Author: jmn

Sewing/Quilting Tools

Posted by

0

I taught a class yesterday at Sew With Vision on “Basic Alterations” – taking clothing in at the waist, under the arms; shortening pant/jeans legs, adjusting straps, etc. I wanted the two gals to understand there’s not a lot you can do to make a RTW (ready to wear) garment bigger; however, you can make adjustments to make something smaller.

For example, my high-belly measurement is much larger than it was ten years ago (related to my age and the meds I take). Not much I can do about dropping the weight from that location. So when I was buying a vest for fall wear, I bought 1XL to fit my belly, which meant it was too big around the hips, and the armholes needed adjusting. I could have done some complex taking apart, but instead, I just took darts in the shoulder seams (and hand stitched the dart to the lining so it laid flat); I did the same at the hips – a dart in the side seam from waist to hem by machine, then hand stitched the dart down. Now the vest fits decently and looks fine.

The one enlargement adjustment I do to make something bigger is to add elastic gussets to the waist of pants when the waist just gets too tight (my hips and thighs have stayed the same size for more than 20 years!). [I’ve previously described how I add elastic gussets to pants: https://jmncreativeendeavours.ca/2018/04/02/elastic-inserts/]

Back to the class – while the gals were working on small adjustments to garments for themselves and their children, it became obvious they had a few tools. Because I wasn’t expecting to do any sewing myself, I’d neglected to bring my sewing kit with me (https://jmncreativeendeavours.ca/2017/12/12/sewing-tools-organizer-finished/). We had to hunt through the shop’s tool collection (of dull very well used tools) to find what we needed. I told the gals I’d make them up a list of necessary sewing tools.

I’ve previously described five essential quilting tools I have at each sewing machine (https://jmncreativeendeavours.ca/2019/01/30/my-5-essential-quilting-tools/).

5 Essential Sewing/Quilting Tools
  • A Seam clipper/ripper
  • Self-threading needles (for embedding quilting thread ends)
  • Sharp 4 1/2″ embroidery scissors
  • Precision 3″ tweezers
  • Frixion Erasable Pen

But I use a lot more tools regularly.

Essential Sewing/Quilting Tools

I’ve laid out my tools, clustering those in the same category.

  • Measuring Tools
    • Rotary Cutting Ruler 6″ x 24″ – a good first measuring cutting tool
    • A measuring tape with both metric and inches on both sides
    • A metal 15″ ruler with both metric and inches
    • A slide ruler with notches for measuring and marking short distances
    • A small plastic ruler for checking short measurements (metric and inches)
  • Cutting Tools (these are going to seem expensive, they are, but expect to pay a lot more than you anticipate to get good sharp tools – I like KAI scissors – they feel good in the hand, they’re sharp and bit less costly than some other good brands)
    • 8″ shears – for cutting out garment patterns (I use a rotary cutter for cutting out patterns but there are curves that sometimes call out for shears)
    • 4 1/2″ embroidery scissors – I use these for snipping and cutting small pieces
    • 3 1/2″ precision embroidery scissors for removing stitches and close cutting
    • A sharp seam ripper (I change them as soon as they feel dull; I buy them in quantity to have plenty on hand and within easy reach)
    • A Seam Ripper Clipper (in photo above)
    • A 45mm rotary cutter with a supply of spare blades always on hand (I order in bulk online)
    • A Self-healing Cutting Mat – I recommend starting with a 24″ x 36″ mat (I have a 3′ x 6′ mat that covers my entire cutting table – expensive but useful)
    • Rotary Cutting Rulers and Templates – start with a 6″ x 24″ ruler
    • A Shape Cut Template/Ruler – this makes cutting strips of fabric very easy
Shape Cut Ruler
  • Marking Tools
    • Heat Erasable marking pens (Frixion are the most common, but I’ve bought acceptable ones in sets online)
    • Clover Chaco Liner – makes a fine chalk line (can purchase refills)
    • Chakoner – a heart-shaped chalk line drawing tool
    • A Fons and Porter or Bohin mechanical pencil with white lead (I have other colours, too, but I use the Frixion pens for marking on light fabrics and the chalk liners or pencil for marking on dark)
    • Post it notes, small and larger – I use them to identify cut fabric for both sewing and quilting
    • Masking Tape – I mark fronts and backs of garment pieces, for example, so I know what is what
    • Fine Sharpie Permanent Marker – another tool I keep at each sewing machine
    • A .7mm lead mechanical pencil (with .7mm HB lead) – perfect for pattern drafting on paper
    • Medical Exam Table Paper 18″x125′ ideal for tracing garment pattern pieces
  • Bobbins and Bobbin Holder
    • A supply of empty bobbins for each different sewing machine – each colour thread needs its own bobbin! You always want an empty bobbin around and each machine may take a different size bobbin (even from the same company)
    • A bobbin holder or box to keep bobbins in order and easily accessible and storable
  • Thread – there’s no point in sewing with cheap thread! Your machine won’t like it and the garment or quilt won’t like it either! I suggest
    • Aurifil 50wt cotton thread (variegated in two shades of grey for quilt piecing) – this is a lovely, strong, low lint thread, although expensive
    • Wonderful 50 weight cotton thread – a bit heavier than Aurifil but I use it for quilting a lot
    • Gutterman polyester thread (50wt)
    • Mettler polyester thread (50wt)
    • Coats and Clark polyester thread (50wt) – this is my least favourite but do use it to match with fabric when I have to
  • Other Useful Tools
    • A brush for cleaning lint from the sewing machine
    • A “HumpJumper/Seam Jumper” multi-purpose tool (the tool I have for lifting the presser foot for thick fabric also has a small hole for inserting a new machine needle – handy
    • A fine crochet hook for pulling threads hidden beneath quilt top or bringing pulled threads to the back of a knit garment
    • A Snag Repair Tool (Snag Nab-it) to bring pulled thread to back of knit fabric
    • A Large Safety Pin – for pulling elastic or ribbon through channels in garment or other sewing construction
    • A roller of sticky tape – great for picking up threads on your ironing board or fabric
    • Fray Check fabric glue
    • Glass Head straight pins (I like 1 1/16″ length – I find shorter ones harder to handle).You want glass heads because the iron won’t melt them! You want bead heads because they’re much easier to pick up
    • 1″ Curved Safety Pins for holding a quilt sandwich together (these small pins are a good size – the larger ones are awkward to sew around when quilting)
    • Washers – the largest you can find in the hardware store – great for holding paper patterns on fabric – much better than pinning – you need at least 6 (8 is better to have on hand; they’re inexpensive)
    • In addition to the feet that come with your machine, you will want extra feet for different jobs – you can find sets online that come with both a low-shank and high-shank adaptors (the set I have from Love/Sew works on both my old Singer Featherweight and my Brother Quilter)
    • NEEDLES – you need lots of spare needles – you need a fresh needle every time you start a new project (when I’m quilting, I change needles every 30,000-40,000 stitches – in other words, I change my needle two to three times during the quilting process). I buy needles in bulk – in boxes of 100 – for the needles I use most: Universal 80, Embroidery 75, Quilting 75. I also use Top-Stitching 90, and various Stretch/Ballpoint needles, Twin Needle 75 4mm & 6mm, also it’s useful to have Denim /Jeans needles 90 for working with denim. Schmetz and Inspira (as well as Klasse) are all sturdy needles which come in many sizes and for all fabric types [https://www.schmetzneedles.com/pages/sewing-machine-needle-chart?srsltid=AfmBOopLOpsA-oGFmbcXGBllCANtjbRxzSIvBejuXQKS0Bgcuf11qDSv]
      Just remember: dull needles can ruin your project, and there’s nothing worse than breaking a needle and not having a new needle on hand
    • A pin holder with a magnetic mouth used for storing discarded needles and bent pins – you can also use a large pill container with a lid, even a mason jar – something to collect used sharps
    • A magnetic pin holder
Magnetic Pin Holder
Sewing Machine Needles
  • Ironing Board and Iron – if possible keep your ironing board always set up – makes it much easier to just get a project going. You want a good pad and cover – I have a felted wool padding and I use a heavy twill unbleached cotton to make my table cover – I make a new cover every two years or so
  • A sewing table at the right height for your body (I had mine made for me – lower than a standard table height because I’m short and my upper arm measurement is somewhat long) – a dedicated sewing table means you can keep your machine set up and ready to go.
  • An adjustable stool – I have what’s called a Saddle Seat that I can adjust to the perfect height to keep my shoulders down and relaxed when I’m sewing (I actually have two of them which I move around as I need them). Even though they don’t have a back support, the seat forces you to sit with your knees below your hips which puts the lower back in a good position for extended working (although if you’re quilting or making a garment from scratch, you’re pressing as you go which gets you standing and moving to and from the ironing board a lot).
  • A Cutting Table at a comfortable working height – I created mine from a teak dining room table on a double set of wood bed lifts – makes it the perfect height for me
My Sewing Studio
  • Shelves and drawers and containers for storing fabric, notions, zippers, thread, patterns, tools
  • Trash cans – one at each sewing station
  • Good lighting

Two New Pair Of Socks

Posted by

0

I’m working away at my yarn stash – these yarns are turning out interesting socks. I like how the golden pair has dark accents. The long repeat on the blue sock creates an interesting colour flow.

The blue sock was a surprise! I knit the contrasting cuff from a 4-ply yarn in my stash – that’s all I ever use. However, I’d bought the blue yarn at Woolworks in Mahone Bay not realizing it (and the three other balls I had picked up) were a 6-ply! When I started knitting the leg the yarn felt funny…heavy in my hand, uncomfortable. I’d probably knit close to 20 rows before I thought to look at the label – only to discover I was working with 6-ply yarn. I had three choices: unravel what I’d done and substitute a different 4-ply, change my needles to a larger size (needing to unravel what I’d done and work with a different number of stitches), or keep knitting the socks. I decided to keep knitting.

As it is, the cuff, heel and toe are knit from 4-ply; the rest of the sock is 6-ply. I’m confident that whoever gets these socks won’t ever notice the difference. What surprised me was how different the heavier yarn felt in my hands. I didn’t like it. And of course, using the smaller 2.5mm needles I’ve used to knit at least 100 pair of socks made the sock more dense than if I’d knit using 3.0mm needles. The problem with the larger needles is having to use fewer stitches if I wanted the socks to turn out the same size – the number of rows would also be different – everything was an unknown. I kept working with my 2.5mm needles.

I knit almost every evening for relaxation – the sock production is a by-product but not my primary motivation. I find my mind slows down when I’m knitting in front of the TV. My attention isn’t on the screen entirely and at the end of the evening I’ve another 20-30 rows completed – I’m not wasting my time but I’m also not rushing to finish the socks – I’m just relaxing!

I returned the other three balls of 6-ply yarn even though they each had a lovely colour scheme. I exchanged them for 4-ply balls. I didn’t like the colours as they appeared in the ball but I’m discovering they’re knitting into interesting socks! I’ve one sock completed, the second half done – a pattern I didn’t expect emerged. It was challenging finding a starting place to match the first sock but I succeeded in the end. I will end up with a pair of matched socks from this new ball of yarn.

Finally Back Again

Posted by

4

Been gone a month – I’ve been busy sewing and knitting, and engaged in my daily/weekly routine but for some reason I haven’t managed to sit at the computer and describe what I’ve been up to. So let’s get to it.

Mid August, I wanted to start a new quilt. I looked through my fabric stash and decided to use a jelly roll I’ve had for a couple of years.

Jellyroll Strips Laid Out
Contrast Fabrics
Contrast Fabric With Jellyroll
Squares In Squares

The jellyroll fabrics (20 strips) ranged from black to white with many gradations of grey. Dull on its own – I decided I needed some strong contrasts. Because the strips were batik, I selected bright batik scraps to contrast with the black/white. I decided to make “square in square” blocks, cut them into triangles on the diagonal, then arranged them in squares again. All is fine, until I try arranging the resulting squares into a larger array only to end up with a hodgepodge I wasn’t happy with.

First Attempt

There’s a hint of a gradation from black to white but it doesn’t work overall because each of my blocks has light/medium/dark elements and to get a good colour flow I need some blocks that are very dark and some that are completely white. To make that happen I had to make many more blocks from scratch.

Second Array

This time, I established a dark corner and a light corner and tried filling in. I was working on my cutting table, rather than on my floor beside the cutting table as I usually do, because I’d injured my right knee and couldn’t get up and down. It didn’t occur to me at that moment that I could set up a design wall using a length of batting hung from a rod in my spare room (in front of the closet door) to hold the triangles/squares to audition placement – that came later.

So I filled up my cutting table with a layout I thought would be the darker bottom half of the quilt top. I made the mistake of actually sewing these blocks together into a 6×12 array. I was planning on filling the cutting table again this time with the top half but then I couldn’t see what I’d already constructed. This was when I set up a design wall:

Array #3

I placed the assembled bottom half of the panel at the bottom of the wall and started laying out more blocks. Two things were immediately obvious: 1. I didn’t have enough “black” extending from the lower right corner and 2. the grey extended too far across in the middle of the emerging piece. I’d also run out of triangles at this point and needed to make another 60 or so.

By this time I had stopped making squares in squares and instead I cut trapezoids from the jellyroll strips (I had to open the second package I had on hand) as well as triangles from the contrast fabrics. I’d figured out that working with reassembled squares wasn’t helpful – I was better off constructing just triangles where I could control the colours I was juxtaposing and had more freedom when placing them.

Array #4

Close, I thought but I still wasn’t completely happy with the colour flow so I played with it over the next few days – shifting blocks in the top half, and pinning other triangles over existing triangles in the sewn bottom portion.

Final Array

It took a couple of days looking at the design wall and moving and pinning elements until I was finally satisfied with the look of my panel. Yesterday, I took a photo, then very carefully stacked the pieces in the top six rows, numbering each stack so I knew the order and orientation of the pieces in each stack. Then I carefully repinned and labelled the changes I’d made to the bottom panel – knowing I would have to take much of it apart in order to get the arrangement I wanted.

It’s taken the better part of two days to reconstruct the bottom half of the quilt top:

Reassembling In Progress
Finished Bottom Portion

Now I have the bottom portion of the array back together – many of the changes were subtle ones, mainly involving extending the darker batiks further across the panel, limiting the lighter, brighter trapezoids and triangles until the mid area.

Tomorrow I’ll start sewing the six top stacks together, row by row – it won’t take long because I’m not having to carefully unstitch many interlocked seams!

As you can gather, this whole process would have been much easier had I planned out on graph paper what I was thinking about, but that’s not how I seem to work. I much prefer just starting and building and designing as the project unfolds. I find improvising so much more interesting because I have no idea where I’m going to end up. Always a surprise and satisfying. It’s how I write as well – just get some words on the screen and see where they take me. I never know what I’m writing about until I get well into something and an ending emerges. That’s my creative process.

I have no idea what I’m going to do with the back – do I want to make another 36 of these triangle elements for an insert or do I want to try something else – still thinking about that.

Modern Flowers III

Posted by

2

Modern Flowers III

I have just completed this series of twelve 6×6 wall art pieces. You may remember the previous efforts in 2022 and 2023. Early in the spring Brandt Eisner sent out an invitation to participate in another “pop-up” 6×6 show. I agreed to participate and decided to play with “flowers” one more time.

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

This time I decided to make the panel more abstract – one or two fabric circles appliqué with an embroidered abstract flower stitched on top, filled in with some leaves that I’d thread paint. I did several mock-ups.

I’d managed to get the construction of four pieces done (with four more partially assembled) when Brandt sent a note that the show was being cancelled. That stopped me dead. It was the middle of June – I was working toward an early July deadline – and I stopped. Just couldn’t get going again.

Two weeks ago, I finally picked up the silk background squares I’d prepared, pulled out the box of circles, and began assembling some 6×6 arrangements. Once underway, I was able to keep working on the project and this afternoon I finished the pieces, completely mounted on blank canvas frames, with paper backing and saw-tooth hangers.

This project is ready for the November Craig Gallery solo show!

Six panels
Six more panels

Now I can begin a new quilt.

I don’t have a vote

Posted by

4

At the top of my email this morning was the daily offering from Steve Brodner – a shocker: https://substack.com/home/post/p-147061422?source=queue

“Christians, get out and vote! Just this time! You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what? It will be fixed, it will be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians. I love you, Christians. You got to get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you don’t have to vote.” [trump speaking in Florida 7/26/2024]

I searched “Did trump actually say christians get out and vote…” – just to confirm he’d said it as Brodner quoted. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe Brodner, I was interested in finding out more about the context and whether any of the major news outlets would bother to report the comment. 

I definitely found headlines, so trump’s rantings are garnering some attention. They need a lot more attention. Given the overall context of his “speeches” I’m taking the words at face value – vote him into office and that’s the end of meaningful presidential elections. I suppose he could be saying that he’ll have changed the political reality to such an extent that even if there were to be elections whether Christians vote or not won’t matter because any election would simply be pro forma. 

I’m on the sidelines in this US election. I don’t have a vote. I’m Canadian. I’m fascinated with the way the election has changed since last Sunday when Biden announced he was passing the torch to Kamala Harris. Energy was palpable almost immediately. I am hoping she can maintain and grow support for her campaign because trump winning the election would be horrific. At least that’s how I see it from my vantage point in Nova Scotia, Canada. 

Not only would a trump win be dreadful for the US, it would change lives in Canada in some expected and many unexpected ways. The economic impact would be felt here instantly. But more egregious would be the way in which our political conversation would change – becoming even more partisan, more vicious, more divisive on all sides. We don’t need that.

So I watch the campaign with more than a little concern. I read trump’s words as invoking a dictatorship – support me this time and that’ll be the end of it – I’ll make sure you’ll never need to vote again.

I’m hoping Harris can build and sustain momentum – the US needs her to win. The rest of the world needs her to win.

Go Kamala, go girl! 

But I don’t have a vote….

[PS: If you don’t know much about it check out Project 2025 – it’s the GOP/Trump blueprint for a trump presidency – the document itself is 900 pages long, but this synopsis will fill you in.]

“Granddaughters”

Posted by

5

Granddaughters (AI Generated)

It began a year and a half ago. A phone call from my sister Donna wondering whether I knew anybody who could help a new immigrant with English. I don’t know whether that was a subtle way of trying to draw me into her sponsorship work with new immigrants fleeing terror at home, or a request for help to find someone to teach English to adults. I said I could help out.

I’d spent my professional life teaching teachers about literacy – helping them understand their own strategies, as well as encouraging them to explore ways of engaging their students so they in turn could discover the skills and pleasures of reading and writing proficiently. While I had no training in English as a second language, I understand first language learning and how learners (of all ages) become adept speakers / listeners / readers / writers.

I met Basira the week she and her family (her husband and three young sons) arrived here in Halifax. Ahmad spoke understandable English but Basira understood almost none. The danger for her, and many immigrant women, is that she’d not learn English well enough to live in the community successfully and independently. As a young woman with children she needed to become an English speaker as quickly as possible.

I agreed to spend time with her each week, expecting she’d soon be enrolled in English classes through ISANS (Immigrant Services Association of Nova Scotia). Turns out that proved difficult. There had been a recent influx of immigrants from countries like Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and there was a severe shortage of tutors. Basira went on the waiting list and she and I carried on.

I arrived at her apartment one morning each week and we’d spend time engaged in conversation. That was a challenge for both of us. Armed with translators on our phones, I’d translate English into Persian, Basira did the reverse. What helped was she knew the English alphabet. The family had lived in Turkey for three years before being accepted in Canada. The Turkish alphabet is close to English so she’d become accustomed to the phonetic correspondences. It turned out she also understood a bit of English. In addition, she’d become reasonably independent in Turkish during the time she spent there; she wasn’t afraid to tackle another new language.

Along with conversation, I brough along library books intended for very young children – few words but lots of supportive illustration. I had two aims: to offer vocabulary and English sentence structure without formally teaching either. To select appropriate books took quite a bit of time at my local library every couple of weeks – I’d read 10 books for every one I selected. It wasn’t long before Basira was needing books with longer stories, broader vocabulary and more complex sentence structure. (During this time, she gave birth to her fourth son – a new Canadian.)

I had never married; I had no children. I have a close relationship with my sister Barb’s daughter and son and their children. Now, as I grew to know her, Basira was beginning to feel like part of my family – like a granddaughter.

I’d been working with Basira for eight months when Shukria, her husband and infant son arrived in Halifax. They too needed support. Jawad spoke some English; Shukria spoke none. Same deal – I visited once a week to spend time with each of them, engaging in conversation and reading children’s books. Back to the library – simple children’s books this time for Shukria, more informative ones for Jawad.

We enjoyed our weekly time together. Occasionally they’d invite me to join them for an evening meal. I helped out in whatever other ways I could. Slowly but surely they, too, began to feel like family – Shukria like a granddaughter.

Both Basira and Shukria began formal English lessons at ISANS six months ago; I continue to spend time every week with each of them. Time I enjoy and which still seems to be useful for them.

A couple of weeks ago, I added another “granddaughter.” My local sewing shop got in touch to find out whether I might be interested in helping a young woman from India make an A-line dress. Sure, I could make time. That’s how Neha has come into my life.

She’s from northern India, speaks fluent English. Our relationship is built around sewing. She’s sharp, dexterous, funny, asks terrific questions. Last week we almost finished the first of what will definitely become a series of dresses.

Printed Cotton Kurta Set With Dupatta 

It turns out it’s not an A-line dress she wants to make, but what she calls a “suit” – the tunic-like top worn over pants that women from northern India wear. She wants it with a full skirt that will flare when she’s dancing!

This coming week we’ll put the finishing touches to this first dress and begin working on the second “muslin” that she’s already cut out. When that one is done, we’ll make another in better fabric, using what we’ve learned from the two muslin’s we’ve constructed.

So, now I seem to have three “granddaughters”. Wonderful, much younger women who enrich my life in ways I’d never have imagined a year and a half ago! I’m getting to watch them figure out how to live in Canada; I’m watching their children, week-by-week grow and develop. The babies have both become toddlers – walking, running. Their babbling is in Persian so I can’t tell whether we’re getting meaningful speech or not, although I suspect a good deal of Arvin’s chatter contains some actual words. I get to pass on the sewing information gleaned from a lifetime of quilting and garment-making to someone eager to learn how to sew.

These “granddaughters” enrich my life, keeping me in close contact with young people so I, in turn, get to learn how women their age view this complicated world in which we are now living. Their friendship is a wonderful gift that is keeping me young.

Socks And A Hat

Posted by

3

I picked up this ball of yarn at Fabricville. I don’t usually buy yarn there because they’ve mainly sold Kroy and I find it too heavy to knit comfortably and I don’t like the weight of the socks. However, a couple of months ago I noticed they’d stocked a much nicer sock yarn, lighter, softer, so I bought this ball.

The socks turned out nicely. Somebody will enjoy wearing them!

Then this past week I decided to make a new sunhat for myself. My friend Deb was giving a class on the Closet Core Sunhat. It’s a free pattern with instructions and a tutorial. I traced a copy of her size 22 hat, bought some fabric, then got to work. Deb had done some prep work on the pattern – reducing the 5/8″ seam allowance to 3/8″ which made sewing the seams much easier (next time I make it, I’ll reduce the seams to 1/4″).

Inside
Outside

This isn’t my first sunhat. I wanted a reversible hat – one that I could wear on either side. I didn’t follow the instructions. What I did, instead, was to make an outside hat, and an inside hat, then fit them together with the open edge the edge of the brim. I thought about finishing that raw edge with a binding, but instead used a bunch of small squares I had leftover from some previous sunhats (the colours blended/contrasted with the colours in the fabrics I used). I did some heavy free-motion sewing around the edge, securing the squares, using variegated Sulky thread both top and bottom. To finish the hat, I sewed a spiral, using my presser foot as guide, starting from where the brim attaches to the crown to meet the trim at the brim edge.

What makes this hat work as well as it does is the interfacing! I interfaced both the inside and outside hats with a stiff interfacing I normally use for the front placket of a shirt. That was a bit of overkill – I probably could have just done the outside hat and not the inside hat (that’s what I’ll do when I make the hat for my niece – at least until I see whether it makes the crown stiff enough or not). I also included a heavyweight fusible interfacing in the brim which has made it very stiff which I’m most happy with.

I also came across a very nice wide brimmed summer hat from Spruce Crafts. It comes in S/M/L sizes with separate pattern pieces for each size.

Then there’s my original instructions for drafting your own sunhat pattern.

Two Panels

Posted by

6

Two 6×6 Panels – Completed

I finished up the panel I was working on yesterday and completed a second today. I’ve got a better handle on how to make the outline flower stand out by how I position the underlying circles and setting the leaves so they appear to be under the flower petals. I also downsized the signature a bit so it’s less prominent. I think this idea is now working.

I only need six more!

6×6 Revisited

Posted by

1

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

Posted by

3

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.