Fabric Buckets and Stitched Art

My sister-in-law and mother-in-law recently celebrated their birthdays 

and a curious little idea had been brewing inside my head for their 

birthday presents some months before. It stemmed from the evolution 

of Emily's recent drawings which had me both astonished and slightly 

melancholic that she was all growing up. Add to that my insensible 

need to freeze bits of the present and this project was conceived. 

I like to think of it as one of those odd things that happens when 

motherhood and a sewing machine violently collide. It began with 

a little help from my sister-in-law, who got her children 

to do some self-portraits

and these fabrics to which I alluded in an earlier post

which became these fabric buckets

using this excellent tutorial for the buckets themselves. 

It was a lot of fun to turn line art into embroidery - 

I used the sewing machine, of course, since I don't have 

the patience for hand embroidery right now.

I got Emily to draw portraits of herself, Jenna and Kate 

for a similar present for my mother-in-law.

In her drawings, each sister has an accompanying doll below her 

which, for sheer laziness, I omitted from the actual stitching.

Ah, fun. 

And the best part was how thrilled Emily was to have had 

such a big part in this - her rendering of herself and her sisters 

that crazy mom went and sewed onto cloth. I hope I am this 

sentimental when Jenna hones her marker skills to the point 

of recognizable creatures. And little Kate - what will be 

her choice medium? 

Hm. Time will tell but I am in no hurry to find out - 

let the children stay young for just a little longer.

Speaking of young, here is an ancient and rather different sort 

of fabric bucket that I made almost 20 years ago before I even knew 

what they were called. It was made with my then-favorite material

- 600 denier black waterproof nylon. I used it in everything 

except garments. Ah, those were the days before bibs, and 

when my fabric shopping took me beyond cotton and flannel. 

I remember wanting this bucket to be a sort of shape-shifter 

and having grand plans for it as a hand tote, defensive weapon 

against muggers, haberdashery storage etc. It's faded and ratty 

now and in its twilight years has been home to the kids' 

Mr Potato Head parts. Today while getting ready to do this post, 

I saw it sitting in the living room with its plastic innards all around 

it where the kids had dumped them out. Said to myself, 

"Hey - prototype fabric bucket! Made without (the currently 

very "in") fusible interfacing, besides!" 

So here it is in all its configurations- enjoy.