Teacher and author Julie McGuffee of Design Originals dresses up a standard sisal doormat using strips of felt and ribbon. With a simple cross-stitch, she creates an attractive welcome mat. Materials:
Sisal floor mat
Fabric or felt in a variety of colors
Scissors
Large-eye plastic needle
- Using scissors, cut slits of the desired width in the edge of a piece of fabric (figure A).
- Tear the strips by pulling on the tabs started at the edge.
- Decide on the design or word (e.g., welcome or joy) for the mat, and make sure it'll fit. The weave of the mat lends itself to cross-stitch, as squares and holes are woven in. You might try laying out the design on graph paper, with each square representing a square in the mat. Start in the middle to be sure the pattern is centered .
- Thread a large-eye plastic needle with a strip of fabric, and start cross-stitching the design in by coming up from the back through a hole, going down through the diagonal hole, coming up through the hole directly below it, crossing over the last stitch, and going down in the diagonal hole above the first hole, making an X (figure B).
- To join fabric strips, stack the new (joining) strip on top of the old strip with short ends even (figure C). Make a fold about 1" from the ends with both pieces of fabric (figure D). Cut a small slit through all four thicknesses of fabric from the fold down the center of the strips. This will create a hole in each of the strips (figure E).
- Thread the end opposite the hole of the new strip onto the needle. Bring the needle through the hole in the old strip, and pull it through almost to the end ( figure F). Bring the needle through the hole in the new strip (this will be the tail of the strip you're sewing with), and pull the strip through the hole (figure G). The two strips will be locked together through the two holes.
- Finish the edges of the mat, using an overstitch. Start underneath the mat, and bring the needle up through one of the holes near the edge. Pull the strip through and around the edge, come up from the bottom of the mat, and skip a hole, coming up in the second hole from where you started (figure H).
RESOURCES :
Julie McGuffee
Design Originals
Website: www.d-originals.com
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