Day: June 12, 2024

6×6 Revisited

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An Original 6×6 Wall Art Piece
Second Iteration of 6×6

Remember my 6×6 wall art pieces? Brandt Eisner was in touch again a couple of months ago with an invitation to join his summer “Squared Away” Pop-up show mid-July. Again, “the only requirement is the work should be 6″x6″ in total and be hangable on the wall”.

So, OK. I need to come up with another idea. I’m still stuck on floral interpretations.

First Attempt

Ignore the black framing. My idea was to create a machine embroidery in the shape of a free-motion flower outline, which I stitched over an offset fabric circle fused to a raw silk background fabric. I liked the overall placement of the embroidery but the flower centre wasn’t strong enough, and I wanted some leaves, so I free-stitched some then coloured them in with water soluble Inktense coloured pencils. The leaf colour isn’t strong enough, I need to come up with a way of adding appliqué leaves. Also the blue thread on the blue fabric is very dull. I need stronger colour to create a better contrast.

Second Attempt

Definitely more colourful, but the floral print overwhelms the flower outline! Here I tried two overlapping circles, with some leaves I cut from scraps in a box where I store leftovers, but neither are effective. I tried calming the detail in the print fabrics with the Inktense coloured pencils which helped obscure the detail of the fabric but then the flower outline disappears! And I don’t like the leaves.

Third Attempt

This version is closer to what I see in my minds-eye. The silk background fabric gives an overall subtle texture to the piece. The dark, small patterned fabric sets up a background, the flower outline is a good contrast and stands out. I used a small fabric circle as background for the embroidered flower centre (using the precise positioning capabilities of my embroidery machine to position the embroidery). I overstitched the flower centre elements to emphasize them. I added some leaf shapes cut from fabric scraps backed with fusible web (glue) although I haven’t yet stitched them, I will do that tomorrow. I also tried out the position of the signature which is a bit too large. I have to scale that back a bit.

I’m getting closer to knowing what I’m doing.

Brandt asked for up to eight pieces of art. I will create eight pieces for the show. I have a month to make them; I expect I’ll have them done in a couple of weeks. Then I can move on to the next project!

Denim Shirt/Jacket

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Front
Back

Here’s the finished denim “lace” jacket. Turned out rather well. It will be a useful garment to have in my wardrobe this summer.

I bought the fabric from Marcie Tilton at least three years ago ( I didn’t keep the receipt – I just remember the fabric was expensive but it had my name on it – BTW I just checked, there is none on the website now, not a surprise). In the photo below you can see the lace backing to stabilize the cutwork in the denim.

Original Photo For The Fabric

I started by backing the fabric with a fusible lightweight polyester interfacing because I wasn’t planning on lining the finished garment and I thought it would be easier to work with. That went more easily than backing the eight metres of silk dupioni when Marni and I were making her wedding dress!

Once the fabric was backed, I cut out the garment. I used a navy silk dupioni (which I had in my stash) for the facings, sleeve plackets, and the inner yoke. The silk gives a stability to the shoulder area that the denim lace didn’t have.

Sewing the shirt together was not simple! The denim lace was made by stamping out a floral pattern from a lightweight cotton denim, then backing it with a polyester lacy fabric to fill in the “holes” and hold the denim in shape. However, when you go to sew the seams the lace backing was stretchy so I had to be very careful not to pull on the edges while stitching. The collar, collar stand, and cuffs were particularly difficult to work with because of the different weights of parts of the denim lace. I did a lot of careful, slow seam ripping as I was sewing the cuffs in order to get the edges to fit precisely.

Assembling the shirt took quite a bit longer than I expected it to, but I’m happy with how it turned out in the end.