The second decoration inspired by Comme des Garçons is a lumpy bumpy bauble take on Rei Kawakubo’s iconic Body Meets Dress, Dress Meets Body collection from Spring/Summer 1997. So this is Bauble Meets Gingham, Gingham meets Bauble. See more examples of our fashion baubles.
This is another project that doesn’t need any sewing, but in its own strange way, it does make you aware of the curves of the body and how we have to manipulate fabric around in. So as your fingers are covered in glue and you are painting gingham around bulbous curves you can think about the darts we discussed in How Patterns Work.
Equipment:
- Rotary Cutter (How To Start Sewing, Chapter 22)
- Protective Mat (Chapter 22)
- Fabric Shears (Chapter 3)
- Hot Glue Gun.
- Paintbrush.
Fabric / Materials / Trims:
- Styrofoam baubles in assorted sizes.
- Gingham in your choice of colours.
- 6 mm wide black ribbon in double sided satin.
- Sequin pins about 13 mm long.
- PVA glue.
Step 1: Cut Up Some Baubles
To create the base shapes, you can cut slices off the smaller baubles as shown here. We used an old bread cutting knife because the wide serrated blade worked well. You can shape these slices with your fingers a bit so that they will sit against the side of the large baubles. These are going to create the lumps and bumps of your baubles.
Step 2: Glue Lumps onto Baubles
You can use a hot glue gun to stick the lumps onto the sides of the larger baubles. We also kept some smaller baubles plain that will simply be covered in gingham. Don’t worry if it’s all looking a bit rough and ready because it will all be covered in gingham soon.
Step 3: Cut Out Gingham
To cover the baubles in gingham you will need to create specially shaped pieces of fabric as shown here. This will make more sense once you start sticking them onto your bauble in the next step, so you may want to cut a few pieces and try sticking them to a spare bauble first so that you get the idea. Basically, the tapered shapes help to cover the middle of the bauble while tapering towards the top and bottom of the bauble. These basic shapes can be used to cover the baubles with and without lumps, it just takes some trial and error to see which sizes you like using. These pieces can be cut with fabric shears, but can be cut more quickly using a rotary cutter and a protective mat.
Step 4: Glue Gingham Onto Baubles
Next, use some PVA glue and a paintbrush to apply the gingham onto the baubles. Start with a plain bauble first and cover a section in glue. Then, position the gingham slice in the centre of the bauble then paint over the gingham with more glue so that it smooths the fabric up and down over the surface of the bauble. Work your way around the bauble so that the horizontal lines of the gingham roughly match up around the middle or at least head in the same sort of direction. Overlap the pieces as you work around the bauble. You may also find it helpful to use a little water to get the glue to the right consistency.
For the lumpy baubles, start by covering a lump first, overlapping gingham as you go until the lump is covered. Then work additional pieces of gingham around the rest of the bauble. As you work, you’ll start to work out the best ways to position the pieces to get the best coverage.
Step 5: Add Hanging Ribbon
When the baubles have dried, you can add hanging ribbons. You can vary the length of the ribbons depending on the size of your baubles but a length of about 24 cm was enough to double over and then knot at the top. For the smaller baubles, an 18 cm length was a better proportion. Additional ribbon lengths of about 20 cm were also cut and then tied into bows at the bottom of the hanging loops. You can then use a couple of sequin pins to pin through the bottom of the bow into the top of the bauble.
Finished Lumps and Bumps Baubles
And now you have your finished lumpy baubles ready to hang on the Christmas tree or to gift to a die-hard CDG fan.
