Sew Inspirational

Create Your Own Fabrics

By Ruth Osborn

Make your own fabulous fabrics with a creative collage of bits and pieces, sandwiched between layers of up-to-the-minute wash-away stabilisers and simple free-hand machine embroidery.

Ruth Osborn, renowned Australian wearable artist, uses this simple technique in many of her award winning gowns, quilts and art pieces. In this easy to follow article she will guide you through the process and share many of her tips and tricks.

You’ll need -

The fabric, featured in this article, is created with the use of two different wash-away stabilisers. The basic technique involves spreading the wool tops or mohair fibres thinly over a base stabiliser, encasing everything with the top stabiliser, binding all the fibres and bits and pieces together with free-hand machine embroidery (stipple stitching) and then washing away the stabilisers. You are then left with a fabulously light, yet warm, fabric that you can turn into a unique wrap or shawl.

The reason I use a combination of two stabilisers is, that Avalon Plus glides smoothly over the sole plate of the machine and Avalon Ultra, being clear, enables you to see the sandwiched work.

The success of this stole largely depends on your selection of bits and pieces and colour combinations.

Choose your lace, fabrics and threads to complement each other.

You may choose to use just one thread colour, or a blend of many. Variegated threads work well also.

Here’s how -

1. Cut your lace and fabric scraps into smallish pieces, either with a rotary cutter or scissors.
2. Cut both lengths of stabiliser in half, lengthways.
   Join two strips of Avalon Plus together, lengthways and the two strips of Avalon Ultra together, lengthways, with No More Pins. This will give you a better finished width. Otherwise, a single strip is only about 30cms wide finished and too narrow for a stole.  
   
3. Lay the lace and fabric scraps over the Avalon Plus section only. Next tease the Merino wool tops / mohair out thinly and lay over the lace on the surface of the Avalon Plus. Place wool over and around the fabric and lace pieces, leaving about 5cms clear, all the way around the edge of the Avalon Plus. See photo 1.
   
4. Drizzle the surface of the wool, laces and trims with No More Pins. Fold the layer of Avalon Ultra over the top of this to form a sandwich of Avalon Plus – wool – Avalon Ultra.
   TIP: You will need someone to help with this step, so that you can each hold a corner in each hand, and lower carefully.
   ***You only get one go at this as once it touches the No More Pins, there is no second go. See photo 2
   
5. Gently pat the surface of the sandwich to bond everything together, and then allow it to dry before moving [approximately three hours].
6. When the No More Pins has dried, roll the sandwich up lengthwise ready for sewing.
7. Prepare the sewing machine by lowering the feeds dogs. *Refer to your machine manual if you are not sure how to do this.
   Attach the darning foot and insert the size 80 machine embroidery needle.
   Loosen the top tension a little.
   Wind several bobbins with Madeira Rayon and thread the machine with the same thread.
   
8. Free machine stitch loosely, with large swirling circles, until the surface of the Avalon Ultra is covered. The machining does not have to be dense, but it needs enough to hold it all together when washed. See photo 3.
9. Wind several bobbins with Madeira Metallic thread. Thread the machine with the same Metallic thread. Sew over the surface of the stole until you are visually pleased with the result. See photo 4.
   TIP: You can also wind bobbins with a Pearle’ thread or with one of the beautiful Madeira Variegated Décor threads. Add further embellishment by sewing curving lines on both sides of the stole. You will need to loosen the bobbin tension for this.
10. With the fabric marker and ruler, draw a straight edge around the stole and then fill in any irregularities with machine embroidery. This balances the piece and also strengthens the edge of the stole. See photo 5.
    REMEMBER: All the free-machining and stitched circles need to interlock; otherwise, when the stabiliser is dissolved there is nothing left to hold the threads together.
11. Place the fabric sandwich in a tub of warm water to dissolve the stabilisers. You will need to wait approximately three hours for it to dissolve.
    Rinse several times, gently, in warm water. Note: A sudden shift in water temperature will cause the fabric to shrink and felt.
    During the rinsing process if your hands feel at all sticky from handling the fabric, it means that there is still some glue residue left and it needs to be rinsed again.
    Pat excess water out with a towel and pull the piece gently into shape.
    Lay flat in the shade to dry. See photo 6.
12. When the fabric is dry, lightly press.
    Examine the fabric piece. If it has any areas that need to be strengthened, place a small piece of stabiliser in an embroidery hoop and repair any section that needs more machining.
    Rewash to remove any new stabiliser, dry and gently press.

Suppliers
Avalon and Madeira threads are available from all good sewing and craft shops. Contact Jeanette at Sydney Sewing Supplies for your nearest stockist.

Phone: 1300 888 778 or 02 96723888
Email: syd@sewgroup.com