Sew Free Motion Stitched Brooches with Guest Artist Danita

We are excited to welcome guest artist Danita to Somerset Place as she shares how to create these little fabric cuties!

Hi! I’m Danita and I have a passion for all things crafty.  My grandmother was the seamstress of the family, although sadly I didn’t have the luck to learn from her. Nonetheless, her creativity runs through me, as I love creating small sewn projects that I can embellish with free motion stitching – it’s like drawing with a sewing machine! This project encourages artists of all crafting backgrounds to dip their toes into the art of free motion stitching. The most important thing to remember is to have fun learning and experimenting with the process.

Materials:

Sewing machine
Darning foot
Scissors
Felt
Fabric
Thread
Interfacing
Image printed on Ink-Jet Fabric (or an image from fabric)
Brooch

Instructions:

1.    Begin by swapping out the foot on your machine for a darning foot. If you don’t have one, you can just remove the one you already have (just be careful).  Drop the feed dogs on your machine and you’re ready to start free motion stitching.

2.    Cut your image to desired size.

3.    Place a piece of interfacing between the fabric and the ink-jet printed image. With the printed image on top, take it to your machine and begin stitching around the image to secure all layers.  I used zigzag stitching in this step to secure it.

4.    Change your machine settings to a straight stitch and start forming scallops around the image, moving your fabric along the way. Remember that when the feed dogs are dropped, the machine doesn’t control the fabric – you do!

5.    After you’ve stitched all the way around the image, place it on the felt and take it to your machine again.

6.    Repeat the scallops around the fabric and onto the felt, stitching the two layers together.

7.    Trim excess fabric to frame the image and sew the brooch to the back. Be careful to sew it just onto the felt and not through the image on the front.

8.    Take a look at your new creation – sew cute!

Thank you for sharing, Danita! Danita and her artwork have been featured in Stampington publications including Art Doll Quarterly, Art Quilting Studio, Belle Armoire, Sew Somerset, Somerset Studio, and Stuffed. To view more of Danita’s artwork, visit her blog at  danitaart.blogspot.com.


Posted: Thursday, May 24th, 2012 @ 9:08 am
Categories: How-To Project Tutorials.
Tags: , .
Subscribe to the comments feed if you like. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

6 Responses to “Sew Free Motion Stitched Brooches with Guest Artist Danita”

  1. Ella says:
    May 25, 2012 at 6:03 am

    Sooo cute! Thank you Danita for sharing. I love this idea : )

  2. Rita P. says:
    May 25, 2012 at 7:54 am

    This has got to be so small and yet the details are wonderful. Beautiful!

  3. Maureen says:
    May 27, 2012 at 5:08 pm

    Similar to how I stitch in my art journal on paper or cardboard. Lovely!

  4. Sherry Loomis says:
    June 1, 2012 at 6:21 pm

    These are adorable. I love the paper/cloth/sewing connection. Got to make it myself!

  5. Walter Silva says:
    June 12, 2012 at 5:44 pm

    Love Danita’s work!

  6. home page says:
    November 24, 2012 at 7:51 am

    Nice read, I just passed this onto a colleague who was doing a little research on that. And he just bought me lunch since I found it for him smile Thus let me rephrase that: Thank you for lunch!

Jordan How-To Project Tutorials ,

We are excited to welcome guest artist Danita to Somerset Place as she shares how to create these little fabric cuties!

Hi! I’m Danita and I have a passion for all things crafty.  My grandmother was the seamstress of the family, although sadly I didn’t have the luck to learn from her. Nonetheless, her creativity runs through me, as I love creating small sewn projects that I can embellish with free motion stitching – it’s like drawing with a sewing machine! This project encourages artists of all crafting backgrounds to dip their toes into the art of free motion stitching. The most important thing to remember is to have fun learning and experimenting with the process.

Materials:

Sewing machine
Darning foot
Scissors
Felt
Fabric
Thread
Interfacing
Image printed on Ink-Jet Fabric (or an image from fabric)
Brooch

Instructions:

1.    Begin by swapping out the foot on your machine for a darning foot. If you don’t have one, you can just remove the one you already have (just be careful).  Drop the feed dogs on your machine and you’re ready to start free motion stitching.

2.    Cut your image to desired size.

3.    Place a piece of interfacing between the fabric and the ink-jet printed image. With the printed image on top, take it to your machine and begin stitching around the image to secure all layers.  I used zigzag stitching in this step to secure it.

4.    Change your machine settings to a straight stitch and start forming scallops around the image, moving your fabric along the way. Remember that when the feed dogs are dropped, the machine doesn’t control the fabric – you do!

5.    After you’ve stitched all the way around the image, place it on the felt and take it to your machine again.

6.    Repeat the scallops around the fabric and onto the felt, stitching the two layers together.

7.    Trim excess fabric to frame the image and sew the brooch to the back. Be careful to sew it just onto the felt and not through the image on the front.

8.    Take a look at your new creation – sew cute!

Thank you for sharing, Danita! Danita and her artwork have been featured in Stampington publications including Art Doll Quarterly, Art Quilting Studio, Belle Armoire, Sew Somerset, Somerset Studio, and Stuffed. To view more of Danita’s artwork, visit her blog at  danitaart.blogspot.com.