by Sherri Sylvester | Nov 27, 2013
Have you heard of Spoonflower? It’s a printing company located in North Carolina. They print custom wallpaper, decals, gift wrap and FABRIC! You are able to print your own designs – or you can buy a design from their marketplace of amazing designs. I came across the idea to make artwork with their printed linen-cotton canvas a while ago and finally made it happen!
This project is a “no sew” project – amazingly! The design is inspired by a piece of art I saw about a year ago. I love what it says, but had to fight the urge to add “Canadian” to the list of words in my artwork. For those of you who live in Canada I’m sure you will remember the “I Am Canadian” commercial from Molson a few years ago. This commercial is funny mostly because Canadians are NOT like the guy in the commercial. We are generally super quiet about our country – though a little more enthusiasm would likely be good! Anyhow, I didn’t want a beer reference in my daughters’ room – so I didn’t add it in.
Wanna make one yourself?!
Here’s what I did to make my art:
I designed the artwork to fit within a fat quarter of linen-cotton canvas. If you need help with the art, you can check out the Spoonflower helpful-page, which has lots of useful information and suggestions for creating and uploading your artwork. Because the linen-cotton canvas is 54″ wide, a fat quarter is 27″ x 18″. I used a final artwork size of 24″ x 14″ for my art – which left me just barely enough space to wrap the canvas around my 1 1/2″ deep gallery-style stretchers – really it was too little, but it worked! I would recommend using a final size of 22″ x 12″, to give yourself a few inches of wiggle room when stretching the canvas (instead of 1/2″!). If you get the thinner 1/2″ deep stretchers you will have lots of room at 24″ x 14″.
You will need:
- 4 stretcher strips – I found mine at my local art store for less than $3.50 each
- staple gun
- your Spoonflower printed artwork!
- picture hanging eye hooks and wire
Here are the steps I took:
(1) Attach your stretcher strips by pushing them together at the corners. I used a block of wood and a hammer to help out. Measure corner to corner and then the opposite corner to corner. Wiggle them around until the measurements match. This means your frame is square. (Note: I think you are “supposed” to add a few staples across the stretcher joints to make sure they stay square. Mine were so tight fitting I omitted this step.)
(2) Lay the frame on your artwork in the approximate middle. The curved part of the frame is the front, the flat side is the back.
(3) Wrap the canvas around and staple an even amount of canvas at the centre of each side.
(4) Continue to wrap and staple the canvas around the frame evenly. Staple one side beside the previous staple, then staple the opposite side. Flip the canvas over after each staple as you go to make sure the artwork is straight. Remove and re-staple as needed. This proved to be a tad more difficult for me than I had expected, because the text needed to be straight I had to be super-careful not to overstretch the canvas or it made the letters wonky. Continue around the canvas until the staples are within 2 or 3 inches of the corners.
(5) Perfect corners! (a) Staple one of the canvas edges close to the corner. (b) Fold the canvas around the corner and on a 45 degree angle “inside” the other side’s canvas. (c) Staple the bottom layer of canvas along the edge to hold it in place. (d) Fold the rest of the canvas down, ensuring the corner matches the front corner of the frame and the edge matches the edge of the frame. The 45 degree angle can be wiggled around a bit to make everything match exactly. (e) This is a photo to show that the canvas folded inside the outer layer will show a bit.
(6) Attach two eye hooks and a length of wire approximately 1/3 of the way down the frame. This will make sure the frame hangs correctly on the wall.
All done – now go and hang up your new artwork!
I hope this tutorial has been helpful. I am most definitely going to use this to make some more for myself. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments!
by Sherri Sylvester | Nov 15, 2013
This week has been crazy! My oldest daughter’s birthday party is tomorrow, and even though I have scaled way back this year it still seems to be taking up the week. So, I’m posting few exciting things that have been happening (and a surprise for next week!) so I can go back to cleaning my house for tomorrow. (Lucky me?!) Thank goodness we only have two kids that have birthdays only once a year! I think I’ll be okay.
#1: I finally figured out Instagram! HOORAY! (and I love it.) I’ve added it to the sidebar so you can check it out here. Or you can follow along and see a few things from the last week… My youngest’s latest sewing project, Niagara Falls from my weekend trip… and you have to check out the crazy chairs from our hotel! There will be peeks of projects as I’m working and updates when there is a new post. The Instagrams are generally linked over to Twitter, so if you’re connected there you’ve already seen them – lucky you!
#2: Cynthia Frenette’s “I Can See Clearly Now” Pouch pattern is now for sale! She’s had it up on Etsy since Monday, but if you are not following Thread Riding Hood on Facebook you might have missed the announcement. You can get the pattern on Etsy, check out her post about it on her blog and check out my review of it too.
#3: Surprises! I’m super excited to be able to host another Canadian Online Fabric Shop post next week. And she’s got some surprises for you too – hooray!
And – because a post without pictures is no fun at all! Here’s a sneak peek of what I’m working on – can you figure it out? I’ll be posting a pattern and tutorial for it on Monday and you might catch some more pics on Instagram over the weekend if you are super curious! Hope you are having a great day today.
by Sherri Sylvester | Nov 13, 2013
Here she is folks. Thread Riding Hood’s Granny. She’s a kind, warm, squidgy Grandma that smells like Molasses Ginger Cookies most days and always has fabric threads on her sweater. But she’s not frumpy – this Granny is cool and trendy too! So far she’s only needed her head, so that’s all she’s got for now. I thought you would like to meet her and she wanted to say “Hi” anyhow so I couldn’t keep her away much longer.
Granny has kindly offered to give me some help in my next venture – selling some pdf patterns! She’s going to provide “Notes and Tips from Granny’s Sewing Basket” along-side the pattern instructions – so you can more quickly and simply make your projects! The first few downloadable patterns are going to be made from tutorials that are (and will continue to be) offered for free.
So… why should you buy them if the tutorial is still free? Thanks for asking! Here are a few great reasons:
PDF Sample Page
- Granny’s Sewing Basket Notes and Tips – Granny makes your life easier and your projects better!
- The pattern looks amazing (if I do say so myself), and is easy to read and follow.
- Tidy, Organized instruction sheets – Much better than what comes out of your printer from the free tutorial.
- Tutorial instructions & Pattern pieces, all in one place. One download – done!
- Check boxes on each step and in the Material’s List, for those of you who love checking things off as you go!
- Large “Seam Allowance” icons that are easy to spot. No more searching around for them!
Aside from these great features, you can choose to purchase the PDF to support this blog and help Thread Riding Hood continue in its goal to create more free content! (And a big THANK YOU from me if you choose to do this!)
The (ever popular) Super Hero Cape PDF Pattern has been up for sale since last Friday as an instant download for “any donation”. So far, the response has been great – the DIY community is amazing and I’m heartened by the fact that you would choose to download something that is clearly still available for free. (Though the pdf is much nicer – just have to throw that in there!) I also like that it helps to prove me right – as some of my more “business-minded” friends thought it wouldn’t sell! I love that handmade bloggers and readers, sellers and buyers have created an atmosphere of support for each other and the person’s they interact with.
If you want to buy the Super Hero Cape PDF you can click over to the original post to get it. Or you can do it right here!
SUPER HERO CAPE PRINTABLE PDF PATTERN: available for any donation!
Next up? I am going to concentrate on offering downloadable pdf’s for The Sunny Glasses Case and The Handy Fridge Towel. After that (and it’s later than I’d like if you are waiting…) is The Butterfly Backpack – which is going to be offered as a real-and-for-true downloadable pdf pattern for sale. It’s photographed, but I need to write up the instructions and design it, which is proving to take longer than I was expecting, as usual!
I hope you are having a great week. Thanks again to everyone for reading and supporting Thread Riding Hood. I love blogging (and sewing!) and feel very fortunate to be able to dedicate so much time to something I really enjoy doing.
by Sherri Sylvester | Jul 4, 2013
I was super surprised to get a package from Double Decker Fabric in the mail today! Dorienne sent me some Retro Lunch Box fabric to coordinate with the Retro into the Forest from Michael Miller and Pepper from Riley Blake Designs that she sent in March. Did you get a look at that card too?! Love the envelope design – sew appropriate!
I’m trying to make a tutorial for a LeapPad case with the fabrics she has sent me and my daughter has been patiently waiting for this one since April. I’ve started it twice now and had to quit each time because of a design flaw! I’ll get it one day soon I hope.
Are any of you trying to finish a project that just won’t work right now?! How do you get the creativity going again after pulling (yet another) seam apart?
by Sherri Sylvester | Jun 30, 2013
So, as you might know – today is the last day of Google Reader. As of tomorrow, it will be no more. A while ago I decided to switch my feeds to Bloglovin’, and I’m really glad I did.
My top ten list about Bloglovin’:
10. Bloglovin’ is an unforgettable name (even if I don’t like it!)
9. Following a new blog is super easy! Search for it and click “Follow!”
8. If you have a blog you can see how many followers you have on Bloglovin’ and thank them for following!
7. They have a clean layout with a large photo and a small excerpt from each unread post. This makes it really easy to see what you have not read about.
6. Within Bloglovin’ there is a “Popular Post” and “Top Blog” feature that makes it fun to find new blogs to follow.
5. You can “like” and “share” your unread posts, and organize blogs within your own folders.
4. When you read a post in Bloglovin’ you read it on the blogger’s actual page – so it lets them collect page views (very important for us!) and lets you see the blog as it was meant to be seen.
3. They send you a super helpful email with a small excerpt and a photo from each new post that has been posted each day.
2. Reading new posts is a breeze – you can click to see “Newer”, “Older” or “Oldest” unread posts using a nifty web browser bar at the top of your web browser.
1. Switching is super easy! Just go to Bloglovin’ and it will import all of your Google Reader feeds – so you don’t lose them!
If that sounds amazing, please click on the button below to follow me on Bloglovin’. I’d love for you to give it a try, you won’t be disappointed!
Just curious, I am thinking about adding an email subscription or a weekly newsletter option for Thread Riding Hood. Anyone interested?
by Sherri Sylvester | Jun 23, 2013
Made by Me Monday is taking a vacation day (and because of that so am I!). It’s busier than normal this week and I have a lot of projects in my to-do pile. I thought I would share a little round-up of some of the things I am planning to sew. When I finish them I’ll let you know how they turned out.
Hope you have a great start to your week. See you soon!
1) Aneela Hoey – Oval Box Bag, 2) Zaaberry – Kids’ Messenger Bag
3) Noodlehead – Open Wide Zippered Pouch, 4) Noodlehead – Gathered Clutch
5) A second set of MADE – Beach Robes, 6) Another Dolman Sleeve Tee
