Art made with fabric and other media. Quilts, wall hangings, wearables, household decor, and more. Tutorials and examples.
Do you have a collectible Barbie® doll with “green ear”? Here’s how to remove most of it safely. I haven’t found any product that removes ALL “green ear” and does it safely. Also, I wrote this article years ago, so there may be better products for this kind of project. My Barbie / Green Ear […]
How to Remove ‘Green Ear’ from Barbie Dolls Read More »
Altered dolls usually (but not always) start with ready-made, store-bought dolls. They may be modified or even deconstructed to make a different art doll or mixed-media figure. These can include anything from themed, customized BarbieTM dolls, to Raggedy Ann gone wild, to McD’s doll toys that are made into jewelry or chess pieces. However, that
This is one of a series of pin dolls that I made by hand. First, I create my doll collages digitally, using antique photos and illustrations. When I’m pleased with the design and colors, I print each doll onto iron-on transfer paper. Next, I apply each doll design to cotton, usually unbleached muslin, raw silk,
Annie Faerie Dolls Read More »
This is another project started in the mid-1990s and not completed. Clearly, even good projects are sometimes put aside. Basically, I was going to make myself a bunch of great wearable art pinafores. Note: In the States, a pinafore is called a jumper. I grew up calling them pinafores, because… well, that’s what my family
Rust and Teal Pieced Bodice Read More »
I’ve always loved the color purple. Almost every shade of purple delights me. This is an original one-of-a-kind jacket that I created around 1992, using a Vogue designer jacket pattern. The fabrics are all 100% cottons. On half of the front, I have hand-beaded with glass bugle and seed beads. I’ve also painted it with
Purple Fabric Art Jacket 1 Read More »
Scraps of fabric can be used to create rolled beads. Here’s the simplest version. You’ll need fabric, white glue and water, and something thin to wrap the beads around. This can be a thin dowel, toothpicks, shishkebab skewers, thin cocktail straws, or… Well, see what you have around the house. You could even use heavy
Easy Rolled Cloth Beads Read More »
This shows part of the ribbon embroidery & beading on a jumper bodice started in the 1990s. In real life, the area shown is about 7.5″ x 4″. I was inspired by a crazy quilt that I saw many years ago, and the bright embroidery on the black velvet reminded me of fireworks. I knew
Ribbon Embroidery and Beading Read More »
In 1991, I designed and made this quilted wallhanging for a challenge in Salt Lake City, Utah. A “challenge” is kind of competition. Usually it includes a rule that all participants must follow. That rule is designed to make the competition more interesting… or difficult. In many cases, the challenge element is a particular fabric,
Baby’s Blocks Gone Wild Read More »
This is a baby quilt that I made in 2003. It’s made with over a dozen fabrics, each 100% cotton. Each square in the quilt is about 1″ x 1″. It could be very tedious to make a quilt like this, but the top created with strip piecing. This is a faster technique that works
Baby Quilt – Pink and Red Read More »
This rocking chair is called a Lincoln rocker by some, and a Kennedy rocker by others. It’s the same design that Jack Kennedy had in the White House. He felt that it helped his back. The restored chair is shown at right. This particular chair came from a yard sale on Boston’s North Shore (an
Rocking chair – reseating Read More »
