Freeform pleats

I wanted freeform pleats inserted as godets into the skirt I was making for the mini-wardrobe. Here are the steps. It could easily be used as a way of introducing texture to a section of a a piece of textile art you are developing.

I could have created pleats which would move with the skirt - like this example, but I wanted to try the idea of the pleats being texture.

First I formed the pleats on the fabric and pressed them into place. While they look pretty regular, they aren't precisely measured or stitched or fused into place. (The stitching here is from a step further down. I didn't get a photo of this step)

Next I attached a shaped piece to the hem and turned the seam to the inside.

The godet shaped piece was cut from cotton lawn and works as interlining or a stabiliser to keep the shape. If you were doing this for an area of a garment or art quilt in which you did not want to include the hem, you could just skip the hem part.

The turned back cotton lawn piece was positioned and then tacked into place with a long stitch on the machine. (This is where I held it up in the first photo to see if the pleats behaved like I wanted them to.)

Then trimmed.

Here are 2 pieces, one for each side of the skirt.

Each piece was treated as a normal godet and inserted into the side seams of the skirt.

Any good sewing book will give instructions for doing this. But the best one I have found is from a Threads magazine article on sewing godets. Not that I can remember which issue!

Because the pleats are not permanently attached to the stablilising shape, they are flexible texture. I am counting on the creasing from the construction stage softening with washing. They shouldn't become too loose because the ends of the pleats are caught into the sides of the godet. If you were doing a shape in an art piece and the ends of the pleats were not caught into the edges, you might want to catch the top layer down from the back here and there in the hidden parts of the folds.

I am linking to Off the Wall Friday at Nina-Marie's. Go check out what creative things some of the other participants have been doing. If you have come from there, Welcome! and do post a comment!

Texture

Still enjoying flowers sent by SAQA for looking after the exhibition at Festival of Quilts.

Love the texture of these.

And more bits of the arrangement were posted here.

Chestnut Tree - Finished!

So the chestnut tree has some leaves now.

I didn't square the sides off because I think it would draw away from the organic look.

Chestnut Tree

The latest challenge for the Fast Friday group was about Trees. Looking from a different perspective and trying a new technique.

I have been wanting to try to capture the look of Chestnut tree bark for sometime, so this seemed to be the chance. Here is the inspiration photo.

I love the texture of the raised welts which wander back and forth. I was sure I could do something to resemble that by using corded channels that were manipulated in some way to meander. in the end, I decided to use machine stitch patterns between the channels along with some corded twin needling. I used a rough silk thread to catch the channels together randomly with herringbone stitch.

Here is the piece so far. I think it is nearly done, but I am going to leave it overnight to decide if it wants a few leaves to create interest.

As you may recall, I have done corded twin needle and corded channels before. The new technique for me is to use special colour pencils to give the mossy effect to the raised portions of the bark. I probably should have taken a photo before, but it really has made it alot more life like. I also coloured in the stitched leaves at the side.

Here is a photo of the back, which shows the original colour of the fabric.As you can see there is no green at all. This was one of the overdyed snow dyed pieces.

I have been doing a bit of research online looking for links about fabric manipulation for my students. These can be used for adding texture and 3D areas to a garment or even a quilt.

These videos are great! They are made by one of the Threadbangers contributors.

The best part? In the Part 1 video intro, you have to watch what her rabbit is doing! You will have a good laugh!


Part 2 has some really 3D flowers that I can already think of great ideas for.

Stormy Seas

My latest effort for the Fast Friday challenge. This time we were to work with manipulated fabrics to make a landscape, seascape, or cityscape, etc.

The delay this time was not just other responsibilities, but that I wasn't sure I really wanted to do a landscape. If and when I get round to doing one, I think I would like to take more time with it.

Anyway, finally today, I dug around in my texturised fabrics from the workshop I did some time back. This grey taffeta was a part of a piece that was not textured as much as I would like. So, I pulled up some sections from the fusible interfacing it was attached to. Then sat and manipulated it by hand, pinning waves in various ways.

Then I thought. What does it look like? Stormy Seas.

So I found a fabric with a ship in my stash. I found it wanted a cluster of rocks at the top. and then it wanted a lighthouse. I decided to leave the organic shape of the piece and mounted it onto black linen. Then I sandwiched it and added the silver cord which I couched down for waves. I quilted it further with waves and clouds at the top! Satin stitch round the sides and Voila!

One of the quickest pieces I have made in sometime.

Texture - Decorative Techniques

I worked on a few more samples for a course yesterday.

I took one of the textured fabrics I had made a while back, and then did bobbinwork over it. With bobbin work, you have a thicker cord wound onto the bobbin, and then work from the back. Depending on the settings, you get different effects. But, for the most part, it is like subtle machine couching.
I used different stitch lengths and tensions, making note of each one on the back. I quite like the pink and grey colours together.

When I do bobbin work, I don't change the bobbin tension. Instead, I by-pass the tension and thread the cord through the little hole in the bobbin case. This cord was almost too thick to run smoothly. So, it was happier with a tighter top tension and more like a normal stitch length.

I think this would look good for areas of a garment like a yoke, etc. What do you think?

Featured Blog

Today's featured blog is studio 78 notes... written by Rayna Gillman. Rayna does wonderful surface design work, and is a popular teacher and author. She recently came out with the book Create Your Own Hand-Printed Cloth, which has had much acclaim. It is on my wish list! She has a website, too.

I love reading about the sorts of things Rayna does to create beautiful cloth. Interestingly enough her fear is the free motion stitching part. Well, I would be afraid to stitch into those pieces, too!

I haven't done much surface design apart from my rust dyed pieces, but here are some experiments I did with flour resist last summer. When the weather gets nicer, I am going to try some more.

Half-term - Inspiration Tuesday

Inspiration Tuesday takes a break today, as I am on half-term break and actually have some work to show!

I mentioned I was making a baby quilt. I used a piece of shrink textured fabric I did for the workshop I had in early December. It was just big enough to work for a pram quilt. It is for one of the ladies who was in the first part of the teaching training course I am on. Her little girl Sophia was born on the day my sister died. To me that is special...I always seem to hear of a new life when someone has passed on. Restores hope again, in a way.

I sandwiched it with cotton batting and cotton fabric. Then I used a butterfly stitch on my machine to spot quilt in the centre of the diamonds. Aqua and Yellow to match the stitching. The fabric binding I made isn't quite the tone of aqua, but close enough.

I also nearly finished one of the panels for Endless Possibilities. Should be finished enough to show tomorrow.

Tactile Textiles 2

What a great day! The ladies all were the sort that you explained something and they just got stuck in and did it. And what was even better, they said "What If?", and came up with things to try, different fabrics to try it on, etc. They got excited about potential possibilities, and came up with new ideas for me to discover!

In the photo above the purple sample is about trying the shrink texture technique (shown here using a grid) but instead of doing squares or diamond shaped grids, one lady suggested circles. So that set my mind off on one! Like I am known to do! I started out to do circles and ended up with ovals first. We were discussing trying to stich round the circle to make the centre pop when the shrinking takes place. I was just playing, so the actual stitching could be greatly improved. but the idea does have it's possibilities. However, I was thinking that if you stitched circles, and then cut away the foundation fabric all round the outside of the circle, that it would work. Well...it didn't.

The other sample was something I had them do on the spur of the moment when I realised I only had enough tools to do 2 bubble texture techniques at a time. So the 2 not doing it did this technique. (Which I will admit I discovered from a "mistake" when I was trying to do something else too fast!! It is a technique that is used elsewhere though.)

Basically you have your stitch length the longest you can get it. Then you stitch lightweight fabric fast, but you don't let it flow smoothly out behind the foot. Instead, you put your finger there causing it to bunch up...but not all in one wadge...and let it go alot more slowly. When you pull it all out from under the machine, you have a ruched stitch without having to draw up the threads yourself. I was quite surprised at the delight expressed by the ladies when I showed them. They quickly rushed off to try it! It is a bit unpredictable as to the rate it will gather, but if you do several lines in a row, it looks quite nice. For instance on random sections of a scarf?

So, now I am shattered. The one thing I regret? I meant to get photos of the ladies and their samples and forgot!! Maybe if they read this, they will take some photos and send them to me to post. Please?

Texturised Fabrics

So I got my camera from the library.

Here are more samples of texturising fabrics that we will try in the Tactile Textiles 2 workshop.

The first three are examples of broomsticking. Most times when you do broomsticking, you have to redo it in some way when you wash it to retain the pleats. This method is a bit of a cheat in that the pleats are made permenant, and thus can be incorporated into a garment or textile art piece without concern that the pleats come out. Also, the texture normally means that the fabirc has a lot of give. But the way we will do it means it can just be treated as fabric with texture, and you don't have bits stretching out when you don't want them to.

The last 2 samples are a bit hard to tell, but the texturising gives a deeper 3D effect to the surface.

So, now I have to do a bit of Free Motion embroidery on one or two of these pieces to show how you can enhance the texture. but, I am posting this earlier than normal today, since I really need to work on a dragon that has been waiting for a few weeks.

More Texturised Fabrics

Here are a few samples for the Tactile Textiles 2 workshop I will be doing on the 11th December. I have done things with the velvet here and here. But I am very impressed with the crepe back satin. Perhaps I will do something with it someday! I also tried a few other fabrics with this technique, but didn't have as much success. So, they can be "What Not To Do". Perhaps save them a bit of time trying it in the future!

Today I have been cutting card and wrapping paper for the Christmas Boxes workshop at the library. I am sure you know what cut paper looks like. I am glad my husband has a decent paper cutter!

Tomorrow is the teaching training class, so Inspiration Tuesday...and the next day is the workshop at the library...so perhaps Thursday I will show a few more samples for Tactile Textiles.

"Shrinkled"

Here is another one of the "another idea you can do" for fabric texture. I had heard the people at Silk Route say that if you get the metallic tissue wet, it will do some amazing things. So, here is an offcut from the silver metallic I used for the large moonbeam on the "Midnight Dance by Moonlight" and an offcut from the pinkyblue metallic I used for the gauntlet sort of sleeves for "Epic Quest of the Last Dragoness". All I did was get them wet in very warm water and crush them slightly to get the excess water out. Interestingly enough, the colour bled out a bit, especially the blue from the pinkyblue piece.

The texture is unbeliveable. I think I could do a plain border round the silver one and make a very fetching scarf...slightly scratchy maybe, so it might need to be mounted on black silk organza....or grey. Do they do grey?

Pleat Sample

I have been making samples for the Tactile Textiles 2 workshop, and for the texturising fabric session for my decorative techniques class. I remembered an article from Threads magazine about pleats, so I thought I might try it just to show what else could be done. (A New Way to Pleat Fabric by Patricia Congleton, Threads Oct/Nov 2001)

Well, the results are great, but the process takes too many of my lifetimes! Perhaps I would have been wiser to use fabric with more body than this sheer synthetic, as it may have pleated up faster. After spending the time, and only getting the small amount accomplished, I remembered that fine fabrics need more if you are gathering them. So it is true for this type of pleating, as well. Of course, I didn't follow the destructions to the letter. (Do I ever?) In order to keep the pleats permanent, I did not use fusible interfacing since it would show through. I used fusible web and then turned the unpleated length of the fabric up and fused it in place.

Having said it was too time consuming, I thought I would put the sample on the dummy for the photo. It would show off better than a chunk with raw edges ,etc. I decided to pin it just under the bust. Suddenly, it looks stunning! If I had more of the fabric, (it was a remnant, so I thought it would be good for a sample...and besides it was PINK, so I would never use it for anything else) I would go ahead and make up a high waisted tunic. Perhaps with gathered swathes sewn as a surplice neckline in front, something like this. But a similar thing in back. Since it is sheer, it would need to be worn over something like a lacy cami...I'm thinking black. Okay, reign in the brain. I have no one to make this for! But, you never know, do you? And one particular bubbling in the back of my head project might be just the thing for this treatment...

You realise, don't you, that when the blow-them-all-away sort of projects get in my head, any number of lifetimes don't usually stand in the way of creating the LOOK?