Hot Stuff - Oliso Iron Case Challenge

Picture this - a completely solar-powered, aerodynamically designed, sleek automobile of the future. Its exterior is so dark and shiny that the passing landscape is reflected perfectly on its surface.

Cool Trees, Scorching Planet

In January, we received a mini Oliso Iron, complete with a matching Solemate (a base for placing the hot iron) and a thick wool carry case. Island Batik's August Challenge is to decorate the carry case for our Oliso Mini Irons.

This was an unusual project. The thick wool carry case would certainly break a needle or two, if I tried sewing on it. The idea of hand-sewing on a thick material made my finger pads shudder, thimble or not. Design consideration aside, the logistics of this project was the bigger challenge.

I decided that it would be best to stick to the surface, instead of sewing on it.  I traced the shape of the two sides and the back on to a background fabric, cut it out and began designing/playing.

Bright Fabrics + Steam A Seam 2

Layering

Wool Mat - Notation for the next Layer

I used a heat-erasable pen to mark the gentle slopes of the landscape and note its placement on the existing layer.

Once I layered the landscape curves on the background, it was time to add the trees, followed by quilting with wavy lines. I stitched the entire piece onto the smooth side of SF-101 and trimmed it. I secured the edges with zig-zag stitching and ironed the piece on to the carry bag, so that the sticky/bumpy side of the SF-101 did the work!

Ta-Da

This was a fun and creative project, which forced me to think outside the case :-D  I used the case once in the beginning to trace the shape and once in the end to stick the piece to it. I am glad that I did not have to stick a needle through that thickness. My finger pads are thanking me :-)

But enough about that. Let's see how the other three surfaces turned out.

Preparing the Landscape hills

Adding Trees

Cool Landscape - Bright Trees

The Cute Caboose

Braids

The top was a simple rectangle shape. I treated this slightly differently. I used the leftover braid from a previous project, stitched it on all four sides facing the sticky side of SF-101, cut a slit in the SF-101 and turned it inside out. I carefully pushed out the corners and stitched on top. Then I ironed it to the top of the carrying case.

I could not use this technique on the side panels because they were thicker due to the use of stabilizer (applique) and could not be turned. 

In the end, I am so very pleased with this project. It challenged me, allowed plenty of room for creativity and turned out to be very cute :-) That is a win-win-win.

Do check out other Island Batik Ambassadors' posts. All of our projects are so uniquely creative. I love it!

Many thanks to Island Batik and Oliso for providing products for this project thru the Island Batik Ambassador program.

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In other news, Angela announced that Aqua/Tea/Turquoise is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color for August. Here are my picks.

Island Batik Scraps

I will be sharing with all my favorite linky parties (including Angela's on Saturday). See full list on the sidebar. But I'd love to hear from you. How are you feeling - Hot or Not?