Yay! Silhouette Faux Leather Paper is here, and I'm shorting out with ideas to try - but I'll start small with these laced purses. Each purse measures about 7.5 x 10cm (3 x 4in) closed.
About the Silhouette Faux Leather Paper: it cuts like a dream on a Silhouette machine (set the blade to notch 5 or 6). Cut out the pattern pieces, soak them in water, scrunch up, then smooth out - magic! - the appearance of leather grain. When dry, make up the project.
My purses are prettified versions of the sort of laced leatherwork projects you may have done in Brownies or summer camp.
Here's the pattern template:
LacedPurse.pdf
LacedPurse.studio3
LacedPurse.svg
Laced Faux Leather Purse
You will need:
Silhouette Faux Leather in Natural and White
1.5m (1-3/4yd) of 3mm-wide (1/8in) satin double-faced ribbon
A tapestry needle
1 Cut out the purse pieces on your Silhouette machine. Cut the purse flap backing in a contrast colour. (If making the hand-cut .pdf version, punch the holes out with a 1/8in circle hand punch - labour intensive - consider going digital!) Make sure all the lacing holes are clear - you may need to poke a few stragglers with a tapestry needle.
2 Cut two 20cm(8in) lengths from the ribbon. Knot the end. Thread one length through the hole in the purse front piece and the other length through the centre hole on purse body top (below the flower cut-out). Knots to the inside! Knot the ribbon pieces close to the ends.
3 Lay the purse front over the lower portion of the purse body with holes aligned. Thread the tapestry needle with the remaining piece of ribbon. Start lacing at the top hole on one side of the purse front piece.
Sew through the hole twice to secure the ribbon. (The ribbon tail goes inside, of course.) Work oversewing (overhand stitch) around the purse. Make sure that the ribbon does not twist as you sew. When you reach the opposite side of the purse front, stitch through twice to reinforce it, then continue on another stitch.
4 Now lay the contrast lining on the underside of the purse top flap with holes aligned. No need to secure the lining piece - just continue lacing through both layers. Continue lacing to the beginning hole. Secure the ribbon and pass it through a few loops (underneath) to secure it. Trim off the ribbon end. You're done!
More about the Silhouette Faux Leather paper: it comes in three colours - Natural, White, and Black. Each roll measures 30 x 149cm (12in x 59inches - one inch shy of 5 feet!) - so plenty there.
The attraction of Faux Leather paper, apart from the classy grainy appearance, of course, is that it doesn't fray and is ideal for making flexible projects featuring paper manipulation. "Fabric without the fuss" - the designer's holy grail. So I'm looking forward to lots of fun and challenging experimentation and quality paper play!
Another Himmeli-look project (Himmeli being Finnish strawcraft) today.
You may have seen this wreath on Hochanda TV, the brand new craft channel - on last Monday's (31 Aug 15) Silhouette shows. Actually, I think that the TV wreath had the colourway reversed -
red wreath, green bow - but this is the same design.
The pentagon balls are really fun to make - like a puzzle. In fact, they are constructed in exactly the same way as this previous project, Snowflake Pentagon Ball
- the only difference being that the faces of the pentagon ball are cut out. The cut-out pentagon balls are incredibly light - in a fun way - they remind me of Wiffle Balls (remember them?).
The instructions for pentagon ball assembly is printed on the pattern template, and you can also check out the Snowflake Pentagon Ball project.
Here are the files for the Pentagon Ball and Bow:
Himmeli-LookPentagonBall.pdf
Himmeli-LookPentagonBall.studio3
Himmeli-LookPentagonBall.svg
Bow.pdf
Bow.studio3
Bow.svg
... and here's how to assemble the wreath:
Himmeli-Look Pentagon Ball Wreath
Make six pentagon balls. Glue the balls into a ring - join the bottom pentagon faces of adjacent balls. Use tacky PVA glue applied with a cocktail stick. Stick on the paper bow provided (a sticky dot does the job), or a add a ribbon bow.
Alternatively - no need to glue! - simply tie the pentagons together with ribbon bows, à la the second pic from top in this post. (I made that wreath out of straw-coloured paper, to mimic the look of authentic Himmeli.)
You can also assemble the pentagon balls in different wreath configurations. Make a batch of pentagon balls and experiment!
Here's a swirl-close gift box with a Cathedral Window lattice design. (I've always liked Cathedral Window patchwork, with its many folded corners.) You can line the cut-outs as shown, or leave them unlined if the "surprise factor" is not a gift-giving concern.
Each box is made of six identical panels. I've given you a choice of two tag styles.
Here are the box files:
CathedralWindowGiftBox.pdf
CathedralWindowGiftBox.studio3
CathedralWindowGiftBox.svg
Cathedral Window Gift Box
1 For each box, cut out six box panels. Score and crease the folds. Use a fine-point embossing tool held against a small metal ruler to score the folds. I recommend digi-cutting this project, but if you are using the .pdf file, then print the template. The printed side is the wrong side. Then carefully remove the cut-out areas with a craft knife.
For a stained glass look, line the panels with coloured vellum. If you are using prints for the liners, choose small prints in jewel tones. You might want to used a different-coloured liner for each panel - that would also look great in rich, saturated jewel colours.
2 Stick a liner behind the cut-out area of each box panel. Use 3mm/1/8-in wide d/s tape or PVA glue sparingly applied around the liner margins with a cocktail stick.
3 Join the adjacent panels railway-style. Use d/s tape or glue on the underlaps. Join the last to the first panel to complete the hexgonal box shape.
4 To fold the base, turn under consecutive flaps, tucking them under as necessary. The square corners go on the outside of the box, the pointy corners belong inside.
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| Box base |
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5 To close the top, fold down consecutive flaps, tucking the last one under.
6 Tags. Each tag consists of a cut-out lattice topper and a liner.
7 Make a tassel out of craft thread in coordinating colours. Tassel refresher course here. Thread the tassel tail through the tag and tie onto the box through a small pierced hole.
For a stained glass look, use vellum to line the panels. If you opt for print liners, select small prints in jewel tones. Or, try a different colour of liner behind each panel. Here, I would also recommend rich jewel colours.
Of course, you can size the box up or down according to your needs.
Because of its swirl-close nature, the box can be re-used.
