Friday 6 June 2014

C&G level 2 Module 3 Chapter 2 completed

Plain Edges


Straight edge

Taking elements of an umbrella drawing from my source designs in Chapter One, I made a draft plan for the piece and cut out five different sized shapes to arrange on a background fabric.



Draft plan for straight stitched edges

I decided not to use Brusho from the plan but used a piece of blue silk supported by Vilene and using Bondaweb attached slightly different blue triangular shapes to the base fabric. I then covered with a blue organza attached with Bondaweb. Then I attached with Bondaweb on top of these layers, blunted triangular shapes again from the source design.

I had seen a costume on TV which was blue and yellow and thought how good they had looked together, so using a satin stitch, I stitched some of the sides of the bottom layer triangles. Then with a contrasting blue thread, I made two rows of straight stitch on top of the yellow blunted triangles. 

As I chose to have four designs rather than one on my sample, some of the stitching was quite small on the little blunted triangles. I reduced the stitch length to make this easier but it was tricky. I used foot on throughout this chapter.


 Page 8. The straight edged sample

Satin stitched edges

I used the base of the Eiffel Tower sample as my design source and this time stuck to the five shapes. 



 Draft plan for satin stitched edges

I created my background fabric from a green felt supported on Vilene and tried to find an 'industrial' looking stitch to work with the engineered Eiffel Tower. I tried a few on a small piece of calico and put this into my note book with the plan. 

Using a variegated thread, I stitched the base fabric all over and then cut out my shapes and Bondawebbed them to the base fabric, trying to create and interesting shape on the fabric. These were  satin stitched around using the same variegated thread for the connected shapes and then one surrounded with red and one with green for the separated elements 


 Page 9. Satin stitched edged sample

Curved edges

I chose to use a random dyed background as the design source that I intended to use was from the Montgolfier balloon image. 


My draft plans for the sample

I random dyed a piece of damp calico with Brusho red, yellow and blue and crumpled the fabric to get the paint to all areas. The resulting fabric was pleasing and could represent a cloudy sky with greenery. 

To enhance the piece, I used Milton (bleach) and with a paintbrush drew the shapes that I had cut for the appliqué that I intended to add to the fabric. The bleach removed the dye as I had intended it should. The piece was then stitched in straight lines down the fabric in the same colour green as the appliqués were to be. 

Then I cut the five shapes taken from the balloon image and Bondawebbed them onto the base fabric. They were then stitched down using red and green threads in a twin needle.


Page 10. Curved edges

Second curved edge sample

This piece was to be made using satin stitch as an edging for the appliqués. I chose a piece of Vilene supported random dyed felt as my background and intended to add a background block print stitched around with and automatic pattern. Using Milton (bleach) I block printed a small piece to see if I could remove the dye from the felt. That worked, and I then found a shell automatic pattern which I thought would work with the shape of the block. 


My test piece

I then blocked the whole fabric piece with bleach and waited for that the develop and dry. All the blocks were then encompassed with a the shell pattern using a variegated thread than toned with the fabric. 

Notebook drafts for curved and automatic samples

For my curves, I had chosen to cut a 'comma' which had been reflected by the block I had chosen for the background. I cut five 'commas' from a piece of paisley printed tussar silk and backed them with Bondaweb. I attached these pieces to the base fabric and stitched around them with a tonal lilac thread to bring the piece together. 


Page 11. Curved edges 2

Some of the satin stitch is a little uneven but the whole piece I find very pleasing. 

Torn and frayed edges with fabric

I chose a piece of cerise silk which I supported with Vilene. One the diagonal I stitched an automatic pattern using a variety of pattern lengths and three different variegated threads which I then alternated across the fabric. I then tore strips from a piece of random dyed polyester and some plain calico and using one of the three variegated threads attached the torn fabric pieces onto the base fabric. I then altered the right and left angles of the silk base fabric that I had left unstitched by removing the weft thread from the silk to depict a kite and stay with the "Up, up and away" theme for the Chapter. I think that this piece is vibrant and would look great flying high in the sky.


Page 12. The automatic stitched torn fabric

Frayed edges with paper



My draft plan for the torn paper piece

As the piece was to be about torn paper, I decided to use newspaper, print and text to build the sample. I took a piece of Indian text newspaper and photographed it, then printed it onto fabric using a sepia tint in my editing on computer. The text is from Orissa in India. 


The printed fabric

I then stitched a grid using black and silver variegated thread onto the printed fabric which was supported by a piece of felt. Using the text possibilities on the sewing machine, I then fairly randomly stitched the word "Namaste" across the horizontal fabric lines of the grid. This is an Indian greeting translated as "I bow to you". 

I tore lines of text from the same newspaper as the base fabric and used acrylic wax on both sides to strengthen the paper for stitching. The lines of text were then stitched to the base fabric using the same stitched word. I then used a gold Markel stick and rubbed it across the lines of paper text. 

I really like this completed piece. 


Page 13 Torn paper edges finished sample

This was a very enjoyable chapter.