Stitch Lab Project: Toile Embriodery

I taught a week summer camp at the Stitch Lab. It was a popular offering and ten kids signed up! Whoo! There are six machines in the room and ten girls signed up, so you can do the math on that. There was still going to be down time, so I came up with a great strategy. It worked so well that I have to share.

My plan was to offer a second project away from the machines. I was inspired by artist Richard Saja and his crazy fun embroidery work. The project had enough open endedness that it was perfectly suited to kids. I bought ten embroidery hoops, two packages of needles, a jumbo assortment of floss and 1.5 yards of toile. Before the class began, I prepped the fabric. With a quilting square and a rotary cutter, I “fussy cut” out 10″ x 10″ squares with pastoral scenes in the middle and then zig-zagged the edges. It is upholstery fabric, so it is already a great weight for embroidery.

When we started the class, I talked about embroidery and explained the project. I defined toile and I talked about what Mr. Saja had done already. On purpose, I did not show them any pictures. I was afraid if I did they would hold one of his projects in their mind and try to do something they had seen rather than something they imagined themselves.
Here is what the girls did:
IMG_5701 IMG_5700
Although I talked about splitting the threads up and using less than the full 6 strands of floss at once, some of the girls dove right in and used the hole floss. That is their artistic choice.
IMG_5697 IMG_5698
Some of the girls were so pleased that they took them home, and worked on them at night. The project was such a success that I had to withhold the embroidery until they had finished specific steps in their machine sewing project.
The results exceeded my expectations.
IMG_5699 IMG_5702
They are clever and individual, I love things about each of them.
IMG_5703 IMG_5704
It was a super non-threatening way to learn some sewing skills. The class was quieter and more relaxed when they had their projects. Like all good crafts, this was an opportunity to find the pace and the peace of working with their hands.

 

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://justcraftyenough.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact us at jcraftyenough AT gmail DOT COM. All patterns, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted.
© 2005 – 2014 Kathy Lewinski & Susan Cornish
10 years ago by in Crafting with Kids , Crafts , Embroidery , Needlecraft | You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
6 Comments to Stitch Lab Project: Toile Embriodery

Leave A Response

* Required