fabric wall art!

It's true that I'm a "use what I have decorator".
BUT, while re-doing my dining room, I was striving for a more sophisticated feel.
There was one wall still blank - in need of something pretty.
I ordered a large art canvas on-line. It arrived, and the colors were not quite right. {cost me $25. to return}
This week, I bought a beautiful large art canvas from Burlington Coat Factory. Got it home, held it to the wall, but it just didn't work. {another trip to Syracuse and that's been returned too.}

When I chose that "bright, happy" fabric for my dining room drapes, I was limiting myself when it came to choosing artwork. Truthfully, this never even occurred to me...until I tried 2 pieces that didn't quite work...because of the drapes.

And then...Friday morning I woke with what I thought was a brilliant idea. :)

Since it felt like I was "competing" with the drapery fabric......why not join forces with that funky, bold fabric and create some wall art from said fabric??

How to do this without the art feel "homemade"? {not that there's anything wrong with a homemade feel...you know me, I love homemade}. I just wanted it to be a little bit classy. At the risk of sounding boastful, I think I succeeded.

Two trips to Hobby Lobby later (I broke the glass in one of the frames and needed to go buy a 4th frame. ugh!), and this is my pretty dining room wall. Makes me smile every time I see it.

Steps to creating this fun wall art:

1) Determine what you would like to cut from your fabric.
2) Rough cut around the image.
3) Iron on fusible web to help eliminate fabric fray (I had mine in my stash - bought at jo-ann's by the yard).

4) Using the sharpest scissors you own, closely trim around your image.
5) Choose background fabric (I used a cream kona cotton).
6) Pin your image to your background fabric. Use plenty of pins because you don't want your image to move - moving causes puckers.
7) Not sure you would need this step, but I ironed it, while pinning.
8) Zig zag stitch - or if you have a fancy sewing machine, this is where you would applique. My sewing machine is an oldie but goodie, so I simply set it to a zig zag stitch that I liked and went with that. Carefully stitch as close to the edge of the image as you can.
9) Iron and then spray starch the wrong side, and then iron again (and again, haha!). Wrinkles bother me. ;)
10) Using the back of the frame, center your image. Stretch it around and tape to the back. I used painter's tape because you can lift and press down again hassle free.
11) Assemble inside frame and hang.

Easy, right?
I love that this project gives me the visual impact I was going for. I love that it matches my favorite part of the dining room - my drapes. I love that it really doesn't look homemade. I love that I only needed to buy the frames - the frames I chose included the double mat - (total cost = $69. before I broke the glass in one - $82. was my final total. ) And finally, I can't wait for my mom to see! :)

It's a whatcha got week-end at Lolly Jane, so I'm linking up (for the very first time). Great stuff over at Lolly - if you don't know that already!

Thanks for coming by my blog today!
hugs, patti