Thursday, September 12, 2013

Witches Stitches -Fabric Christmas Sheep


The holidays are right around the corner and one of the things I enjoy decorating with is anything that looks antique.  I like the prints that are out there that are from the late 1800’s. I especially like sheep.  You can use any animal or item you like, I just like using an image of sheep. I have several small feather trees that I like to put in a display and I like having a few sheep with them. The ones I made are very easy and look like they are 100 years old.
All you have to do is print a few images of sheep onto cotton fabric. The process is very easy. Cut a piece of fabric and a piece of freezer paper the same size as a standard piece of printer paper. Then iron the freezer paper onto the fabric. Now you can feed this through the printer and print whatever you choose onto your fabric. I choose some antique images of sheep. I made the images different sizes and then printed them onto my fabric. After I have done this I peel the freezer paper off the back of my sheep images. I then sew around the image with a backing piece of the same fabric, leaving the bottom open.  I cut around the image. I can now stuff the piece with sawdust. After I do this I sew the bottom together and then use a box pleat to make it stand up. I now have a fabric sheep that looks great with my antique holiday display. You can make these sheep any size up to 8” x 11”. I make 3, making one larger than the rest. This then looks like a sheep and 2 lambs.  As I said you can use any image you want. By stuffing it with sawdust, gives it an antique feel and makes it weighted enough to stand on its own.
As always if you have any questions please give me a shout. Have a great day.

Faith