Lessons

Lesson Info

Prepping Images for Art Tote

I have a six year old and a three year old and if you have a child in your life for a niece or nephew, our grandchild or a child of your own or close friends child you're close with what's amazing is seeing their artwork, but if you're if the child in your life is is prolific as mine my daughter pearl just every day I find her making amazing colorful fun drawing she's full of ideas and she always inspires me but after a while you realize all these beautiful drawings and paintings and collages everything she's bringing up from school or making herself here at my house it just gets a little overwhelming and so I wanted to come up with a project that would really celebrate these drawings of the most special ones and make it super customized but use them in a more permanent for math and just this you know, the inexpensive copier papers she often draws on. I've gotten her notebooks and on all kinds of other projects where she's I've I don't know simple bookbinding with her, but I wanted to ...

make something that really brought these pieces so life. So this art tote which is a super simple patchwork too cited toad uses to any two child strong's or images photographs work find too, but what I loved about this one was that it just really brings my daughter's artwork to life it's a simple bag with simple construction but also very sturdy and it's big enough told all kinds of art supplies notebooks, portfolio size on def, you make it just either the same size and dimension or a little longer I'll explain more as we get into the construction the city a perfect bag for nadal ah teacher a parent you know, just anybody you want to surprise it's a really special hands ah handmade decorated beautiful kids are work brought to life surprise so just as one other option if you'd rather use two fabrics this bag zain is super simple and you can adapt it to that. This was my prototype bag. I made it with a favorite fabric collection as you can see both sides of the same here it's this bag works wonderfully if you make the sides interchangeable but with the daughters prolific is mine it's hard to stop it to drawing so I'm excited today too. So another bag along with you guys and bring two more of her drawings home with me she's already looking forward to a new bag. So to get started, I wanted tio describe how you can print a child's drawing raid on tio ah fabric sheet and as you can see this's pearls original drawing of all these girls together, I absolutely love this one and I you'll start with an eight and a half by eleven drawing or smaller and you can have a white room around it kind of just like a stylish, simple, understated border but I would work with something that's eight and a half by eleven inches as a base you'll want to make sure the very outer rim doesn't have a lot of detail that you'll miss because some of it is going to disappear just a little bit I'd say a quarter and channel sides is a safe border that you'll want to avoid, you know anyth any crucial parts on the drawing um and then just as a contrast and I wanted to show that with this printing method you're essentially copying your child's colorful drawing and the more colorful the better because as you can see here her original drawing made with markers is very by brain and break and then the printed drawing itself is a little calmer just the way that the the fabric absorbs ink from a regular home printer is a little different than paper, so I'd run a few tests one's before you're actually using your precious printable fabric sheets you khun by principal fabric sheets at a fabric or craft store they usually come in packs of say, five and they're different brands that you can look through and choose from but essentially what you'll be using is let me flip there my little stack and find one you'll be using it just looks just like a essentially a sheet of printer paper but on one side is a very lightweight high quality woven white cotton and on the other side is a lightweight but durable paper that it's fused to so essentially you're running this through your printer or copier but one side is a fabric so when you color copy and image of your choice on to it it's essentially printing it on the fabric they're wonderful options for spoon flower which is a digital printing service where you can upload your own images or repeats and print yardage but for a small simple project like this I would say this is a great pretty easy way to get started with this kind of fun project so as we're sowing I will mention again you're welcome to use an eight and a half by eleven size piece of fabric two of them one for each side instead of printed ah photographs or drawings if you prefer that's totally works beautifully as well I've used denham you can use any other kind of home deck wait fabric like corduroy or another sturdy canvas and for the lining I'm recommending quoting cotton but if you have something else at home that's easy to sew with and a lighter weight I think that's just absolutely up to you as well so I'm not going to show you the ins and outs of printing fabric sheets here because it's, honestly not very interesting if you've ever used a home printer it's pretty similar, but I'll give you a couple of tips and one is start with his vibrant of settings as you possibly can if you have a saturation or anything that's a little bit more of ah, overall enhancer do that. I'll just show you what I started with again these air much greater than what ended up printing. Still beautiful, but it's going to lose a potentially lose? I shouldn't speak for all printers are all brands of paper and fabric, but it might might lose a little bit on translation. I'll show you what my daughter sent me here with this time. She made two drawings in the last few weeks. I love both of them. This one is pearl and myself in spring, and this one is in fall. So what I thought was really nice about that was that she loved the idea of the two sides of the bag and just wanted to go with that as her design here is what the fabric looks like. Once it's been printed, I could have gone ahead. And, you know, ask her toe draw a new drawing with even brighter colors we could have just dunmore experimenting, but she said she actually liked how it was a little more muted and so we're planning to put these in her house maybe in a frame together and then she'll be able to carry the bag with her supplies is sort of the spin off, so I've already gone ahead and printed my fabric and so have the students and the studio here, so I'll show you next after you followed the manufacturer's directions and worked with the fabric sheets and run them through your printer, you'll have a chance to go ahead and just give me one second you'll have a chance to go ahead and peel the paper backing off I've gone head and peeled one paper backing off and left one on just second show you all officially show you difference here is the fabric it's like this it's just a little light weight it's got just ah the back is pretty transparent so we'll be reinforcing it in a few minutes with a second layer but it's a nice quality very soft nice hand recently a light quilting cotton wait you want to give it a nice press him then with this one I shall show you how to remove the paper backing it's not the most beautiful process but I let's be honest, you know about that what goes into it because if I just show you how federally it is to peel the paper off the back of the fabric you won't feel the cold that would so when she got a good start in different brands are more or less it he said yeah, here we go when she got the corner started it's much easier so you'll go ahead and peel it from side to side follow any manufacturer's instructions on the back or the packaging that tell you how to treat or preserve your fabric there's certain things on ironing or rinsing that it may recommend that you use so I won't try to speak to each and every brand that you may find in your craft store but follow those instructions and you should have a nice long life with your projects so again if you're using a piece of fabric are is a contrast panel in the middle of this kind of patchwork section simply cut to pieces that are eight and a half by eleven inches in my case here I'm using the's strong's so well I'm going to give these a nice press and then well good and to cutting or other fabrics for the bag and start constructing it have any of you guys made a tote bag before? No no well lunch bag counts oh yeah well we've all made a lunch bags so really we're way ahead of things so follow the instructions as I mentioned I'm gonna give the search untold press and one caesar pressed and ready to go we can move on tio preparing our other fabrics and as you'll see this quoting cotton is nice and light so if you weren't making something is sturdy is a tote bag like for example, if you were embroidering on this or having an extra embellishment and framing in you could use this without the next steps I'm going to show you for reinforcing it so just let these try they've got just that little bit of him best press on them which is gonna try in a minute and as you can see here these air slightly transparent at least the brand I'm using not a huge issue but I am recommending that you reinforce it with a white fabric so go ahead and find a weight quoting cotton um in your stash will move on to the step in a minute, but if you're sowing along at home, you'll want to go ahead and grab await quoting cotton to work with you'll need to eight and a half by eleven sheets, so we'll movement to cutting our denham, which is what we're going to a frame thiss projects with and what I've been using is a medium weight dunham and it's essentially fifty four to sixty inches wide ahh home deck wait dinner more canvas you'll need exactly a quarter yard which is nine inches I've cut mine salvage to solve it so that it's very straight and meet the dinner needs to be a nice heavyweight that will be sturdy enough to make the sides of a bag if you're using the lighter weight fabric, what you'll do is end up using on interfacing or something all second reinforce it, which is actually exactly what I did with this bag I'll just mention it now so that you if you're serving along at home and don't have denham or don't have the exact heavyweight material that I used, you'll know that you can add a medium weight interfacing behind your eventual bag sides and that will reinforce some nicely you can see this was quoting cotton that I just ended up adding the extra layer to so now that I've got this nice ah white cotton in front of me um you want to make sure that sits at least eight and a half by eleven inches it's fine if it's a little larger like this because then you can turn away the excess that works perfectly get this white cotton oppress so it's really smooth for joining that's ideal so that there's no obvious wrinkles or folds gonna pass some down thank you we'll hear aaron this is something you made yourself yes, these are polaroids of mannequins um yeah, you took yourself yeah it's really stunning beautiful we're using away I have my my just so drawings of lizard so sorry you very cool so he's loud this one is not so uh these droids you did yourself stunning carolyn what are you using the creative life logo oh even better check's in the mail and jenny what are you using creative life good so what we'll do now is take our eight and a half by eleven drawing photograph or other projects or creative I've logo and using the same type or different brand of fuse herbal double cited you're facing just gonna move the siren out of the way for the moment you're gonna late this piece down aligning corners so that you're a piece of artwork is over the sticky side of your fuse herbal uh susan how easy is it to pull off and start again or do you really have to commit if you haven't started smoothing it doan you can always peel it back up ok can do them yeah if you have infused with the iron yet but I'd go ahead and trying to make it as needed join us possible before you screw that down mind missed by just like this tiny fraction but it's since it's a little bit to the side I can turn it away and when you cut this away do not trim your fabric sheet just trim the fuse herbal you'll want to keep your fabric sheet intact because the size of the finished bible kind of dependent that so if your sheet is bigger, then you're drawing that's great. Just trim any excessive though the same size. That's even easier there already joined. So when you to your first one, you'll be doing the second one the same way. So if you notice anything the first time like it was easier for you to start from the top and then align everything on the sides you can go with that if you realized halfway through there is a slightly better way to do it, everybody is just a little different. So cem's during my last side and then after I'm done, I still have to peel the paper off the back. This is, um you could also use another method of of fusing this teo just a heavier weight and you're facing if you prefer that single cited instead of double that's, fine as well. It's pretty flexible project used essentially one ad body a stability and smoothness to this lightweight cotton that the drawing is for image has been printed on getting there with the nails. Here we go. So sometimes it's, war, elegant and glamorous and other times we're safe. Usable? I have to say in case anybody at home is hearing the background noise here we don't have an earthquake in san francisco that does sound like there's some renovations going on elsewhere in the building were not about to plummet to the ground that you never know stay with us it could be a new life experience the apologies of the noises coming from the broadcast that we are ok it sounds like a snap setting dramatic uh could be a mega snap setting so well in trained to peel the soft um I was just wanting how long everybody's been sewing he says yesterday very impressive I must say yeah way to go holly york white experience and holly you actually brought in a really beautiful quilt for you I stunning you should go on jimmy or another prodigious so because you brought in some really beautiful things that's while you've made some a great application maths and also a baby carriage cover that you've made which you embroidered as well yes we're going for a long time couple dig its decades the carolinas is something completely new for you yeah but you were saying earlier this has been a great experience for you I'm so impressed that uh you're new to sewing because it's been amazing to see everything that you've mean in just a couple of days you've done before I I didn't well it's I know it goes like that sometimes way something you to learn and sewing that is so true I love taking a new sewing or quilting class because there's always something new to learn or some new way to do something that you know how to dio does this need to achieve the same size as this one um uh they should be eight and a half by eleven each of them can you you want to just measure them and then maybe they could help you uh just make sure everything is exactly the same width and length for the two sides and you can so with a my phone is not eight and a half by eleven wing it and center on the other side do they in half by eleven one you know it might work the best is if we uh perhaps find some other fabric that's eight and a half by eleven for you too so the second side with if they don't match whatever works is great it's a very flexible project but it would be nice to just have it work for you guys I'm winging its always good okay so know that I have just gotten my first straw ing with my fuse herbal and are facing on the back so that it's I'm going to go ahead and press my weight cotton a second time so it's nice and warm and flat and smooth with no folds and I'm just going to place this raid over the white cotton and smooth it out I'm going to press it from the back first toe activate the fuse herbal interfacing and then the front I'll go over a swell that queer picked up so I'm gonna press that back out you want to make sure you don't get off usable on your iron that then transfers to another party or projects so I'm clean that off but your goal is to get this simple very lightweight cotton fused tio another layer of fabric like white is ideal because it will just add some greatness and shine through and then use your fabric shares to term away the excesses soon assure you refused it and it's lying neatly where they are very dramatic yeah if you've ever been to the tonga room there they have a thunderstorm every half hour weii get one every minute so I'm not just using my fabric shares to turn away the sides of this one it's not the only thing you want to make sure you can always go back and turn a little more I'm just gonna leave this here where it where the fuse herbal came out because I just don't want to damage it by trying to press it back down but I'll disappear into the seam allowance but I don't want to turn it away assad this patterns very simple but it does use an eight and a half by eleven center so it's just nice to start with the same the same general size, and then you can always trim down if you're like the simon june right now, if the fabrics just a little wider, but it's a little harder to add fabric back if you ever noticed that about sewing, so I've prepped one of my two drawings, I'll get the other and done. And, um, once you've had a chance to stabilize it, you might want to add something fun, like buttons or embroidery or anything else that you could stitch on or addison embellishment just going to set this here and start working on my second, joining a finish spring notes on to fall my second one since mine's bigger than this. I'm just gonna sit here, how's the usable treating you guys, it could be an interesting process. Go on back. Life is that is it. Did you put it on the sticky side? Another soul paper side on the back? There's a paper signed on the back, but I can't get it. I mean, I assume we're supposed to have this was something sticky on the fabric or know what? I'm just okay. Sorry. No problem. Let's. See? Yes, this is great it's a little finicky, but you'll just need to peel this paper off the back. You did a great job and it's really nice and light looking so the fuse herbal if you haven't used it and these guys have been so wonderful sewing along with a project materials they didn't pick out or didn't buy and haven't seen the packaging for. But if you're shopping at the craft store and choosing your own brand of like, for example, principal fabric sheets and if usable double sided phe usable like this, you'll be able to see your own manufacturer's instructions and exactly what you bought and how to use it. So I know that I've smoothed my second one down. I'm going to be in your boat in just a second time. Invest appeal the paper off the back, how's it going? Okay, good. Yeah it's a little confusing because it is a double sided, usable, but most them are designed. I'll just generalize this much muslim are designed to have one side that's really easy to peel off and one side that's more challenging to peel off. And they're not all the same, but that's often sort of a template for it. People are asking the chat rooms. What is the cotton backed paper that you used to actually print? Thie drawing on tuesday, I have a specific names that easy to find it is easy to find at a large fabrics tribe about my net fabric depot in portland, but I know that other local and national fabric and chain stores would carry it too. It's essentially sold in packs of probably five and it's eight and a half by eleven principal fabric sheets printable fabric yeah their various franz and various weights and they're generally meant for an inch up partner so home printers ideal and it works really well when you feed it to your printer all mention one let's hope for anyone who's printing there's for the first time at home. Aside from saturating the color, I would highly recommend working with it one sheet at a time in your printer because it can cling to the next sheet whether it's a sheet of paper or a sheet of printable fabric and then if they cling together you can get sort of a partial print on one page and it just wasted so it's it's not terribly expensive but it's usually over a dollar sheet. So you yeah so it's a wonderful to work with but you want to print it right the first time all right let's u s so that people can find it usually I would think with like any kind of and it's also sometimes used for things like almost like a memory making our scrapbooking type approach because you can print photographs okay, this it's much easier for some people use it first kind of a stop looking approved with their personal photographs are photographs that they've taken and wanna memorialize on on a fabric setting. All right, so that second one wants a little more smoothly, sometimes that paper, as you were pealing yours of thinking of it sometimes that just goes so much more easily than others, so I'm just gonna warm up my thiss again, and just as we learned with the application is in the earlier segment, if usable does really well with a nice, warm, smooth fabric backing, just that temperature is really nice. You can put it on room temperature, chillier fabric, that's, no problem, because then you'll be pressing with an iron, but it does have a good initial join if you're using a freshly pressed piece of fabric, so if you are using eight and a half by eleven fabric at home, had a nice, leisurely time while we've been getting a refuse of already, but we're just about ready to start cutting our dinner and assembling these bags sides. So the other thing that's really nice with this with kids, artwork, and putting it on tio fabric is that if you're interested in this kind of project, speaking of kind of a memory, a special memory saving project is making a quote and say for example, putting four smaller photographs are drawing something special and printing them on a sheet than cutting this apart and maybe making quote blocks with those is the centers or patch working so that's framed by bright fabric a little like the denim frame sees but just in a quote that could be stunning to have your original art worker childrens are kind of saved in that kind of setting how's it coming now okay memory pillow for a friend of mine it was a great photograph of her and her husband on a merry go round and she liked the quote from winning the poo I have the picture on the front side and then a little quote from winning the pooh embroidered on the back and yeah, that received big tears of joy, her friends you haven't been using steam mina toll everything becomes permanent simply by hey thank you and I don't have the packaging here but it's just following the manufacturer's instructions for the printer printable fabric sheets and thief usable will be your best bet and what I'm doing is a very general take on it, but it is just a dry hot iron I just used a little best press early in the process to that because the drawings were a little bit after having appealed the fabric away from the paper initially they were a little the texture is little off. So I wanted to give them in these press.