She Who Sews | Great Joy Studio

Fabric Journal Wk 3

by Great Joy Studio | Jul 7, 2022 | Quilting & Fabric

•

Hello Again!

I hope everyone enjoyed their 4th. We were quite busy building a porch on the Joy Studio, putting me behind on my Fabric Journal project! Hopefully I am not holding anyone up but if that ever happens, please move forward with yours at your own pace.

I continued making pockets this week and made some fun die cut tags. The fabric that I used of course is She Who Sews (Best of) from Riley Blake Designs black text on white and also gray. I fussy cut some of the really cool sew-y phrases from SWSs scraps that I had to fit a small size pocket. I then layered those on top of a little larger piece of Riley Blake Natural Linen and batting, leaving raw edges on three sides of the fabric and enough to turn the pocket tops. I then attached them to the back, top of my canvas pages made last week careful not to sew the larger pocket on the pages reverse side. I plan to do a lot more of these when time allows.

•

I also decided to cut some small tags out of black poster board scraps that I also had on hand using a large die cut punch. They happened to be the perfect size for adding a few of my spool stamps.

•

Since I am learning as I go with this fabric journal I decided to experiment with some scrappy layering of SWSs gray measuring tapes, a tiny bit of gray buttons, off white linen, vintage spool tops and Sew-y text, all raw edge scraps and again with batting. This will be one of my quilted pocket pages and who knows, maybe my first attempt at some free motion sewing if I feel brave?!!

•

Considering my pace on this project it is likely to be a summer long series!

Keep making and please share.

Thanks for visiting/following.

•

Fabric Journal, Week 1

by Great Joy Studio | Jun 15, 2022 | Quilting & Fabric

Welcome!

I am so glad that you could join us for this She Who Sews ‘Fabric Journal’ intro.

Like most of you, I have been admiring the art of journal and book making for some time. Smash books, junk journals, for scrap, tags, pockets etc., always draw me in to take a closer look. So, I finally worked this topic into my design schedule and an inspiring NEW fabric collection!

Stay Tuned for, “Art Journal” from Riley Blake Designs.

Over the next few weeks I will be sharing the process that I followed for my version and first attempt at this favorite pastime. So far mine is going in a direction of vintage sewing keepsakes and collected items, BIG organizer notebook for personal use. My thought, to have everything in one easy to find, easy to store place, artfully and aesthetically pleasing.

•

For this project I will be using She Who Sews, Best of (in stores) and She Who Sews HOME (August delivery) as well as Linen from Riley Blake Designs.

1) My first step was to dive into these cute fabrics! So making a few faux stamps and oversized cargo tags seemed an easy and fun way to get started for journal content. Spool stamps using the toss fabrics plus white and natural linen was the obvious choice. I fused the selected fabrics (for front) to some linen and scrap fabrics (for backing) on hand to give both a bit of weight. Once fused I fussy cut the spools apart. To achieve faux postage I then stamped them randomly. You could freehand the postal details using Micron permanent markers if you don’t have stamping supplies.

Next I fused the spool fabric to a larger size piece of backing fabric and trimmed with a pinked rotary blade. Pinking shears will work fine too. Stitching is another great touch to do at this stage or later directly to your journal page. Your choice.

•

I used the She Who Sews Border Stripe characters to create some oversized (pocket) tags. I cut the characters apart in this case and fused to my long strips of linen scraps. A binding ruler was the perfect tool to cut the tag corners. I am still looking for the right tool to punch the top hole but will probably hand cut with sharp scissors or simply add a button.

Note: As you can see below my tags are a bit too flexible so sandwiching with an interfacing or heavier fusible product can offer a stiffer tag. I intended these to be pocket tags and did not want to add too many layers so, we’ll see how this will work out. This step depends on your desired result.

•

2) For my journal/book base, I decided to use something that I already had rather than to begin a cover from scratch. This saved time and besides that I had acquired so many cool old albums, purchased art journals and notebooks that it seamed a good idea to utilize at least one of them for this project. I chose this chunky green commercial three ring notebook and will concentrate on making my pages only. Eventually, personalizing the cover could be a good plan.

•

3) While gathering supplies from around the studio I was reminded of some heavy canvas (bank?!) bags that I purchased somewhere, years ago. These will be perfect as pocket pages to hold a lot of the goods. Anything will do for the page base and a blank canvas for adding the fun fabrics was my initial thought. Moving forward, I am realizing that this work in progress is sure to evolve but any variation of course, is the fun part!

•

A look back –

I first tried my hand at constructing a simple cloth style artful book with a few pages, pockets and added materials best I knew how and presented in our QM booth 2019. This Scary Book uses Costume Makers Ball fabric from Riley Blake Designs and was intended as a fun decoration for the Fall festivities and it was FUN to make! I really enjoyed but confess, was winging it all the way. I began another the following year using Goose Tales but have not yet completed. Time is my typical obstacle, then again the life interruption in 2020 took away the (Quilt Market) incentive which didn’t help my motivation.

However, I have NEW inspiration for fabric and mixed media journal making and will be sharing on

Instagram and Facebook.

See you next week.

More She Who Sews, Kits!

by Great Joy Studio | Apr 27, 2020 | Quilting & Fabric

•

Hello to everyone at home. And sewing?

If you ever thought of making one of our large scale

She Who Sews

series for your studio, now would be a good time. Patterns are

half price

in the shop through May!

And we have fabric kits (limited supply) for

“Machine Maid”

as she originally appears on the pattern cover using our

Painters Palette,

and a few basics plus a Paris version using my

Couturiere Parisienne

fabrics from Riley Blake Designs. Both collections are available in shops now.

I am making her up in the later currently and for the first time ever actually and, I’m liking!!

Fabric background back story below.

•

• Back story on the background text fabric is that the text was inspired by a little antique children’s book of prayers, in French! Sew sweet. Although I cannot interpret them, I was pleased to make this a part of the Couturiere Parisienne collection in lieu of my standard snippets of scripture. Parfait!

•

I’m sure we all agree that we are still in such a strange time but keep creating is my plan. And praying. It helps, right?!

•

Au revoir mon ami!

Making Faces

by Great Joy Studio | Oct 2, 2018 | Quilting & Fabric

•

In this post I wanted to show how you can break down the She Who Sews figures using the Maker’s Guides into three main sections, part one. Some of you have already tried the Press On corset portion in the Great Corset Challenge last summer however, in this post we are starting at the top!

The faces/heads!

The two fabric faces below were made by Aunt Henri using Riley Blake Basics earlier this year.

I decided to continue my watercolor paper version shown above. She still needs eye detail. The great thing about these large scale studio figures is that they are not limited to any specific craft medium. Mix ’em up and have fun, you’re the maker.

•

The pattern guides are actually much easier to tackle when broken down into the main sections,

Background,

Head,

Body.

•

The single most important thing to remember about constructing the face is to follow the placement sheet accurately, especially the eyes just as you would follow any other applique pattern. That is key! Then you will achieve the specific Handmaids® girl of your choosing, every time!

Stitching the detail, is another lesson which I am still learning. However, it will be a cinch for all of you experienced sewers.

•

We are just getting ready to begin building a Machine Maid version using a new 2019 Halloween collection from Riley Blake Designs.

So, if you want to see this group in your local quilt shop next April, ask them about it now. It is currently available to the trade.

We’ll be sharing some Quilt Market sneak peeks too so keep watching!!

•