Monday, July 23, 2012

Monochromatic

Some weeks ago I decided I'd get some fabric and stuff out and make something without having a clear idea of what.  I couldn't decide what to use as a base but I bought some cheap cleaning cloths made from recycled materials, not for this project but ended up using one for the base.  They were soft and a reasonable thickness but had stitching all over.  I decided to take all the stitching out, as they were that type of 'chain' stitch that undoes easily it didn't take long.  However that was when I discovered the reason for the stitching - the cloth was very much like cotton wool with a gossamer thin fabric enclosing it; the stitching basically held it together :-/  So decided to felt it on my much underused Embellisher (needle-felting machine) and add bits and pieces using the embellisher - organza, tulle, angelina, shimmery polyester fabric, lace and some handmade paper.  I did some random, free motion machine stitching all over then added beads, hearts made with angelina fibres and sequin type butterflies and leaves.  The fabric still isn't very robust but I intend to use Bondaweb to fuse some fabric on the back.






I had another little play with fabric and paints, this time using transfer paints.  These are great, you paint them onto copy paper then iron onto fabric.  You can paint a design or picture onto the paper then iron that onto fabric or do as I did just painted randomly onto paper.  Then I got some leaves, placed them onto the fabric and put the painted paper over the top and ironed over it.  This left the leaf design on the fabric.  On another piece I cut out some paper shapes and placed them on top of the fabric before placing the painted paper on top and ironing.  Transfer paints are meant to be used with polyester fabric for best results but I've used cotton fabric with the leaves, the other with cutout paper shapes is polyester.  The plan is to add some machine stitching to these and do something with them.






This shows the painted paper and the cutout shapes after ironing - (the paint having been transferred onto the paper shapes)  The paint is darker on the copy paper than when it's ironed onto fabric.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Fantastic makes Anne I would luv one of those machines, but unfortunately I couldnt justify buying one.
Chris x

cheryl said...

oh gosh Hun these look amazing,hugs Cherylxxxxx

Angie said...

This all looks fascinating ...love your results ...looks like you are having so much fun.

Monica said...

An interesting project.

patcrafts said...

Your cleaning cloth project is amazing this post doesn't do it justice in RL it is beautiful xx

Jill said...

Love your little cleaning cloth - it looks really dainty and the transfer dye is great fun. Looking forward to what you try next.

Lynette (NZ) said...

Hi Anne - so fun to see what you've been doing with the transfers too. I still have paint on sheets so will have to try ironing over some shapes :-)