A painted fabric roll, and didn't my fingertips suffer for it!

Over the last couple of days I've been sewing a fabric roll, using as a base this painted fabric. These were scraps of mainly cotton that I painted and stenciled with acrylic paint, then machine sewed together. It took me a while to figure out what I could make with this fabric rectangle, but I liked the idea of slow-stitching into it. Because the paint had stiffened up the material I didn't need any interfacing, but just added a backing fabric and began sewing lines of running stitch up and down to give the quilted effect I wanted.

The only drawback was that, as I noted earlier, the painted fabric had stiffened due to the painted effects, so pushing a needle into it was harder than it'd be with fabric in its natural state. I've never got to grips to using a thimble, so ended up with sore fingertips and some nicely developing callouses. However, after a few muttered curses, I eventually quilted the entire piece. Next I folded over roughly a third of it lengthways to create a pocket. Then sewed two further lines of running stitch to divide one long pocket into three. I added a couple of buttons to show where the pocket edges were. Afterwards I added a length of ribbon for a tie, and the fabric roll was done.

It can be bundled into a smaller roll, so the upper third folds down to form a top for the pockets, safely enclosing any small bits and pieces inside. As shown above and below.

Or if you can bundle the roll up with that upper third unfolded (if that makes sense.) As per below.

And here it is rolled up,

I'm definitely going to make another of these rolls, but next time I'll be kinder to my hands and choose softer material to work with.

Hope you enjoyed seeing what I've made, and thanks for stopping by. Let me know if you have any questions or comments, won't you?

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