Sunday, 21 February 2021

2021 Topic 2 A Pocketful of ... Fabric with EEG {by Dounia Large}

 2021 Topic 2: A Pocketful of ... Fabric {by Dounia Large}



I was lucky enough to be in the room when Dounia was sewing parts of this! Lots of elements that just looked so fabulous! A riot of colour scattered across the fabric pages she created was wonderful to see come together!
~ Leandra

Bonsoir ! It's Dounia from France with you today, sharing a scraps-folder made of fabric scraps. I hope you are feeling scrappy !
 
When I am working on a project, I tend to hoard the left-over bits, off-cuts and tangentially related pieces that could totally be useful in the future. I am also a messy crafter so those tiny treasures often get lost on my craft table and I spend ages looking for them and making everything even messier. To help with that, I have had for quite some time the idea of making myself a folder dedicated to holding those scraps and this topic of pockets seemed the perfect opportunity.


I wanted a resistant and flexible base material so paper seemed too fragile and fabric not stiff enough. I then remember a project by Darcy on this blog post, where she up-cycled painty baby wipes into a cup holder.
 
« Collecting » colourful baby wipes and paper towels is totally something I do and I felt making my scraps-folder from scraps was kind of poetic so I stole her idea !

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After unearthing and selecting my materials, I glued the paper towels (for colour) onto baby wipes (for structure). I used acrylic binder because it penetrates well into the materials, it is flexible once dry, and well, it is quite cheap. It also took aaaaages to dry !
 
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I quite like the resulting material. I feels a bit like faux leather and the shiny binder really brings out the colour. I decided for a (very simple) patchwork look so I cut squares in my « fabric ». I used a die so they are actually all the same, something I never seem to achieve by hand !


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These were sewn onto a piece of actual fabric to make the body of the folder and I reserved some lighter pieces to make the pockets. I immediately thought of Emma Godfrey's collection for the pockets, especially her older stamp sets geared toward journaling.
 
 
 
I chose EEG02 and EEG10 - the main 'label' stamps are the perfect size for my pockets.
 
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The stamping is not the easiest as the surface is a bit wrinkly. I ironed my pieces (which helped a lot) and used a juicy ink ! I also stamped some of the round elements and borders from EEG07 for embellishments.
 

This set is one of my favorites, the elements are simple but very practical and versatile (also it is in French!).

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The folder has a double fold, it has 3 big pockets inside the body, plus sewn-on pockets on the flaps. The first two are bigger, but the inside ones are the size of the label stamps, for all sizes of scraps !

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To decorate the pockets, I did some decorative stitching and added the stamped embellishments, but first I did some stenciling with Chalk Fresco Acrylic Paint. It brings back some white and reduces the quantity of sewing necessary ! 
 
 
Emma has a great line of geometric stencils (PS017) that work with everything so it was a pleasure to mix and match !
 
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With the busier stamps, only a few decorations were necessary. (PS015)
 

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I love the contrast between paint and thread on this pocket (it might well be my favorite).
 
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A less busy background leaves space for a more elaborate embellishment.

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At first I planned to decorate the cover of the folder with geometric patterns but this pocket sold me on flowers !
 
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I almost forgot to add a closure. This is also a scrap, some ribbon from Christmas presents... so it fits with the project !
 
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Currently the folder is holding the scraps from itself, so it is very matchy-matchy !

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Thank you for joining me tonight. Even if you are an organised crafter, I hope you enjoyed the ride and maybe found a few ideas to try. 

The « faux paper fabric » really is a good way to up-cycle and a nice material that could be used in a lot of other ways. Not need to dive into a project as involved as mine ! For example, a simple notebook cover would be fantastic in this !


Stay creative x

Dounia

2 comments:

Miriam said...

Fabulous project Dounia. I never would have thought of this. It's wonderful.

Ellie Knol said...

WOW, my eye caught the colors... beautiful project in the Pocketful theme!!