Creative Textiles

First week back after the half term break and a few ladies from our group missing meant it was a smallish session, but it looks like an interesting set of lessons to come this next term:

• Colour theory - describing colour, hue, value and saturation
• Colour theory - relationships, colour wheel, warm and cool schemes
• Design sources for pattern - natural/organic, structural, planned and combination and project update for level I students (thats me!)
• Designing with pattern - developing patterns within a chosen context and project update for the level II students
• Texture - sources of inspiration and practice and another project update for level I

This week we looked at a basic introduction to colour "describing colour" (which I find personally difficult being as mostly my wardrobe is black, navy and grey and I go all hysterical at the thought OF colour) BUT we're going to work on samples this week to describe hues of one colour we've picked out and I think we're going to do a lot of squinting through narrowed eyes at black and white pictures of previously coloured pictures!

I'm looking forward to this section and hoping too, that the design elements will also help me in understanding how things go together and with luck it will be in time for our main project piece which is going to be upon us very shortly!!

As we near the end of this lovely course some of us are starting to think about next year and the prospect of whether we'll be able to stay together for another year's tuition and at the moment, at least, its a bit in the air! We think that the level I students are slightly safer however it will then come down to numbers! are there enough to make a class viable! Its such a shame when a cloud of doubt like this hangs over us and I just wish more folk would sign up for these courses to guarantee their continuing but the colleges don't always make them easy to!

With our refreshment facilities cut down to "bring your own" and the lack of parking and a rather cold building (not helped by the mice!) it doesn't present itself as being wildly attractive, I don't suppose!

For next week I've chosen pink (no surprises there, then!) as my colour and I've decided to do some small knitting and mini patchwork samples for our homework!

Out of the kitchen came (cake!)

Our 12yr old son asked could he cook for us during the half term and picked out some dishes he fancied and it fell to me to "assist" him on Sunday! (mostly I did all the washing up and any tricky bits he didn't fancy, but MOSTLY he did it all himself under supervision, of course, including handling the food processor and the hot oven!)

He made coleslaw which was very nice and even his brother decided it was nice! which accompanied an egg salad which we had for lunch. I was surprised he chose a salad dish as he doesn't do well, generally, with salad/veggies but he did a good job of eating enough of it to prevent my eyes narrowing and muttering about making more of an EFFORT PLEASE!



Cake cake CAKE! what can I say? it was glorious! yummy SCRUMMY and definitely went down a treat with the whole family! no surprise then that Matt declared the cake baking the best bit! We're not (aside from me!) great cake eaters in our house and if it were left to me I'd eat the lot myself so when Matt decided to make the rather luxurious version of a victoria sponge, I did rather fear/hope I'd cop for the lot!! He did a super job and it was quite nice to spend some time with him doing something he enjoyed of which we've not really done much since they outgrew the baking of gingerbread men etc when they were younger!)

For our dinner Matt roasted potatoes and prepared a pork chops with apple recipe which again was very popular and I think its inspired him to try cooking a bit more often and has asked could he cook us a meal by himself next time!

Well as everyone keeps pointing out, I'm not much good in the kitchen so if someone else fancies taking over, there'll be no opposition from me (especially if there is CAKE!)

Half Term catch up

Half term this week so no class today! my work books are all complete too so I really do have a week off!
My Rowan tunic is knitting up nicely although I'm finding the yarn isn't as pleasurable to knit with as I thought it might be due to tangling! (I know it doesn't help with the cats' interest but even SO I've had to cut off a huge tangled bit twice now to unpick/reuse later due to losing the will to knit in UNtangling it) I'm going to try taking the next end from outside the ball to see if that makes a difference.
My socks must be picked up this week! I am determined to finish it and start planning my next pair - Wednesday some of us are meeting for a knit'n'chat over a G&T after work, this will be an ideal project!
I'm inspired also, to try another felting project ..

The Final Finished Felted Bag!

(sorry! I've mixed the order of posts again, you really should read the next one first!)

Using the recommended faux suede for the lining and handles was a bit much given the overall finished size of my bag is much smaller and I'm pleased I thought to use the sleeves to make two tubes turned right way round with my handy turning gadget which was USEFULLY as well as kindly sent to me years ago by my long time cyber stitching pal Butterfly! Though I don't use my turning tools often, when I do, there is something rather satisfying in seeing the tube turn without any effort right way out almost by itself!! I thought I'd struggle with these two materials but no, they turned easily!

Unfortunately possibly due to my getting over enthusastic about finishing for the 2nd time and my unpicking and attempting to insert both the new handles and the omitted button loop, it ended up going in off centre! Having unpicked it once already I wasn't feeling like doing so again and decided that as this is much smaller than I would use practically, I have left it and leave it to you to decide whether you'd have done same or unpicked again!!




The handles look nice and it is long enough for me to be able to hook it over my shoulder as I walk which is my preferred way of carrying bags!

By lucky chance! too! I happened to unpick the side of the bag that had the least amount of patterning detail and thus the "front" of the buttoned bag is more patterned which can be seen from the photo in the next post below where draft one has a less patterned "front" - given I was lucky I decided to forgive myself the error in button loop placement.

Finished sizes:

9" across the bag, a depth of 3" and the length a short 6" with handles measuring 24"

Its a great little project and I'd definitely do this again and I'd definitely add the pocket (omitted) and seek advice on more effective closure for security of contents too!

Recycled knitwear to bag - felted project

Using a pattern and instructions from Sewing World magazine, January 2007 issue, I rushed through the lengthy instructions to finish my recycled knitted jumper-to-bag because I just wanted to see it complete and couldn't imagine that it'd be any "good"!
which is a shame really, as I ended up having to unpick it and remake it altering the handle and adding the button loop and it stretched a little and I'm afraid my bag isn't the best it SHOULD have been had I just taken my time and worked a bit more carefully (and PRESSING!! as I sew!)
Never mind.
On this post is the first make of this bag:
The Pattern

Handles attached (back to front due to misunderstanding the instructions right sides uppermost and thinking they meant right sides together!) and bag and lining sewn together.

Starting to pull through the bag and the handle through an opening in the base of the lining

Scary moment as it all comes out through the opening in the lining but doesn't, at first, seem quite right!

And here it is! the finished bag!


I was quite pleased with it, and to be honest had I not made a glaring error in putting the handles on upside down (matters made worse in that I'd flung them under the machine and thus they weren't the best stitched!) AND made the handles rather too long for the eventual size of this bag which is considerably smaller than was obviously anticipated from the pattern instructions which call for the pattern to be enlarged 130%! (remember I used a ladies UK size 10 jumper) I'd not have bothered to unpick it all, however I'm glad I did as inspiration struck and I decided to replace the handles with felted "sleeves" instead of the strap from the faux suede lining and it makes the whole bag that much nicer and unique!

Shock & Distress! Part 1: the idea and plan!

Well it began last night with MY shock and distress! Having gone up to bed and settled down with HP and the goblet of fire and a cup of tea I heard one of the cats rush about dashing and thudding, squeaking and generally crashing about .. followed by guffaws and squeals of excitement from hubby!
Tried to ignore it as I imagined that dh was chasing the cat for whatever unknown reason and after several mins called down irritatedly to him to stop messing about with the cats and getting them over excited and didn't he REALISE there were people upstairs trying to read/sleep?
Minutes later he crashed into the bedroom (the cat, Bertie, I mean) followed closely by hubby who appeared to be hanging onto something which turned out to be one of my lovely balls of rowan alpaca!

You can see the state of the poor ball of yarn! Bertie had apparently got into my knitting bag, pulled out of the balls and entangled himself in it before panicking and racing about the house, dh was following him chasing after the rapidly unwinding ball as it went, apparently, round and through and over various obstacles before finally he tired and dropped on the landing upstairs STILL entangled in the yarn! hmmm the distress didn't end there! Moments later hubby appeared at the doorway with an armful of the yarn announcing that apparently LILLY was to blame as she'd apparently got INTO my knitting bag and was in the process of retrieving and dragging away ball by ball and WHERE did I want it putting? ..



On to more creative forms of shock and distress! After college yesterday I read in the above magazine "The World of Embroidery" July 1996, vol 47 an article on deconstructing the stitch! Not quite sure what it involved I was interested to read that quite effective results can be achieved from heavily stitching ones fabric before sealing the reverse with fusible interfacing and setting about the embroidery with scissors to slash and generally distort them to create "a worn appearance" whereby "The background fabric re-emerges in the cut areas and the result is similar to the piece of old Indian embroidery .."

The first step is to work several rows of stitches eg chain st closely together changing direction and using threads that blend or contrast before fusing and slashing, trimming and scraping!
They suggest leaving some stitches whole to give a threadbare look, however once started it is rather tempting to continue until all of the stitch is removed which is what happened in one or two areas which you'll see next post!!



Anyway, above is the article that I followed and a close up of the illustrated example - you'll have to try it to make your own mind up! I tried it and I've not fully made up my mind! but then I do have other things ON my mind such as the recycling felted knitted jumper project!!

A nice walk out to the local chemist found me bumping into a couple of neighbours, bit of a chat and gossip after discovering one of the assistants is also a near neighbour before finally the Pharmacist glared pointedly at us and we left before parting company Edna and I called into the next door "Sue Ryder" shop to select a suitable candidate for my proposed project!!

I predict an interesting day today!

Shock & Distress! Part 2 : Deconstructing Emb Stitches

Here is my first small sample to try out the suggested stitches for deconstructing and distressing embroidery to give an aged effect to the fabric. I have used a varity of stitches and colours and worked over a smallish area on some red and white cotton fabric.

The reverse side is fused with interfacing to trap the stitches after they are cut, slashed and hacked at!

And here's what I used! little scissors to start off with before going for the embroidery stitch remover (like a moustache trimmer - a gadget of my late Mother's for her machine embroidery mistakes) a large pair of scissors to use the back of the blade to rough up and generally distress the embroidery yarn and scrape off the excess as trimmed with medium scissors - I kept (sad isnt it?) all the little ball of fluff as I thought it might come in handy! (actually I think I was rather more impressed with that than the actual item!)


And here we see above and below two shots of the finished sample - below is after washing and scrubbing slightly to further distress it but not yet dried and ironed.


I enjoyed this, it took a while to embroider the stitches and seemed strange to then deliberately cut and slash at it however the effects are much nicer in reality than perhaps the photo's convey!