Stitched Girls with Guest Artist Cynthia Shaffer
Today’s project is by Guest Artist Cynthia Shaffer. Please give a warm welcome to her and enjoy her amazing project.
Of all the crafts I have tackled in my lifetime, I always claim that sewing is the #1 thing I do and could probably do with my eyes closed … I kid you not! And, if you have ever tried free motion stitching well, then, you know that it does feel like you are stitching with your eyes closed! Seriously … and that is exactly why I love free motion stitching! In real life and in real sewing, I tend to be a perfectionist … I want things to look intentional, clean and perfectly placed. In free motion stitching I like the imperfect, the loose and haphazard stitches that are created that somehow, in the end, look perfectly placed!
Recently I took a couple months off from just about every freelance opportunity that came my way … I needed to just rest, pamper myself and work on my art. I enrolled in Danielle Donaldson’s Creative Girls online class along with a few other classes and just worked away learning and taking it easy. I was so inspired by Danielle’s class that in no time I whipped out my sewing machine and was free motion stitching these little girls!
What You Need:
- 4 watercolor paper panels that measure 4 x 6 inches
- 4 tan textured greeting cards that measure 10 x 7 inches
- Small snippets of fabric
- Scissors
- Sewing machine with a quilting foot or darning foot
- Gray thread
- Watercolors
- Watercolor paintbrush
- Mechanical pencil
- Glue stick
- Double stick tape
What You Do:
- Cut out a random skirt shape, approximately 2 x 1/1/2 inches and glue the skirt to the middle of a watercolor panel.
- Place a pencil mark 1/2 inch down from the top and ½ inch up from the bottom of the panel.
- Free motion stitch around the skirt, holding the fabric on place. Continue stitching up to the bodice, then the neck, head, hair and arms. Do not stitch past the little pencil mark that you made at the top of the panel.
- Now stitch the legs. Do not stitch past the pencil mark you made at the bottom of the panel.
- Trim all the thread ends.
- Watercolor the little stitched girl. Use colors that are in the fabrics that make up the skirt. Use fun colors for the hair and skin.
- Using the double stick tape, adhere the stitched panel to the tan card, centered.
- Free motion stitch a scalloped pattern down the left.
- Watercolor inside the scallop pattern.
To learn more about free motion stitching, come check out my blog at cynthiashaffer.typepad.com. I have several tutorials of projects involving free motion stitching and I have a free motion stitching book coming out in October … Simply Stitched Gifts. Also, if you want to learn more about Danielle and her amazing talent, check out her book CreativeGirl: Mixed Media Techniques for an Artful Life
Cynthia Shaffer has been published in Somerset Apprentice, Art Quilting Studio, Somerset Memories, The Stampers’ Sampler, Somerset Life, Somerset Studio, and Belle Armoire. She is also the author of several instructional sewing books.
Posted: Friday, June 12th, 2015 @ 10:14 am
Categories: How-To Project Tutorials.
Tags: cards, Cynthia Shaffer, DIY, fabric, free-motion stitching, greeting cards, Guest Artist, How-To, how-to project, Mixed Media, painting, project, tutorial, watercolor.
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TOO CUTE! Will absolutely try this out when I unearth my sewing machine from my studio remodel :) Thanks for sharing your technique, it makes it seem do-able. Will be checking out your blog!
Sooo cute. makes me smile when I look at them.
Thank you! We think they are adorable. Cynthia Shaffer is so talented!
these are sweet and remind me a little of the doll/girl from Nightmare Before Christmas…in a good way!
How fun and great idea. Thanks for sharing.
Colleen
This is great!!! I’m looking forward to trying this soon. I’m new to sewing but I think free motion quilting will be “my thing.”