Craft Test Dummies

I’ve gotten back to the sewing machine- a little- and have made some pins for the ClothPaperStudio Yahoo Group swap. Our theme was “wild women pins,” but mine are more like sassy ladies.

I started with my standard fiber fusion technique- layering batting, then fabric, and then sprinkling thread snippets, fabric scraps, yarns, and Angelina Fibers on top. I put down a layer of Solvy, then free-motion embroider on top to keep it all together. After dissolving the Solvy, I cut them into the doll shapes and started embellishing with beads, poetry tiles and fibers.

Lastly, I fuse the backing fabric to some Peltex 72 and fuse that to the front of the doll sandwich. (This way it’s nice and sturdy, and you can’t see all of my beading stitches.) I hide the raw edges with an overcast stitch with beads…3 seems to be the magic number!

I’m happy with them… and on a side note, I was working on them yesterday while my MIL was having a sale. Two ladies saw them and commissioned personalized versions. Fun! I would love to have a “Wild Women Party” where ladies could personalize their own pins…wouldn’t that be a hoot?

Most of you know that I love, love, love Sally Jean…. her artwork is fun and whimsical, and her soldering is top-notch. I had a pretty good month in July, and I actually made some cash from teaching my craft classes. So I bought myself a little somthing pretty, of course!

This is what she calls her “knockers” (har, har!)- two sides of an acrylic hemisphere with artwork captured inside. What’s fun about these is that you get to choose what goes in. I really wanted one of the larger, flat pieces, but they were sold out. And I really liked this artwork, so I compromised.

The text on the front says, “Create” and the text on the back says, “Sometimes there was a storm in her brain.”

I can totally relate to this feeling!!!!

I’m going to add a decorative jumpring (so that it hangs right) and maybe wire up some Swarovskis to make a little dangle or something. Can’t wait to wear it!