Wearable Darkness

The Alchemy of Accessories

FabMo

How to Make a Shop Fabric Banner: FabMo Textile Reuse Project

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I’ve got few festivals coming up this Fall and Winter where I’ll be selling items under the name of Wearable Darkness.  At most festivals and fairs, tables and booths have banner signs with the maker’s or vendor’s name on them. I didn’t have a banner. A paper banner wouldn’t last long. A store made plastic/vinyl doesn’t adhere to my shop philosophy of creative reuse when possible. So, I came up with the idea of making a banner out of the FabMo decorator fabric samples.

My goal was to create a banner that was earthy, tribal, textured and unexpected and made with FabMo materials and items I already had (no trips to the store) for no to low cost.

Here’s a quick write-up of how I did it. It took me 1.5 days of on and off work to complete. It cost probably about $1-$2 in thread.

I apologize for the poor photo quality. It was 96 degrees outside and inside my apartment the day I made this sign. I took the photos in the shade on my balcony as it was too hot to go out in the sun.

Step 1: Pick Suitable Fabrics for the Banner

Things I considered when picking out fabrics to use for the banner:

  • High contrast between the letter fabric and background fabric, so the words would be easy to read.
  • Letter fabric that doesn’t ravel easily. 100% felted wool  would be perfect.
  • Colors or patterns that represented Wearable Darkness.
  • Two fabrics that coordinate.
  • A background piece of fabric big enough for a banner.

The later criteria quickly limited my choices. I finally settled on these two fabrics:

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The dark paisley print is visually representative of Wearable Darkness and the fabric piece almost a yard long. The beige fabric was 80% wool that barely ravels. I would have liked a dark fabric for the letters, but I didn’t have any.  The beige goes with a color in the paisley design.

Step 2: Make Your Letters

I’m not good at drawing giant letters, so I picked a royalty-free font in Word and made the letters as big as would print on a sheet of paper. I printed out the letters on scrap paper, cut out the letters and made stencils out of them.  When picking out a font and making stencils, remember to:

  • Use a simple, chunky font, so that you can cut them out and sew around them more easily.
  • Make sure that the letters will all fit on your background fabric before cutting out the letters from the letter fabric.

Here are my stencils and a cut out letter:

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Step 3: Sew Letters onto Background Fabric

I used a long ruler to layout the fabric letters straight on the background fabric. I then used some craft spray adhesive I had around to glue the letters down. After drying overnight, most of the letters hadn’t stayed glued on. I was hoping not to have to sew them all on.

I pinned the letters down and sewed around them using a zig-zag stitch with heavy, variegated decorative thread. Regular sewing thread looked to wimpy on a sample I tried. The heavy thread looked beefy and tied the letter color into the background colors more.

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Step 4: Hem Banner

Originally, I had planned to just serge the banner raw edges to finish them as two of the edges were already serged on the sample. However, hemming added some weight and structure to the banner. The banner so far:

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Step 5: Create Hanging Tabs

Now, I needed a way to hang the banner. I got the idea to reuse the grommets that were already on some of the fabric samples. I found some brown and beige tone fabric samples with grommets in them that went with the banner fabrics.

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I serged and hemmed fabric grommet tabs. They ended up about 2 inches by 3 inches. They aren’t all the same because the grommets were all different distances from the edge of the samples. The exact size doesn’t matter to their functionality.

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I sewed the tabs onto the banner background.  I put tabs on the bottom edge to add weight and also as a way to secure the sign if every outside on a windy day. Now I can use rope to hang the banner. Or the banner can be pinned to a table or display booth drape. I can braid some rope out of fabric strips in the future. Right now I don’t have any scrap fabric strips to braid.

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Step 6: Decorate Banner

I left the centers of the A’s solid because I was going to use old buttons for the centers to add dimension to the banner. The buttons looked a bit too small for the banner. The finished banner is about 42″ x 17″. Instead of buttons, I used leftover fabric to make flower centers for the A’s.

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I’m happy with my almost zero cost shop banner. It meets all of my original goals. I will probably add more decorative elements to the banner as time goes on.

Tips, Options & Things I’d Do Differently the Second Time Around

Having winged this process as I went along, here’s some advice for anyone else looking to make a shop banner from recycled fabric:

  • Plan more. I was on a time crunch. Better planning would have made for shorter construction time.
  • I would have picked I simpler font, but simple looked really kid-like. I paid the price when having to sew around all those curves.
  • Skip the glue part. Go right to sewing on the letters.
  • You could use letter machine embroidery appliques instead, if you have them. I didn’t want to buy letter appliques. I also didn’t want to have to hoop and un-hoop the fabric for all those letters. I think a sign with each letter being a different applique fabric would look really great. It would allow smaller pieces of fabric samples to be used.
  • I tried a bunch of different decorative stitches to sew on the letters. They are much slower to sew than a standard zig-zag stitch, and none of them where big enough to be seen from a distance. On fewer and simpler letters, the decorative stitches might be worth it.
  • Quilted letters would give the sign more depth. I didn’t have much time to work on my sign. If I had to do it over again, I’d quilt the letters with quilt batting between the letters and background material. And bind the edges instead of hemming.
  • If you can hand draw your letters, it would be faster and allow bigger letters. I was limited by what would print on a sheet of paper.
  • Fabric paint could be used to paint the letters on a fabric banner.
  • For paper artists, the wallpaper samples could be used to make a banner.
  • Keep you banner light enough so you can hang or pin it to a fabric table cover or back drape.

 

 

Zen & the Art of Textile Reuse

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I was on the phone a few months ago with a friend. They couldn’t believe my yoga mat at home was surrounded by stacks of decorator fabric samples to make things out of.  So I snapped a quick picture as proof.

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Yes, that’s my living room floor. I don’t have furniture; just a yoga mat, piles of fabric and sewing machines (not shown).  I separate and organize my FabMo decorator fabric sample finds by color hue stacks on my living room floor.  It is Zen-like. I can contemplate how I want to reuse these textiles as I do my yoga. OK, I’m really paying attention to my yoga, but I don’t have another good way to keep the fabric out where I can see it. This motivates me to finish projects and see what color hues I have too much or too little of.

This system works for me. I’m sure most people aren’t in life situations where they can give their furniture away and surround themselves with fabric. How do you store your FabMo textile stash?

Ripping Apart a Decorator Fabric Sample Book

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The delicious high-end designer fabrics that Wearable Darkness uses for some of its items comes from FabMo. However, it doesn’t come in yardage or neat little bundles. Instead it comes either in sample books or random flat pieces. You have to do some prep work before you can create something form the fabric. But a little work is worth it to save the fabric from the waste-stream.

This post describes what is involved and how long it takes to rip apart a fabric sample book. Rip apart sounds destructive, but there is no elegant way to extract the gold from the rock so to speak. Dis-assembly implies you could put it back together, but in these case, once apart, it’s apart for good.

I’m sure other ways to dismantle a fabric book exist, but this is the process I use for most sample books I take apart.

Step 1: Find a Sample Book that Appeals to You

Start Time: 4:15pm.

At the FabMo monthly designer textile distribution events, go to the back of the space to look through the designer textile sample books to find one with fabric that appeals to you.

I like to have one or more of these in the fabric I re-purpose for Wearable Darkness items:

  • darker hues
  • variety of fabric textures
  • variety of fabric weights
  • silk
  • wool
  • unique patterns
  • relatively easy to rip apart
  • small to medium pieces of fabric

Below is a photo of sample book that caught my eye because of the black and gold paisley design and the label of  “Jet – Graphite – Truffle Color Collection.” All promising for the Wearable Darkness vibe. So, it came home with me last month to join my FabMo stash. (I love toe socks! Anyone else?)

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Usually, I come home empty handed in the sample book department. It is hard to find books that appeal to me or that have suitable fabrics in them for the items I make. Other times, I’ll find  2-3 sample books that appeal to me. I only selected this one sample book last month. Depending on what you’re making, you might find more or less suitable sample books.

Step 2: Gather Your Weapons

Taking a sample book apart isn’t a walk in the park. You’ll need some hefty tools. Here’s what I use:

  • Needle noose pliers: Good for pulling out the giant staples
  • Flat head crew driver: Good to use as a pry bar
  • Scissors: To cut fabric that won’t separate from the binding glue
  • Glasses or safety glasses: I don’t want bits of anything flying into my eyes
  • Clothes lint brush or roller: Good for cleaning up the lint that collects on you during this process
  • Vacuum cleaner: Yes, you’ll need to vacuum afterwards

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Step 3: Pry Off the Cardboard Cover

Most decorator fabric sample books are put together in the same way:

  1. Glue is used to adhere the top edges of the individual sample pages together to create a spine, much like in the pages of a paper book.
  2. Then giant staples are put through all the fabric samples at the top and a piece of cardboard on each side.
  3. A piece of Styrofoam block is added to extend the size of the book at the top.
  4. Finally, a cardboard sample book cover with a cord handle is put on the hide the Styrofoam, cardboard and staples and provide a place for a printed titles and other information.

You have to take the sample book apart in the reverse order it was assembled. Hence, the book cover comes off first. It is usually glued on. I use the flat hand screw driver to pry the cover off.

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Step 4: Pull Out the Giant Staples

After the front cover is loose, the first set of giant staples can be seen. These staples are from between 1 inch and 3 inches long.

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I like to use a combination of the pliers and screwdriver to pull these out. I also untie the hanging cord and remove it from the book as well as the Styrofoam block.

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Step 5: Rip Out the Chunk of Fabric Samples

Next, I rip out big chunks of the fabric samples. The top stack usually falls right off after the staples from the top have been removed. However, more staples exist from the back cover side. Carefully, pull up on the fabric samples to slide them off the back cover staples. These staples are sharp, so don’t poke or scratch yourself on them.

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Step 6: Finish Dismantling the Book Cover

Once the fabric is out of the sample book, you’ll see the back cover staples sticking up. Sometimes I can use the pliers to pull these through the cardboard. Other times I have to pry up the back cardboard with the screw driver and pull the staples from the other side.

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Once the staples are removed, you should have the following pieces as shown in the photo:

  • Cardboard cover: I haven’t found a use for these covers, so I put them in the recycle bin.
  • Hanging cord: I keep these to either use to tie bundles of fabric together for storage or items for shipping. I also can use them in one of the items I make. These never seem to stock pile. I always find uses for them.
  • Giant staples: I haven’t found a use for these either. Because they are sharp (i.e., dangerous), I put them in the recycle bin.
  • Styrofoam block: I use these for shipping filling as Styrofoam isn’t recyclable. Too bad wooden blocks or cardboard isn’t used instead.

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Step 7: Separate the Individual Fabric Samples

I finally get to go through and pull each fabric sample from the glue holding it together at the top spine. You could leave the samples glued in place, if you want to keep them together. I like to separate them now because it creates a lot of fabric dust. Why make another fabric dust cloud later? It would mean cleaning up twice instead of once.

I pull each piece of fabric like ripping pages from a paper book. Sometimes, I have to cut the fabric away from the glue. It depends on how much glue seeps in between the fabric pieces.

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Step 8: Peel Off the Paper Backing

Now, comes the most dreaded step; peeling off the paper backing. You might what to keep the paper on until you actually use the fabric as the paper has the fabric content on it. However, the fabric content varies so much that the end item has a wide range of materials that trying to list them all is pointless. I do track which pieces are silk or wool by putting them in a different pile.

I like to remove the paper now because it is a painful and messy process. Get the non-fun stuff out of the away so that the fabric is ready to use when I need it.

This paper sometimes peels off easily and sometimes not at all. It depends on the glue type, the fabric content, how old the book is and the temperature and humidity the book has been stored in. Mostly, it takes some effort to remove. Others as well as me have tried different methods of removing the paper. Heat, water, steam, iron etc. None of them effective all the time. You have to experiment with your book.

I lucked out on this sample book as the paper practically fell off most of the fabric. It is never this easy.

Removing the paper allows for a larger piece of fabric to be reused and the paper to be recycled.

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Step 9: Admire Your Success & Mess

OK, the process is almost finished. Quite a mess has been created. See all the fabric lint on my yoga pants? The clump of threads is actually the glue spine with bits of fabric stuck to it still. I throw out this glue/fabric clump.

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A pile of paper from the back also exists. This could be used as packing material, but I recycle it.

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Step 10: Clean Up, Recycle Unusable Bits & Create

The only things left to do are to:

  1. Take the recyclable bits out to the recycle bin,
  2. Store the reusable bits for later use
  3. Clean the fabric dust bunnies off you
  4. Vacuum the fabric and paper lint up
  5. Create something wonderful in the future from your fabric nuggets of gold.

Finish Time: 4:40 pm.  Time elapsed from start to the finish of clean up was 25 minutes for this small and relatively easy to disassemble  decorator fabric sample book.

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What is FabMo? Rescuer of Designer Materials for Creative Reuse

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Did you ever wonder what happens to all those colorful and gorgeous fabric, wallpaper, tiles and carpet samples you see at furniture and other design stores? Well, when it goes out of style to make room for new styles,  it goes straight to the landfill.  At least most of it does. FabMo rescues some of these materials by diverting them from the landfill to its small warehouse where people can creatively reuse the materials to make something fabulous.

FabMo is a non-profit, volunteer organization in Mountain View, California. FabMo collects most of its materials from weekly runs to the San Francisco Design Center. However, some materials come from donations from the general public and other stores.

FabMo saves about 40 tons of material from the landfill each year! The manufacturers don’t allow the materials to be sold directly, but items made from these materials can be. Artists and other creative types make all sorts of items from dolls to wall hangings; from flower pins to quilts; and from pillows to purses. Materials are free to the public, but donations to support the FabMo operations are encouraged by those who can afford it.

Wearable Darkness makes some items from the designer textiles found at FabMo. In the future, you’ll see a few blog posts that describe what is involved in re-purposing these materials. It isn’t as fast and easy as one thinks.

See the FabMo website for more details about this great organization.