After becoming so frustrated trying to make zippered pouches (to the point of screaming "fraaaaaaak" and stomping around for a bit -- luckily I was alone) and wasting too many hours to admit , I resorted to trying something at which I thought I might be more successful. (The two zippered pouches I ended up with are not of, shall we say, quality.) So I tried this technique called 'slash-cut' to make these heart things (patches? appliques?). You layer material, then sew lots of channels, then cut through the layers, leaving one on the bottom. The original purpose of this method was to make a sort of chenille-like fabric. Mine didn't really end up like that, but that wasn't my intention anyway. I used felt, so I didn't expect them to get all fluffy and soft. I want to make more but there will not be any more cutting until my specialized slash cutter arrives in the mail next week. After cutting these five things for a few hours (it takes way longer than you might think), my fingers were aching from the metal handles of the tiny scissors I was using and I had big red dents. And today my right hand has had sudden spurts of ache like nobody's business.Anyway, now I have to figure out what I'm going to do with them. I'm thinking I will put them on the front of handbags. You can't really see the full effect from the picture -- there are three layers of colors on each one. And why hearts? I dunno except that I've always doodled hearts and I really like the imagery. (So does Jim Dine.) Plus it was a simple design to start with.
