Tag Archives: machine embroidery

Sewing as Therapy

22 Sunday Jul 2018

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Embroidered beads in the making

Yesterday I went to a meeting of the WearTo? Group of the WA Embroiderers’ Guild, and tried my hand at making beads from fabric. I’ve seen this done before, and the results can be fantastic, mine have a little way to go! The idea is to embellish small strips of fabric with either hand or machine embroidery, then glue them on to strips of felt which are then rolled up to form tube beads. I started with some small odd shaped scraps and stitched them together crazy patchwork fashion first, then did some embroidery. That was as far as I got, I need to get some felt, and possibly figure out how to make the beads without glue, when I try to glue things I’m generally not very successful. All in all a fun day, and very different from the useful and rather mundane shopping bags I have been making lately.

I got to thinking on the drive home about creativity as therapy. The others in the group are all ordinary people, with the difficulties and challenges that we all face, but it seems that we all put those things aside for a few hours to focus on being creative, and taking some time for ourselves. As a result, there is lots of positive energy in the room, and that can’t be a bad thing.
I have to admit that what I’m going to say now can be applied to other creative arts, painting, knitting, woodwork, making music or model aeroplanes, but sewing is my thing so that’s what I focus on.
I believe sewing can be therapy, and it seems plenty of other people feel the same. Sewing and other creative pursuits have been shown to reduce stress, increase positive feelings, improve immune function, and even to protect the brain from diseases like Parkinson’s and dementia. When you are absorbed in creating something there is less room in your consciousness for negative or depressing thoughts. When you learn how to do something new you improve communication between different parts of the brain and may also improve the function of your memory. When you succeed in creating something you receive a boost to your self-esteem. When you wear something you have made and somebody compliments you on it the boost is even bigger. When you make something beautiful for yourself you are nurturing yourself, and we can all use some nurturing. When you make something beautiful for somebody else you are nurturing them and strengthening your relationship.
I don’t need to go on, do I?! Sewing is a great hobby (which is not to say that it’s better than any other creative hobby), but I and so many other people I know get wonderful satisfaction out of being creative and making something from fabric and thread. What are your thoughts?

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Inspired by Koos van den Akker

18 Sunday Jun 2017

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This tunic is my first foray into recycling with stretch fabrics, which I find presents a whole array of new challenges! These are not knit fabrics, but stretch wovens, which I happily picked up in the op-shop because I liked the print on one, and the others went with it. I paid no regard to the stretch factor! This was a garment I started at the first meeting of the Wear To? group of the Embroiderers’ Guild earlier this year.

I more or less self drafted the pattern, and I say more or less because I actually cobbled it together from a couple of commercial patterns, and kind of filled in the gaps. I made a muslin, which fitted not too badly, and went ahead with the recycling.

I chose to make the tunic using a colour blocking technique, but instead of dividing the pattern pieces up using straight lines, which would be more usual, I chose to use curved organic shapes. I actually derived these from the shapes on the printed fabric, I just took a photo of the fabric, printed it out, and then sketched the shapes larger onto the muslin. Then I cut that up, and used it as a pattern to cut the sections of the tunic.

A combination of inaccuracy when cutting out, and the stretchiness of the fabrics, meant that when I stitched the pieces together the front of the tunic didn’t lie flat. Even when it was lying on the table it looked as if somebody was inside it. I held it up against myself and it looked even worse. It was largely the olive green pieces, for some reason they had grown, and I figured that somehow I needed to shrink them again. I certainly wasn’t going to unpick the seams and re-cut them, so what to do? Some others at the workshop came to study my problem, and the suggestion was made that I just stitch some tucks in that piece of the garment to take up the fullness. That seemed like a good way out, so I made the tunic as flat as I could on the table, and pinned tucks into it which reduced the lumpiness. Then I whipped over the tucks using a variegated embroidery thread to turn them into a decorative feature.

I continued to put the rest of the tunic together, but still felt it needed something else. I had an image in the back of my mind of a garment made by Koos van den Akker, with machine stitching in a random zigzag pattern over the seamlines. So I threaded up my machine with two different colours of thread at once, and went over all the seamlines with free machine embroidery. I quite like the result – I’ve tried channeling Koos’ work before with very limited success, but I’m happier with this effort.

Even though I’m reasonably happy with the result, I’m still not sure it’s a garment I would wear in public. I did wear it yesterday though at another workshop with the same group of people, but the great thing about such workshops is that people will comment with interest about what you are wearing, and don’t look at you strangely when you say ‘I made it myself’.

Free Machine Embroidered Lace

20 Monday Mar 2017

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An inspiring and creative day on Saturday with the WearTo? group of the Embroiderers’ Guild of Western Australia. We did a workshop on using water soluble stabiliser to create lace, or fabric, or really anything you want to create! There are several different types of water soluble stabiliser, but, as the name suggests, they all wash away in water. By stitching on one or more layers of stabiliser, and adding threads, scraps of fabric, silk or wool tops, it’s possible to create anything from the whispiest airiest lace, to a solid fabric to a piece of sculpture. The latter requires some kind of fabric stiffener, but if you retain the stabiliser in the fabric, just melt it and let it dry again in a different shape, it works quite well as a stiffener, and even the opaque type is clear once it has been melted.

I didn’t take any photos of the samples during the day, which was silly, but by trawling the net for images came up with the following.

One talented user of the technique is Linda Matthews, and there is another tutorial on Urban Threads, although that is using machine embroidered patterns, we did free machine embroidery in this workshop. There are also numerous examples on Pinterest.

I did take a photo of my sample, which didn’t come out quite as I expected, but that’s the whole point of a sample.

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I had gaily laid down some threads, and scraps of fabric, and stitched over them all to hold them together. I used a layer of black sheer fabric underneath, which meant I didn’t have to be quite so careful about making sure all the lines of stitching joined up. If you don’t use any fabric underneath, all the stitching has to join together, or the lace will fall apart, or at least have bigger holes in it than you intended! I assumed that by piling on all the threads and scraps they would somehow meld together, but of course they didn’t, the pieces I put on top were still on top after I had done the stitching, and the bobbin thread was completely hidden by the sheer black fabric. If I were going to do a similar piece again I would layer the threads and fabric more carefully, probably weaving them over and under each other so that they were exposed in some areas but not in others, and would also only use black thread in the bobbin.

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I then worked on another piece, which isn’t anywhere near finished, using just white fabric and thread, and strips of fabric criss-crossing over each other to make a grid. As you can see, the stabiliser I used is quite opaque, which makes it harder to envisage the finished effect, but it’s also more sturdy than some others I have used, so easier to work on. I didn’t use a hoop, whereas I think with the more plastic type of stabilisers you really need one. The stabiliser I used is Soluvlies by Vleiseline, sometimes referred to (I think translated) as Solufleece, which is a bit misleading as it’s not a fleece at all.

I’m not really sure how this piece will turn out, but it will be interesting. I haven’t yet decided what would be the best way of stitching the strips together, so I’m trying different options. Again, I guess that’s the whole point of a sample!

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I can see lots of possibilities for this technique in garment sewing.

 

The results are in!

07 Sunday Oct 2012

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I went to the Perth Royal Show this week to see how my entries went, and much to my surprise I had won something! Actually, there were disappointingly few entries in the Machine Embroidery section, Hand Embroidery was much better supported. My wallhanging got first, out of two entries, the journal cover third out of two entries, and the pendant third also, although it was the only entry in the class so far as I could see. Obviously they don’t always give prizes if they think the standard isn’t high enough. That’s fair enough, and the wallhanging was certainly what I spent the most time on, so I am pleased that it won. I have to go pick the things up tomorrow, and I must take photos of them.

I am already inspired to try again next year, and I think I shall have a go at hand embroidery, since that is where most of the entries are, and so more of a challenge. I have an idea for a piece, possibly canvas work but definitely some sort of counted thread, based roughly on the drawing I did for TAFE. I don’t remember if I ever posted a photo of it, but here it is. I think this could translate quite nicely, with the black and white bits being blackwork, and the colour being blackwork type stitches but done in colour. I have 12 months, give or take!

I got the latest edition of the Itch’n to Stitch newsletter yesterday, it’s very informative. I have already found a competition to enter next year, and have the idea of what I am going to do all planned out, more or less anyway. Watch this space! The newsletter is full of things to do, workshops, exhibitions, contests etc., and must entail a great deal of work to put together. Really worthwhile thing to have landing in one’s mailbox, unlike so much of the other stuff that appears there.