Fabric Panel Wall Art With Embellishments

Why not give your Mom a unique decorative fabric panel to hang on her wall for a Mother's Day gift; some added embellishments gives it a nice personal touch.

I picked up some fabric from the "remnants" pile at a fabric store, which cost about $5 with enough left over to make a second panel. The picture frame was just $1.25 at a dollar store. The beads, thread, and buttons I had lying around at home, making this a fairly inexpensive project (shh, don't tell Mom it was so cheap!)

• Pretty fabric
• Picture frame (I used a certificate frame, 8.5X11in)
• Thread, needle, scissors
• Buttons, beads, ribbon, lace, embroidery thread, grommets (what ever you can think of to add to your fabric).

You can make these as large or small as you'd like; poster size would look great, or how about several small matching 5X7in frames.

Find the part of the fabric you plan to use and cut out an area that is about 5cm (2 inches) larger (width and height) than the frame.

Adding beads are an easy way to add some accents to your fabric. I used thread that matched the colour of the bead.

Covered buttons are cute and will add a neat 3D effect to the flower centre, I also added some french knots to this flower as well (see step 6 for french knots).

• For this, you will need a button with a shank.
• Cut a circle of fabric that is large enough to cover the button and fold over the inside too.
• Sew (running stitch) around the edge of the circle of fabric.
• Pull the ends of the thread like drawstrings, and knot the thread tightly.
• Sew button in place.

I added a simple bow that I made from white ribbon and added a button on top for this flower.

To make the bow

• Poke the needle up through one end of the ribbon.
• Make a small loop with the long end of the ribbon and poke it through the needle. Adjust the size of the loop to make the bow bigger or smaller.
• Fold the long end of the ribbon up and over at an angle and poke it through the needle again.
• Form the second loop, poking it through the needle.
• Repeat until you have as many loops as you want.
• Thread the needle back and forth through the centre of the bow to secure the loops.
• Cut off excess ribbon.
• Sew bow and button in place.

The leaves on my fabric had little blue spots on them, so I decided to add french knots with embroidery thread.

French knots (or knotted stitch) are as follows:

• From the underside of the fabric pull the threaded needle through.
• Loop the thread around the needle twice.
• Poke the needle down through the fabric (not through the same hole).

Wikipedia has a nice diagram of this knot, as well as other interesting stitches here.

I had a bunch of embroidery thread left over from a cross-stitch project, so I used the thread to back-stitch along the printed brown circles on the fabric's pattern.

When you are finished with the embellishments, remove the glass (we won't need it) and the backing from the picture frame.

• Place the frame over the fabric.
• Fold over the edges of the fabric and tuck in the corners. Make sure that the fabric is pulled tight.
• Place the frame backing on the frame, and fold over the metal clips so that it holds everything in place.
• It's ready to hang!