Coming Up Roses

In order to quell my impatience over my clumsy hand (still can’t work scissors), I’ve been making plans for the gifts I wasn’t able to finish in time for Christmas. One of them was a special order: a pink rose pillow.

The pillow part is fairly straightforward, mostly a question of size and shape. But the rose aspect is so complex, so multifaceted!


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Will the rose (or roses) be printed, painted, embroidered, appliqued, quilted, or three-dimensional made of fabric petals, gathered ribbons, felt, or some as yet unknown type of design?


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I got so many ideas I had to start tracking them on Pinterest.  

 

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fabrics on fabric.com

 

 

So far I’ve experimented with a couple of ideas, and already learned a few lessons! (Hint: check your fabric content before embroidering, as cotton-lycra does not work well for this. LOL)

Katrina

A Gift Only A Mother Could Love

Once again, I have a story of irreconcilable differences between my craft planning and execution.

For my mother’s birthday, I wanted to give her something useful. At the same time, I was thinking about small embroidery patterns since I’d just received a lovely book of art nouveau transfers.

My mom wears dark glasses most of the time, but the cases they come in are utilitarian black vinyl. I thought an embroidered glasses case would be nice. The planning began.

The standard case measures 7” by 3 ½”, but I made a pattern just in case. I made it slightly larger, ending up with a 7 ¾” square.

For the embroidery I used this iron-on transfer, which is about 6” by 6”.

The finished embroidery, plus a sheet of felt for the lining:

I cut the embroidery and the lining using the pattern. The felt was self-adhesive, so all I had to do was peel off the backing and stick it to the back of the embroidery canvas.

I did not have any bias tape in a color that I liked, so I took one of my old Spoonflower swatches and created my own ½” binding. This project only requires about 20” of binding.

inset photo: the back (lining)

I bound the top edge first, wrapping around the corners and bringing the binding down approximately 2” down each side. I used a #16 needle and small stitch length to sew the binding to the thick canvas and sticky felt.

The entire piece was then folded in half and the sides and bottom bound together. The ends of the binding are folded under, and the upper end overlaps the first length of binding by about ½”. It looks pretty good:

Here’s the original and the new:

 Here’s where I realized I did something wrong:

The glasses don’t fit. Argh!

Even with the added width of the pattern, the inner pocket is somehow too narrow to fit the glasses all the way in. The main difference is that I used ½” binding instead of the ¼” used on the original. Possibly the added thickness of the felt reduced the size of the opening. And, while the black vinyl is flexible and slightly stretchy, the canvas is thick and rigid, with no give at all.

The lovely new case will fit any kind of glasses that are smaller than about 2 ½”, or that fold completely flat, so I will hope that my mom has some like that among her many pairs. Or she can put pencils in it! Or a very long, skinny cell phone!  Mini flashlight? Candy bar? I don’t know.

I’ve put my little craft project in the mail to my mom, long after her birthday, but she should at least get it in time for Mother’s Day!

Here are the things I would do differently next time:

1. Make the pouch wider!
2. Add more embroidery. There is too much bare canvas on this one.
3. Use regular felt for the lining. It’s kind of yucky to pin and sew through adhesive.


On to the next challenge!

Katrina

More Books and Magazines

All right, you enablers, let’s get off the topic of expensive technology and look at books again.

Am I the last person on Earth to read The Hunger Games? Seems like it.

I have one cardinal rule about movies: if the movie is based on a book, inspired by a book, or is an adaptation of a book, I insist on reading the book before seeing the movie. That way, the characters can get firmly established in my mind without some filmmaker imposing his or her interpretation on me.

The movie trailers are everywhere now, so I quickly ordered the books and steadfastly ignored all the advertisements and reviews. I’m halfway through the trilogy now, and at this rate I’ll be done by the end of the week. I’ll be curious to see how the roles were cast for the movie when I watch it, but my vision of them is cemented in my mind, and won’t be affected by the actors.

And may I just say THANK YOU to Suzanne Collins for the character of Katniss, who is as prickly and problematic as any teenager in our world but who instinctively taps into her own intelligence, sense of morality, and physical power when needed.

On a completely different subject, have you ever looked at the Dover books of iron-on transfers? I’ve been tempted by them many times but finally decided to try one when I saw this Art Nouveau collection available for 99 cents.

I just received it, and it is fantastic. It contains 90-plus designs printed in transferable ink on one-sided pages. 

It was published in 1984, and I was concerned that sitting on a shelf for 28 years would affect the transfers.

Apparently not, as my first sample ironed on very nicely:

It looks a bit fuzzy around the edges, because I did not follow the instructions, which say to pin the paper to the fabric to prevent shifting. As soon as I moved the iron from one side of the design to the other, there was a slight shift, so I blurred it a bit and the edges are lighter than the center. No matter, it’s clear enough to stitch.

Next, I need to make a decision about sewing magazines. I’m thinking of canceling my subscriptions to Vogue Pattern Magazine and Burda Style.

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Vogue usually has a couple of interesting items but I usually flip through it once and file it away.

Burda Style is gorgeous, but in an entire year, I’ve only traced off two patterns, and haven’t sewn either one. All the Burda patterns I’ve made were downloaded from their website.

I understand it’s hypocritical to bemoan the death of the printed word on one hand, and cancel all my print subscriptions on the other, but there still has to be some value for my money. I can’t decide if Threads or Sew News is worth trying. I’ve looked at a few issues in the bookstore, and they were somewhat interesting but fairly expensive.

Are there any magazines that you find especially useful or inspiring?

Finally, Happy Birthday today to my good friend Jonquil!

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Yes, she gave herself that pseudonym; even I could not have come up with that one. Jonquil’s a youngster at age 51 this year, and I wish her an excellent day and many happy returns!

Katrina

Transfer and Tracing Trials

I’ve been collecting all kinds of wild embroidery patterns, and I knew at some point I was going to have to transfer them all from paper to fabric.

I stocked up on an assortment of transfer papers from local fabric stores to see if I could trace a design onto fabric using this old-fashioned method. (Remember when we had to use carbon paper in our typewriters? What a mess that was.)

The first paper I tried was Clover Chacopy. The sheets are 12” x 10” and the package contains one each of blue, green, red, yellow, and white. The colors are very pale – for example “red” is actually an orangey-pink. You can see the blue and green here are light sky-blue and mint green.

Not surprisingly, there was no visible transfer of the design onto the fabric with either of these colors. There may be minute amounts of chalk on the fabric, but they are no help to me if I can’t see them. I didn’t bother testing the lighter colors.

My next paper was Dritz Wax-Free Tracing Paper. The sheets are very long and narrow – 20” x 6”, which is helpful for dress patterns but less so for round or square designs. The package contains blue, red, orange, yellow, and white. I have used this paper in the past with some success on muslin, which is lighter in color than this fabric. It tends to leave smudges anywhere it rubs against fabric, so I had mixed feelings about it. For this test I used the blue.

The result was better than Clover, but uneven. You may be able to see the crescent shape that came through in the photo. Not quite good enough.

The third paper I tried was Saral Wax-Free Transfer Paper, which is in 8 ½ x 11 sheets and comes in graphite, blue, red, yellow, and white. Clearly a dark transfer was called for, so I tried the blue and the graphite.

With both colors, much more of the design came through onto the fabric, although by this time I was pressing so hard during the tracing that I tore through the paper. These transfers are definitely the best of the group, but they are still incomplete. At this point I was thinking it was a problem fabric and nothing was going to transfer to it.

Next in line for testing was the red iron-on transfer pencil I used for my last embroidery project. This particular pencil was from Aunt Martha’s. In this test the transfer worked better, probably because this linen is thinner than the Aida cloth I used last time.

The ironing is an additional step beyond what’s needed with simple tracing, but the results were much better than any of the carbon paper tracings.

To be thorough, I ordered the Sulky transfer pen which is recommended by Sublime Stitching and many other embroidery gurus. If I’d just ordered it first instead of doing all the experiments, I’d have saved a lot of time and money. This pen is the answer! I tried the black one (it comes in 8 colors), and traced my design. The entire drawing came through perfectly. I love it and I will definitely be using the Sulky pen in the future.

A few lessons from my first test of the Sulky pen:
* Trace carefully – all pen marks will be transferred, and if you go off course, it will show up on the embroidery fabric.
* The pen creates a thick line. I was unable to make a thinner line, but I was able to make dotted lines which are much less obvious than the solid lines.
* Use a pressing cloth or another piece of paper underneath the fabric to protect your ironing board.

All in all, it was a successful experiment: I ended up with a usable product! Now, to do some actual stitching...

Katrina

Adventures in Dyeing

Like most of my experiments, my fabric dyeing results are always interesting and unexpected.

Since I’m not trying to produce anything in particular, I just use good old Rit. It’s inexpensive and the Rit website has a fun color guide where you can click on any color and get the dye recipe.

My first experiment was with ombre dyeing. Let me suggest that if you want to do ombre dyeing, use a lightweight fabric or garment. I had an old bathrobe which was made of cotton brocade, lined with French terry! When this thing gets wet, it weighs at least 15 pounds.

The robe was white, and although it was elegant many years ago, white is not a good color for my lifestyle, especially in the mornings when I’m drinking coffee, feeding dogs, watering plants, and the like. So a bright color was called for.

A Tequila Sunrise was my inspiration, partly because I wear the robe at sunrise, and also because I love the color combination: violet red to orange to peachy-yellow.

The first step was easy – I just dyed the entire robe in the washing machine using yellow with a drop of red for the lightest color. The remaining color layers had to be done in the sink, and that’s when things got difficult. I had nothing from which to suspend the robe, so I had to hold it up with one hand while stirring the dye with the other. I submerged the lower half of the robe and sleeves into a red-orange mixture for 20 minutes, and then rinsed it in cold water. Finally I dunked the bottom 8 to 10 inches into a violet dye and let it absorb upwards. At this point I realized what should have been obvious: purple and yellow make BROWN, not purple. So I had a muddy rust color at the hem where I’d hoped for a deep maroon violet.

After washing and drying, I was pleased overall with the results, even if I did have brown instead of violet. It was a bit bright though, and sometimes I don’t want to see that much vivid color first thing in the morning!

Well I didn’t have to worry about that, because the next time I washed it, I must have used hot water, because half of the dye ran out.

It is now a light salmon color fading into apricot at the top. I love it, even though it was completely different from what I’d planned.

My next project, a few months later, was to give some old shirts a new life. A couple of white cotton tees and an old Indian cotton tunic went into the machine with kelly green dye and a few drops of yellow.

The result was this medium green – it’s brighter than olive, darker than chartreuse, and I don’t know what to call it. But I like it. It’s especially nice that the rayon threads in the embroidery on the tunic picked up the dye so well. Yippee! New shirts!

Most recently I was looking for some background fabric for embroidery and I got some very helpful advice from my readers: linen and medium weight cotton are the best! I just happened to have some scraps of a natural-colored, medium weight cotton-linen blend. It’s a bit slubby and uneven, and considering my stitching, a little texture in the background can’t hurt. Of course I can’t leave well enough alone, so I decided to do a little dyeing.

I wanted a water-color effect in earth and sky shades, so that the background would look like a distant landscape behind the embroidery subject. Instead of attempting ombre again, I decided to paint the colors on. I diluted blue, teal, light green, dark green, and brown, ¼ teaspoon liquid dye to 1 cup of boiling water, and painted the watery dyes onto the fabric with regular bristle brushes. When the fabric was soaked with color, I wadded it up and put it into a plastic bag, put it in the microwave, and cooked it for 2 minutes on high.

After washing and drying, here are the two dyed pieces, compared with some undyed material. I think these will be ideal for my project.

A few lessons from my brief experience in fabric dyeing:

For dip-dyeing such as ombre or tie dye, arrange your work area so that you can hang your garment from something – a tree branch, a hook in the ceiling – so you don’t have to hold it up with your hand.

With Rit, the final color will be much lighter than it looks in the dyeing tub or on the wet garment. After washing, drying, and pressing, my colors were pale versions of the color on the dye packages.

Remember basic color theory! A color mixed with its complement will result in mud. Even applying a concentrated dark color over a light pastel will result in a blend of the two.

Expect the unexpected. It’s best to experiment with items you’re not invested in. If you must have a specific color, it might be better to consult with experts at a place like Dharma Trading to be sure you have the right formulation for your fabric.

And of course, follow all dye instructions and take sensible preventive measures such as wearing gloves and old clothes, and rinsing all sinks, washers, and tools immediately after using dye.

Have you dyed anything recently?

Katrina

Starting the Year with Work in Progress

Happy New Year, everyone! Hope you are all well-rested and ready to dive in to whatever 2012 has in store for us. I am still finishing a few projects from the holiday week, including this embroidery sampler.

I haven’t done any of this type of stitchery since my early teens, so I decided to get some practice before starting on intricate designs or anything I wanted to display.

My taste in stitchery patterns varies widely, and I love many of the designs coming from companies like Urban Threads and Sublime Stitching.

Urban Threads (some designs are on sale until tomorrow - Jan 3!)

Sublime Stitching - great retro designs

They have retro, punk, steam, fantasy, pinups and zombies…truly, this is not your grandmother’s embroidery!

For my first little test run I figured it was just as easy to download some free clip art and transfer it to fabric. If you google “coloring pages” or “mandala” you will get thousands of clearly outlined shapes of varying complexity. This one is a comparatively simple lotus mandala I downloaded from one of the coloring page websites.

I used a red heat-transfer pencil to trace the printed design and then ironed it on to my fabric. It transferred well enough, but gave me a barely-visible pink line to follow. My poor old eyes don't need that much exercise! Next time I will try a dressmaker’s carbon and hope for a darker impression. If that doesn’t work, it’s on to the Sulky transfer pen.

The fabric is 14-count Aida cloth, which looks as though it would be ideal for a cross-stitch project but is a bit coarse for some of my stitches. I’m uncertain about what types of fabric are best suited to embroidery for framing. I would not want to try sheeting or muslin, as the threads are so tightly woven. Broadcloth might work but it is generally quite flimsy. Canvas is clearly too heavy; I’d probably gouge my fingers trying to push the needle through. Linen is supposed to be best, but I think the weave can be quite uneven. Do any of you stitchers have a favorite embroidery fabric?

My stitches in this first effort left much to be desired. My chain stitches were all different lengths. I could not get my cross stitches even; they are at different angles and sizes all over the design. French knots are not as complex as I thought, but take an incredible amount of floss. I accidentally changed colors halfway through the green petals, and didn’t even notice until I was finished! The biggest surprise was how easy it is to do the satin stitch. My satin stiches are lumpy and thready instead of satiny, but I like the handmade look of them. No machine embroidery for me!

I probably have a few more days on this project, then I can pick my next design.

What are you putting your creative energy into these days?

Katrina