I think I’ve already mentioned that this year Julian just has not been as interested in sewing as in earlier years. What he has been enthusiastic about has been preparing fabrics for sewing. Today we did a little more fabric dyeing with shaving cream, for a small pencil case I will be making him for school. And then we got it into our heads to do a little flower pounding. So off we went for a little walk to collect some leaves and flowers.
In case you’re wondering, flower pounding is simply the art of hammering leaves and flowers to produce dyed art on fabric. More importantly for Julian, it involved a fun outing to collect leaves and flowers, and then half an hour of pounding to his heart’s delight without anyone telling him to be quiet. 🙂 Very quickly, this is the way we did it:
1. We started with a piece of PFD muslin (prepared for dyeing). We covered an old wooden cutting board with a piece of plastic wrap, laid the piece of fabric on top, and then started arranging a couple of leaves on the fabric. That was then covered with another piece of plastic wrap, and the pounding began!
2. It’s best to work with leaves and flowers that are pretty flat. Just pound gently but firmly until you get all that good juice transferred onto the fabric.
3. Then remove the leaf or flower petals.
4. And continue adding and pounding in any arrangement you like. Let the piece dry and then set with a hot iron.
And that’s the way it’s done! So easy. Great kid activity. If you want, you can outline the shapes with a fabric marker. In this case, I’m planning on doing a little thread painting on this little piece.
I am a self-learner. I taught myself to sew and to quilt. And I taught myself how to draw. I am learning how to dye my own fabrics and am dabbling with mixed media. I am a quilt designer and teacher, and design and publish my own line of quilt patterns. With this blog I would like to share the bits and pieces of my life.