TIME FOR STITCHING

After several very hectic weeks we seem to have found some time to relax this weekend and we have tomorrow off as well.  It is the Queen's Birthday Holiday.  Anyway at last I have had time to really play around in the sewing room.  My thumb is still very painful so I cannot do a lot of hand embroidery so the pleated silk piece has been set aside.

I have been thinking about doing some machine stitching for a while so I took a piece of hand dyed cotton which is one of Vicki Welsh's pieces.
Have a look at her site here - http://vickiwelsh.typepad.com/field_trips_in_fiber/

I laid some scraps of fabric and ribbons onto the wrong side of half of the fabric then folded the other half over on top to trap the scraps.  After that I machine stitched the pieces together using a co-ordinating thread and just kept stitching until I felt happy with the feel of it.

I then took some sharp scissors and randomly cut through the top layer of fabric, exposing the pieces underneath.  The next step was to lay nylon tulle and organza ribbons over the top in a criss/cross pattern.  I started to secure this with hand stitches but resorted to the sewing machine when it became too difficult.

Then came the fun part - with the heat gun I burnt away parts of the top layer to expose the original cotton with the slashed areas visible.  To further expose the cut areas I washed the piece in hot water and soap and then when it was thoroughtly rinsed it was in the dryer with a towel to rough it up a bit.  The results were looking good but I still wanted to see more of the original fabric so I heated up the soldering iron and cut some of the nylon and organza away.

This is the result so far but I think I will add some paint or shiva stick tomorrow.  I always enjoy making this kind of fabric and I think I will make another casket with it.