fabric silhouettes

so, the pink and navy nursery is almost finished,

but i thought i would give you another sneak peek

at a project i completed for it:

fabric silhouettes.

a totally fun, easy and personal 

project you can do yourself!

the nursery is for my clients 5th child.

she has 3 boys, and (now) 2 girls.

i really wanted to bring some more fabric and 

interest to this wall, and i thought it would

be fun to have silhouettes of her 

other children in the nursery. 

the "A" is for amelia-- 

the new baby's name. 

isn't that darling?

for this one, i simply used the font "bodini ornaments"

to get the floral shape. 

the "A" is "times new roman".

i wanted the boys to be in all blue + white fabrics,

their other daughter to be in pink + white fabrics,

and the baby's initial to be in pink + navy + white.

a close up detail.

we had a lot of fun mixing up the 

fabrics for the silhouettes.

i also chose to have the boys facing one way,

and the girl silhouette another.

the frames started out like this...

i bought them from a thrift store,

and they cost between $1.50 and $3 a piece.

i wanted them to be different, to

reflect the different fabrics and 

silhouettes they would be holding.

okay, so there are literally dozens of tutorials on

silhouettes and using fusible webbing/heat and bond,

but here is my super quick and very stripped down version.

1.the first thing i had my client do was to email me 

a side view picture of her 4 children.

2. once i had the pictures, i printed them out.

3. i outlined their faces, and made a few adjustments, as you can see.

4. next, i cut the heat and bond in the approximate size of the silhouette, and 

ironed it onto the back side of the fabric.

(there is still a paper backing on the heat and  bond)

5. then, i used double stick tape and attached the silhouette to the

backside of the heat and bond.

6. i cut through the 3 layers--the printed out photo/silhouette, 

the heat and bond, and the fabric.

7. last, i peeled the paper backing off of the heat and bond (along with the

attached silhouette, and ironed it onto the background fabric.

we ended up not using this particular silhouette.

i thought that the fabrics were too similar, and the

silhouette didn't show up as much as i wanted it to,

so i switched fabrics, and ended up using a stripe and 

a floral, as you ca see below.

i think they turned out great.

and the total cost for all 5 of them,

including frames, 

heat and bond

 and fabric,

was less than 

$35. 

not bad...

for filling up a wall and

making a fun and personal statement!