I’m excited to introduce you all to one of the many talented creatives I’ve gotten to know through the Instagram community. Jen from Soul and Oak is here today to share one of her recent hand-dyed fabric creations. It’s a Stars and Stripes Hanging Wall Art that is perfect for the upcoming Fourth of July holiday!
Before we get to Jen’s beauteeful project, here’s a little background information on Jen. In reading her bio below, you’ll get why I love and respect her company’s mission statement.
Jennifer (Jen) de Tréglodé comes from a family of multi-generational sewers. She found her calling as a textile artist in her 20’s when she fell in love with the upcycle movement where she was able to incorporate her love for the environment with her love of creating with textiles. Her business Soul & Oak brings all her favorite things in life together; creating, nature, community, simplicity, mindfulness, and all things handmade. As a creative evangelist and a devoted student to the benefits creativity can have in our lives, she creates products, teaches workshops, and writes a blog in an attempt to empower people to create more and consume less.
Jen’s Guest Post
With Fourth of July around the corner, I wanted to share with you some creative ideas for décor. Wall hangings are kind of my favorite décor pieces these days. Great to complete decorative vignettes for your event or home. They are versatile and you can get so creative with them. There are hundreds of different materials and techniques you can use to make unique wall hangings. Today, I’m happy to share a fun and unique patriotic wall hanging I created to celebrate this Fourth of July in style. – Jen @ Soul and Oak
Stars & Stripes Indigo Wall Hanging
Materials Needed:
1) 1/2 yard thick white cotton fabric
2) Jacquard Indigo Dye Kit (The dye kit can dye at least 15 t-shirts so you can dye multiple fabric pieces)
3) wooden stir stick (I use kebab skewers)
4) red embroidery floss
6) large eye embroidery needle
7) 1 wooden dowel – 17.5 inches
8) drop cloth
9) Woolite
10) stitch witchery
11) seam gauge
12) iron and ironing board
Indigo Dyeing Instructions
1. Wash and dry your fabric.
2. Prepare the dye vat following the instructions in the Jacquard Indigo Dye Kit, mixing the ingredients in a bucket of warm water using your wooden stir stick. The kit includes gloves for you to use as well as rubber bands for folding the fabric. As you let the dye set, cover the bucket with something like a piece of cardboard so you don’t allow too much oxygen in.
3. Cut your fabric to 14″ wide by 18.5″ long.
4. Accordion fold the length of the fabric (folding down along the longest edges).
5. Accordion fold the opposite way to create a small square and wrap two rubber bands around your folded fabric.
6. When you are ready to dye, fill another bucket with water and place your folded fabric piece(s) into the water and massage a bit. When you bring it out wring the water out as much as possible.
7. Place your wet folded fabric piece into the dye vat and massage it a bit under the surface of the water for about a minute. Place on a drop cloth and let it sit for about 20 minutes. The color coming out of the dye vat is usually yellow green until you let it oxidize a bit and then it turns blue. Flip the piece so both sides are allowed to oxidize.
8. Repeat this process 1-2 more times to enhance the blue color.
9. After you have let the folded fabric piece sit for 20 minutes after the last dip in the dye vat, rinse in water until you are able to get most of the dye out and the water is running mostly clear. Doing this under a hose outside is best because the indigo can dye surfaces like your counter.
10. Hang dry.
11. When dry, I usually like to hand wash with a delicate detergent like Woolite and let hang dry again.
Embroidery & Wall Hanging Instructions
1. Use an embroidery hoop to pull the fabric piece taut and thread your needle with the red embroidery floss, tying a knot at the end.
2. Freely stitch stars all over the fabric. To stitch a star, pull the thread from the bottom of the fabric up and stitch an “x”. Then stitch a line that crosses the x horizontally across the middle. You can stitch wherever and vary the sizes of your stars. Move the embroidery hoop as you want to embroider different areas of the fabric. I typically tie off at each star, otherwise you can see the red thread under the white fabric running from one star to another. However this can be time consuming so it is your call.
3. Use a seam gauge to measure about a 1/2 inch on the sides and bottom of the fabric as you want it to hang and using an iron, press those seams down towards the back of your hanging. Press the corners at an angle to create a clean edge.
4. Cut enough stitch witchery to run the full length of your pressed seams and place under the folded seam. Using an iron, press these areas again. Follow directions for stitch witchery. Sometimes you will need to wet the seam first or use steam or both to get the seam to stick.
5. Taking the wooden dowel, fold the top of your hanging over and then add about 1 inch to where the fabric hit to create a seam at the top. Press that seam.
6. Cut enough stitch witchery to run the length of that seam and iron it in place at the very top edge of the seam, creating a pocket for the dowel to run through.
7. Insert the dowel and cut a piece of twine, approximately 28 inches, and tie to either end of the dowel.
8. Hang up your wall hanging to enjoy!
Love this project? Be sure to check out Jen’s Red, White, & Blue Dip Dye Wall Hanging HERE.
Note from Tee
Isn’t this stars and stripes hanging wall art project wonderful? I just love how it looks hanging against the wall. Like Jen, I too, love hanging decor! I’d like to thank Jen from Soul and Oak for sharing this fun and creative project with Beauteeful Living’s readers. Be sure to check Soul and Oak’s website here. You can also follow Soul and Oak in these social spots:
Instagram // Pinterest // Facebook
Have you made hanging art before? Any thoughts on today’s guest post? As always, thanks for reading. Xoxo, Tee.
I would love to do something like this to have something one of a kind and special in each of my kids rooms. My older toddler could probably help make the one for her room which would be fun. This is a nice wall hanging for the upcoming July 4th festivities here.
What a stunning piece of art to hang on the wall! I love all things Patriotic, and this one is no exception. The addition of the embroidered stars adds that little extra touch. I’m excited to make my own!
Oh wow! This turned out fantastic. I should try my hand at making this project, but there is no way it could possibly turn out as nicely as hers did! This is perfect for the 4th!
I look the unique wall hanging! There was a point when I used to do embroidery. I think I need to start again because these are just too cute! Love the tie dye background.
That looks like fun. I think it would be fun for kids to do as well. Thanks for sharing.
So cute!!!! I love how simple and easy it is for us non-artsy people haha! I’ve been looking for a fun craft to do for the holidays!
I am so not crafty at all. Never have been, but this looks fantastic. I might have to ask my daughter to give it a try. She is a whole lot craftier than I am,a nd loves to tackle a good DIY project.
I am someone who likes to dye a lot of fiber, so but I never thought about dying fabric to make a wall hanging! I believe that this is a cool idea and a great activity to do with your kids or to do just as a couple.
We used to make these in school back home in India. thanks for inspiring me to pass tradition to my kids.
This is super cute and looks very managable for me. I am not the most crafty, but I think I could handle this! Taking my skills up a notch and decorating for the 4th! I love it! My family will be so surprised!I think I will involve the kids 🙂
Oh this is really cute! It’s just in time for July 4th and I love the pictures detailing each step. I may have to check out Soul and Oak!
Beautiful wall hanging! I think my teens would love this craft. Thanks for sharing!