French Silk Designer Fabric

This is a heavy, almost-suede type of silk fabric print. The fabric reminded me so much of Versace fabric, that I had to bring home a few yards. The fabric features perfume bottles, a match safe and a smoking device. A gorgeous pattern. Each printed item is approximately 6 inches.

Red FrenchToile Yardage

This is a deeply detailed crimson red pastoral toile. There is one large familial vignette, surrounded with pictures of a chateau and landscape scenes. This fabric is a heavy cotton. 36" x 52",54",or 56" widths. Lovely French Toile not available in the US.

French Orange Floral Brocade

I love this fabric. It is a heavy French brocade, that I purchased in the Paris garment district. I'm now selling yardage in my Etsy Sites. The fabric is rayon with heft and lovely color and design. As I continue to clean out the 9 rooms in my studio. It is time to  rapidly reduce my stash. I kept enough of this lovely to use for a crazy quilt backing.  Orange in all it's magnificent glory! $20 per yard at OldElements and RibbonSmyth.

Crazy quilt dress form detail

A bit better photo showing the two ribbon embroidery bouquets stitched onto the front of the dress form. I dyed the silk ribbon colors to match the fabric and used orange/coral Mokuba ribbon for the gathered fluerettes. Leaves were made with silk organza ribbon.

Crazy Quilt Dress Form

What a fun project. To create the velvet bodice, I used silk velvet and a rose rubber stamp to stamp the image into the velvet using Fiber-Etch. A technique literally executed by intuition. The Fiber Etch gel removes the warp or the weft, leaving the layer of fibers beneath the velvet nap. I outlined the rose image with teeny metal tri-cut french beads. Beneath the bodice are two floral groupings. I created this a few years ago and I'm still  happy with the ribbon embroidery on the piece.

Wedding flower basket and frame

New Wedding pieces designed for my niece using RibbonSmyth silk ribbon and wire-edge ribbon, with RibbonSmyth ivory silk doupioni. My niece is having a Texas country wedding and will be getting married outside, with a reception in the barn at a friend's West Texas farm. The wedding is in September and should be very hot at that time of year, since that part of Texas has been in a drought for two years.

 My niece wanted all accessories very simple. Her flowers will be gerber daisies and sunflowers. The colors she chose are: kelly green, coral, bright yellow, soft peach and royal blue.  I used a press-on frame, which I have so many pieces, from designing fabric frames for Press-On Products. I covered the frame in ivory silk doupioni after stitching the silk ribbon daisies. The frame was completed with a heavy rayon braid glued to the edge of the frame. The oval basket was the perfect shape that I had in mind. It was hot pink and I painted the basket with ivory paint. I gathered silk doupioni fabric to go around the basket, after I glued heavy fiber-fil batting around the basket.  I made loopy silk satin bows for each side of the basket. Then I made wire-edge gathered flowers and stitched those on top of the silk satin bows. The basket edge was trimmed with an ivory rayon braid.

Now to finish the ring-bearer pillow and begin pieces for another wedding!

Hideko's Crazy Quilted Album with RibbonSmyth image

 

This is a beautiful crazy-quilt photo album designed by Hideko of Sendai, Japan. Her blog is Wind from the East and will surely inspire. I am grateful for Hideko's visits to RibbonSmyth.

Hideko used one of our Victorian Women fusible vintage images outlined with white cotton eyelet lace. The RibbonSmyth vintage image is printed on fusible muslin fabric, meaning, it can instantly be ironed permanently to the ground fabric in a few seconds without any puckering or time spent  stitching the image to the fabric. And at $1.50 each, they are definitely affordable. She has added a garland of Ribbonsmyth green leaves to create movement within the design.

Silk Ribbon Victorian Initial Wedding Album

This is the completed wedding album stitched with the "S" Victorian Rubber Stamp Initial.

Wedding Guest Book Assembly

Once the embroidery has been completed, the silk fabric is wrapped around the album allowing an additional 1/2" of fabric to wrap to the inside of the album. Prior to stitching, I fused a lightweight fusible to the back of the fabric piece. This prevents any puckers that would result from the embroidery. I used "Crafter's Pick" thick, quick-drying white glue, and added "dots" of glue to the inside of the album. I placed the fabric edge over the glue dots and held in place until the glue dried. Trim the fabric edge and then glue ivory trim over the edge, to conceal the fabric edge. Ivory trim was also glued to the outside of the album for added embellishment. The guest album does not have a binding that will expand, although it is filled with pages that have pockets to hold shower and wedding napkins, invitations and momentos. To allow for the expansion of the album, I added silk satin ribbons, so the album can be "tied" closed.

Silk ribbon embroidery Rubber Stamp Initial

I'm creating an assortment of ribbon embroidered initial pieces, for my neice's wedding in September. Her last name will be Smith, so I'm using the "S" initial from the RibbonSmyth Victorian Monogram Rubber Stamps. Her flowers for the Texas country wedding are sunflowers and gerber daisies. The bridesmaids will be wearing royal blue gowns. She wanted to use colors such as yellows, greens, corals and royal blue for the ribbon embroidery. The rubber stamps were adapted into silk ribbon stitches, after teaching in London and discovering an 18th Century garden floral alphabet book; I returned home and sketched a floral alphabet and then rubber stamps were created in a 6-inch and 2-inch size. Tsukineko created a water-soluble stamp pad ink for my Victorian Initials. The embroidered initials are an excellent, beginner ribbon embroidery class. Stamp the fabric using the rubber stamp, hoop the fabric,and embroider. Once the embroidery is completed, remove any trace of visible ink, with a wet cotton swab. I used ivory silk doupioni for the fabric. Doupioni is my fabric of choice for ribbon embroidery, due to its body and luster.