You might remember from previous posts that my son Mario loves balloons. When he was 4, balloons were the only thing he would draw. (Thankfully, he's moved on to other subjects!) I had saved some of the drawings and decided to preserve his innocent little artwork on fabric. Here is his original drawing on paper:
This project is very simple, and I wanted to share the steps with you in case your kids are growing up too fast, right before your eyes like mine are. First, I layed a piece of white linen on top of the artwork, taped both layers to a sunny window and traced the drawing onto the fabric with a washable fabric transfer pen. Then I took the drawing to the craft store and matched up the colors with embroidery floss.
Using a simple backstitch I transformed his sweet artwork into a stitched keepsake for him. I folded in the edges of the fabric about a 1/2", pressed them down and sewed the linen onto a canvas tote bag that he now uses for his piano lesson books. He's 7 now and loves his new bag, but he did tell me I should have made his balloons look rounder. Of course, the wobbly shapes drawn by his 4-year old hands are exactly the reason I saved the picture in the first place.


