I have been giving some general thought about what I might stitch as an assessment piece at the end of this module. No decisions have been made, but I am drawn in the direction of a book cover, wall hanging, or perhaps a bag.
I think that cords will play an essential part in the making up of the assessment piece and they can be used in many ways both decorative and practical and as a means of attaching other edges and finishes. I think I can say I am going to stay clear of felt buttons. I have found more inspiration in folk art and fairground resources, although finding inspirational resources in the folk art area are difficult. The Tate has a major exhibition of British Folk Art this year which may be a good resource area.
I have recently purchased 'Indian Textiles' by John Gillow and Nicholas Barnard which has a lot of lovely illustrations of clothing which have interesting edges and finishes.
Whilst on a break in Devon we discovered the Dingles Heritage Fairground Museum, a fascinating place and full of old fairground rides and booths which they are restoring. Some of the fairground booths and games were those that I remember as a child we spent a couple of hours finding something lovely around every corner and of course lots of laughter.
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| A restored fairground horse, Dingles Heritage Fairground Museum |
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| I wonder who is that woman in the mirror? |
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| Restored paintwork, Dingles Heritage Fairground Museum |
Cords - page 37
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| List of items that could have a fastening. |
Some of the many cords I have stitched using wool, fabric, twine and string cores. Some of these have been knotted, plaited and twisted as shown below.
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| The upper green cord has been knotted with different sized knots, I have crocheted the middle cord into a chain, and the third red cord has a core of chenille and black thread and knotted. |
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| Three cords made from sari silk and twisted together |
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| Three cords with woollen cores and plaited together. The wool has not been completely covered with stitches to allow the wool to show through. |
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| Some ways of using stitched cords |
Braids - page 39
Thread braids
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| Three samples of thread braids, described below. |
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| Three lengths of knitting wool stitched together to make a wider braid, with automatic patterns stitched down the middle |
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| Individual wool braids, stitched with automatic patterns, then plaited and stitched across the plait with automatic patterns |
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| Three thread braids stitched together with automatic patterns. The threads are made up of different types of twine. |
Fabric braids - page 40
Apologies for the quality of the photos below, they are a bit out of focus. All the samples below can be used in a variety of ways, as mentioned in the module, the sari silks were used in making a tassel in another module.
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| Three sari silk braids stitched with automatic stitches and metallic thread |
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| Three torn calico braids stitched with automatic stitches. The calico could have been dyed with tea or coffee to make an impression of age. |
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| Felt braids stitched with automatic patterns. The lower two braids have had the edges burnt away with a craft soldering iron. These could be used as an edge or alone as a cuff around the wrist or neck. |
Tabs - page 42
As the photo reveals I have had a huge problem in trying to get a neat finish with the satin stitch edging. I just haven't been able to work out how to stitch without pulling and puckering the fabric. In previous exercises in this module I have used satin stitch fairly successfully as an applique exercise, but an actual stand alone stitched edge has been very problematic. I have used a satin stitch foot, an overedge foot and an overcasting foot without any success.
The background fabrics on these samples have been stitched on felt using automatic stitches to achieve a background. The buttonholes were not a problem either, so I felt very disappointed that I couldn't achieve a good finish on the edge.
Button holes with slits and a stick as a fastener - page 42
This little purse has been made from a background fabric using a red batik which has had painted fusible webbing applied. A red felt backing was applied using straight stitch. As described above I had a lot of difficulty getting a neat satin stitched edge, so I decided to apply a satin stitch stitched around a pattern shape before cutting the fabric close to the stitches. In this way I was able to get a much neater edge, the red felt lining helps with fraying issues but the batik will fray at some point.
Paper buttons - page 43
The buttons below were made using copy paper cut into long strips glued and painted when dried. Two of the longer thinner buttons were made from a triangular shape and are longer and thinner than those made from the rectangular strips. The buttons on the bottom row had further strips of paper glued to the buttons to make different shapes. The central button had gold thread glued and wrapped around the middle.
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| Paper buttons |
Felt buttons - page 44
These were lots of fun to make, especially using different layers of bright colours. However, when a couple were cut open it was obvious that they had not been felted enough and the layers started to separate. A couple have been embellished with beads and some have been made into oval shapes. The most obvious use of these buttons, to me, is in the making of necklaces and bangles.
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| Felt buttons, but they take a lot more felting than you think |
Having a go at making felt flat buttons below was very difficult as I don't have an embellishing machine. I had a go at needle felting and produce the purple button on the left by using 2 colours of purple wool tops, I also added a few beads to brighten it up a bit. The top and left hand button were made from slicing felt balls but were too thick to go through the sewing machine. They were not very well felted in the first place and the layers of wool started to come adrift.
The bottom musturd button was made by felting layers of wool into a long sausage but I was unable to get a nice thin sausage by using my hands and they were beginning to get sore. However I persevered and got something together and just about managed to get this through the machine and added some machine stitching. But I felt it was a sad way to end the chapter.
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| Attempt at flat felt buttons |
