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Friday 31 May 2013

Couching ribbons and threads

31st May 2013

Today I have had great fun stitching ribbons and textured yarns onto felt using a variety of stitches.



Thursday 30 May 2013

Weaving fabric and couching threads

30th May 2013

I have had a great time today using the fabrics from yesterday's blog.

I used the pale muslin cut into fairly straight lines then tore organza strips and pinned the muslin to some foam then wove the organza strips through the cuts. I then ironed on a very fine vilene to hold the weaving firm for stitching. I chose the twin needle and  Gutterman Sulky thread 4032 and 4030 (pink, mauve variegated) to stitch lengthways then a single needle and paler of the 2 threads for the widthways stitching. I am quite pleased with the overall effect as every other square has a sheen from the organza and the colours are delicate.













Next I used some of the brightly coloured calico and cut wavy lines ready for weaving with 2cm organza ribbon. I love the vibrant colours in this piece. I used a programmed stitch to join lengthways in purple ( I wasn't sure whether to use red)  I didn't stitch widthways as I thought it would look too busy.




















My last play was again with the last piece of dyed calico. Using a variety of coloured and textured threads I couched in red with the zigzag changing the length and width of the stitch. I like the colour and textures in this sample.

Wednesday 29 May 2013

Experimenting with dye and stitches

29th May 2013

Last night I cut 2 pieces of fabric (muslin and washed calico) the same size. Placing the muslin over the calico I then brushed the surface with water. Next I took liquid red, blue and yellow dye and brushed this from left to right over the cloth. The colours were really vibrant and stripy. Then I went to bed.

I came down this morning and the colours on the muslin were very muted and delicate and when I looked at the calico beneath there were my vibrant colours!! The dyes had merged so my fabrics looked completely different from the night before. I have now decided to take photos of the fabric when I first use the dyes then again when the fabric has dried as the difference is quite amazing!

I cut pieces from both fabrics to fiddle with later.

I decided to stitch 2 shades and widths of organza ribbon diagonally on one piece. These were attached using my twin needle in three different stitches. I like the effect of the patterned stitch and twin needle as it gives texture to the fabric.
The downside is I didn't set the dye by washing as I wanted to keep the colours as they were so my fingers are now a purply colour from handling the fabric during stitching!! I might try in diluted fabric paint another time. I did say at the beginning that this was a learning curve for me but I just love it.


Tuesday 28 May 2013

Twin needle

28th May 2013

I layered 3 pieces of linen fabric in wavy lines.
The first was plain, the other 2 I had printed in different ways using primary colour fabric paints.
I lightly sponge printed in red and blue then applied  red using a cork. The other piece I sponge printed in red, overprinted in painted bubble wrap then cork printed yellow on the blue circles.
I stitched the layers together in a red automatic stitch.

Now for the twin needle!!
I have never used one before and was a little apprehensive in case the thread tangled but it was great and will also do fancy stitches. I had yellow and blue top threads and used straight, zigzag and wavy stitches and for the first time overstitched the joins to see the effect. I am looking forward to trying feather stitch with the twin needle.

Monday 27 May 2013

Printing and painting on fabric

I have been printing, stencilling and painting on various fabrics today just using blue and white fabric paint. I added small amounts of blue to a large amount of white and had 3 shades. I sponged a swirly stencil with each shade onto linen (I really like the effect of paint and dyes on linen as it shows the texture of the fabric) I then used different sized brushes to make wavy lines on another piece of linen in the 3 shades. I really liked the result.