Assignment 3 - Project 6 - Stage 3 - Applied Fabric Techniques

This is something of a partial post as I've somehow lost the photos of the final piece of this particular stage!

Nonetheless, here are some of the pieces I do have....

For my initial piece I put together a patchwork of light-coloured fabrics and machine-stitched them into a square.

I overlaid this with a piece of dark brown, openweave hessian and machine-stitched onto it. I had no specific plan in mind when I began stitching other than essentially to practice the techniques.

 However, the sample took on a life of its own and windows started appearing, then a door....

I let the piece develop. I had in mind initially that I was going to cut back the hessian to reveal the fabric below and it struck me that by rough-cutting and slashing the hessian within the stitched shapes this created a piece that evoked the feel of a semi-derelict property - sad, dark and abandoned.

There were smashed windows....

A door flung open to let in the elements...

And holes in the walls....

A sorry sight indeed...

I used a stitch-ripper to "smash" the windows and open the door and pulled threads to create the holes in the walls. I pulled additional threads around the edges of the piece to enhance the raw, unkempt look.


For my next piece I selected a sketch of some brightly coloured sea anemones.

I wanted to recreate the delicate fronds of the anemones, the brightness of the colours and the strong circular patterns. I also wanted to convey the feeling of being in the ocean.

Although not easy to see here, I selected a black wool fabric for the background - something firm to stitch on that would be inobtrusive and allow the brightness of the anemones to pop out.

 I cut lots of fine slivers of fabric for the green fronds and used circles of blue, purple and pink sateens for the centres. To create the illusion of being beneath the waves I overlaid the arrangement with a two-tone voile (rescued from an Easter egg wrapping).

I free-machined over the top of the voile, working in tiny stitches to create a myriad of undulating waves of water.

When the piece was finished I cut back the black wool and shaped the voile to give the piece gently rounded edges rather like an anemone or jellyfish.

Thoughts
I haven't done much free-machine embroidery but my technique did improve. At the beginning there was quite a lot of this...

But with practice the movements became smoother and more fluid and I was able to create much more pleasing shapes....

Interestingly I rather like the reverse of this piece (ignoring the initial mess in the centre). I can see how this would work well either with a plain colour fabric and plain but contrasting thread or perhaps a plain fabric and a variegated or metallic thread. Something to add to the ideas book....