Tase Woolf

I like to make my friends their birthday presents. Not entirely sure that they always like me making it, but they seem to make the right noises in the right places!

But I also want to know what they would like as sometimes, even though we may have been friends for years, I'm not really sure what their preference is. And we've all been bought presents that someone else has admired, haven't we?

So, I was shown a chaise longue on a phone from here, although the one in question is in red. So I was thinking (as I do) about using the tree theme but adding cherry blossoms.

First, to make the blossoms. Tried lots of techniques, first with stuff I already had. I hoped my sizzix would go through the fabric The leather was too heavy for the effect I was after, anyway.

I bought some polyester two-tone fabric and organza. I tried circles and five slits, then melting the edges of the polyester to form the petals a bit like here. A bit dodgy! It does look like flowers, but the organza in particular was a little prone to flames (!) and I did end up with some quite hard edges. I'm not renowned for my patience......

Then it came to me - as these things do - why not 'cut' them out with my fabric master? It's man-made materials, so they will melt. The above pictures are my practice attempts:

1. single layer
2. two layers of organza, fused together with Mistyfuse
3. one layer polyester, one organza, just placed together and cut out
4. as above, but layers Mistyfused first
5. single layer of polyester

None of them were quite what I had envisaged - until the additions of beads and stitched lines for stamens. That lifted the whole thing! I eventually went for number 3 and this is the result:

I am pleased with it; it has come out as I had in my head, which is very satisfying. I enjoyed the design process, too.