Elsie May and Bertha: Fabric pictures and Mother's Day.

Monday, 19 March 2012

Fabric pictures and Mother's Day.

I've been wanting to try to make embroidered/sewn fabric pictures for a while, so I decided to have a got at one for my Mum for Mother's Day.

As it was for Mother's Day I wanted to add a picture of her Mum (the Elsie May in Elsie May and Bertha), so I printed a copy of one I had with my Mum as a baby. I attached this to some plain white cotton fabric with double-sided tape.

I next decided to add one of the embroidered card inserts I'd picked up at the vintage fair at St. George's Hall in February. The embroidery had been done on very fine fabric so I tacked in onto a piece of floral fabric and then attached that to the white cotton.

I then delved into my scraps basket and picked out fabrics with flowers that I could cut out, green fabrics for leaves. I appliqued some of the flowers around the picture and the above and below the sweet remembrance embroidery using either blanket stitch or tiny little stitches. I also added a bit of vintage lace down the right-handside.

Underneath the photo I created a little flower border, with appliqued flowers and embroidered leaves and stems.

I created a little 'plaque' to go on the back of the picture and sewed this onto the vintage fabric I'd chosen for the back.

To make up the picture I placed some cotton batting (it's the stuff that makes a quilt 'quilty') between the front and back panels, then I pinned and sewed pink floral bias binding around the edges.

I added some ribbon to enable the picture to be hung up. In hindsight, what I should have added some card between the batting and the backing fabric to make the picture stiffer, as it sagged when I hung it up. I solved the problem for this one by running a piece of metal wire through the binding on the top.