A School Project

My daughter loves to draw - it's her favourite activity along with reading.  Both of which I'm very happy about!  I had an idea for a little project that I knew she would enjoy - a pencil case with her own artwork on it, but wondered if her classmates would like to join in too.

I had a chat with her lovely Year 2 teacher, and she thought it would be a great idea - so I designed a template for them, and came in to class at art time a few weeks ago.

We showed them some examples of my daughter's art already printed on fabric - and also a finished pencil case.  We also explained the concept of a repeating pattern to them - and that I would take their little drawing, and repeat it over the fabric just like on their clothing!

The result - a bit of a designing and sewing marathon and 25 brilliantly colourful pencil cases!!  They are made of a hardwearing canvas - which can be washed and should last the test of time...

We had them draw a larger design for a centre panel with their name on it - and a small design that would be used as the repeat.  Even my 4 year old joined in - sitting very nicely with the "big kids" - and to my surprise having a go himself!  He never usually participates in anything arty at kindergarten - so I was overjoyed to see him sitting with a drawing implement in his hand!

The class of 6 year olds were incredibly focussed on their work - and very excited that it would be turned into something they could use.  This was my daughter Jessie's finished artwork - her Mermaid Princess:

With her "coordinate"...

And this is the finished pencil case - front and back

I was very very happy at the amount of detail that came through on the fabric - and the vibrancy of the colours we were able to reproduce.

My added bonus - little Mikey's one...will be keeping these both as little treasures I think :)

 

 

I have to say it was one of the most rewarding projects I've undertaken - the sheer delight from the kiddies when I returned a few weeks later with their sewn pencil cases was amazing!  So worth the time I put into them :)

Year 2 is a great age to do them as a project too - they've settled in, can write and draw pretty well by now, but are still super excited to do something like this as an activity.

Here are my two kiddies with a photo Jessie's teacher emailed through from the day we handed them out at school - thank you Mrs Miller!

There is now a lovely big display up in the classroom showing the original artwork, and photos of all the kiddies each with their pencil case - great work everyone!!

I want to say a BIG thank you to the lovely ladies in a Fabric forum I belong to - for helping to cover the costs of the fabric for the class.  I had some spare blank space on the yardage I needed to order - so I offered some personalised pencil case panels up to them.  They were snapped up very quickly - and I am very grateful to you all - THANK YOU!!!

Little Boy Bedroom Part 1 - Canvases

Ok...so quite some time ago I started work on my 2 year old's bedroom...  I wrote about it way back here.  I have two more things to finish, then I'll show you the complete room!

Until then...the first in a series...the wall canvases!

I decided he needed some art to match the rest of the room I was creating for him.  My son loves robots, so I designed a range of fabrics for him, and his room, over on Spoonflower.  I started with the canvases - for a quick project to get underway with.

I didn't stretch canvas over frames.  I took the simpler option of buying pre-stretched canvases from a local art store.  Mine measure 8 inches by 8 inches.  This allowed me to use a regular weight fabric (I used Spoonflower's Cotton Poplin), rather than a heavier weight canvas-type.  You could use any fabric at all using this method - regular quilting cotton would be just fine.  The best thing is that I could get an exact colour match to my curtains, quilt, etc, etc, by using the same fabric type.

Here are the finished canvases on his wall:

For each canvas you will need:

• One pre-stretched plain canvas (I used 8 inches by 8 inches - 1.5 inches deep)
• Scissors or rotary cutter
• Staple gun, or hammer and tacks
• Ruler or measuring tape
• Masking tape
• Fabric (I used my own panels here - which are four different fat quarters on a yard)

To calculate how much fabric you need...take your canvas width and add two times the depth to each side for wrapping.  So for my 8 inch square canvases, that are 1.5 inches deep...8 + (1.5 x 2) + (1.5 x 2) = 14 inches square cut fabric.  From a fat quarter you can cover a maximum canvas size of 12 x 15 inches, at 1.5 inches deep.

Use your ruler to measure out your fabric and then cut it to your desired size...

Place the fabric over your canvas so that the canvas is centred underneath.  If you have stripes like I do - you need to be careful with your positioning so that they are straight.  I found the pre-made canvases were not perfectly square.

Once you are happy, flip it over

Pull the four sides in and tape them in place temporarily - pulling them in firmly, but not too tight that you would warp the print.  Flip it back over once you've done it to make sure you are still happy with the placement on the front.

 

Start by stapling (or tacking) in the centre of each side through to the wood.  Then move to each corner, folding them in neatly.  Here are some shots of how my folds look:

 

 

 

So the back is not perfect, but not too bad for an amateur!

The front - very happy with, and so is my wee boy!

 

 

I love how they look in his room.

 

Next on the list to share with you...the lampshade!