Embellished jacket 3

I’m still pushing the “not starting anything new” from No, no resolutions on 3 January, and working on existing projects. For several reasons, I’ve started working on my jacket again; the weather has had the odd warmer day and I can start wearing it again, albeit under my waterproof on a couple of occasions, and I’m using the jacket to follow the “in the stitch zone” sessions.

The first session was a re-cap on feather stitch. I’m working directly on to the sleeve, using a selection of weights of perlé, including a lovely Stef Francis variegated one that matches the colours on some of the applied pieces. I was working downwards (it’s easier to work it towards yourself) from the bottom of the sleeve…….

……. but really it’s going upwards.

I’ve got to the shoulder seam with some of the threads now, so it appears to be hanging / growing down from the seam.

I’m still working on this, but it’s easy to pick up and add to it. I’m planning on going between two seams on the sleeve.

The next session was the first of Colour-play photo palette: crazy patchwork. I’m going off piste as usual and using my jacket instead of a photo. I’d sorted out a selection of cotton fabrics that are colours in other pieces on the jacket. It’s good to be using and recycling / upcycling scraps from my stash. It’s really meant to be raw edge and the feather stitch goes over the join, but because it will be worn and washed, I feel it will be more robust to cover the raw edges; so I’ve ironed them and folded under a hem on one side.

My plan had been to put it almost like an elbow patch on the sleeve, but the consensus was that it didn’t look right.

I didn’t want to put it on the other sleeve, as that in my mind is going to be leaves from previous sessions in a variety of stitches, with reverse chain stitches linking them together.

The other front pocket was dismissed too, which leaves two panels on the back. After much shifting around of fabrics, the left side one ended up like this.

Some of the fabrics bring back good memories of friends. I’m not sure where the flowery piece came from. I love the pinking sheared edge which will be hidden by the feather stitch, but it looks better balanced this way up.

I was hoping to stitch it directly to the jacket, but Alex thinks it will be better to back it with calico and apply the finished piece. This also has the advantage that I can continue wearing it without fear of pins, needles or losing bits.

Alex had a very fine cotton (almost a lawn) that she gave me to use. It’s got a lovely little placket that I might salvage somehow!

It now has tiny stab stitches to tack / anchor it down, apart from the flowery piece which might get moved / applied afterwards to keep the zigzag edge. We have four more sessions on this project, so at the moment I’m only going to work on it in class.

I’m still working on my canvas work piece when not in class. It’s coming along, but more on that soon, hopefully a finish.

Castle colouring-in 2

This is the piece of Ikea fabric (with holes where the members of the group have taken the bit that most appealed to them). It was a great idea of Alex’s to start the term with some simple stitching, to get us back into the swing of things. As I wrote last week, it was difficult to choose, as so many of the motifs are very appealing. I’m seeing more as I look at the photo!

But I’m very happy with my castle choice. I scanned last week’s work, so that I could cut it to make pattern pieces for the towers and castellated entrance in felt.

I decided to use different shades of blue……

……..for each pair of turrets and towers. This proved a bit tricky as I don’t have much blue in my stash. Some were only just big enough, but to make progess I wanted it immediately. I cut out the window areas as I wanted to use organza for them, and use reverse appliqué to attach them all down.

On my search for felt, I found this very sparkly sheer fabric that worked much better than the organza that I had in mind. It frays badly, so care is needed not to handle it too much.

I tacked a slightly bigger piece to the printed piece, then put the felt on top.

I used black perlé for the leaded window effect. I was thinking about blanket stitch to attach the felt, but it didn’t seem quite right. Alex suggested stab stitches. Perfect, and doing them in different sizes gives the appearance of brickwork.

I’ve done the stab stitches around the windows too.

It gives a slightly rounded padded effect which works well.

It’s fairly slow, but I have speeded up slightly now that I’ve got the hang of it.

The little turrets needed a bit of tweaking as I stitched. It’s a different, softer felt, which stretches more easily.

Nearly finished the second little turret.

I used the lightbox to transfer the sentry boxes and flags,……

….. and I’ll stitch them on to the background felt before stitching the whole piece down, as I don’t want them to sink in and look quilted.

I’ve put in the last tower. The question is…… will I finish it this week, before we start a new project next week?

“A little strip of leaves”

Last Saturday at Linconshire Textiles we had a talk by Amanda J. Clayton, called “My Blue Suitcase”. Her work is beautiful and her talk was thought-provoking and inspiring. I’m pleased I made notes, not only so that I can reread them at my leisure, but also to answer to and for myself some of the questions she posed. She has previously been accused of name-dropping, but again I found this interesting and useful, some familiar names, but many new ones to look up and research for myself.

I hadn’t signed up for the workshop on the Sunday, but after such an inspiring talk I wanted to do it. Fortunately, there were spaces left, so Elaine and I decided we would go. All we needed to do was to gather together the items on the requirements list.

The fabrics above are some of the neutral coloured fabrics I hauled from my stash, also various threads (didn’t use any of my own) and a favourite leaf, as had been suggested.

I’d found these old pressed acer leaves.

The largest, reddest acer is the one that I decided to use……

and “another” (no idea what it is) found a week or so ago, and put on one side for safe keeping. They have wonderful textures.

We worked on a strip of silk organza, so lovely to stitch into that I bought two more at the end of the day!

We traced or drew the leaf on to the organza with a blue water soluble pen, and did a running stitch outline. Amanda had very generously brought 15(?) threads for us to use and try out. I started with silk floss, something I usually avoid as my hands are too dry and rough. (Amanda’s quick tip of wetting the length of thread slightly made a huge difference.)

The next one I tried was silk organzine. I think this is the nicest thread I have ever used, and will treat myself to some. Here’s just another outline.

I used it again for the next leaf, an outline and added veins.

The next one, I tried a different silk floss, an outline then filling in the leaf shape with more running stitches following the outline shape. The transparent cloth means it can be viewed from both sides, so the ends of the thread need to be considered. Knots or not?

It was at this point that I decided I liked the faint blue outline, as did Norma who was sitting next to me. After discussion with Amanda, I may whip the stitches with a very fine pale blue metallic thread that I have.

Amanda then demonstrated looking at negative spaces and filling them in, and applique, cutting out several leaves togther. We could buy a pack of tiny squares of a range of things that she uses. They looked too beautiful to use! But also they are in the order of the list, many that I don’t know and I want to be able to take my time with and label for future reference.

I layered up a selection of the things from my stash and started paying with them, overlapping and moving them around. I’ve not finished this section yet.

This is where it had got to at almost the end of the day.

But before we finished Amanda wanted to show us trailing stitch, sometimes known as couching – satin (Mary Thomas Dictionary of Stitches).

Once it’s finished it can be cut out – I haven’t got to that scary stage yet.

It was a great stitching day. Amanda was a very good tutor, and very generous with her threads, knowledge and ideas. We came away with good instructions, more hints and tips to be able to continue with the piece and develop our own ideas. It certainly fired up both Elaine and me, and we bounced ideas off each other all the way home. Amanda’s website is well worth a look: Amanda J. Clayton.