Ideas to use this very sentimental silk from my mom and aunts MOH dresses!?
I asked this question in a different section last night, but thought the crafts and hobbies section may yield better ideas.
My grandpa managed to buy my grandma some beautiful silk when he was fighting in the Korean war. She saved it until my mom and aunt got married (both in 1972), and made each others MOH dresses out of it. My moms dress was pink for my aunts wedding and my aunts was blue for my moms wedding. Some very small remnants still exist, and I managed to talk my mom out of some of the silk. I wanted to make them something special out of the remaining fabric. I have roughly a square foot of each fabric, but it’s all cut up in odd shapes. Any ideas what I could make? I’m at a loss. I’m a good seamstress, and have been sewing pretty much my whole life, so I don’t necessarily need ideas for just easy projects, I can do just about anything involved with sewing.
Since this is all related to my wedding, I had a lightbulb go off in my head as what to do with them today. My grandpa actually brought back a whole bunch of different colors, but the pink and blue were the only ones ever used. We are having an autumn themed wedding. Instead of a ring pillow, I made a small fabric pumpkin out of the orange and green silk for the rings. Using the same pattern, I managed by the skin of my teeth to cut 4 panels out of each color silk. I used white silk for the other 4 panels, and used both pink and blue to make them each a pumpkin, as a little memory of our wedding. They look awesome (as does the ring pillow) and the white silk extended the remnants far more than trying to come up with something exclusively out of them.
Suggested Reading:
Inkjet Printing on FabricLearn how to print your own photographs, artwork, and designs on silk, cotton, or other fabric using your inkjet printer. This exciting technique open... Read More >
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Odd pieces could be used to make a crazy quilt with fancy stitching. It could be small and then framed – http://www.hedgesstuff.com/images/hedgesstuffframing_com.html or add a hanging sleeve to the back for a wall hanging – http://sewpam63.wordpress.com/2010/04/30/hanging-sleeve-tutorial/
Examples of Crazy Quilts – http://www.google.com/images?rlz=1T4TSHB_enUS260US260&q=crazy+quilt+stitches&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=TUmjTOmWLYuongeBwZjHAw&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CDsQsAQwAw&biw=1167&bih=580
The fabric for this style of quilt requires the cloth piecing technique to stabilize the small cuts of fabric.
Instructions – http://www.ehow.com/how_13974_interlock-crazy-quilt.html
Be sure to add a label to the back to explain the history and who (you) made the quilt.
This is not a difficult challenge for someone with sewing experience and your Mother will love it.
You might use it to cover mats inside special frames, and put a picture or two of them inside it. Each one could have the mat covered in her fabric, and the picture could be from the wedding or a more recent one. If you need to piece together the fabric, you can crazy-quilt patch it, or mix the two fabrics together. If there is enough to do a bigger mat and frame and you have the pictures, why not one from each of the weddings and a recent one of the two of them in the middle?
A crazy quilt was the first thing that came to my mind, too. You could also the pieces to sew an applique pattern on just about anything: blanket, wall hanging, pillow, tote bag, purse, journal cover, hand towel, pillow case…
You could pair them silk blocks or appliques with other sentimental blocks, like photos of your aunt and mom. See http://www.vintageimagecraft.com/transfer_images_fabric.html for info on transferring photos to fabric. I’ve always thought this was a neat idea.