Making Fabric From Fabric

Guess I should have phrased that question better. I definitely don't want to paint the studio. If you remember back, it took four layers of paint and six times cutting in to get the yellow even. And I like the color. I just wondered if combined with the bright light - which I love - it was making the pictures too over exposed and if I was going to have to learn new tricks. Seems like it's okay though. Thanks.

In the workshop (which is starting to be so long ago I may need to start referencing it) Diane talked about making fabric from fabric. That's something I've been doing from years but not in the soft flowing way that she does. I'm excited to try that and have a project lined up and waiting but have some things to finish first including...

... the challenge of using up all the brown fabric. I've done it. Of course, I've created more fabric but that's beside the point. I started with a long strip of the dark denim and then layered cut up pieces of the brown fabric, the denim lace, and some DMC cotton thread over top, covered that with a layer of soluble stabilizer and pinned it all together.

And then I took all the pins out and added a layer of Thinsulite below and a layer of black tulle above. It took another thirty minutes. Lately, I've been mentioning when I re-do something because either it wasn't done well enough or it could have been done a better way. I hope it's encouraging. When I was teaching, I found that many of my students were reluctant to change something even though they knew there was an issue. Often the reason was that it would take too long. What's the rush?

When your artist points out something that could have been - and still can be - done differently, that's an opportunity to listen, to make the change, and to grow both the relationship and your creativity. Many of my students would say they didn't have or couldn't hear their inner artist. We all have one. It's a small voice that only becomes louder as you listen to and begin to interact with it. It's not the voice of perfectionism. It's the voice of creative fun and typically it's the voice with a smart solution.

Taking the time to add the tulle and the Thinsulite made the resulting fabric far better. The other fabrics in the coat are batted so a light layer of Thinsulite will make the combined fabrics more even. The tulle is virtually invisible but means that less thread work is required... which is good... because layers and layers of thread are heavy and thick and unbendable.

If you look carefully at the image above, you'll note that the tulle is on top of the soluble stabilizer. Since that layer was going to be washed out, it didn't matter whether the tulle was above or below and since I was adding it after the fact, on top meant not disturbing the thread scraps below.

Thread lace (which is essentially what I created here) can be as thin as fabric scraps between two layers of soluble stabilizer and as thick as you can stitch through. The thinner the thread lace, the larger the role of the thread because the thread becomes the only thing holding the layers together. When you add a layer of organza or tulle or fabric like I've done, the role of the thread changes. It's job becomes to either stitch the scraps to, or trap the scraps between, the layers.

With the first method, the thread must cross over the fabric scraps and overlap itself or holes appear throughout the lace and the scraps fall out. With the method I used, some overlap is needed but not nearly as much since the thread traps the fabric scraps between the tulle and the denim.

My first layer of thread was brown. It's main function was to get rid of the pins. I used a wandering stipple stitch in an all over design. The lines of thread did not cross each other.

My second layer of thread was a variegated denim blue. I used a tighter stipple stitch and crossed over the brown threads in different directions. Because of the tulle and the denim, these two layers were enough. Without them, I'd need significantly more thread stitched much closer together.

A tip for washing out the stabilizer - in the past, I've been impatient and would run the fabric under the tap while rubbing it with my hands to work out the glue often ending up with a sticky piece that needed to be rewashed. This time, I filled the sink with hot water, immersed the fabric, and went to get the mail. Since the mail is now down at the end of the street, that took a bit and when I got back the stabilizer was gone and so was the residue and it was perfect with a lot less work. Good learning.

The resulting fabric has visual and tactile texture. And it used up ALL the brown scraps.  YES YES YES!!! This fabric is for the waist up on the center back and center front of the little girl's coat. My plan...

... is to combine it with pieced scraps of the quilted brown to complete the piece and then to make the other pieces from the denim and the godets from the lace. I'd show you the pattern but it's discontinued and the picture is in my other computer... which we hooked up in the closet last night... and that's not going to work. When I opened the closet doors this morning, there was an intense wave of heat and that smell of warm plastic and it just about did me in. I tried working there for a while but had such a headache and the smell hit my nerves and gave me the shakes so I ended up pulling out my laptop again. I'm not sure what plan B is will be. I was counting on that working but... maybe an idea will occur over the weekend.

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - a lap top, a desk top, and a patient husband