Sunday, September 13, 2009

Portable Design Area

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My Feathered Star wallhanging is coming along nicely.  I thought I'd let you know about the small design area that I made that I find very useful with smaller projects such as this.

In the photo above, the pieces of my wallhanging are either adhered to or pinned to the design area which is white. I've pinned some of the pieces to the design area cuz they have little pieces of paper that need to stay with the them cuz they are labels which tell me where the pieces go.

Most times when I use this design area, I just put the fabric pieces on it, no pins needed, cuz they adhere like magic. I also use this as a background when taking pics of items for the internet.

I got a piece of foam core board, 30" x 40", from the office supply store.  I made a "pillowcase" for the foam core board of white sweatshirt fabric and brown broadcloth on the reverse side.  I purposely made a light side and a dark side which enables me to use the side that shows up the items more clearly.

When cutting the fabric for the "pillowcase", I allowed 2-3" more at the top so that I could close it up.  Be sure to cut ample fabric for the seam allowances.  The 3 sides of the "pillowcase" are sewn on the sewing machine. Have the wrong side of sweatshirt fabric facing out, as items will adhere to the nice, soft, napped surface. 

After the 3 sides are sewn, slip in the foam core board and then slipstitch the opening closed, remember, you’ve allowed ample extra fabric to do this.

Another thing about having the pinnable foam core board is that when taking pics of items, you can pin them to the board in a nice pleasing manner for a photo.

1 comment:

Sunnie said...

Great idea to have a two-sided board!
I also like a board you can pin into...no matter what a design wall is covered with, at some point you will need to support something as it gets heavier ( with more pieces).