Monday 25 June 2012

'Earth' mini - setting up


Once I’d drawn up the design I wanted, I scanned it, added a circle round the outside (so when I come to mount it, it should be easy to centre), and resized the whole thing to 10cm (4") in diameter.

I printed this out, and traced it with a transfer pencil:


I ironed this onto some cotton lawn, which I then used to line a piece of pale green silk dupion, and overlocked the edges neatly:


The second piece of fabric is a little extra design, which will form the back of the finished thing.

I stretched the fabric forming the front of the item into a hoop (a bit off-centre, but never mind).  Here it is with the back uppermost:


I then stitched over the design lines in a gold-coloured sewing thread in small running stitches, to transfer the design to the front of the fabric in a non-invasive way - if I make a mistake, I just unpick a few stitches, I don't have to worry about permanent lines in the wrong place.

Here it is from the front:


Unfortunately, the running stitches seem to be practically invisible in the photo - they're a lot better than that in real life!  I don't think I'd be able to work with them if they really did look like that.

Now the design is marked onto the fabric, I can start stitching.

3 comments:

  1. I like the running stitch technique, but do you not sometimes find it confusing for things like knotwork where there are lines going over and others going under?

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  2. Yes! But by keeping the running stitches small and just generally being careful, it usually works out ok. And as the worst case scenario is a bit of unpicking if I've gone wrong, it's still a lot better than taking the risk with some kind of pen or pencil.

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  3. Looking forward to seeing how you stitch it! Will it *not* involve gold thread?!

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