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Re-Inventing Chenille

gram999
13 years ago

Re-Inventing Chenille by Nannette Holmberg. I took this book out of the library & ended up buying it from Amazon.

She makes chenille strips by cutting bias strips in 3/8 or 5/8". She doesn't sew layers of fabric in strips. She uses 1 - 3 strips & stacks them on top of one another & sews them to her project.

I made 2 practice pieces with 3/8" flannel strips. One had 2 strips stacked & the other had 3. After chenilling, I couldn't tell the difference between the 2.

She also has projects using 1 strip which gives more of a fringing effect. She even used a ruffler to ruffle the strip before applying.

I'm working on a small baby quilt that has crazy pieced squares out of fabric from one of those wreaths where you used little squares of fabric & pinned them into a straw wreath. My daughter made this wreath for our bedroom. Now it will be used for a quilt for her daughter's first little girl. The fabrics are rose & country blue - from the 80's?

I will sew 3/8" bias strips to quilt between the rows & 5/8" strips to go around the edges. The edges only need to be serged or zigzagged first - no binding. I have plain squares inbetween the pieced squares, & I'll make some kind of design in them with chenille. You could make this without pieced squares making it just a sewing project. It will have cotton batting & a flannel backing. I used a fingernail brush to chenille the strips.

There are lots of projects in the book - vests, jackets, aprons, pillows, some applying strips to ready-made clothes & many others.

I haven't tried this yet, but it might work to lay down some fusible thread on the stitching line, center the 1st strip on top & press. Then stack as many strips as you want & sew down the center.

I hope you'll all try it. It's fun.

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