JOLLIETEXTILES

In my drive to use up materials that I already have – and not buy anything else – I have turned to the huge collection of off-cuts and left-overs I have saved from finished projects. Mainly bits and pieces that are trimmed away or the odd pieces that are sampled before I begin a big project. Also the many experiments, when I’m just fiddling around and trying out new ideas or products. In the photo above I have put a selection of these scraps together to make a background and added one such try out – a Roman woman, embellished with a bit of machine stitchery and some copper/bead details.

Finding that made me remember that it was a very good technique which I may well use again. Firstly, cut a piece of freezer paper to exactly A4 size. Then scrunch up a piece of ordinary white tissue paper. Flatten it and then iron it onto the freezer paper, trimming all round so it is exactly A4 and ready to go through your printer. Print off your desired image, making sure you know which way to feed the freezer/tissue paper through so the picture is on the tissue side! When it comes out it will look like a faded fresco and you can add coloured wax to make it look more distressed or aged. I find it useful to then bond this to a piece of felt as this gives a good base if you want to add stitch, but it could be applied to any fabric background.