Tombstone Softie

You should have seen the face of my friend from the quilt store when I told her why I was buying gray fabric. For some strange reason she seemed to think it was rather morbid to make a stuffed tombstone. I can’t imagine why.

The pattern for this is available here in a package with yesterday’s candy corn pattern.

My sophisticated, gothic tree was skewing heavily ivory and black, so I wanted to bring in a little more silver sparkle. But I couldn’t find a fabric that was silvery and sparkly without veering off into astronaut uniform territory, so I had to make it.

I’d never seen the results of trying to heat emboss fabric, but it actually worked swimmingly. I rubbed the fabric piece with a clear inkpad, pored the powder over the top and shook off the excess. It actually worked a little better than I expected because the powder clung to every fiber on the fabric, so I had to scrape some off with my fingers. I was going for a mottled, stony look, not a glossy silver tombstone.

Then I stamped the letters in black and embossed them with black powder.

When the powder is heated, it melts into little beads that look like mercury. If you stop here they’ll eventually flake off, but if you keep heating they’ll eventually start to get absorbed by the fabric and then they just become a part of it.

I’m pleased with these, and the construction is really simple. I just don’t think anything can be very morbid when they’re made into a softie.