Certificate Module 3, Chapter 10 Finished ... well, nearly

Sewed up a storm today since I promised to finish my fashion accessory in a week.  I've finished the belt and finished the belt decoration.  At the moment, the decoration is just pinned onto the belt, so I still have to work out whether I want to sew the decoration on permanently on one place, or work out some sort of carrier so it can slip onto the belt and be moved around.  I can see the advantage in the latter, which, indeed would also enable the decoration to be worn on another belt, but it's late and difficult thinking can be left till another day.

Here are some pictures of the belt and its decorations.  I enjoyed making the cords to fasten it and was able to use some pretty shells I bought from a hippy type shop I discovered while on holiday and also some of the beads I'd made earlier in the module.

They are not very good photos, since they are just taken with my phone at night, but I'll post some better ones when I've finished it properly.

Certificate Module 3 Chapter 10 ... getting there ...

I had a busy day today, doing the work I'd planned on my belt decoration.  Yesterday I had coloured some fabric for the belt, mixing colours to match the colour I'd used digitally earlier.  I was quite pleased with the results.  The big, heart in the mouth job was taking apart the belt decoration I'd made and cutting it down to a shape with oval ends.  To get a more precise, neater result than I'd had with the rectangle, I used compass, ruler and protractor to draw a square with a semi-circle at each end.  I transferred this onto two pieces of pelmet vilene onto which I ironed bondaweb.  I cut out the shapes and then ironed one onto the belt decoration and one onto a new piece of dyed fabric for the backing.

3.10 Belt 4

I turned in the raw edges and tacked them with contrasting thread (easy to see to remove!) to keep the raw edges under control.  I then slip stitched the two pieces together by hand.

3.10 Belt 5

3.10 Belt 6 - completed belt decoration with brooches attached

I am much more pleased with the result than the first belt decoration, firstly because it is much neater and well finished and secondly because I feel the shape now echoes nicely the shape of the printed and stitched shapes.

Finally, I printed the fabric which I had coloured yesterday for the belt.  I wanted a subtle, barely there print and I think it has worked fairly well.  Once it's dry I'll fold it into shape and see how it looks with the decoration.

3.10 Belt 7 - printed fabric for the belt

Time for a cuppa now so off to put the kettle on.

Certificate Module 3 Chapter 10 Design a Fashion Accessory: first thoughts after tutorial

So I hadn't been happy with my first attempt at making a fashion accessory.  Things were so busy in the run up to Summer School that I hadn't had the time, or been able to get into the right mindset, to sit down calmly and consider what was wrong with it and what was right.  Whilst I found the idea of starting over completely an exciting one, at the same time my new idea was a huge one and deserved more time and consideration than I was able or willing to give to it.  I felt I had become stuck in Module 3 and was keen to move on.  I was confused.

I usually find that, when I feel in that frame of mind, several things help: firstly letting it simmer at the back of my mind while I think of something else, and secondly getting some outside advice from someone who isn't, as I am, too close to the situation to judge.  We had planned a relaxing break in Malvern for a week before Summer School, walking the hills, chilling out and visiting some much-loved relatives and so I put the problem out of my mind for the moment.  I knew that my tutorial with Sian at the Summer School would help and, of course it did.

Sian suggested that I shelve my new idea for body armour for the moment.  She thought that it would make an ideal Diploma project for me, since the Diploma would allow me to give it the time, thought and effort that it deserved.  She thought (and I agreed) that I had spent enough time on Module 3 and it was time that I moved on to Module 4.  She liked the beaded brooches I had made and suggested that the background I had made would perhaps be more suitable for a belt decoration.  This was a lightbulb moment for me and I liked the idea very much.  Sian suggested that two brooches would be enough and suggested placing them on the background so that the beaded lines radiating out from the centre echoed the stitched lines on the background.

3.10 Belt 1

I had tried my best to make the corners of the background piece neat, but, with the thickness of several layers of fabric and the stiffening effect of acrylic paint and stitching, this was very hard to do.  Of course Sian homed in on this straight away and suggested that I might try to improve this.

When I thought about it once back home, I realised that, quite apart from the quality of finish (or lack of it!) I wasn't happy with the rectangular shape when everything else had been rounded shapes.  I used Photoshop on my computer to cut up the background digitally to see the effect of rounding the ends.

3.10 Belt 2

I liked this shape much better and decided that I would unpick the stitches around the edge and re-make the background.

The next decision to be made was what sort of belt would look good with the belt decoration.  Again, some playing around on Photoshop with some folded up fabric gave me some ideas.

3.10 Belt 3

I was hoping that I would like sample 1 best since it was fabric I had dyed and printed already and would take least effort.  The other samples were produced by playing around with hue, lightness and saturation on Photoshop.  However, I thought that sample 2 looked best with the belt decoration.  I like the layering of techniques with the belt being decorated by printing only, the background having print and stitch and the brooches (detachable) having print, stitch and beading.  It seems a very satisfactory progression.  The ends of the belt could be curved like the ends of the decoration background.

Now that the main decisions have been made, I am ready to embark on the actual making process and then I'll have fun deciding how the belt will fasten and how these fastening will be decorated.  I have some ideas floating around in my mind of machine wrapped cords decorated with tiny ammonites and/or toggles and buttons, but these have not yet coalesced.

Certificate Module 3 Chapter 10: Design an Accessory

Well it didn't quite work, but it's given me some more ideas

I thought I'd like to develop further some of the ideas in the resolved sample.  A friend had jokingly said that she'd like to have one of the slips on the scroll as a brooch and that gave me the idea to perhaps make a set of brooches which could be worn singly or together.  Also, based on the background of the scroll, I liked the idea of a decorated rectangle of fabric, perhaps as a cuff.

I set to work decorating some fabrics to use as either a brooch or a cuff.   I still had some cotton fabric that I had dyed for an earlier chapter and I printed it using some of my home made ammonite print blocks on that and on various sheer fabrics.  I layered these up using Bondaweb, sometimes trapping snippings of fabrics and threads between the layers.  I then bonded the resulting fabrics onto pelmet Vilene.  I played around with machine stitching on some of them, both to echo the printing and to bring pattern and texture to plain areas.  Some of these I cut into ammonite shapes for brooches.  When I saw the resulting fabrics together, I thought it would be interesting to combine a cuff with some brooches.  I could make a decorated cuff onto which I could put some brooches.  They could be worn on the cuff or detached and worn as brooches.  This, I thought, was a satisfactory development from the slips attached to the scroll I had made for Chapter 9.  It also echoed the adaptability of the ammonite in its lifetime.  The cuff I decided would be decorated purely with machine stitch, while the brooches would be decorated by hand-stitching and beadwork.

3.10.1  The prepared fabrics and a few brooches at various stages

I decided on three brooches, all in the peach colour of the one on the right in 3.10.1.  In order to link them in terms of design, I used the same colours of fabric, thread and beads in all three, but adding interest through different patterns.  I used the blue and orange fabric on the right hand side above for the background.  I found it was the best background, in terms of colour and texture, to show off the three brooches.

3.10.2  The completed brooches

I backed the cuff with cotton to be comfortable in wear.  I considered various methods of fastening the cuff.  My first thought was with loops and hand-made buttons or toggles.  In practical terms, however, this would be awkward to fasten.  My next thought was to stitch buttonholed loops on each short edge so that the cuff could be laced up with machine wrapped cords.  This would give more flexibility in how it could be worn, since the size could be adjusted by the lacing, allowing the cuff to be worn on the wrist, upper arm or even around the ankle.  This still left the problem that the wearer would need assistance in putting it on.  Since not many people nowadays have a lady's maid, this could be a nuisance.  Perhaps, I thought, I could experiment with elastic in the core of the wrapped cords, so that  the cuff would be stretchy and could be fastened up before being slipped on.

Before I could try this out, however, once I had stitched brooch pins on to the back of the three brooches and fastened them onto the cuff, I wrapped the completed cuff around my wrist to see how it looked.  I then became aware of an unexpected pitfall.  When bent into a cuff, the brooches stick out too much to be practical in wear.  Also the back of the brooches (which were not meant to be seen) become visible and unsightly.

I considered whether I could keep the background flat, making it part of a larger neckpiece.  I looked in the mirror, holding the piece in different ways to see how it looked.  I rather liked it when I held it up to my neck as a stand-up collar.  I thought it could be linked to other pieces. (See 3.10.3 below.)

3.10.3  

It reminded me of armour and the idea of protection (which links nicely with the ammonite's protective shell).  I became quite excited at the idea of making soft body armour, a sort of emotional/psychological/spiritual protection.

Suddenly, from thinking I had almost finished this chapter, I was contemplating starting it again!!  I had been keen to finish off Module 3 before the Summer School at the beginning of July.  It would be nice to be starting a new module on returning home.  I briefly considered that I might make the three brooches my fashion accessory, putting hanging loops on the back of the "cuff" so that it could be mounted  on a wall as a decorative brooch keeper for when the brooches were not being worn.  It was tempting in a way, since my considered sample had turned out to be more time consuming and labour intensive than I had anticipated.  When I thought about it, there were several things that I wasn't best pleased with about this piece:-

• It hadn't occurred to me to vary the size of the brooches and I think that would be an improvement.
• The finish on the cuff part was not neat enough to please me.
• I used felt to back the brooches, but just used scraps I had around the house and the colour didn't match the scheme.
• I feel I have rushed it, just wanting to get something that satisfies the brief before the Summer School, something easy that doesn't take too long after the prolonged labour of Chapter 9.
• In general, I feel the quality of the work I have done on the piece is not up to the standard that I would be happy with.

I am so fired up by the idea of a set of pieces of body armour that I really do want to follow it through, even if it means that Module 3 takes a longer time than I had anticipated.  All of this module has been such a joy that it will be nice to stay with it a while longer.  This is the only chapter that, until now, I haven't been able to make my own.  Now, however, I feel I have taken ownership of this project.  Watch this space ...

Certificate Module 3 Chapter 9 A Resolved Sample completed3.9.F153.

I seem to have been working on this sample for an age.  However, it has not been a chore but a total joy.

My sample was inspired by a pair of ammonites which I bought in a local crystal shop, aptly named "Treasures".

3.9.F1  The original inspiration

I liked the fact that the ammonite was fairly dull and matt on the outside, but the polished inside was rich with colour.  This gave me the idea to make a scroll for my resolved sample, something which would be pretty plain and simple on the outside, with muted colours, contrasting with a rich, colourful surprise on the inside.

As previous posts have detailed, I dyed some fabric before printing it with a lino cut block I had made based on drawings of the ammonite.

3.9.F2   Dyed and printed fabric

For the outside of the scroll, I sandwiched the dyed and printed fabric with a layer of felt and then some dyed but unprinted fabric.  I then machine stitched around the ammonite shapes and on the markings inside.  I used a thread closely matched to the ground fabric in the needle, but the pale blue of the printing for the bobbin, so as to show up subtly on the inside.

3.9.F3   Outside of scroll printed and stitched

3.9.F4    Inside of scroll after stitching

I liked how, on the outside of the scroll, the stitched ammonites looked to be embedded in their surroundings, much as the original fossils had been.  I also liked the sublety of the inside stitching, adding a bit of texture without being defined enough to overpower the coloured ammonite shapes I had planned to apply.

I decided to apply seven ammonite shapes to the inside (just because I like the number 7).  Each would have a different treatment and they would be in bright colours to contrast with the background and the outside.  I decided to use the old idea of "slips", so that I would complete each ammonite before planning how to lay them out and attach them to the background.

3.9.F5   Ammonite 1 beadwork

3.9.F6   Ammonite 2 machine embroidery

3.9.F7   Ammonite 3 hand stitching on cotton with layers of metallic and sheer fabric

3.9.F8   Ammonite 4 completely French knots.  This was my favourite one to do as I love French knots.  It took ages!

3.9.F9   Ammonite 5   hand stitching (satin and straight stitch).  Believe it or not, this one was started at the 2013 Summer School!

3.9.F10   Ammonite 6  blocks of straight stitch on a cotton background layered with sheers and net 

3.9.F11   Ammonite 7 different colours of dyed cotton layered and stitched and then cut away.

When I tried a sample layout, there was still a lot of space around the ammonite shapes and so I tried putting some Dorset buttons at random between the shapes.  I liked the effect as it made me think of the bubbles of air in the sea which would have been the original home of the ammonite.  One of my shapes had a dark blue background and I thought it made it stand out too much to the detriment of the others.  Sian suggested that I give each ammonite a dark blue background to link the different colours and treatment.  This worked well and it was fun choosing a border which would suit each shape.

Here then is the completed inside of the scroll:

3.9.F12   Completed inside of scroll

As you can see, the above image has a partly completed beaded fringe along the bottom of the scroll.  When researching ammonites, I discovered that their nearest living relative today is the nautilus.

3.9.F13    Chambered nautilus

I was intrigued by the tentacles from the creature and thought I would try to add this element to my sample.  I could use either cords, knotted or machine wrapped, or else a beaded fringe.  I experimented with both on a small sample and found that the beaded fringe gave the texture and movement I wanted.  I thought that when the scroll was rolled up, the beaded fringe would have something of the look of the tentacles in 3.9.F13.

3.9.F14   The completed scroll lying down

3.9.F15   The completed scroll hanging on the wall

3.9.F16   A close-up of the fastening

I considered two ways of fastening the scroll.  One idea I considered was wrapping and tying it with machine wrapped cords.  Another was to use one of the toggles I had made and fasten it with a simple button hole stitched thread loop.  I preferred this latter option since it kept the simplicity I wanted for the outside of the scroll.  Only a little bit of bright colour and bling from the toggle and the beads hint at the richness inside.

I have really enjoyed this chapter.  I have come to love beadwork which I didn't expect to like at all.  A new (and efficient!) heating system in our home has made my north facing studio comfortable to work in, and a new Bernina has made machine embroidery a joy instead of a chore.  Both of these improvements were financed by a legacy from a much-loved aunt who died last year.  And so, I'd like to dedicate this piece of work to Auntie Dodie.

Certificate Module 3 Chapter 9 resolved sample: another little step along the way

At last, after the happy busy-ness of Christmas, I have time to sit down and catch up with my blog.  Hopefully my internet connection, a bit dodgy of late, will stay connected for long enough for me to complete this.

I have now finished the stitching on the outside of my scroll.  It was difficult to get a good photograph, but I'll put a few different views:

3.9. January 06. overall view of outside

3.9.January 06. another view of outside

3.9.January 06 detail of outside

I used a pale brown thread on top, as close to the background colour as possible.  In the bobbin I used a pale blue, a close match to the colour of the printing on the outside.  This produced a nice effect on the inside of the scroll, subtle and interesting, but not enough contrast to fight with the individual ammonites that will be applied thereon.  See below:

3.9.January 06. inside of scroll

3.9.January 06. detail of inside

In between working on the scroll itself, I've been working away on using different techniques for individual ammonite shapes to apply as slips to the inside of the scroll.  I've used beadwork, machine embroidery, French knots, layered fabric with border stitches, satin and long and short stitch, cut away applique and net layered over dyed cotton with a variety of hand and embroidered stitches.   In the photograph below, I have laid them out in a trial layout.  To add a bit more colour and variety, I have scattered various Dorset buttons between the ammonites, kind of vaguely thinking about bubbles under the sea where the creatures would have lived originally.

3.9.January 06. trial layout for inside of scroll

I can't decide with the ammonite roughly in the centre, with a blue spiral surrounded by flame-like red, orange and yellow stitches, whether to leave the dark blue edging, or, as I had originally planned, to turn it under and slip-stitch the shape in place.  I quite like the effect of the dark blue outline, but it does emphasise that particular shape at the expense of the others.  Mmmm ...  a bit of thinking to do.  Any feedback would be very welcome.

Certificate Module 3 Chapter 9 A Resolved Sample: a little bit of stitching

I sat down this afternoon to start making a series of little samples to explore stitching that I might add to the printed fabric for the outside surface of my scroll.  As Sian pointed out, I would need to be careful in choosing the colour and weight of the thread I used (and indeed, would need to consider whether stitching was needed at all).  With shibori-dyed fabric and printed ammonites on top, it would be easy to make the fabric too busy, so competing with the inside instead of being a quiet contrast to it.

The cotton fabric needed something to add stiffness and body to it.  This could be done with an iron-on stiffening, but I thought first I'd try making a sandwich with two layers of cotton with some felt in between.  I thought of wadding to start with, but I didn't want a quilted puffed up effect, just a bit of body added to the piece.  I decided to use free-machine embroidery in a toning thread to stitch along the spaces between the printed lines in each ammonite.  This was the idea I'd had in my head from the first.  I stitched one ammonite in this way.

3.9.AS 1 (The stitched ammonite is bottom right.)

I was very pleasantly surprised to find that this gave exactly the effect I had in mind, without adding too much to the busy-ness of the print.  It also gave a very slight 3-D effect without making it too puffy and quilted.

3.9.AS 2  a close up

Better still, it gave just the right stiffness to the fabric - enough to give it some body but leave it soft enough to roll easily.  (I'll have to be careful that the inside ammonites don't add too much to the stiffness.)

3.9.SA 3  the little sample rolled up

Now I have a dilemma.  Do I just go ahead with this, since I've been lucky enough to hit on just exactly what I have in my head, or do I go ahead with trying other ideas in case there is an absolutely stunning, fabulous, unbelievably wonderful idea just waiting to be discovered?  ...