2019 #5 Maps & Plans: Vintage Travel Spool with VID/ I&D {by Jennie Atkinson}

2019 Topic 5: Maps & Plans

Jennie's sumptuous spool is a dreamy project showing how just using vintage maps, canvas and some stamping create a miniature art piece chock-full of character.

Hi everyone, it's Jennie (Live The Dream) with you today, and I'd like to share with you a vintage travel spool, or "snippet roll" as they are sometimes called on Pinterest.

My husband made me some wooden spools from scraps left over in his workshop recently and I thought our current Maps and Plans challenge would be the perfect opportunity to use one. After all we have plenty of maps sitting in a box in the study! However when I went to look through them all they were all lovingly marked with our cycle trips over 20 years and so I couldn't really use them. But I found a really old map lurking in the bottom and it fitted the bill perfectly being vintage browns. Having never been to the Lake District it is not one of mine!

I wanted to combine the map with some stamping on linen and knew that this would involve sewing elements onto the linen after stamping. I have used both linen cloth and some tape for the smaller stamps as it frayed less and stamped with Potting Soil Archival Ink.

I have used a number of my favourite Vintage Ink and the Dog stamps sets:

Vintage Ink and the Dog (IDO2EZ) A5 stamp set

 Ink and the Dog Collection Travel 2 (T2) A6 stamp set

Ink and the Dog Collection Travel 4 (T4) A6 Stamp Set

I started with pieces of the map and my stamped pieces on a strip of the linen. At only 2.5" wide there is not much room so it did require a fair bit of experimentation! And not everything was used in the end. There were some lovely titles on the map which I wanted to use as well.

I stamped onto the linen background before sewing each piece onto the linen ...... actually it wasn't too laborious and I was pleased with the effect.

The hardest bit was stitching the linen to the spool so it is a bit loose! but in the scheme of things both looks and works well.

Finally a strip of map was attached to the back of the linen (hiding all the horrible bits of sewing and threads!). I was impressed at how well the map paper stood up to being sewn like this.

As you can see this is probably a map from the 70's so perhaps the paper is thicker and more capable of being stitched. I don't think I would have been able to stitch the more modern flimsy maps of today.  It is probably worthwhile looking out for older maps in your local charity shop.

The combination of linen and maps works well and means it wraps nicely around the spool. I remembered just in time to add some ribbon between the two layers before finishing the sewing.

The wee chappy is from one of Tim Holtz's Paper Doll sets and I think just finishes the spool off perfectly.

To be honest I wasn't too sure whether this project would come together. Combining the map paper with linen seemed a good choice but did require sewing to hold everything together. The VI&D and I&D stamps were just perfectly sized and it was possible to use smaller pieces of some of the larger stamps as well. 

I think I could get a little hooked on making these little vintage spools .... and they do look so cute!

As always thank you for joining me and happy crafting.

Jennie x

Blog: Live the Dream