The theme of this year’s Fiber Artists show is Recycling, and I definitely want to take on the challenge of creating a doll using previously worn textiles and articles given to me by others, such as the beads from a broken rosary and lace off an old skirt.
I started with some sari silk scraps I had stored for a special project. It is very hard to work small corners without ripping the material and I believe it will take a few dolls before I work out all the kinks!
In order to make the sari material stronger, I use a fusible interfacing from Pellon ( style# 911FF). I set my iron pretty hot, place the interfacing over the back side of the sari fabric, cover the interfacing with a light cotton material, and iron it. Then I draw my cat pattern on the interfacing and embroider the mouth in a nice dark color thread. I fold the sari in half and sew right on the line in a fun contrasting color thread, cut around it leaving a 1/4 inch seam allowance, carefully turn it inside out, and stuff it with fiberfill.
In order to make the sari material stronger, I use a fusible interfacing from Pellon ( style# 911FF). I set my iron pretty hot, place the interfacing over the back side of the sari fabric, cover the interfacing with a light cotton material, and iron it. Then I draw my cat pattern on the interfacing and embroider the mouth in a nice dark color thread. I fold the sari in half and sew right on the line in a fun contrasting color thread, cut around it leaving a 1/4 inch seam allowance, carefully turn it inside out, and stuff it with fiberfill.
Once they are all safely turned inside out and stuffed, I tuck in the bottom and sew them shut. Placing the eyes takes practice, and I like to pin them to the doll with tiny pins before I sew them on. Once I have them in place, I mark the spot with a black pen and sew the eyes on using invisible thread.
Using a long needle, I join the legs to the body. The trick is getting enough tension so that the arms and legs can move and keep their position. I like using a medium weight fishing line, one that's not too bulky and also won't break.
Once I manage to attach all the limbs for all the cats, I'm ready to put my Recycling Project together.
The top picture didnt look fun enough, the cats looked like they were just standing around. Once I sat them down on the mini embroidery hoops things started to look better. This had been my original idea, cats on embroidery hoops... because they look like planets, or at least the abstract sugestion of planets. But when my husband saw my work in progress, he sugested i use my recycled cardboard horses in the project too.
So i replaced a couple of sari cats with some recycled horses and took a poll. 4 out of 5 people prefered the horses to the cats, so horses it is. I really wanted more fun in there though, so i made some kitty riders for the horses. I also wrote the words out, you know, to drive the point home. I'm going to title this piece, Recycling Around the World.
