Fabrics for layering and cut through. For my trial samples, I made a pin-tucked base layer with squared pin tucks on cotton using variegated threads in the twin needle. As photographs are required of students working, my husband took a picture of me just after finishing the base layer.
I wanted to see how photographs printed onto a sheer would look as a layer, so onto a printable silk I printed some sepia photos of my grandmother who brought me up for several years and of whom I have good memories of my childhood.
My grandmother Minnie Bridgeford printed onto silk
The next layer was made from strips of two previously printed fabrics. I had made these a couple of years ago with a local group of talented (C&G diploma) textile makers.
Stitched strips of fabric
The next layer was space dyed silk, then space dyed velvet and finally the top layer was space dyed felt.
Silk
Velvet
Felt
Trial sample sketch and sandwiched
I sandwiched all the layers and using the sketch from my original idea from the LL framing in Chapter 9, I stitched the sketch through stitch and tear to hold all the fabrics together.
Stitch and tear removed
The stitch and tear was then removed to expose the stitched sandwich
Layers cut through
Each layer was reached by cutting through, using the plan I had made in my sketch book
My plan for cutting through
The trial sample
Each cut through was then stitched around using appropriate stitching and then the 'bare' patches of felt were stitched with 'vermicelli' - I folded flaps back to reveal the left hand image of my grandmother but they wouldn't stay open so I stitched them down. I bordered the piece with a machine blanket stitch to tidy the edges.
The suggestion in the chapter text was to make several small samples but I incorporated them all into this one larger trial sample and hope that this still meets the brief.
The resolved sample
The trial sample was about A5 size and having cut and stitched it, I decided that it was too small so for the resolved sample, I would make a larger piece, around A4 in size.
I made the initial sketch on a sheet of A4 paper, slightly modifying it from the first sketch
Sketch for A4 sample
In my notebook, I wrote a plan of the layers I was going to use for the resolved sample
My thoughts after the trial sample and plan for the resolved sample
So, I layered up my fabrics. Again I pin tucked the base layer as this seems to provide a fairly firm fabric for the support. I had some pieces of random dyed cotton left over from another project, so I stitched these together the pin tucked the piece
Base layer from pieces of cotton
The base layer pin tucked
The next layer was an A4 sheet of printed Bengali from an original image of a newspaper bought in India last year. I had dyed the paper with tea. I have no idea what it says, lets' hope it's polite and not upside-down!!
Left over pieces of Bengali printed paper
I decided not to use photographs again as it was quite difficult to establish exactly where the face would be in the layer. I didn't like stitching through my grandmother's face in the trial sample either. I have been saving sweet wrappers from Christmas and other foils as I enjoy using metals and knew that they would be used sometime, so I stitched lots of sweet and cake foils together to make an A4 sized piece. This mostly worked but some of the foils were caught by the foot, so I just added another sweet paper to cover any little rips.
A layer of foil papers
The next layer was a rather vivid green stretchy fabric, left over from costume making for my granddaughters when they took part in competitive dancing - that seems so long ago, but I made all their costumes and yes, stuck on thousands of Swarovski crystals! I still have dance fabrics in my stash.
Green two way stretch fabric
The next layer was an equally lurid green organza which, using a soldering iron, I cut out little egg shapes on a hot mat. All H&S principles were followed.
Green eggy organza
I kept all the little egg-shaped cut-outs. They may be used for something else.....
The next layer was a glittery fabric - I have no idea when or where I got it but found a metre or so in my synthetics box. It was probably used for dance
Shiny stretchy fabric
I keep all my thread ends as I sew and have little bags full of them, so when I went through my snippet box, I looked for some threads that would work with this piece. I found some unlabelled fibres, probably silk or banana fibres all dyed in good colours, so I stitched these unsupported with a grid of free stitching to hold them together and that became my next layer.
Fibre layer
I love hanks of waste silk and but them impetuously when I see them at shows. Using colours that I thought would work for this sample, I stitched six strips of silk waste together to make a piece of fabric that I could use as a layer.
Strips of silk waste used as a slightly crumpled layer
The penultimate layer was space dyed velvet in bright shades. I had reflected that whilst I liked the trial sample, I had thought it to be dull, so my choices for colours and fabrics for the resolved sample I had decided would be bright.
Space dyed velvet
The top layer was to provide a bit of drama, so I used a black figured synthetic. Again, I have no idea when or where I got this piece. Using stitch and tear I drew my design and stitched it on top of the rather thick sandwich which had ten layers.
The sandwich with Stitch and tear
Stitch and tear removed
The original black metallic fabric roses figured into it. These were now not visible because of the stitched design but were going to be lost completely once the piece was cut and stitched.
I cut through to the layers, mostly sticking to my plan and using stitching that I thought appropriate for each exposed layer, stitched around the holes that had been created. Vermicelli stitching was free embroidered over all the non-cut through areas.
The chapter suggestion was that a border would be good. I had tidied the edges with a couple of layers of machine blanket stitch then using Bondaweb, backed the piece with black cotton fabric then found a piece of black shiny two way stretch lycra and made a border by machining it to the front elements of the piece and mitring then hand-stitching the back whilst I watched the Sewing Bee on TV. Mitring is not my thing, it seems but I believe there is quilting in Module 6 - an opportunity to learn and improve!
I really enjoyed making these pieces and am pleased with the finished resolved sample. It is bright as I had wanted it to be.
I look forward to feedback on this chapter and hopefully moving forward to Module 5. How exciting!
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