Hand of Fatimeh for "Hands in Love" Wedding Gift

I enjoy making and giving gifts. This is a demonstration of the process of one such wall hanging. 

Difficulty Level: Medium

Supplies Needed:

1) heavy fabric as a backing

2) scraps of fabric, yarn, ribbon

3) Wonder-Under

4) bells, dangles, beads or shells

5) misc pre made fimo shapes

6) tacky glue or E-6000

Tools Required: 

1) needle & thread or sewing machine

2) iron (if using W-U)

I began with a velvet pillow cover; it's heavy enough to hold the layers I'll be adding. Additionally, I can hide any stitching easily behind the back cover. Small slits can be cut in the two upper corners and wood dowel or curtain rod run through for hanging. (You could use any denim or canvas, fold over the top edge about two inches and sew to create a slot for a rod to slide through.)

I cut out stylized hand from an old felted sweater.  I had a wonderfully crazy skirt from the 70's for additional texture from which I cut out an eye shape. 

I next ironed on Wonder-Under to both small pieces. It's cleaner when done before cutting out your shape but I forgot. :)

I'll cut the paper backing to fit the shape and when I'm ready to iron them to the larger piece. I will peel back the paper revealing a fusible web surface. I'll be hand sewing the pieces together so the Wonder-Under is just for added strength. 

I quickly pinned on some sequined decorative yarn-ish stuff. 

I hand also hand sewed the hand on with thick embroidery string for added stability and a border. 

After that, I free-hand embroidered some organic shapes onto felt triangles on the sewing machine. I'm new at this so the final product is very organic. :)  
(I made yellow ones instead because they contrasted better than the turquoise.)

Close-up of dangle trim

Finally, I added buttons for eyes on the outer fingers of the hand which serves as doves as well. I sewed a ribbon or beaded dangles to the bottom of the entire piece and glued one to each fimo heart. Then I sewed the fimo hearts in place. Making fabric art is a layering process and it's quite possible to never finish such a project. At some point, you just have to stop, and say this is it. 

Close-up of hand

Completed project