2016 #12 Pencil Wallet {by Darcy Wilkinson}

 2016 Topic 12: Fabric

Hi everyone, Darcy here with a post this evening about using fabric. I will be using canvas, not stretched over a frame but loose canvas fabric. This can be bought cheaply on a roll, however it is very thin, almost like paper. The better canvas fabric is much more expensive and is found in art shops. However the stuff I use is actually a DIY drop cloth, it is used for covering furniture while you paint the ceiling etc. It is really good quality, thick canvas fabric, it comes in various sizes and it is so much cheaper than the canvas from art shops. 

I like to take my sketch book and watercolour pencils to the local coffee shop, it's a great excuse to have nice coffee and crumpets, and if gives me an hour or so out that I can dedicate to sketching. But my watercolour pencils are in a long tin, so I needed some kind of case for them. 

I started with two long pieces of canvas, one will be the outside, this was gessoed on both sides. The other piece will become the lining, this was marked out and I added lengths of elastic. The elastic was stitched at regular intervals big enough to hold a pencil. 

I set aside the lining piece, this will not be painted as the pencils inside will be colourful enough. I then worked on the gessoed outer piece. 

I added Cherry Red at the top and Bottom edges, the top was then blended with Snowflake and the bottom was blended with Claret. In the middle I added Autumn Fire and Haystack and then Turquoise. 

My next layer was random patches of Golden matte gel, I added texture to this using the small circle background stamp from EDY06

 EDY06

I then added more paint, more gel and more stamping into the gel. 

Next I dripped Southern Skies and Claret and added a little stamping using the circles from EDY17. 

EDY17. 

The layers were now looking very yummy. 

I added a little Limelight over the Turquoise and then rubbed on some white Fire Treasure Gold. 

At this point I started to assemble the case. 
I cut two smaller pieces of canvas, added elastic to them and then sttiched them together making a pocket. 
I needed this case to be sturdy, so that meant adding something to stabilize the fabric. You can buy quilting plastic, but again it is expensive. Whenever I make bags I buy flexible chopping boards from the supermarket, they come in packs of 3. They are cheap and easily cut with scissors. 
I cut a piece to go in the pocket I had just made. 

This centre section was stitched to the longer lining piece. This completes the inside, and gives me 48 elastic sections for pencils. 

Next to stitch the outer and the lining together and trap a long zip between them. I bought the widest zip I could find, but it still wasn't wide enough. So I added  Petersham tape to either side of the zip making it wider. A normal zip simply will not close up the case once the case is folded shut as it then has 4 layers of pencils, so a wide zip is needed. 

Then quite a bit of wrestling and wrangling with the canvas fabric and the zip, many pins and my trusty machine. 

Once I had the whole thing mostly done, with only one short end left open, I cut 2 more pieces of plastic and slipped them inside, these were to stiffen the outer side. 

Now it was all assembled I could finish the front cover. I used one of my new stencils and some Cosmic Shimmer glue...

PS029

..and some gliding flakes to add butterflies. I also used the ART word from EEG15. 

To seal the whole cover I added Acrylic Wax to both back and front, this will protect the gilding flakes and give the whole thing a nice sheen. 

I am incredibly pleased with it, the zip isn't perfect but good enough for me. It holds 48 pencils and the cover is the kind that you just want to touch. Stamping into the gel made really great texture, and the Treasure gold, gilding flakes and acryic wax have all combined to give a shimmery,golden sheen. 

I hope you are enjoying the Fabric topic and making some great projects . 

Darcy 

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We would love to see how you interpret this topic by linking what you make to our 2016 Challenge #12: Fabric, on this page HERE.

All of our bloggers love to see your twist on their ideas,  particularly if you were inspired directly by their post. 

All links go in the draw to win a £50 voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. The Fabric link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, June 26th 2016. The winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.