Module 6-Chapter 4-Fabrics and Threads-Colouring and Bonding

As always, when it comes to dyeing fabric and threads, I had a lot of fun.

I couldn't make up my mind yet as to which colors I should concentrate though, as both, water and sky, offer so many different beautiful ones. One of the colors I'll definitely choose is the color blue.

4a: some of these fabrics have been dyed and then discharged, or painted with thickened dyes

4b: not a very successful dyeing as some of the fabrics weren't 100% coton. Nevertheless I like the softer colors of these fabrics

4c

 

4d: dyed scrims

I realized to late that I wasn't supposed to produce patterns and shapes in my fabric samples. Samples 4e to 4j show fabrics that have been discharged with marks added with fabric crayons. They might be useful at some stage😔  

4e

4f

4g

4h

4i

4j

4k: silk that has been pleated before being painted with thickened procion dyes

Samples 4l to 4n show fabrics that have been painted with procion dyes. The fabric was left wet to make the colors flow.

4l

4m

4n

Samples 4o and p were dyed with the ice dyeing technique. I love the effects you get with it.

4o

4p: ice dyed silks

Samples 4r to 4s show polyester fabrics that have been colored with transfer dyes painted on paper before being ironed onto the fabric. The structure of the ironing board made the fabric catch the color unevenly, an effect I quite like and which you can see on the far right sample in 4r

4q

4r

4s

Painted transfer adhesive: this is definitely my favourite exercise. I love the subtle marks this makes on the fabric, especially if you iron it onto a dyed background fabric like in 4v. Depending on how diluted or how opaque the color is, the effect is much different. 

4t: mark with Inktense crayon and blocks on fabrics

4u: rubbings with Neocolor II Aquarelle of some of my rubbing plates 

 

4v: in the three first samples diluted acrylic paint was applied to the paper, for the fourth sample marks were made with wax crayons 

In samples Kooh-I-Noors were applied to the paper. The colors are much weaker when the paper is ironed onto the fabric but I think the effects are quite lovely.

4w

4x

And finally the threads, ranging from cotons to wool and silk

Sunset colors a and b

The blues

Muddy waters

Module 6 - Chapter 3 - Free Machine Stitchery

3A: a-p

These little sample show straight stitch with equal tension as the thread is the same in the bobbin, in this case Isacord 40 which is a very fine thread used for machine embroidery. The result is a very fine and detailed stitch. In samples m to o  the stitch density has been indreased .

samples q to y have been done with a free machine zigzag stitch. Although a hoop was used to stretch the fabric, this did some puckering which creates additional texture. 

 

3C: whip stitch

For these samples two contrasting threads where used: the blue Isacord and in the bobbin a Gütermann Polyester sewing thread. The upper tension was adjusted to bring the bobbing thread to the surface of the fabric. With fine thread like these two a very subtle effect is achieved which might be difficult to see in the pics above. 

Samples m to p show  free motion zigzag stitching, especially where I changed direction in the stitching the bobbin thread is pulled to the surface of the fabric. 

The next two samples show a little experiment where I tried to see how a nylon thread would look like with a colored bobbing thread. I love the effect of the little dots created with this technique. I also think that the texture created by the stitching becomes more visible. I certainly will try to work with nylon thread both as upper thread and in the bobbing on water soluble fabric.

 

3C: Cable Stitch

This technique put a lot of strain on my sewing machine and showed that it would take threads only up to a certain thickness. Every thread that is thicker than a strong perlé thread is difficult to work in that sense that it wouldn't fit through the bobbin guide. Although sample "w" looks quite interesting, it is not successful as I would have had to adjust the upper tension accordingly. On these three samples I tried to use a thicker thread (Madeira Lana) as the upper thread, but you loose the "effect" of the bobbin thread, in that sense that the thickness as well as the color are to strong and somehow "cover"  the decorative thread used in the bobbin.

Adjusting the upper thread tension accordingly for every combination of upper and bobbin thread is essential here as well as doing some sampling 

Nevertheless, I think this is the best way to achieve texture in machine stitching and I look forward to combining the 3 different techniques, although means a lot of thread changing.