sadly yesterday ran away from me and i wasn’t able to post a project from jane joss i’d been excited about all week. jane joss is an alias for alyssa and joslyn krismer, former college roommates turned sisters-in-law (married to twins!). these self-taught seamstresses have a love of cool fabric and create some really incredible crafts and home accessories from their collections of great textiles.
inspired by nature and beautiful prints, alyssa and joslyn now create modern fabric arrangements and potted plants which they sew and construct by hand. i’ve been a fan of their “sweet leaves” collections on etsy for a while and was thrilled when they agreed to share a DIY project inspired by their textile flowers. and the best part about this project? it’s a wonderful way to use an old, dying quilt or piece of fabric that means something to you, but is no longer strong enough to stay together or is just too shabby to keep out anymore. rather than throwing it out, alyssa and joslyn’s project finds a way to showcase the fabric in a new way that you can keep around the house for years to come. so thanks to alyssa and joslyn for sharing- you can view their sweet leaves collection on etsy right here or shoot them an email here to order.
CLICK HERE for the full project steps after the jump!
Alyssa (Jane of Jane Joss) inherited a gorgeous quilt from her great-grandmother, but it was falling apart and beyond repair. We used the opportunity to turn it into a beautiful and modern fabric arrangement. This solution preserved the beauty of the vintage fabric and allowed her to display the keepsake in her home. At Jane Joss, we’ve transformed many types of fabric into arrangements for our clients and we’re happy to share the technique with the Design*Sponge DIYers.
To duplicate our project, you’ll need:
18 and 16 gauge floral wire
floral tape
wire cutters
1/2 yard of fabric
scissors
fusible interfacing
pinking shears
coordinating thread
sewing machine
Step 1: use floral tape to wrap lengths of 18 gauge floral wire
Step 2: use wire cutters to cut wire into 3” pieces.
Step 3: create a leaf pattern in desired size. The leaf pattern we used was 3 1/2 inches long.
Step 4: to create the double-sided leaves, fold your fabric in half (wrong sides together) and cut fabric into leaf shapes using your leaf pattern. For the arrangement shown, we used 84 double-sided fabric leaves.
Step 5: cut interfacing into triangles small enough to fit between the two sides of each leaf. Use an iron to fuse the two sides of each leaf together.
Step 6: using the zigzag stitch setting on your sewing machine, sew around the edges of each leaf leaving about 1/4″ of fabric around the edges.
Step 7: use pinking shears to cut around the edge of each leaf.
Step 8: using a wide zigzag stitch, sew each leaf onto the 3” pieces of wrapped floral wire.
Step 9: use the floral tape to wrap seven of the stemmed leaves onto a long piece of 16 gauge wire. Start at the top of the wire and work your way down keeping the stemmed leaves flat against the long wire. Repeat this process until you have the desired number of branches constructed.
Step 10: gently bend each leaf away from the main stem into the desired position.
Step 11: Arrange the branches in your favorite vase to create a beautiful fabric arrangement.
Alyssa and Joslyn Krismer (a.k.a. Jane Joss) are fabric florists with a love of crafting and interior design. Check out their product line or place a custom order through their online shop at www.janejoss.etsy.com or contact them at jane.joss@yahoo.com.
