Sewing Collage

It is time for a new challenge at Frilly and Funkie and this time the talented Suzz is our hostess and is calling it All in the Family.  She describes it this way:

"Whether it is your ancestors, a favorite family memory or family outings, create a vintage or shabby chic project reflecting your family."

So when you look at my very busy collage card I imagine you are scratching your head wondering what this has to do with family.  Well, I was very fortunate to have a very creative and very handy Mother who taught me all sorts of wonderful things - baking and cooking, gardening, crafting of all sorts and of course, sewing.  When I was looking through my papercrafting supplies and saw the Graphic 45 collection called A Ladies Diary I realized that the fashion images would make a vintage collage paying homage to sewing and to my Mother.

She once made the most gorgeous summer robe for me from a piece of white eyelet fabric that had come from her Great-Grandmother's trunk.  When my daughter was born she ripped it apart and made a christening gown from it.  There was a small stain on the fabric by then and she bravely dumped it into some water with bleach and amazingly it didn't fall apart, which was expected considering how old it was.  I also remember her staying up until the wee hours of the morning after she started working outside the home to make clothes for all three of us kids and one of my most prized possessions from those late-night sessions was a jacket made from a traditional wool Hudson's Bay blanket.  Sadly it disappeared in one of our moves but I will always remember how special I thought it was at the time.

This card also brings up memories of my late Mother-in-Law who was also a fantastic seamstress and worked as an alterations person in a ladies dress shop before my husband came along.  She could make something for a man or woman out of next to no fabric and without a pattern to boot. When we cleared her room at the nursing home after she passed away, we were amazed at how little came from a store and how many little details she put into blouses and skirts - very fashionable things like three rows of little pin tucks up the side of a pencil skirt.

To make the card I started with a piece of cardstock from Staples for the blank and then added a panel of striped paper from the collection.  I cut a quartet of ladies in their finest dresses and added that followed by a strip of ladies in their lovely hats, both from the collection. 

I stamped the vintage dress form from Tim Holtz Haberdashery stamp set on a piece of dotted paper and added it next topped by a lady in her fancy hat from the collection.  The sentiment was found online as was the vintage seamstress but they have been in my files for so long, I don't have the credit - my apologies.

The collection has some chipboard and adhesive elements so I added a few of those along with a postage stamp.  The flower is cut using the new floral dies from Tammy Tutterow and sits atop a piece of crochet ribbon.

I added a few pearls, a floral button tied with some burlap string, a pair of bronze scissors and a replica of the top of a spool of thread that I picked up from the clearance section at Hobby Lobby when I was visiting in Virginia a couple weeks ago.

I am going to enter this card in the following challenges:

Morgan's Artworld - Use Patterned Paper
Crafty Cardmakers - Shabby Chic

The following items used to create this card came from The Funkie Junkie Boutique: