Thursday, November 25, 2010

Their scrappy space! (How to Solvy)

A few days ago I was trying to get some sewing done and my girls were playing on the floor behind me, rummaging around in my rubbish bin and my scraps drawer. They wanted me to sew this and pin that and I wanted them to be a bit more self sufficient.

Then I had a brain wave!

Last year at a craft night at Jodie's house, she gave me a packet of this stuff called Solvy. I vaguely remember her talking about it being some sort of water soluble stabiliser, but couldn't remember the exact details. After a bit of googling around they (we) got to work.

We laid out a strip of Solvy on the carpet and then they rummaged around and covered it with scraps of all shapes and sizes. They tried to make sure that each bit was touching another bit, and that there weren't many gaps.

Then they laid another bit of Solvy on top and made a sandwich.

At this stage we pinned and pinned and pinned the layers together.

And then I lowered the feed dogs on Nina Bernina and sewed and stitched and doodled and drew all over every bit of the length. They stood behind me telling me what to draw...a spiral...a flower...my name...

Then they took the stitched length to the sink where they washed it. At this stage the Solvy became jelly like and then dissolved like magic. They helped it along a bit in the beginning with a paint brush but soon realised they didn't have to be so gentle. Then they squished and wrung the water onto every bit.

And then we hung it on the line to dry.

And admired their art work.

This gorgeous scarf was made entirely from scraps!

It has been worn non stop since it was dry.

We have two more in various stages of completion and a couple of orders from teachers.

This is such a great kiddy craft activity. I highly recommend it.

What's going on in your space today?

I hope your day is a happy, scrappy one!

65 comments:

  1. Bloody marvellous. This is why I love blogs. You learn about all that secret stuff in the sewing shops that you would normally just walk past! yay Kate.

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  2. What a fabulous idea! Lovely scarf x

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  3. Oh I love it!!!! You know i bet you could use Freezer paper too.

    Just arrange your scraps on the top of the freezer, pop some parchment paper over the top so you don't mess up your iron and iron away... in theory the freezer paper will melt to all the scrap holding it in place then you can sew through it ...... would be a real pain getting the freezer paper off afterwards but still worth a try!!!

    Ok one of these days i'll give it a go with my scrap if i don't decoupage something with it before hand hahaha

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  4. that is so cool! what a fun activity for the girls.

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  5. Wow - this is just beautiful!

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  6. Seems so much fun and with such an excellent outcome...who can resist trying this?!!!

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  7. such a fun way to use scraps - and to encourage a bit of self sufficiency - love it!

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  8. I'm totally impressed! Great work girls!

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  9. What a fantastic idea Kate! I might have to look up where to buy some of that solvy stuff as it would be great to make some of those scarves and would keep little people entertained. Your scarf looks great by the way!

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  10. I have seen scraves made like that using yarn - but I didn't know what the water soluble stuff was called. Thanks for posting about it :)I think the scarf is way cool - way to go girls!

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  11. Gosh how good is that? Looks fantastic...

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  12. Cool what a great idea. I will have to find some solvy and try it. Good idea from a clever mother! Creative little girls too! No wonder they want to wear it all the time.

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  13. What a FANTASTIC idea! And just the thing for me to use up my bag of scraps for! Adding solvy to my crafty list!

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  14. I bet the girls had a blast doing that. I love Solvy.

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  15. That is brilliant and soo beautiful too! Big YAY for the Foxs lane chicksxo

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  16. Looks like it was so much fun to make! Nice kid friendly and cute project Kate

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  17. Wow! I loved making stuff like this as a kid using my Mum's scraps. Well, I think that if your girls can make these scarves they could probably make some little oven mitts with just a bit of guidance from their crafty Mum as well too! They are pretty quick and fun to make.

    :)

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  18. Oh dear! My girls would LOVE to do this.

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  19. thank you for the post Kate. Great idea. It has given me some inspiration for christmas presents.

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  20. This is brilliant! What a gorgeous scarf & so much fun!!

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  21. it looks amazing!! love the name Solvy too hehe.

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  22. Wow what fun! I can see why you would have abandoned whatever you were working on to get in and have fun with the solvy!

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  23. Great ideas, the kids could also make table runners.

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  24. My friends and I did this with yarn. But now we're gonna have to use fabric!

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  25. This is absolutely and totally fan-tab-ulous !! Love it so much it definitely requires a unique and handmade name to describe it :) Just wonderful Kate - thank you for this inspiration. Kx

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  26. oh my non-religious god! this is really beautiful. i love it :)

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  27. I've never really gotten how solvy is used...thanks for showing us...and what a beautiful creation.
    going to get some now!

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  28. I see stretched before me a long summer holiday filled with kid-distracting scarf crafting...

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  29. Seriously Cool Kate!!! I love your style..

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  30. Wow that looks like lots of fun, very cool.xo

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  31. wow - gorgy - looks like it floated in on a very colourful beach somewhere!

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  32. Fantastic!
    E. made some toilet roll monsters using the scraps from my sewing bin the other day... he'd love this activity too. So ... what may I ask is solvy???

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  33. fabulous idea! As a hand stitcher I don't have many fabric scraps but this makes me want to buy fabric just to strip it :P

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  34. Solvy is fabulous. You can use yarns too and make the most wonderful scarves with it. A cheaper option from Solvy is the laundry bags they use in hospitals that dissolve in hot water. A friend of mine gave me one years ago.

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  35. I've never heard of Solvy before - looks brilliant!
    I love this scarf - V V beautiful!!

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  36. That sounds like so much fun. I'll have to see if I can find some of this stuff (or something similar) in UK.

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  37. Ha, this is so cool! I haven't heard of Solvy before, I wonder if it's available around here...

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  38. Your kids have so much fun! Damn ... I wish I'd known about that sort of stuff when my girls were younger.
    My Creative Space

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  39. brilliant idea...I have little girlies who love to 'help' me as well. Will have to look into this stuff! xxx

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  40. Wow! I'm gonna have a go - I LOVE it, love it, love it.

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  41. i just love love this idea to bit. well done

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  42. What great fun!
    Hope all is well. x

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  43. Just looking through library books we got yesterday and found a project with this solvy in it! How coincidental!! Where can I buy some from???

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  44. I'm going to be doing some craft classes/sewing classes for girls this holidays and that would make a perfect project!!! Wonderful! Do you know where to get the SOLVY from?? Well done girls you will be sewing like mama in no time :-)

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  45. Awesome! well done girls!

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  46. Gorgeous!!! I've never heard of solvy, sounds intriguing

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  47. I've always wanted to play with this as well. Wow, it looks like a lot of fun, I'm going to hunt some down now and have a play!

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  48. wow - how fabulously interesting. thanks for sharing!

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  49. Brilliant...this is the most unique idea I have seen...fabulous and so much fun!!
    Hope you are keeping dry...so sorry that you are experiencing so much wetness!! xOxO

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  51. Love, the scarf and hoping to make with a couple of girls. How long did you make the scarf?
    Thanks bunches,
    Mary Amber (facebook.com/maisonmaryhearttohomedesigns

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  52. I saw a brilliant method of doing this with Solvy - cut 2 pieces of Solvy, stitch all around on three sides. Then you just stuff the scraps into the Solvy 'pillowcase'. Much easier to sew after and no pinning needed :)

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Kate XX

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