Simple ideas for Fabric Art. Fabric Art does not have to be complicated or hard to do. Simplicity can be king when it comes to slow stitch. You can of course, go further and stitch more embroidery, but I want to encourage those that are little wary to have a go to be creative and stitch some art.
So the hardest part can be to start. No ideas, or too many ideas? So, I think sometimes we overcomplicate these things, and scare ourselves off. Have a look at these ideas. Where I have just used a few scraps to lead me to inspiration. I have cut 4 little squares from calico and proceeded to lay some material scraps over each. You will need some few scraps of fabric and some threads, and extra embellishments such as buttons, beads, yarns etc.
I have created 4 little designs very easily. Just a small amount of stitching, keeping it simple with just a straight stitch, but look at how effect it can be. The bottom two designs use some layers of sheer fabrics to colour our backgrounds and give us some inspiration to start with. The picture on bottom right above, is a beautiful example of how layering just a few scraps of sheers over top of each other can create a dreamy beautifully blended background. When I looked at it I immediately saw some dusky hills. I stitched across from side to side in wavy lines to accentuate the hills then added in a piece of yarn and couched it on too, then just some long stitch criss crossing and looking like a clump of grasses, and it was done!
This piece as you can see has the calico background as before, this time a roughly cut out a piece of interesting fabric that had a nice leafy print on it. I found some organza and tore a strip of that to go above. A dab of glue stick or some tacking up the sides can hold it together till you finish. In this design, I saw that my leaves were cut off, so I used some simple straight stitch to stitch in the outline of the rest of those leaves. It reminded me of Olive Leaves so I found a few green buttons to represent olives, and Voila! Have a look when I put a little frame around it, suddenly its art. As my picture was not long enough for this frame I grabbed a bit of brown cloth, and used the ragged edge of the calico as a feature.
This little picture built up from a small scrap of patchwork fabric. It is a beautiful Bali Batik in Brown, Beige and a hint of burnt orange. I also added a ripped strip of organza on top of this strip and then a brown organza on top. I then brought out more of the orange by adding a piece of orange/brown wool. Then like the Olive Leaf picture I did something similar by stitching a few petal shapes and then adding in a rounded center to the flowers with seed stitch and some beads to give it some texture. It really doesnt take much, and you can be surprised with what a difference a small frame around it can make.
Check out my video below on YouTube on this subject.
Cheers
Tracey
Your article on easy thoughts for gradual sew material artwork is a gorgeous resource! The step-by-step guide and innovative pointers make it enormously handy for novices whilst inspiring skilled crafters. The visuals complement the directions beautifully, making it a pleasure to comply with along. Thank you for sharing these great thoughts and techniques!
That makes me happy that you are getting somnething from it.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading your blog post on “Simple Ideas for Easy Slow Stitch Fabric Art.” Your creative suggestions and step-by-step guidance make the slow stitch process approachable and inspiring.
Thank you, I will endevour to some more up here, in the meantime there is plenty on my YouTube Channel.