How to procrastinate

Well, that is what I have been doing.  Because my project wasn't finished, I haven't posted, and it's still not finished. 
Time to just do it!

It all started with one of my many scrapbaskets, lol

Some batting and interfacing

put some colour down

Some sheer scraps

scatter the sheers

cover it all with tulle

 do some free motion meandering in the sky

Some uppy downy bits in the grassy area

Horizontal zig zags in the mountains

 couch yarn for the tree trunk

Fill in the trunk with more yarn

some heatgunned synthetics for foliage

sew down most of the foliage

Don't forget to stop and add some branches over the foliage to give depth

Add the last bits of foliage over the ends of those branches.... and


you're nearly finished.  Just have to decide how to embellish the foreground -a few flowers and grasses, but how will I do it, free motion, hand embroidery, something else? 


More cogitation neccesary.


Happy sewing

ooh, or maybe beads? or pebbles, ......ribbons.......

Bonded fibre film -Angelina

I had intended to blog about the workshop I did today with Neroli Henderson at ATASDA, and I will, but unfortunately, I am away from home for a few days and forgot to bring my card reader with me.  Silly me.  So you will have to wait for that one.  Needless to say it was great and a great group of people.
So, with no more ado, I will instead show you the first of the bonded fibres experiments.  In my categorisation of fibre films, these are the heat method.

As you might have noted, there is one further group after this.  The final type of fibre film at present is making films by manipulating fibre and fabric.  I have updated the Tutorials page so that all the fibre film tutorials up to this one are listed.

So, back to bonded fibre films.  The reason I call this the heat method is that, unlike the glue method, these films require heat to bond.  As fibre artists, we are blessed with a range of heat bonding methods.  Fusible webs, bonding powder, plastics and angelina are a few that come to mind.  My soldering iron applique method fits into this category as well.  This is the method I used to make the rocks in my first challenge piece for tangled textiles
The first one I am going to look at is angelina.

The first and most important thing (other than an iron, of course), is silicone coated paper, release paper, or baking paper as we call it in Oz.  All of these bonding agents could make a mess of your iron, so you need to protect it and your ironing surface as you work.
I usually roll off a large piece and pre fold it in half, so that I can fold it over the top of my layers before I iron

Above, I have spread a very thin layer of angelina on the baking paper (I did have a picture, but you could not see the angelina), then I have laid some threads and fancy yarn scraps over the top of the angelina.  I then laid another fine network of angelina over the top of this - to trap the yarns between.

Here, You can see the top layer of baking paper folded over the fibre layers.

After ironing, the angelina fuses together, trapping the yarns into a fine net.  When ironing these angelina films, I give the film only two or three quick sweeps with the iron.  If you keep the iron on the film too long, it will dull the shine of the angelina fibres.

So that is the basic method:

• a layer of angelina
• a layer of bits
• a layer of angelina
• baking paper
• iron briefly

The film can be stitched through quite easily, and it doesn't take much angelina to make a film.  My personal preference is less is better.  you can always add more if required, but besides thick films not looking as good, they are also harder to stitch.

Here are some pictures of a few samples:

This is the first film with a wide variety of threads and yarns.

This lovely sample trapped some skeleton leaves I found in the garden.

This one uses bits of foil from lolly (candy) wrappers.

This one uses snippets of light lutradur or rainbow spun.  All very shiny!

These are snippets of gold shot organza and crushed velvet.  Great texture.

This, is strips of coloured plastic bags.  The bags also melt and pucker.

And this last sample, the piece de resistance, is silk tops.  Using this method, it is possible to make extremely thin pieces of silk paper which will not fall apart and can be stitched down easily.  There is the added bonus of the sheen of the angelina setting the silk colours off.


Making these films can be addictive, you can use almost anything small and flat and they make lovely additions to art quilts and fibre art pieces.  I like to use them like a mat between a background and a small art piece.  They frame small work beautifully, but they can also be torn or cut up for inclusion in your work.


A little bit of shiny stuff goes a long way and can help to give interest to the focus of your piece. 

Entrapped Fibre Films - Samples

Here are a few samples from my last tutorials on  creating fabrics and foundations by entrapping them using sheers and using water soluble stabiliser.

This sample used a number of yarns entrapped between two layers of tulle and free machine stitched with silver thread.

This sample is made in the same way as the sample above, but used ripped up pieces of paper, and also a few scribbly flowers in the free machining.

This sample had tulle on top, but had a layer of black velvet underneath and entrapped silk  tops.  You can see the velvet fibres comming through where the stitches are.

This sample had a layerof bronze shot satin underneath, and water soluble on top, with a few yarns entrapped, the free machining was with a bronze metallic thread.  Yummy!

This last sample had a huge variety of scraps entrapped between water soluble, top and bottom.  Free machining was with a lime coloured embroidery thread in a geometric meandering.

These samples show only a few of the wide variety of items which can be used to make fabric films in this manner, from paper, to scraps, to sheers, to luxury fabrics, yarns and fibres.  These pieces are destined to become notebook covers and I will show that in a later blog.

The next technique I will be looking at when I get my studio organised again, will be bonded fibre films.

Happy stitching

Silk paper and fibre films mehod 3b

OK, now to method 3b, which is basically the same as 3a, except that we use water soluble stabiliser and wash it away afterwards.

Here is silk top laid out on some water soluble stabiliser.  I like the non woven one rather than the plasticky ones, because the plasticky ones get sticky when the weather is damp.

I have added some waste threads on top of the silk.

folded over my stabiliser to form the top layer,

and stitched over the stabiliser - pebbling on the left and a simple grid on the right.  As with all stitching on water soluble, you need to make sure that the threads cross over each other and interlock.

Above are the front sides of the pieces after washing out the stabiliser and drying.  On this side, the scrap threads are very visible.

and the back sides, where the silk tops are more visible.  You can, obviously use whichever side suits your purpose best, but I actually love the sheen of the silk tops on the back..

Sometimes, these two methods can be referred to as cheat's silk paper, but I find that the addition of thread to the fibre film makes a more interesting fabric.

Make time to create today.

Creating silk paper and other fibre films Method 2 - Glue method Part 4

In this blog, I am continuing to look at bonding fibres with glue or medium.

These samples were made using scrap fibres from sewing.

 This first sample I made using just scrap threads.  

Here, I have layered them with tulle.

Next, painting medium on.  I used straight, undiluted liquitex medium.

I distributed the medium using a brayer.  This sample required two coats of medium to stay together.  After more experimentation, I found that plastic film worked better than tulle, because it allowed the medium to stay with the fibres, not leak out.  It made a film which was stiff, but easily stitched.

Above the dried film on plastic.

In my second sample, I used scrap fibres again, but used white merino tops as well.

Here are the scrap fibres laid out .

A layer of merino tops laid over the top.

More threads on top.

Rolling up prior to soaking in dilute soapy water.

Blotting most of the water.

Painting on the medium.  I used a 1:2 dilution of liquitex.

Distributing the medium with the brayer. I have found this to be much more successful than a spoon or fingers.

After taking off the top tulle.  Ready to dry.

The finished piece.  This made a lovely texture, milky because of the merino tops.  It reminded me of the colours in a raw opal.  It was lovely to stitch through and easy to manipulate and the fibres were enmeshed well.