Now, on to stitching news, something I hope I can figure out in time for the upcoming holidays.
While rumbling around in my stitching closet this summer, I came across a bag of old Prairie Schooler things I'd stitched so long ago I didn't have the slightest clue about how to turn them into finished ornaments.
The best I could come up with at the time was to simply seam them together with a piece of synthetic felt, stuff them with a little polyfill and tie on a ribbon. What was I thinking??
This abuse wasn't limited to just Santa....
As Christmases came and went I dutifully stitched a new Santa.
But never figured out a better way to give him the finish he deserved.
As ny stitching tastes moved more to samplers and larger projects, I eventually stopped the annual Santa mauling and relegated these poor guys to the back of the closet. There they stayed, shabby as ever, for more years than I'm willing to own up to.
But then I started following all your amazing blogs and got a glimpse of all the clever things being done with Prairie Schooler Santas. So when I found the bag o' Santas in the stash closet this summer, I spent a very sad afternoon carefully trying to trim the cheesy felt backing off of them without ruining the stitching completely. The raggedy edges you see on all these are the end result. To prevent any further fraying - these guys are all on 18 count jobelan, and you know what that's like - I stablized the stitching with some iron-on interfacing. But now I'm stymied. What to do with them?
You can see, like in the one above, that there's next to nothing beside the edges of the stitching. Obviously, finishing has never been my forte - that's why I'm in a constant state of awe when I see how wonderfully some of you can whip your smalls into little finished gems.
Does anyone have a thought as to refinishing these little beauties with the little- to- no borders that are left? Suggestions, ideas, prayers......all will be welcome!
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As always, thanks for stopping by and for steering other bloggers this way. Maybe there's hope for these guys yet!
6 comments:
The only thing I could come up with for finishing may not be a good idea. But it's the only one I have! Use two pieces of felt for the backing, one cut 3/4" larger than the design, the other 1/2" larger. Trim the stitched piece's edge even, center it right side up on the smaller piece of felt, run a very thin line of Liquid Stitch about a 1/4" in and then machine sew the very edge. Attach chenille or braided trim over that edge with stitching or glue. Lay that over the larger piece of felt and machine sew right along the outside edge of the trim, stuff between the two felt pieces, and close. You can trim the felt to whatever border you'd like. OR, use the same Jobelan instead of the larger felt piece and fringe the edges.
Perhaps using an invisible/clear thread to attach the pieces to a larger piece of felt?
Boy, that is a tough one, Mary! Without any fabric left sewing them is next to impossible, unless you can remove the borders on some of them and sew them into pillows. Can you attach them to a larger piece of felt covered mounting board and then cover the border edges with thin ric rak or ribbon? I think you can salvage some of them--good luck!
How about quilted wall hanging incorporating the little santa patches.
Wow, this seems to be a very difficult task! Please let us know what you did with them once you decided! I keep my fingers crossed for you!
Cathi
'Annual santa mauling'. ROFLOL I'm sorry, but you have me laughing hysterically here. I can so relate. Your stitching is so pretty and I hope you can come up with a way to salvage what you've stitched. I say that I can relate because I need to go through my bag of finished ornaments and try to salvage some. There are others that I hacked so close to the edge that I don't know if I can fix... and ironically, one of those is a PS santa. I swear my PS santa charts hide from me in a desperate attempt at self-preservation. Good luck!
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