It’s been a hot minute since I’ve done any house sewing and home revamping. A few years ago I started moving the living room color scheme from beachy whites with blues, to sunset reds, purples, and oranges…but then life got in the way as it does. It’s something I want to finish before end of year.
When I found these panels in the remnant bin at Bolt, I about died. This is from a 2017 Moda Fabrics collection called Catnip by Stacie who owns Gingiber. You can see her original post and colorways here. These are not easy to find anymore, let alone in the dark colorway! They take me back to the Rachel Perry lip gloss art of my childhood. They’ve got a late 70s/early 80s art nouveau vibe I am so very in love with. (If you love these as much as I do, there are some tea towels with this design here on Stacie’s site.)
The first thing I did was order canvases to put these on. These are the canvases I got:
As is the nature of panels and things on bolts, they’re never perfectly printed on grain. It’s just something you learn to work around after buying a few panels or border print fabrics. There was no perfect sized canvas for the cats…especially when the plump cat was factored in, so I went with larger-than-panel size at 16×20 inches. This worked out, because it allowed me to then border the panels with coordinating fabrics for my living room.
I sewed a strip of fabric on the top and bottom, then used a tiny spritz of 505 adhesive to position them on the canvas, before I flipped the canvas over to staple them down.
That’s the actual spray I use, and yes, I know, at $25, that’s really expensive! However, I use it so rarely that one can has lasted me over 5 years. I literally use it in bra making to just keep fiddly pieces still, and at times like this.
I popped some painters tape over the back to keep the staples from scratching the wall too.
Here they all are, close up. We named each one after cats in our lives. This is Frack.
This is Lucy.
This is The Spud.
And this is our beloved Big Boy, Frick.
I’m quite happy with them. Here they all are up in their spot.
It turned out to be quite the nice “palate cleanser” after a crazy couple months of Frocktails and socializing. I think I got the remnant for around $15? $20? I don’t recall as it was well before Frocktails… and the canvases were about $22, the other fabric was in my stash, so about $40for a refresh? Not bad, eh?
Speaking of… I have a few of the Frocktails craft stations embroidery hoops left. I think I’ll finish them up and put them around the living room too.
These are by Aimee Ray, and they’re really cute. Aimee is known for those Doodle Stitching books. I print them on water soluble paper, then the paper sticks just enough to the fabric for you to embroider through it. When you’re done, you wet it and block it as you normally would, and in that process, the paper melts away.
I also revamped my couch cushions and drapes… I may need to do a whole living room reveal….if I ever finish! hahaha. Do you use your sewing for around the home?
(you may have noticed there’s a few aff links. It’s my first time trying them out, so we’ll see how it goes. <3 I really did use these exact items and am happy with them.)