Fabric Collage - How I Did Mine

I think I may have another addiction (as well as altering matchboxes that is!) - fabric collages!

This post follows on from the previous one where you'll see I've made 3 of these collages in not as many days!

Here's a brief summary of how I put the 'Daisy Cottage' fabric collage together.

Start off with the cross stitched cottage

Cut a rectangle of cotton for the base

and re-inforce it with something sturdy - I had this roll of strong hessian type stuff which was ideal.

Machine stitch the hessian strips onto the cotton base (sorry the photos are a bit dark)

I machine stitched up and down each row and top and bottom, this is what the back looked like when I'd finished.

Stitch a narrow edging of lace around all four sides

At this point I machine stitched a handwritten label on the back

That's the base done, now to start decorating the top.

  I decided to use some paper - sheet music and aged it around the edges with Distress Ink.

The next stage is the most time consuming, but also the most fun - sorting out what layers to use.  I laid the various lace and fabrics onto the base before stitching anything down to get a rough idea of what it'd look like.

When happy with it, start stitching!

I coloured a bright white lace flower from a curtain edging (thanks Mum!) with Distress Inks so it blended in better.

I also added a few beads to the cross stitching, a vintage button for the centre of the flower, some hanging beads at the bottom and a horseshoe for good luck at the top right hand corner.

I gave it a simple hanger of twine (braided three lengths together and knotted them at the back). 

Here's what the finished back looks like.

 I attached rusty keys to the first two fabric collages





I think I now need to go shopping and hunt down more cross stitched cast offs, lace, buttons, keys - and anything else which I could use to make more - these addictions must be fed - lol!

Thanks for looking!