About a week and a half ago, my girlfriend @AmyLouWhoSews (on instagram) asked me to tag along with her to the talented Laura Gunn’s house. Laura’s soon-to-be-released fabric collection called “Vignette” for Michael Miller Fabrics, had arrived and she was busily getting projects sewn up with the fresh stash for promotional uses. So, I grabbed some wire lampshade frames and headed over! Before you knew it, Amy and I were knee-deep in pretty and starting our next challenges using Laura’s array of textiles. It is fascinating to know that all her work starts out as paintings. Here are AmyLouWhoSews and I below in Laura’s living room.
Hanging out in Laura Gunn’s living room cutting into her fresh new fabric line called Vignette.
Once I got home I had my pretty fabrics (“Bouquet Stripe” and “Scattered Posies”) all ready to go and a vintage shade begging to be clothed in them!
They always look so naked when they start off.
Normally I put all the lining fabric on first, but this time I couldn’t wait and had to put some of the “headline” fabric on.
I get the biggest rush seeing my shades lit from behind for the first time. The fabric takes on a whole new dimension.
As I make the shades I am constantly looking ahead and imagining what kind of trim would work with it.
The trim, for me, was rather tough this time. I wanted the fabric to be the star of the show and not look too outline-y. G-Stree Fabrics left me little to pick from and Jo-Anns was closed. It’s amazing what you can think of by watching a little Project Runway! Above is a clearance Infinity Scarf for $4.97.
I fell in love with some blouses at Target. I hated the idea of paying full price for something I was going to cut up. But, I had to have the shirt on the right. Haven’t used it yet, though!
Originally I wanted to trim it with pompoms. My neighbor let me have what she had, but it was only enough to do the corners. Ultimately, I took them out and went in a different direction.
After another trip to JoAnn’s I found this box pleated trim that looked nice with the bottles on the fabric in the crisp white. I also like the “weight” it lends to the base of the shade.
Every maker needs their own label, right?
Ta-da! Doesn’t every lampshade maker drag their dry sink out into the snow with their spring time fabric to do a photo shoot against the snowy landscape???
This shade actually looks great in my daughter, Eden’s, room. I ended up trimming out the rest of the shade with a jute-like twine that blends with the green of the fabric. This allows the fabric to be the main show.
And here is the AH-mazing Laura Gunn chilling on AmyLouWhoSew’s couch with just a few of the projects that were made with her Vignette fabric. She is so nice and encouraging. Just love her!
What do you think? I can’t seem to stop making these shades. If you want to follow my process, just follow me on Instagram (I’m @WeatherKim). I like to post pics of what I am up to every step of the way (and often ask for advice!)
Is it me, or is there a mustache trend out there?
I don’t mean to put JoAnn Fabric down. Let’s face it, it’s the go-to place to buy so many items to feed your quilting-crafting-sewing hunger. Armed with those inevitable 40% off coupons, how can you go wrong? But, I must say, I was never really that enthused about their fabric selection. It tended/tends to be on the traditional (boring) end of the spectrum for me. But every once in a while, something catches my eye. A few weeks ago, after our first fall-like cool-down in the weather pattern, I was jonesing to make something Fall-y. H E L L O BURLAP FABRIC 🙂 Why, you’re not just burlap, you’re burlap with MUSTACHES printed all over you! Come with me to the cutting table why don’t you?
I had just figured out how to install an invisible zipper, so I was on an invisible zipper kick. So a plethora of pillows ensued. Here is how the burlap fabric got transformed:
Sometimes I think the staging of the things I make is as much fun as the creating process.
Mighty pleased at how my invisible zipper turned out. Yay!
This is the back of the mustache pillow. This darker fabric was also used to line behind the front of the burlap. Since the burlap fabric has lots of gaps, I didn’t want the white pillow form to show through.
After Mr. Mustache Pillow came together, I decided he was crying out for a companion. He needed something a little more Halloweenie. Jo-Ann to the rescue again! This time the burlap fabric had spiders all over it. SCORE! I made the throw pillow out of a slightly smaller size (16″ square) and added some piping-ish stuff to the edges (it reminded me of really wide shoelace material – I guess I could get up and go look at what it is called, but I’m sitting on my foot kind of funny and it fell asleep and I don’t want to go through the pins and needles phase, so sorry!) That was the trickiest part – getting the wide (1/2″) shoelace material to be a nice square on the front cover AND go around the edge of my pillow cover peacefully with the invisible zipper. But I channeled my inner Tim Gunn and had a “make it work” moment.
Using burlap novelty fabric, I created these cute throw pillows to add some Fall Decor to my fireplace hearth.
The most annoying part making these pillows? The burlap frays. Really Bad. I was fortunate that my sewing teacher loans me her backup serger. So, what do you think? What tricks do you have up your sleeve to make big seasonal changes on a tight budget? I’d love to hear your ideas 🙂
kimmartucci 