I've been in a state of severe creative block recently. I wasn’t very excited about my regular stash of felt or the bag of a few remnants and fabrics I’d bought with some very loose plans that sat crumpled under my sofa bed. Another frumpy vintage dress hung over a closet door, begging for a re-fashion, but all I can think to do with it is exactly what I did to my other frumpy thrift dress. Sigh!
But then I got some inspiration from my friends’ recent trip to England. Here I’m using the word “inspiration” to mean I saw a good design idea I could rip off. But not in a sleazy way. I made it my own. It was a pillow with a mismatched, three-panel background and a color block fox head on it. As my pal Bekah says, “Foxes are the new owls,” so they’re still quite hot.
This type of design starts with a doodle. I didn’t want to be a total copycat, so I found my own fox to draw from a book called “About Animals” that provides me endless inspiration. I took a few cues from the original pillow, but went my own way from there.
I sketched a fox face and then cut out the pieces from a variety of fabrics from remnants and some felt.
I made most of my creative decisions here in a frantic, spur-of-the-moment way. I went with my gut instead of over-thinking every color and design choice. All my remnants were scattered across the floor. Of course, the fox had to be the brownish corduroy, and tan felt was the only possible accent color. I love the cream canvas instead of a felt, but for the actual pillowcase? A blue! Wiiiiith...this yellow! Yes! I sewed the blue and yellow color blocks together and laid it out.
Then I pinned the pieces down and sewed the fox head onto the case with a tight zigzaggy stitch.
I actually messed up and folded a piece of blue corner back and sewed it to itself. I had to sew a yellow corner onto it. I think it looks pretty good. Then I pinned and hand sewed the detail pieces onto the head.
I used an oatmeal colored string on all the pieces, except for black on the nose and eyes, and also on the strip between the eyes. This is the view of the underside.
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| Heh heh heh. I made the back two overlapping panels like I always do. Then I wrapped it around a pillow form. Voila! I made all these pillowcases! |
On future fox pillows, I would use a thicker fabric for the base pillowcase. The brightly colored remnants I used would cinch up from the zigzag stitch, and it's just not very durable. The canvas fabric of the piece between the eyes would make a great pillow case. It frayed a lot as an accent.
What I love about it is that it reminds me of a flag for a made-up country a child would design, and the country would just be like a blanket and some sticks set up in a wooded area by a creek in a clay pit. It's pretty fucking whimsical. So in that way, it's another success!
