This is the piece of embroidered and textured lutradur that I made last week.

It turned out kind of ordinary and I wasn’t totally loving it. I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to do with it so I threw it on a pile of fabric pieces that were stacked on the corner of my cutting table and it landed on a piece of stabilizer that I had cut and was preparing to use for an art bag. It was just the right size, so …

… now I’m really loving it!

So how do you turn ordinary into extraordinary?

It’s all about changing the way you look at things – changing your perception of how you believe things should be and opening yourself to the possibilities of how things could be.

When I made it, the textured lutradur was kind of interesting but it wasn’t really an outstanding piece and although I thought only briefly about it, I wasn’t sure how I could use it.

Although I make a lot of bags and purses, using lutradur as a fabric isn’t something I would normally consider. But when I tossed the lutradur onto the pile of fabric and it synchronistically landed on a piece of cut stabilizer, it gave me the opportunity to think about using it in an unusual way. Which I think worked very well!

When you’re open to new ways of doing things, expect wonderful results!

PS I’ll be adding this clutch in the Art Bag Section here in my design store later on today.

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Playing around with lutradur last week was kind of fun.

Apart from burning holes in fabric (which I enjoyed just a little too much), deconstructing, distressing, and generally playing around with unusual products is something I do from time to time. I find that experimenting with new products and techniques, working a little differently to the way that I normally work, and stepping just far enough beyond my comfort zone to feel a little uncomfortable, is the perfect way to stretch myself in new directions and make new and sometimes wonderful discoveries.

It takes a little effort to move out of your comfort zone because no-one actually ever wants to feel uncomfortable, but I find it easier to think of it as “playtime” where there is no defined outcome and where rules are made to be broken.

This week I still feel like I need a little extra playtime (a side effect of stepping outside your comfort zone is that sometimes you don’t want to go back), so I thought I’d continue working with lutradur but in a slightly different way.

Instead of using a free motion design to act as a resist for the holes like I did on the last piece, this time I backed the lutradur with a piece of fabric and added some bobbin work similar to the technique I used on my last art bag. I left plenty of space between the lines of stitching to allow for the holes and then I painted it various shades of brown which are not my usual colors, but I’m working out of my comfort zone, right? So let’s do it differently.

Like the previous piece of lutradur, it looks drastically different once I’ve heated a few holes and allowed the fabric underneath to show through.

And highlighting the texture really makes it stand out.

I kind of like the results so far, although I’m not all that in love with the color. I guess some things won’t change.

I challenge you this week to take some time to step out of your own comfort zone and try something new. If you’re not sure where to begin, start with one of my free tutorials which you can find here, and see where it leads. You never know. And you just might like it.

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