Crafty project finished, but.......

Hello and Good Evening. My apologies for being absent without leave. I got my head into this project and everything else got put on the back burner. That's how it goes, I get into crafty mode and nothing else matters, ha ha. Back now, the project is done, but I am unable to show a photo of the finished article because I can't get a decent photo with flash. I'll retake some in daylight tomorrow. 

This is how it started. A piece of plastic mesh and some t-shirts.

Cut the t-shirts into strips and then into small pieces. I'm sure you all know how to do that.

I decided on a simple heart shape. It's quite big, 20 inches across at it's widest point and 21 inches top to bottom. I drew the shape onto a piece of wallpaper first and made a template. Starting on the outer edge and working my way towards the centre. I used one of those gadgets with a hook and a barb that you use for rugs. The mesh is quite big so it went through easily. 

Filling in nicely. When I finished it I noticed that the heart in the middle had become distorted, that's because the mesh is a diamond shape, which lends itself to straight lines rather than curves. I had to make some adjustments by removing some of the pieces, and filling in the gaps with the adjacent colour.

Next I needed something to stiffen it, yep you've guessed, it's a wall hanging. I didn't want to use wood because it would make it too heavy and I didn't want to saw round curves with an ordinary saw. I have some of this thick not sure how to describe it, heavy duty plastic sheet, bits left over from a previous project. It's  similar to what I used to cover the summerhouse door, only a bit thicker and not so flexible. Found it in the same skip in fact. Easy to cut with scissors. 

I had a big piece of red felt for the backing, given to me a few months back in a bin bag full of fabric.

Next I fastened the front to the stiffener with thin but strong twine.

But what to hang it with. I have some red cord which wasn't strong enough to use a single strand so I plaited it. I pinned it on first to see if it would take the weight, it did, but the heart was too floppy and started to fold. My solution was to fix a knitting needle across the back and attach the cord to that. Problem solved, it keeps it flat.

And that's as far as the pictures go for tonight. Phew, my brain has gone to mush, I need to chill out.
Thanks for popping in. I'll be back tomorrow. Promise. Toodle pip.