Its in the Details

Recently, I have been playing with some ideas of adding details to garments I make. I tend to wear a LOT of black (there is not much in my wardrobe that is not black) but lets face it, black can be boring. I LOVE to hand stitch with interesting thread, so I thought why not try it on my clothing.

Of course, if you know me, you will know that I have to do more than thread a needle. In this experiment, (just a test sample for now)  I wanted to see if I could create a subtle print on black and then add thread.

I began by drawing an overall print

I created a stencil with freezer paper

Next, the stencil was ironed securely in place to a piece of lovely rayon knit fabric and brushed with discharge paste. This has to be done quickly as the freezer paper will become saturated if you take too long... it must be removed. As I found out rather quickly, I will want to secure the fabric in some manner next time as the "stretchy-ness" of the knit made removing the stuck down freezer paper without disturbing the design, just a wee bit tricky.  (You can learn a lot by doing little test samples) I also learned that if I want to use this method on a large area, I will want to break the stenciling job into smaller sections to better facilitate the whole process.

Below, is what the design looked like when the paste was dry, but before it was "activated" with the iron.

this next image shows the result of activation and rinsing the remaining product from the fabric.

the hand of the fabric remains unchanged and I am left with a  lovely ghost print to stitch around adding texture and interest.

Something as simple as hand stitching around neck and sleeve bands can add interest, here I used a variegated 12 wt thread and did a double line of stitches.

Technology and creativity

My regular readers know that I love to doodle, and if you have been visiting here lately you also know that I have begun using technology more and more in my creative process.  I recently realized that since I discovered digital drawing on my iPad mini (specifically using an app called "Concepts"), I have not touched paper.

Because I doodle a lot, I always have a good selection of my own original artwork to play with when an idea pops into my head. This week I wanted to see if I could use my new found digital drawing skills to design some stencils.

on my iPad mini, within the Concepts app, I altered one of my doodles to make it usable for a stencil.
this is what it looked like on screen.

I sent it to my PC, inverted the image and printed it in black and white. Next, I traced it onto freezer paper and cut it out

in this exercise I was using discharge paste....the trouble is that when you are using this stuff, you never know for sure what the end result will be.

The stencil worked great......here is the paste, applied and waiting to dry

once dry, it was heat/steam activated with an iron

after rinsing out.....this is what I got (....btw....his wing span is 15")

So.....for a one time shot at a print, this worked okay......but what if I want to do several? what if I want a specific colour?.....guess who is bringing out her screen printing supplies. More on that in my next post.

New Project

A new project has begun, I won't give a whole lot of info on the "what or why" right now, but will share some of the process as I work through it.
I have a basic idea of where I am headed, but am going to be making it up as I go along.....so I really don't have a complete vision for the finished piece just yet. I like to work this way....no set course....it will evolve, as I work, it will continually point me in the direction it needs to go.

I know this piece requires some specific imagery....and since this one will not be an art piece, it will need to be able to withstand  regular handling and washing.

I hand drew some music notes, a beginning bar of specific music, I wanted to include one of my doodles and a pair of drumsticks....not just any drumstick image...I wanted to use a specific pair of drumsticks....here are the images and how I created them.

I used a technique I have shown prior. Very simple.....it involves drawing my image on freezer paper, pressing the freezer paper to fabric, free motion quilting with an unthreaded needle. 

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and then applying a product called deColourant.  It is a discharge paste that I liberally brush on, I brush the paste in every direction, making certain it gets pushed into every little hole, I work quickly, then carefully peel the freezer paper away leaving the piece to thoroughly dry. Once dry, it is activated by using a hot iron with lots of steam and then washed.  Below are the resulting images.

I created several sizes of these

this measures about 10" x 3"

As I mentioned I wanted to use a specific pair of Drumsticks, so instead of just drawing a generic pair, I actually traced around the ones I have, so in real life these are the full size 17" drumsticks.

Give and Take

I am currently playing with a single motif. Using it in many different ways, I will talk more about that in the future. I thought I would show you my results, using a couple of simple techniques.

I started by drawing a feather......I cut a stencil from freezer paper

Used discharge paste (DeColourant)

 Below, is how it appeared once dry and activated with the heat of my iron

and this is what it looks like once it has been rinsed out.....Black fabrics are not truly black, You can never be sure what underlying colours may be lurking there...in this case, it was a very beautiful purple tone.

I cut another stencil, again from freezer paper. This time I used a brush and dye sticks to place colour. I used a combination of blue, black and yellow

 ......got this lovely greyed green. To get a few distinct lines, I used a piece of freezer paper to shield some areas while applying colour along it's edge.

There is LOTS of creative stuff happening, I am linking up to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Fridays, come see what others are up to....you just may find another favourite blogger