Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Lace Making

Irish lace is made from free standing motifs that are basted to a base and joined with more crochet stitches. After thinking about this construction method for a while, I decided to try to do this with fabric.
I combined the free lace technique with applique to make these samples.




These are the pieces laid out on the sticky water soluble film. I did two samples. The first picture shows sample 1uncovered and the second shows sample 2 topped with a non sticky water sol film. I didn't leave a lot of space between motifs. The fabrics are all silk. Some are duppioni and others are organza in shades of dull purples and gray. The green is a shot organza in purple and green that doesn't read as green in person.
 



Sample 1 after stitching. I did the stitching very dense-ly using a polyester embroidery thread in a purplish gray. I made sure all the motifs were stitched first them added joining stitches.



Sample 1 held up to the light.


Sample 1 after rinsing and pressing. I thought it looked too dense so I stitched sample 2 with less joining stitches. When I rinsed sample 2 it seemed ready to fall apart. I was very disappointed. I left pressing it til morning as the light isn't sufficient for me at night.
Sample 2 after pressing.
Sample 1 on left and 2 on right. I like them both. Now to decide what to do with them. I am thinking of framing them or maybe using them like the fringe on a scarf. Opinions welcome!
I really dislike this new blogger layout. I don't know how anything is going to look.