I’ve been continuing with my embellished jacket, finding experiments and samples to add to it. This is another piece of Kantha that I did at “In the stitch zone“, way back in April 2022. Both pieces play with circles on wool (Harris tweed?), this one following and echoing the lines and weave of the fabric.
I used a variegated thread and deliberately left the ends and the knots visible.
I had no plan for either this or the brown piece from last time, but the colours work well with the jacket….
…… but which way up and where?
The green kantha circles on the slightly patterned cotton fabric needed to be on the slant to fit on the shape of the jacket, and not be hidden under the collar. This piece has also been around for a long time, from a Grasby workshop that we did at one of our exhibitions, I think. I liked both sides, but hadn’t come up with a way of using it to show the back as well. So, it’s found a good home at last!
In the end, having tried the wool piece in several places, I settled with it on the diagonal, echoing the angle of the green piece.
I’m enjoying wearing it as it slowly progresses, but the weather is supposed to change this weekend, so I may need something warmer and more waterproof over the rest of the winter!
A couple of weeks ago I finally made a start on a long-planned piece of work. In fact it was started some time ago, as many of the pieces were just waiting to be stitched on, and with some of them it was a case of finding them, having been tucked away in a variety of folders. The main one was the “bubbles” piece, which was returned to me after the Lincolnshire Textiles exhibition at the Chapter House in Lincoln Cathedral at the end of August. It was / is to be the focal point on the back of the jacket.
I’d envisioned it before it was even finished stitching last year. Once I had it back, I’d had it pinned on the back of the jacket on my tailor’s dummy, but I tried it on and got somebody to take a photo at “In the stitch zone” a couple of weeks ago. I felt it needed moving a little higher or even…..
….. putting across the back yoke. But it isn’t symmetrical in shape and not unsymmetrical enough to look intentional. It just didn’t look balanced. The bottom piece was done years ago – a workshop with Mary on Kantha work, which I’d never heard of at the time, but I loved the effect. Ironically I’d decided I should make a whole jacket in it, but it hasn’t got any further since! It may end up on this jacket, or maybe another project, who knows?
I also tried other pieces on the front. I thought the cream one would be more likely to get grubby near the bottom, so stitched the brown and orange one down over the pocket, making sure not to stitch through the front as well, so that the pocket is usable.
I rotated it ninety degrees anti-clockwise as well, and extended the stitching on to the jacket using the same variegated thread. I was so excited about it, that I wore it with just this piece on.
I then added the bubbles to the back, slightly higher than the top photo, using tiny ladder stitches and turning the excess under as I went.
By the end of the second session, I’d got a couple of inches left to do, and again wore it with a few threads dangling – it was the easiest way to carry it, rather than it being crumpled up in my bag. It’s all stiched on now.
I’ve found some more pieces for the front, and have made a start on adding more stitches to the orange crazy patchwork butterfly piece. There’s still a long way to go, but it will evolve as I go along and I can at least wear it while it’s a WIP.
I’ve swapped from one project to another this week, some days several times, and some of the changing project has been at the different classes I go to.
It started off with a sweetie-wrapper workshop at Scunthorpe Embroidery and Textile Association (seata). I have had them saved for years and have rarely used them, so now I only save the really unusual colours or patterns that I come across. They are stored in a tin, and you can only buy them in plastic tubs nowadays. We were given a handout with five or six techniques, three bags of goodies to supplement the requirements list, a run-through of the various methods and shown samples.
Where to begin? Most folk were starting with the first technique of sticking the wrappers to felt before hand stitching them, something I already have as a work in progress (WIP), so didn’t really want to start another one. I should have taken it with me and continued with it.
But a new project is always tempting. One of the ideas was to trap the sweetie-wrappers on some wadding under net to make a square bowl. The outside fabric had an all-over design of what made me think of smiling lips, just showing pearly teeth.
A sewing machine had been set up ready, so I thought I would make use of it. Confetti. Snippets of coloured silver paper, cellophane, a little of the fabric out of one of the goodie bags, all in shades of red and pink to complement the piece of fabric.
Julie, the workshop leader, suggested I use felt rather than the wadding, as you could see quite a lot of it. I managed to find two shades of pink big enough to cover the fabric, and rearranged the snippets.
I trapped them with a piece of red net.
Then I machine stitched using a preset pattern with a gold coloured shiny thread.
I’m not convinced about the bowl, so this is where it is for the moment.
I then had a go at making some cords, something I have tried not very successfully in the past. But Julie gave me a quick demo, and said to knot the threads together at one end AND to knot the machine threads to them too, twisting them together slightly before stitching. This meant that you didn’t need quite so many hands! You can just hold them altogether at the back and zigzag over them all without it getting taffled (a little bit of tension, using one hand at the back and one at the front). The first one worked beautifully with some shiny purple thread, then the bobbin ran out! I put in another already wound, and the top thread snapped half-way down. The third length broke twice, and the fourth and final length broke every couple of inches. Frustrating, but I wanted to use the same shiny thread on them all, not to have to use something different when I got home. I was sure I’d re-threaded it correctly, so why it suddenly wouldn’t stitch I don’t know.
However, it’s certainly a technique to try again, lots of possibilities with different threads.
At “In the Stitch Zone” with Alex a couple of weeks ago we started a woven piece with sari strips, lovely bright colours, and I love the frayed edges. I left gaps between the weft strips because I like the bright yellow background (thanks, Janet), but kept the warps close together. It was all pinned down and then tacked. I then realised that something didn’t look right: instead of having squares of colour like everyone else, I have some long rectangles! I checked my unders and overs. Fine. Alex checked too, yes, it’s right.
But leaving the gaps between the wefts had given me a different pattern. I decided to go with it and stitch them as they are.
Here’s how it’s got so far, with some kantha-style running stitches and some fly stitches down the centre.
debbidipity 