Another Catalog Experiement

Using the squares and circles technique in this post....I played around with more pages from the Gudrun's World catalog.

This experiment was done over several days so there's a lot here....read on if you're interested.

Again I worked on stabilizer this time adhering it with matte medium.  I put a sheet of waxed paper under my work and kept picking up the piece so it wouldn't stick. For those of you who aren't familiar with stabilizer it's lightweight fabric or interfacing used for adding stability to clothing items and craft projects. It comes in all kinds of weights and stiffness. Some of it is even fusible.

The next morning I was excited  to find that it almost felt like fabric when it was dry.  So why not just use fabric you might ask?  Because it's interesting and fun to repurpose catalogs....and it's unexpected. 

Next I went to the sewing machine and added some border stitching.

I liked it pretty well....and when I auditioned some buttons I knew I wanted to take it further. I should have planned the size a little better.....oh well....next time.

I cut it to fit the top of the 4 x 4 deep canvas frame I found in my stash and started thinking of ways to deal with the sides.

Using a second piece of lightweight stabilizer I used the same technique to add catalog strips that would wrap around each side. 

Once it was dry I added stitching.

Next I stitched on the top piece using a blanket stitch.

This stitch line will perforate a line so it will fold easily to wrap around the canvas.

Since this was just an experiment...I did just a little bit of hand stitching before I adhered it to the canvas. I used heavy gel medium which is really thick like paste....it held everything in place while I wrapped it.  

I think there's potential with this technique and and I love repurposing the catalogs. I learned a few things along the way such as hand stitching is tricky....if your needle comes up in the wrong spot it leaves a hole in the paper. (doesn't happen on fabric) And with all the layers of paper and medium it's kind of hard on the wrist to pull the needle through.  If I do this again I think I'll stick with machine stitching....maybe use some of the decorative stitches and some free motion quilting.