So what did I make with the fabrics I showed you on Saturday? I made two faux chenille panels, which I am going to make into cushion covers for Stuart.
How did I do it? First I cut the zebra fabric in half (it was folded in the photo) and drew a diagonal line across both pieces. It's very important that you do this on the diagonal - you'll see why later.
The zebras face opposite ways, so I drew the diagonals to go the opposite way as well
Then I cut three layers of calico (I could have used coloured fabrics) for each zebra and pinned them ready to sew
The first line of stitching is on the marked line
Then each line of stitching is half an inch from the previous one. I know that if I shift the needle to one side and use the edge of the foot as a guide I will stitch my half inch lines
The next line is stitched in the opposite direction, so that the work isn't distorted. This mean moving the needle over to the other side
Work from the centre to one edge, then from the centre to the other edge
Then comes the really scary bit! Using very sharp scissors, I cut through the zebra farbric and the first two of the calico layers (don't cut through the third layer or your piece will fall apart!!)
Oh dear, that was a fib - it takes a while to cut all the rows with scissors - so of course I have a gadget!!
These are long strips made of the same stuff as cutting mats - you slip them through the channel
then cut using a long ruler
and a rotary cutter, I quickly cut all the channels
Once all the channels were cut, I put the two pieces in the washing machine with two old towels, and put it on a standard wash, then I put both pieces, again with the towels in the tumble drier. This is where it is important that the cuts are on the diagonal - if they were on the straight grain, the fabric would fray too much, but done this way, you get soft fluffy edges - but you can still see the original design
and here in the centre is our fluffy zebra!
I hope you have enjoyed this quick look at how to do faux chenille - I hope you'll try a piece of your own.