SCRAPS OF TREASURE
Wednesday, August 1st, 2012
Many of people in the US today love and enjoy the past time of craft making – from sewing and model construction to card making and knitting, there seems to be an endless supply of inspiration for the happy crafters. And with all this crafting zeal, there is one thing that crafters never run low in – scrap material or more specifically, scraps of fabric. Some people do different things with their scraps, from saving them in bags to be forgotten or just throwing them out. The true crafter however will never pass up the opportunity to turn even the most mundane piece of extra fabric into something wonderful and unique. You may be looking into you scrap box now at mounds of twisted, knotted hidden treasures but still not quite sure what to do with your raw material. Sometimes it is better to look at the bigger picture – when you visit websites like http://www.beverlys.com, save or bookmark the pages or virtual fabric swatches you end up purchasing, so you can look at the fabric with fresh eyes, instead of just an odd end in the fabric scrap heap. In the grand scheme of things, many people get into crafting and sewing in the first place for many different reasons – sometimes we stumble upon a niche talent quite on accident, sometimes we dabble in craft making just to make gifts for friends and loved ones and even other times, we do the crafting thing because we’re great at it and want to turn it into a lucrative business. No matter the reason for crafting, it is a wonderful forum for personal expression and a great opportunity for you to be creative!
Just below is a wonderful idea for you to begin playing with to make great use of your scraps of fabric and material. You’re only as limited as your imagination, so feel free to look around your home to summon your creativity!
Turn your fabric in to vessels!
Right off the bat this might sound like a stretch, but this will have you delving deep into your grade school art class for technique! Making bowls out of scrap fabric is really easy and it is one of the most ideal ways for you to use up your scrap fabric stock. What you will need is a couple balloons, some fabric clear glaze and some color coordinated pieces of your scrap material. Blow your balloon up to the most manageable size possible, not too big of course so it will pop from the pressure. Dust the base of the balloon with corn starch, not the knotted portion, but the most bulbous part of the balloon. When you shake off the extra starch use a marker with a broad tip to draw a circle around the equator of the balloon and use this as a guide to paint on a thin layer of fabric glaze. From here, move quickly and place your strips of fabric onto the lacquer. Make sure the first layers of strips don’t overlap. When those have been laid, cover that layer with fabric glaze and start putting on your second layer of fabric allowing each piece to overlap and covering each piece with a thin layer of glaze. When this is complete, cover the entire base of the balloon with on last layer of glaze and place the balloon in a lidless jar for two days to dry. Pop the balloon once the fabric and glaze have dried and hardened and there you have a useful bowl for hair ties, keys, spare change and anything else you can think of!