Wednesday 23 October 2013

DecoArt Goes Zakka! Part Two

Welcome back to part two of creating your own mobile phone sleeve from stamped and brayered on fabric and ribbon!



Yesterday in part one I showed you how to stamp and brayer your ribbons and fabric (see image above). Today it's time to sew and embellish to get something like this:



As I promised, you won't need a measuring tape.
But you will need:

- your altered ribbons and fabric (from tutorial part one)
- a piece of cardstock (I took a sheet of heavy copy paper)
- a pencil
- scissors
- your sewing machine (plus thread of course)
- DecoArt So Soft fabric paint of your choice
- a stencil
- a stencil brush
- a black textile marker
- your mobile phone
- some embellishments to sew on if desired






1. Center your mobile phone on the white card and draw its outline using a pencil.


2. Cut out the shape. I used my carpet knife but you can as well use a pair of scissors.



3. Moving your "stencil" over the painted piece of fabric find the detail you want as your front for the sleeve. Lay down (or fix it with some pins).


4. Get your words stencil and place it over the apperture. As I wanted to add some stamped on ribbon on the left I decided to put the "ENCHANT" more to the right.


5. Apply a tiny amount of DecoArt So Soft farbic colour of your choice to the acetate and load your stipple brush. Stipple onto some scrap of paper first to make sure there's not too much colour on your brush - otherwise it might soak under your stencil.


6. Stipple your image by fastly securing your stencil with the other hand.


Clean your brush immediately - as long as the colour is still wet.


7. Let your fabric dry or speed up using your hair dryer or heat tool (don't use your heat tool with fabric that contains any synthetics as they would melt and cause the fabric to crumple!)

Then outline the image using a black textile marker. Fixate (if necessary) following the instructions on your marker.


8. Use the selfmade stencil again to find the desired spot for your ribbon. Sew it down with two straight seams.


9. Then take your mobile phone and wrap your fabric around it so your front side is perfectly in place. Flip it over (with your phone still inside) and use the stencil again to find a good spot for another ribbon for the backside of your sleeve.


As I forgot to take pictures of these steps, I tried to explain by making some sketches. I hope they work for you.

10. Having found the spot where you want your second ribbon to be on, carefully - by holding the ribbon in place - unfold your "mobile phone-fabric-stencil sandwich" and sew the ribbon in place:


Then cut your fabric to size before you sew the upper seam. You can do so by having your phone still wrapped in the fabric (again - no measuring ;). When sewing don't forget to fold in your seam about a small finger's width.
Also leave about a finger's width of overlap on all sides for later sewing.  You do not need a seam at the bottom. (I had it drawn first, but then remembered that I didn't do one as the bottom will be sewn together anyway - sorry for the terribly worked over sketch. But actually this is how I work when I do more complicated projects... a lot of drawing and drawing over and crossing out ;).


11. After you have done the upper seam flip your piece over again ("good side" facing inwards) and wrap it one more time around your mobile phone to find the correct spot for your side seam. Pay attention that you don't make your sleeve too narrow or too wide. Both of it can be rather annoying - having your phone get stuck or slip out too easily.

Take out your phone before sewing ;)
Do the same to find the correct distance for your bottom seam. Then cut off the excess at the bottom and flip over again. You're almost done! Yay!




12. You can stitch on some embellishments if you like to. I added a tiny metal label for example.

I know, I know, my phone sleeve isn't done perfectly and those of you who are well experienced in sewing will do it a lot better, but honestly I sometimes love the imperfection of handmade things (even though I admit that there's a fine line between imperfection's beauty and charm and the kind of imperfection that tells that someone simply wasn't good at what he was doing *lol).

I leave it up to you to judge. But mainly I hope you will enjoy making your own semi-controlled sewing projects and experiences!






Have fun and happy sewing/crafting/stamping/messing!

Claudia x



10 comments:

  1. Wow, this is a great idea, with an easy to follow tutorial, these could make womderful handmade Christmas presents.

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  2. Was für eine tolle Idee und erst die Farbkombination..Leider streikt meine Nähmaschine. Ich hab wohl zu viel Papier genäht und der Unterfaden streikt in einer Tour.(:o)

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  3. Both installments are wonderful and what a brilliant tutorial ( and wonderful idea), a great functional piece, love it!!

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  4. Superb Claudia. I would even frame your instruction sheets as they are so beautifully drawn! Jenny x

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  5. Another fantastic tutorial Claudia, love your sketches too! Hugs, Anne x

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  6. How creative you are Claudia!!! A great workshop with great ideas from you!

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  7. A fab tutorial Claudia, combining all our skills of crafting and hopfully sewing. Liebe gruesse von Francesca

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  8. So ist das wohl... Eigentlich war ich heute morgen die Allererste, die Dir ihren bewundernden Kommentar hinterlassen wollte. Aber entweder mein Pad oder Blogger streikte, ich mußte arbeiten - und nun darf ich mich hinten an stellen :-(.
    Das tut aber meiner Verzückung ob Deiner Kreativität keinen Abbruch! Wie Du weißt, bin ich sowieso schon überzeugt von Deiner Arbeit! Aber Du zeigst so viele verschiedene Facetten Deiner Kunst, so verschiedene Techniken und Resultate, dass ich durch Deinen Blog wandere wie Alice im Wunderland!
    Heute hast Du mich wieder kalt erwischt. Ich plane schon länger das Nähen eines Handy-Täschchens. Über die Planungsphase bin ich nicht hinaus gekommen. Aber hier muss ich nur noch abkupfern (wenn ich darf) und meine eigene Handschrift darauf setzen... Die Idee, den eigenen Stoff zu "designen" ist genial und macht das Stück so individuell. Der einzige Kummer, den ich habe, ist es, diese von Dir vorgestellten Stofffarben zu ergattern. Ich habe keine Ahnung wo in Deutschland ich diese Farben kaufen kann (auch noch auf die Schnelle - immerhin bin ich 100% inspiriert!).
    Vielleicht verwende ich Acrylfarben, die ich heiß einbügle? Mal sehen...
    Jedenfalls danke ich Dir sehr für diese detaillierte Anleitung, die ich sofort eins-zu-eins in Stoff umsetzen werde.
    Mach schön weiter so, liebe Claudia, ich freue mich auf jeden neuen Post von Dir!
    Liebe Grüße
    Manu

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  9. What a fantastic fabric project, Claudia - and so much detail over your two posts, that even I might dare to give a fabric creation a try!! Love the painty stencilling detail - gorgeous and inspiring ideas.
    Alison xx

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  10. wonderful tutorial Claudia! love this idea!!!!!

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