M2 Chapter 12 - More Design Ideas & Some Exploring!

I was thinking about incorporating some net into my fabrics for my assessment piece. I made a couple of samples with some left over scraps.

 

The top sample I simply stitched the net over a stitched sample with paint over it, and with the bottom sample I tried decorative stitching over the top of the net, adding cords and some meandering stitching with cut away net. The top sample may lend itself to part of the corset and the net gave a quite subtle texture but I'm not so sure the other sample will give me the effect I'm looking for.

 

In the new issue of Creative Workbox there is a nice technique demonstrated by Lynda Monk which follows on nicely from the workshop with her I recently attended. It involved bonding scrim to Tyvek and heated to get a nicely textured piece. I started with un-dyed scrim. The effect was could and I am going to use this with a piece I started at Lynda's workshop.

 

 

 

I then tried with some dyed scrim, looking for a flatter effect that I could possibly use in my corset.

 

Next I added some stitch, which flatted the sample a bit more but some of the original bumps & ridges still remained. It could be better to hand stitch this.

 

 

I then thought I would try with some crystal organza. This turned out well and I really like the effect but not sure I could fit this in my corset design.

 

 

Because the Tyvek is very noticeable I painted some black and then made another sample. The effect is always different with heated Tyvek and if this were to be used for a bigger piece I would make a much larger base piece to cut and sew.

 

The crystal organza gave a lovely delicate, shimmering effect. It would be good for maybe a belt or jewellery, evening bag etc.

M2 Chapter 11 - Revisited & Rescued

So after discussion with Sian I have revisited a couple of things from Chapter 11. Firstly meandering stitching and giraffe patterns. I used a grey thread with this sample and two layers of fabric.

 

I could have made more density and better shapes with more of the wide stitching, something to keep in mind for future work. Overall this gives a nice flowing feel to the samples.

 

Next I went back to look at Sample 11.10.

 

I achieved tonal difference in the paper sample and thought the stitching would carry it onto the fabric sample, but it really didn't work very well.

 

Following Sian's advice I decided to rescue it rather than abandon it! Firstly I stripped off all the added strips and cords, and decided I would use paint to increase the tonal difference. For a piece that would need future washing I would have added a fabric medium but for this sample I only used straight acrylic paint. I really liked the way the paint altered not only the tone, but the stitching. It made it much more interesting.

 

 

Next I laid the strips and cords back over the sample and took some quick photos on my phone to compare different effects.

 

 I decided I preferred the last effect and stitched the cords along the seam to add some more differentiation and then stitched the black strips back. I used grey thread again and a wider zig zag stitch.

 

Comparing the original sample to the rescued sample the change is very apparent.

 

 

Reflecting on this exercise, it has been very worthwhile rescuing the sample. Not to say that I wouldn't make some changes differently in the future, but it has opened many more possibilities. The painted stitching now look much more 'lizard' like and I love the effect. The black strips maybe look a little heavy but that is quite easily changed and I can see lots of possibilities for my corset piece - as predicted by Sian ;0)

M2 Chapter 12 - Ideas For Designing A Functional, 3D Embroidered Item

I started off by sketching and making some 3D shapes.

 

Top Left: Long shaped cylinder like the giraffe neck and the lizard body

 

Top Right: Pyramid like the lizard spikes

 

Bottom Left: Cylinder, again like the giraffe neck

 

Middle: Hexagon Prism like the lizard scales

 

Bottom Right: Cone like lizard spikes

 

 

I've chosen this long shaped cylinder which I can use as a 3D shape basis for a corset/bodice top. The hexagon prism shape would make a nice trinket box.

 

I went away to do some research into corsets. There is so much historical information this was quite time consuming! I pulled some books off my shelf and pulled together some info I had found at the Festival of Quilts.

 

 

Not quite a corset, but along the same lines. The plaster casts of Arlene's actual body were great and I loved the finished piece. A very modern take on Wonder Woman.

 

I could have filled pages with background research! The Scarlett O'Hara scene is one of my all time favourites.

 

 

Next I put together some initial ideas.

 

There are many ways in which I could design and make this stitched corset. Front or back fastening, forward seams, inset seams and so on. I have previously made a 'duct tape' corset, but it can be quite time consuming and I am leaning towards adapting a commercial pattern. I have an Elizabethan pattern and another would be a Victorian shape, both of which would be achievable. I like the Regency style with an added 'skirt' but I'm not sure I would be challenging myself with this design. I like the idea of a tie dyed front panel and also vertical rows of decorated seams.

I had a look at some historical patterns:

 

When I have made costumes previously (mainly for fancy dress) I've found it helps to draw the shapes to help understand the construction of the historical garment, even if you adapt it hugely.

 

I then went on to look at tone. Although I still struggle a bit with this on paper, once I have done it I find it's so helpful for stitch and fabric work.

 

 

 

Discussion with Sian next, before moving on.







Festival Of Quilts 2015

This year I was lucky enough to get to the Festival of Quilts at the Birmingham NEC with my eldest daughter and two friends. Luckily a lot of the many, many quilts on display were pertinent to Module 2. Here's a selection which caught my eye.

 

A couple of more traditional quilts, and then the art quilts.

 

 

 
 
 


The winner of the art quilts category.

 

My photographs do not do any of the quilts justice, and there were many more beautiful quilts of many colours!  I picked ones that I thought were interesting with the use of tone and contrast, and were of interest to my current module.

 

I'm going to just include these quilted tags!

 

 

I spotted these very easily and went to ask permission to take a quick piccie and found myself at Susan Chapman's stand, who is now a tutor at Distant Stitch. There was some lovely work on display and the sketchbooks were great! Thanks for sharing.





M2 Chapter 11 - Further Design Exercises Leading to Fabric Samples

I started off by printing some more paper and fabric. I found the Gelli Plate was very useful for this. I took one print on paper and then the same print on fabric thinking about designing with paper before fabric. I hope I achieved a better range of tones with these papers and fabrics.



I dyed some more fabric as well, thinking about some larger pieces for Stage B of the chapter. 

 They look a bit more tiger than giraffe!

 

Paper Designs



Samples 11.1 - 11.4

 

Samples 11.5 - 11.7

Samples 11.8 - 11.10

Samples 11.11 - 11.14

 

This exercise could go on and on! I found having a good range of papers available helped. I then went on to stitch some larger pieces of fabric ready for cutting.

 

Stitch 1

Stitch 2

Stitch 3

Stitch 4

Stitch 5

Stitch 6

 

Stitch 7



I stitched lots more and tried to stitch in different directions, not just parallel lines, also to use a range of stitch selection. With Stitch 1 I looked at textures as well. I ended up with a nice selection to cut up.

 

 

Stitched Fabric Samples Based On My Designs

Stage A

 

I started with a fairly simple design based on Sample 11.5:

 

I added some decorative stitch to 'lift' the seams.

 

Sample 11.7

I liked the forward facing seams and heavier decorative stitch on this sample, the triangles remind me of roofs.

 

Sample 11.8

I inset seams on the first sample to represent the diagonal 'highlight' strips

I strayed a bit from the original paper design with this sample. I added some twisted fabric cords and like the effect.

 

 Sample 11.10

I stitched the main background pieces, cutting and rotating, then added some black strips. As I liked the cords from the previous sample I added some more!

Sample 11.1

These were two smaller samples with seams forward and some cut off selvedge inset. It's quite fiddly to sew triangles and I think variations of the mosaic sample in Chapter 10 achieves a similar result.

Sample 11.13

I added seam insets to this sample. This could be used in many different ways, changing tones and colours etc.

 

 

When mono printing, taking the same print on both paper and fabric, it meant when I was happy with a paper design it was fairly easy to transfer to fabric. I found this made my fabric work much more satisfying.

 

Stage B

I started with much longer strips than in Chapter 10 so that I had plenty of leeway and could make a large design.

 

Seams facing forwards

Seams facing backwards

 

I didn't make the third section as small as in Chapter 10 as I wanted to blend the sections together more and see if I could make a large usable piece. It ended up approximately 17" x 26". I also worked on each section, cutting and rotating. I could have worked it with a mixture of seams facing forward and backward, and I could fray the seam edges for a more textured piece. There are lots of possibilities with this sample using either side, changes in tone in stitch and fabric would give a huge variety of colour and texture.