-Tac.  btw I'm not being paid to say this nor did I receive any samples to try. I got mine from Walmart early this morning.
 
Update  It's the day after I applied the trim with the glue and it appears to be a bit stiff. It's no where near as stiff as the other product. I will continue to use Fabri-Tac as it's not as bad as the fusion one. I'd rather glue on my trim than sew it so I'm left with this product.

I'm partying here 

 Wake Up Wednesday 

One of a Kind Pillow Again!

I love to sew and love to take items that were meant for one thing and give them a new life with a new purpose.

I do that with fabric napkins and also doilies.

Doilies that want to be a pillow

I got this set of two doilies quite awhile ago in fact it's been so long I can't even remember what I paid for them. When I purchased them I had in mind that they would become a pillow. One doily for the front and one for the back.

After deciding to use these doilies for a pillow I then went on to decide how the pillow would look. First off I wanted ruffles on each end. The perfect fabric for that was my black and white toile fabric that I had aged with a tea bath.

I also knew that I wanted a bird image in the center on the front of the pillow and I went looking for that at The Graphic Fairy. So my design idea was all set and all I had to do was just get it done.

These doilies were an odd size so a standard pillow form wouldn't work and there was also the issue of holes in the embroidery design that I had to contend with. So a custom pillow form was needed.

Measuring the exact size of the doilies I used these measurements to make my pillow form with standard muslin fabric.

Pillow form waiting for stuffing

Now I could rant and rave about pillow stuffing and how much I use to hate making my own pillow forms because of the stuffing but all that changed once I started using Morning Glory Cluster Stuff. It's a light weight polyester fill that will not clump or cause lumps. I hate the lumps and this is why I use it. The one draw back is that the fill is so light weight that it feels like the pillow has no weight to it.

Morning Glory Cluster Stuff

Okay so the pillow form was made and now all I had to do was add the image I found at the Graphic Fairy

Graphic Fairy Image

I did some color correcting in my Photoshop program to give the image a bit more of sepia look.

I transferred the image onto the doily using transfer paper that I got from Dharma Trading  

 I ripped the black and white toile fabric at 4" with the intentions of having the ripped edges showing to give it a bit more........... look. (sorry can't think of the right word) Ruffled the fabric with my ruffle attachment and then added the ruffles to each end of the doilies.

With wrong sides together I then sewed all around the doilies using the decorative edge as my guide leaving approx 3" opening so that I could insert my custom pillow form.

Inserted the pillow form and then closed up that 3" opening.

I consider this one of my One of a Kind Pillows  but it does have a big flaw. The transfer of the image caused discoloration on the doily.  If you look around the birds your can see where I cut out the image on the transfer paper. It shouldn't look like this I really wanted it to look like the birds were directly printed on the fabric and not added afterwards.

Anyway it's done I've learned something from this but not sure how I can apply it to my next project but I learned.

I'm off to make some more pillows using transfer paper and napkins. Hopefully I won't be able to find any flaws in these.

Being Creative Or Just Producing?

I've mentioned before that I had a soap making business. I would buy clear glycerin soap already made and recreate an artistic loaf of soap.  I loved coming up with new designs and one of my crowning glories (by my own estimation ) was a bacon fragranced soap.

At the time I sold lots of soap to the social media group Reddit and they were in love with bacon just like the rest of the nation and I was able to get a fragrance that smelled just like cooked bacon.

After acquiring the fragrance I went into design mode and came up with a pretty cool looking bacon soap. The day  I created that soap I was so proud of the job I did. Well this soap became popular  I sold a bit of it but the joy of creating it again and again become one of the demises of the business. It became so that I  hated making this soap, any soap,  hated the smell and the different steps I had to do to get it to look like this.

Fast forward to today and I'm making mostly pillow covers and again I'm getting caught up in just producing and not creating. Did I not learn my lesson with that bacon soap?

So now I'm of the opinion that just to keep me happy and that's important because I live with me and when me isn't happy it ain't pretty, I'm going to do one of a kind pillows. How fun will that be? I like it!!

I started doing my first one yesterday and it's still not done, and it's not perfect and I'm pulling my hair out but I'm happy.

As you do your craft you learn more and more about your medium like I did with the soap and I realize my mistakes with this pillow are just learning lessons on what to do and not do for one of kind covers.


Here's a picture of my first one of kind pillows.

My inspiration came from a sheer pink polka dot fabric that I acquired at a thrift store. I dyed the linen fabric to match the brown of the polka dots and added some vintage trim. My one of a kind pillows are a work in progress and I'll keep you guys informed on how I'm doing.

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Sew Crafty Angel