Crazy Patch sketch book cover project (completed)

FINALLY I finished a mini project for my Creative Textiles course!
I was determined to complete a project rather than just "samples" on this occasion not least because "sewing" is, afterall, my main strength and it would have been a bit feeble had I not done something rather spectacular!
Sewing might well be a strong point, however creatively and artistically flinging together bits and pieces and come out with something spectacular is NOT something I do with ease!
Initially I flung lots of bits and pieces in different colours at a base of lightweight muslin and soon decided it just wasn't "working".
My colleague put together for me a "craft pack" of assorted types of fabrics and left over trims in a theme of black of white while another colleague who is a very talented and trained to Fine Art degree level encouraged me to just stop thinking "smart tailored sewing" and GO FOR IT! fling it under the foot and see where it takes you! she advised!
Inspired by the idea OF flinging it under the foot and being transformed into someone spectacularly creative I set about working on a rectangle of white muslin working from a corner outward!


I decided it was easier for me while learning the skill of crazily patching to stick with simple shapes and easy for ME was big straightish pieces! I soon got the hang of sewing then flipping then trimming and matching and my confidence grew especially after I realised how much easier it was when not worrying about "what colour shall I put HERE? (now I've gone & put THAT colour there!)" and after selecting a piece of corduroy with a little red and blue embroidered motif, I decided to add a little bit of red ribbon!
I could have got carried away with it all at this point, and started delving into my bag and coming out with lime greens and lilacs! but I decided to stay with a metallic silver ribbon trim which you can just see across the lower left corner of the photo above, together with a metallic silver ribbon flower and a shiny brad! and a tiny piece of red ribbon with white dots is the only "colour".



I tried to add ribbons and trims in the way that I thought best reflected the style and had, initially, planned to use this as a project for trying out some hand embroidery! However I decided to finish it all by machine! I top stitched bits of lace, ric rac, ribbon, braid and trim and couched some faux suede strips using a nice stitch which blended well the corduroy, velvet and faux fur.
Perhaps I got a bit carried away? with the super fluffy bit of feathery boa! I'm not sure how long that will last! but it looks nice and luxurious at this stage!
Finally, I got to put some beads on too! I used a white, a red and a metallic silver bead and sewed it using monfilament thread onto some black satin.


I Found a couple of decorative stitches on my machine that I liked, and sewed two lines of them in black emb. thread against white before zig zagging a length of sheer white ribbon over the top to diffuse it, and then repeated the stitches on an opposite corner on white fabric this time in a white emb. thread with no ribbon atop, it looks really good!

Some of the fabrics I used included plains, sequinned, faux fur, crushed satins and faux velvets, spots and dots and a bit of check!


Then I had to decide what to DO with it! Its SEW gorgeous and yummy-scrummy it had to be something in "use" and I decided to cover my mini project sketch book with it! You can see this book is in use already detailing my main project of the term, the lace Kiri project! (DON'T ask! its not progressed much - I think I'm on 5 repeats of the motif across the row now!).

Having never done this before, I pondered what to do! I stuck a piece of braid down the left hand side to give a clean finish and stuck it to the cover using strong double sided tape, and tucked the outer edges over the front page again with double sided tape and stuck a piece of novelty chain stitched paper to hide it all!!



It actually looks okay! quite good infact! the photo just isn't quite convincing of this!

I enjoyed the project! in the end! and had a lot of fun with it! I'd love to do another, soon, and next time I'd like to add much more in the way of STITCHING!