Tyvek experiments

After my post about tyvek the other day, I was intrigued with the gathering effect when you stitch fabric on one side and heat the tyvek on the other, so I had a play.

In the first sample, I stitched a grid, and filled in some of the squares to stop the tyvek shrinking.  As you can just see on the right, this worked, but the flat areas need some definition, perhaps with beading.

The next sample, I did a rough sketch of a leaf, filling in the leaf and tacking the tyvek down loosely around it.
You can see the leaf is flat in the centre, but again needs defining.  If I didd the stitching with a heavy thread in the bobbin and  tight bobbin, loose upper (cable stitch), or did this after the shrinking, perhaps this would make a good effect.

Here, I have added batting to the leaf to define it more.

In this sample, I stitched clam shells/scallops.  It is hard to see in the photo, due to such a dark fabric, but this makes oval puffs, which again could be defined with stitching.

In this sample, I stitched wavy lines and the puffs looked like curver shirring.  The puffs were not as defined in this sample, as I put some light iron on interfacing on the back of the fabric to see what would happen if the fabric was heavier.  Instead of shrinking, the tyvek tended to form holes, which is also useful, but not what I was looking for here.

In this sample I sewed relatively close straight lines and the fabric really bunched up nicely in lines.  It looks just like shirring with elastic, but of course, it doesn't stretch. quite nice.

In this last sample, I used a wavy spiral design to try and get some spots and puffs.  I also sandwiched the tyvek in batting to try and slow the shrinking.  This sample, although a bit dark to see the definition again, gave a really soft and defined texture that would really pop with some stitching and beads.
I think I will spend the next few evenings adding a bit of stitching to these samples, then I will show them to you.
I will hopefully be doing a workshop with Neroli Henderson at ATASDA Vic next week on tyvek and such, perhaps she will give me a few ideas.  I am sure she will.

Keep on playing, it keeps art fresh.

Swaps again

Here are a couple of swaps I received recently.  They were actually from June, but with all the world postal problems recently, have just arrived.

This first one is a hand embroidered postcard from Stitchin Fingers.  The theme was "Sundaes"  This one has lots of different fabrics, including sparkly stuff - beautiful.

This one is from LisaLizaLou Designs June swap.  The theme was "Beetles" This one is very detailed and dimensional and has lots of bling! Love it.

Here are the steps I went through to produce a quick  ATC recently.

I used one of my quilting warm up/practice samples and cut out a piece for an ATC.  My template is cut to 2.5 by 3.5 with an extra 1/8 inch all around.

Here is the piece cut out.

I added a piece of  lilac coloured netting.

And a heart cut from a tyvek and plastic sample.

Some beads (sorry for the terrible photo)

Next I fused a piece of stiff interfacing to the back (cut to the correct size) and trimmed the excess off the front.

I actually rounded the corners when I trimmed and did some blanket stitch around the edge.
I wasn't really happy with the edge, I felt it needed a more solid frame, so I wove some purple and gold threads in and out of the blanket stitch, going around some stitches twice to create a french knot type effect.

And here it is completed.  This type of ATC (or you could change the size and make a postcard) is very quick and easy to make and uses only a few scraps and odd and ends.

A change is as good as a holiday-try something new every day.