Voile as baby mobile shapes?

I've used this stuff before:

works very well and would do what you want to do. It dries clear. Youjust brush it on the fabric, and let it dry. How I would handle what youwant to do is poke a hole in the butterfly for where the mobile cord willgo later. Then brush both sides with the Stiffy. Then I'd use a big safetypin to pin the butterflies, through the hole for the cord, to a wirehanger. Then hang to dry. That's just thinking off the top of my head. HTH

Sharon

Something else to try is Elmer's white glue, the kind used in school. I have put it on things like paper that I wanted to preserve. You paint it on evenly, let it dry thoroughly, and you can actually wipe it clean with a damp cloth after that. Cheap, but very effective.

I think the glue would work well for this application as well. I was going to suggest heavy-duty spray or undiluted starch.

Beverly

You are a star! That looks like just the thing. I've just done a bit of research on UK sources and come up with one. I've also found a different manufacturers version of the same thing, and there's at least one UK source of that as well.

I shall check out the local craft / sewing stores and see what I can turn up. In researching tonight, it appears that me trying just plain old "white" or "Elmers" glue might be worth a try. DD has a huge pot of that, so on some of the excess white material, I shall test that out. It's not as if I need it the butterflies to be waterproof or child proof after all....

I like your idea for pre-piercing the pieces and how to dry them - very sensible and practical - I'm so thankful - I have very little brain left at the moment (gestating #2....)!

Many many thanks

Sarah

Beverly,

I had thought about starch, I do actually (somewhat amazingly as I am the queen of quick laundry!) have some starch in the house. I wasn't sure whether or not it would make the voile stiff enough.

I can see I shall have to have a test session next time I have some free time to experiment with Elmers and starch to see which works best, and at what dilution. It could be a project that DD 'helps' me with! She loves gluing (I don't love what it does to the working area, but she has such fun).

Thanks for your thoughts. I shall let the group know how the testing went.

Sarah

Hi Joanne,

Thanks for the heads up - I have some UK equivalent to Elmers - or rather DD has a huge pot of it. It hadn't occurred to me that that would do the trick, but you are right - is does dry clear.

I'm impressed that it gives a wipe clean effect! With a toddler in the house, things that wipe clean are very important......

I shall get myself some test material, and 30 minutes peace and quiet (ha!) and get experimenting soon!

Many thanks

Sarah

Best of luck with it. It's really a wonder product, with all kinds of applications. I hope you have fun exploring some of them!

Glad to help!! Let us know what you end up doing and let us know if your little helper gets to help too. ;) (good luck with that one!! Maybe it could be an "outside" project??)

Sharon

Well, having just straightened the fabric (*shudder* it wriggled worse than DD having her toenails cut this morning!), and cut out the length needed for the sheer curtain, without cutting any butterflies in half, I found myself with 19 butterflies total of four different designs.

Further to the suggestions received, I have just painted one piece of test fabric (some of the white off-cuts!) with starch, and one piece of test fabric with elmers white glue - having carefully labelled each test piece before hand, and making sure I got the elmers on the piece of fabric marked 'elmers'......

I'll let you know which works best of the two tests - the starch was certainly the nicest to apply.

The bad news is that the butterflies have an obvious 'side' and are not quite symmetrical, and a right pain to cut out!

I'm now pondering how many to suspend from the mobile, and how many to stick on the wall as part of the mural I have planned in my mind but yet to paint.....

Sarah