https://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/pin-striped-planner • Posted by Alice Butcher & Ginny Farquhar
Many of us enjoy the creativity and ease of taking photographs with our digital cameras. Sadly, most of these photos remain in files on the computer and are too easily forgotten. To kick start a New Year and become a little more efficient, this fabulous monthly wall planner is a great way of displaying some of your much loved pictures whilst organizing yourself and the family. Choose your favourite photos or images to print on to fabric and make a montage of memories. With 31 numbered pockets and removable month banners, jot down notes or reminders and insert into the pockets and make some decorative pins to attach for those special occasions, such as a family birthday or anniversary. Readers can order Home Sweet Sewn for the special price of £9.50 (RRP £14.99) with free p&p (UK only). To order please visit <a href="http://www.rucraft.co.uk/detail.php?productid=ST07232&proddesc=Home+Sweet+Sewn">RUCraft</a> and quote code R11133 at the checkout.
Many of us enjoy the creativity and ease of taking photographs with our digital cameras. Sadly, most of these photos remain in files on the computer and are too easily forgotten. To kick start a New Year and become a little more efficient, this fabulous monthly wall planner is a great way of displaying some of your much loved pictures whilst organizing yourself and the family. Choose your favourite photos or images to print on to fabric and make a montage of memories. With 31 numbered pockets and removable month banners, jot down notes or reminders and insert into the pockets and make some decorative pins to attach for those special occasions, such as a family birthday or anniversary. Readers can order Home Sweet Sewn for the special price of £9.50 (RRP £14.99) with free p&p (UK only). To order please visit <a href="http://www.rucraft.co.uk/detail.php?productid=ST07232&proddesc=Home+Sweet+Sewn">RUCraft</a> and quote code R11133 at the checkout.
Prepare First cut out your linen top fabric and canvas interlining to the exact measurements given in the ‘You will need’ list. Mount the interlining on to the reverse of the linen with pins and tack together around the s/a. Transfer through all your markings and placement lines. Stitch a tacking line on to these markings so that you can see them from the right side.
Choose your images. For our planner we have used 14 small, bordered images taken from photographs stored on the computer. In addition, we printed off a further five images such as the pumpkin, apple and robin that would work well as cut out shapes. The cut out flower shapes are taken from pressed flowers that were just photocopied.
Next, play around with your chosen images and work out their sizing and positioning. If you are using images from your computer, re-size and save them in your photo-editing program. To create the effect we have, aim for good quality images sized to between 5 x 5cm (2 x 2in) and 14 x 10cm (5½ x 4in). All photocopiers have a sizing option to enable you to scale images up and down by a percentage. Remember to make a note of the percentage that you have reduced (or enlarged) them to.
Take time planning your photo-montage. Print out or photocopy all of your chosen images on to paper and lay these on the top half of the linen. Move around until you are happy with the placing. Remember to leave a space of about 24 x 6cm (9½ x 2³⁄8 in) for the monthly banner and buttons.
Print to fabric Cut out as many calico rectangles as you need for printing your images. Make sure that they are 3cm (1¹⁄2in) smaller than your freezer paper. To protect your printer rollers, ensure that all edges are straight and free from loose threads. Place the shiny side of the freezer paper face down on to the calico and press. The calico will adhere temporarily to the freezer paper, allowing it to be fed through a printer.
First, have a trial print to ensure that your printer rollers are clean and that the print quality is good. Put the freezer paper backed calico into the printer and select your first image. When you are ready to print, select the paper option for photo printing. If you are photocopying, feed the freezer paper backed calico through in the same way.
Once you are happy with the print quality and positioning, print out or photocopy all of your images, then leave to dry. Peel off the freezer paper and place the printed calico face down on to a blank piece of paper. Gently iron on the reverse with a warm iron to remove any excess ink residue. Iron some Bondaweb on to the reverse of each image and cut out with a small 3mm (1/2in) border. For fun shapes such as the bird or pumpkin, cut out closely around the shape.
To arrange, remove the Bondaweb backings and carefully take up your paper mock-ups piece by piece and replace with the fabric images. Fuse the montage under a pressing cloth. Stitch on all shapes with a topstitch. Difficult curved shapes such as the flowers can be stitched on with freehand machine embroidery.
Choose a font style and size to approx. 48. Type out the months, January to December, making sure that you have at least a 1.5cm (5/8in) space around each word. Choose a colour, save and print out on to freezer paper backed calico. Put this to one side until later.
Make the pocket strips Cut out the linen pocket strips and calico linings. Place one linen and one calico strip with r/s together and stitch both long sides. Turn through and press. Transfer the inverted pleat markings. Repeat with all pocket strips. Note. that the fifth strip is a different length. This is the bottom strip with the numbers 29, 30 and 31 and then two large pockets for reminder pins and notepaper.
Print out numbers 1–31 in a suitable font and size, then draw in reverse on to the smooth side of the Bondaweb. We have chosen five different fabrics for each row of seven. Fuse on to your chosen fabrics, cut out and position at the centre of each pocket front. Hold in place with a machine stitch through the centre of each number. Add an image on to each of the two large pockets on the bottom row as per.
Take a pocket strip and create the inverted pleats for your seven pockets by pressing each marked foldline towards the pleat centre.
Repeat with all the pocket strips. Pop some pins in to hold in place and position the bottom edge of the pocket strips on to the placement lines on the planner in number order. Place a pin through the centre of each pocket front to hold in place and tack the centre of each pleat into position through all layers
Holding the pocket pleats open, machine stitch the centres into place starting at the top row and working each vertical column at a time. Double back at the start and finish of each pocket to secure well. Trim ends, and repeat with each column. Roll the planner to reduce bulk and aid stitching.
Remove pins and press the pocket pleats closed. Tack the pockets into place along the placement lines and, with a denim needle, machine stitch into position. Trim ends, remove tacking stitches and give a final press.
Month banners and pins Fuse a piece of interfacing to a calico rectangle 24 x 12cm (9½ x 4¾in). Press in the short edges 1cm (3/8in). Fold in half along the long edge, r/s together and stitch leaving the short ends open. Turn through and press. Cut two pieces of twine 10cm (4in) long and knot each one to form loops. Insert the loops into each end, making sure that the loop is the perfect size to fit snugly over your button. Pin and topstitch closed. Repeat with 11 more calico rectangles.
Cut 12 linen rectangles 24 x 6cm (9½ x 23/8in). Topstitch 1cm (3/8in) from the edge and fray back by 5mm (3/16in). Cut out the 12 printed month names with a 5mm (3/16in) border and centre on to each piece of linen. Topstitch to attach. Pin the linen on to the calico rectangle and hand sew with a running stitch. Using Stitch and Tear, transfer each relevant month motif on to the linen, about 2cm (¾in) either side or the wording, and embroider in your chosen colours.
To make a pin, draw out a simple design and trace on to Bondaweb. Fuse to your chosen scrap of fabric, cut out and press on to the coloured felt. Stitch to neaten with a small zigzag. Attach a small safety pin to the reverse.
Finish Cut out the backing cloth. This should be 3cm (1 1/8in) larger than the planner all round. Lay the planner on top of the backing cloth with w/s together and with 3cm (1 1/8in) of the backing showing at each edge. Pin together and tack around the outside edge just inside the s/a. Press over the backing 3cm (1 1/8in) towards the front. Press under 1.5cm (5/8in) and pin. Fold the corners at right angles and topstitch into position.
Complete the wall planner by making five eyelets along the top edge (refer to the pattern for positioning). Sew on two buttons to hold the month banners. Hang the planner from picture hooks.