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1) Smocking

Smocking is a form of decoration on a garment created by gathering a section of the material into tight pleats and holding them together with parallel stitches in an ornamental pattern.

Materials:

1) Relatively thick fabric with enough friction [not too smooth]

2) Needle and thread

3) Pencils or chalk

4) Rulers

Steps:

  1. Google smocking on google and shortlist your desired pattern.
  2. Using chalk/ pencil to draw out grids on your fabric using a ruler.
  3. Poke your thread through the needle and tie a knot.
  4. Start sewing from point 1 to point 2 to point 3 and finally to point 4 on the grid drawn.
  5. Pull the thread from behind and fasten it with another knot.
  6. Cut the thread and repeat the steps for all the other grids.

Cushion Smocking Design Tutorial - Step 1 | Hobbyideas

Cushion Smocking Design Tutorial - Step 3 | Hobbyideas

      

Like the 4 images shown above, sew it from point 1 to point 4.  After this, pull the thread from behind to reach this pattern.

Continue this method for the rest of the fabric.

FINAL RESULT:

Front:

Back:

CLOSE VIEW:

 

2) Stitching with elastics: 

Materials:

1) Relatively thin fabric ( so that the effect can be seen easily)

2) Needle and thread

3) Elastic bands

4) Sewing Machine and Pins

Steps:

  1. Take the desired length and size of the fabric.
  2. Measure the amount of elastic band needed (usually half the length of the fabric used) and cut it.
  3. Stretch the elastic band to the full length of the fabric and pin it at various points to keep the elastic band there.
  4. Start sewing using the sewing machine while holding the elastic band firmly.
  5. Pull the elastic band manually while the sewing continues until the elastic band reaches the other end of the fabric.

First attempt: 

I used extremely thin chiffon-like material with a thin elastic band and this is the result. I felt that the gathers were quite apparent due to the thin material. However, the sewing of the elastic band proved to be a challenge for me as the thread tends to stray away from the elastic band, resulting in an up-down-up kind of stitches that were not straight and uniform.

Second attempt: 

For the second try, I tried to use the same fabric from the smocking attempt since it is thicker. I have decided to make the fabric into a small pouch. However, I realised it was even harder to sew it in a circular manner and it resulted in many sewing stitches that were not uniform at all.

 

Overall, I think that smocking is really fun and the results obtained were very satisfying for me! I think I would consider smocking for my final project since I quite like the floral theme so far amongst all my attempts.

Applications:

smocking.

Sewing with elastics- shirring.

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Felting is a simple process of separating, tangling, and relocking animal fibers found in items such as yarn or wool.

1) Wet Felting

Materials:

1) Wool Felt

2) Liquid Hand Soap

3) Hot Water

Steps:

1) Pick out the wool felt in your desired colours.

2) Arrange the wool felt in your desired manner (abstract, spiral, random, grid, etc)

3) Pump some hand soap onto the wool felt.

4) Pour an adequate amount of hot water on to the wool felt and soap.

5) Rub the wool felt and the soap mixture together until it turns foamy.

6) Try to rub in different directions to ensure that the wool felt strands get more entangled with each other and hence becomes firmer.

Process Documentation:

Front and back view of the abstract design for my felting piece. Colours used: Cream, Beige, Pink, Greyish Purple and Black.

 

 

View after pumping some soap on the piece. Rub the piece firmly in different directions.

After getting a foamy firm piece, get some tissue paper to soak up the excess soapy water from the felt.  While doing so, we can easily create hollow patterns in the felt by either poking our fingers through or by simply spreading them further apart at a certain point.

The pieces got firmer after rubbing it consistently in all directions for some time. After this, I applied the dry felting technique and try to create some waves/tension/curls at some parts of the piece.

This is the final result of the piece I have made for wet felting.

2) Dry Felting 

Materials:

  1. Felted wool
  2. Felting Needle
  3. Foam block or needle cushion

Steps:

  1. Take a desired amount of felt. (Plan colour, amount and type)
  2. Rub the felt taken into a tangled ball between your fingers
  3. Poke the tangled loose ball of felt with the felting needle on top of a sponge block/ cushion until it becomes firm.

Result: 

I attempted to create a miniature figure of my own stuff toy cow. The process was very long and I realised that the position of felt placed and poked at must be very accurate if not the features will be affected. Besides, the amount of felt used has to be taken into consideration carefully. For instance, for the cow I made, the horns are of a different size as I did not measure the amount of felt taken properly.

3) Applique 

For this part, I tried out all the different types of sewing results I can get from the sewing machine so that I can better plan my works and utilise the different sewing types properly.

Overall, I feel that wet felting is a lot faster than dry felting. The result is also more satisfying and we can hence create abstract patterns or ordered patterns much more easily as compared to dry felting.

Applications: 

WET FELTING:

DRY FELTING:

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Unconventional materials: Plastic fusing and threads exploration with soluble materials

1) Plastic Fusing:

Materials:

1) plastic bags

2) Food wraps

3) Food Nets

4) Fruit wrap foams

5) Threads and Yarns

Technique:

1) Place a piece of baking paper underneath

2) Layer and design all the materials that are chosen on the baking paper

3) Place another layer of baking paper on top of your design and iron over.

Trial #1)

In the trials for plastic fusing, I would like to explore both unconventional materials from different types of plastics as well as having a green concept. Most of the plastics I have gotten are recycled food wraps from potato chips, bread loaves, garlic, and onion nets, fruit foam nets, etc. Considering that all of these are different types (thickness and quality) of plastics, I am curious as to how they will fuse together under heat from the iron.

Maroon wrap – Bread loaf

Sliver strips – potato chips

Yellow net- garlic holder

Bubble wrap

The bread wrap was the first to have the effects of fusing as it was rather thin. The silver strips were harder to fuse as they were slightly thicker. The yellow net actually shrunk in size visibly to a large extent as the heat was applied causing the layers below to curl and crunch together. The bubble wrap became so thin and because of its transparency, the effect became negligible.

Trial #2

Materials:

  1. Coarser plastic nets from Onions holders
  2. A white plastic bag from grocery shopping

This took an incredibly long time to fuse even though the simple white plastic bag melted quickly. The red netting shrunk in size visibly and due to the shrinking, it has caused the white plastic as well as some netting to crunch up and overlapped. On parts where the netting and white plastic fused together nicely, the effect that I had gotten was a rather nice and thick piece of fusion. However, surrounding the middle area, there is an uneven thickness of fusion especially when the red net overlapped with one another.

Trial #3

Materials:

  1. Fruit Foam Wrap
  2. Yarn Bits
  3. Bread Loaf Wrap
  4. Cereal Food Wrapping

For the third trial, I placed bits of yarn on top of cereal food wrapping and a thin layer of the white plastic bag on top. However, the thin layer of plastic bag fused into the yarn threads quickly and the effect was not as apparent, it also did not look like the yarn bits were attached very well onto the cereal wrap. In order to create a plastic fusion sandwich, I added a piece of maroon bread plastic wrap on top and it created a nice fusion with spongy feels.  The fruit foam wraps, on the other hand, melted into a thin piece of plastic that has a negligible effect on the fusion.

2) Threads with soluble material:

Materials:

Yarns and threads, sewing machine.

Steps:

  1. On a layer of water-soluble sheet, place all desired objects on top of it.
  2. Fold the layer of soluble sheet into 2, covering all the yarns and threads.
  3. Pin all the objects down
  4. Sew along the 4 edges to create a border first before sewing in a grid manner.
  5. Remove the pins that holds the threads and yarn in place as you sew.
  6. After sewing, wet the piece and place it over a bowl or cup to keep the form in shape and leave to dry.

Trial:

Outcome: 

I pressed the woven soluble piece over a rounded overturned plastic container and dissolved the soluble sheet gradually while adjusting the shape of the piece. The process was very gooey and sticky. I felt that the water-soluble material seems to be made from starch, something that is non-toxic and highly soluble. I left it to dry for 1.5 days and this is the result.

Overall, it formed a nice shape and did hardened enough to keep the shape by itself without the plastic container mold. As compared to the plastic fusing technique, this water-soluble technique is slightly more interesting in the sense that it is easier for the fabric to evolve into something more abstract using the patterns/designs/placements of the various threads, yarns and colours used. It is also highly moldable and takes shape after the type of container or cup used to dissolve the water-soluble material. On the other hand, the plastic fusion result is slightly more rigid compared to this. Hence, I do see more potential using the water-soluble technique to create something more diverse and vibrant.

Applications: 

Garments made from plastics.

Garments made from recycled materials.

Water-soluble materials with threading techniques-seamless linearity (projected outcome)

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TRANSFER PRINTING:

DRY TRANSFER

Materials used: Satin 100% polyester, Fabric Crayons, Hot iron

Method:

  1. Use crayons to draw designs/textures on paper.
  2. Place your design facing down in contact with the surface of the cloth.
  3. Place the cloth and the paper in between 2 pieces of baking paper.
  4. Ready to iron with firm pressure.

Trying out with the fabric crayons:

My first try was to use the laser cut acrylic template provided. Instead of using the whole template directly, I attempted repeated patterns by using the same selected section of the template. I have also tried blending of colours by layers on top of each other instead of just block-colour styles as usually seen. I felt that by layering the colours, perhaps they can produce a different effect when the heat is applied, and I am curious as to how the layering will turn out. (used: Pink-Blue, Yellow-Pink, Yellow-Orange, Blue-Green, Green-Pink, Yellow-Blue combinations of crayons)

For my 2nd attempt, I tried to use objects to inspire patterns. While many other classmates headed out of the class to look for surfaces, I choose to turn to the object nearest to me to be my object of choice- my ink pen. I half-wrapped the paper around the pen and started to do colouring on the paper. By doing so, the paper will take in the grooves as well as the body shape of the pen and I will take these results as the basis of my new pattern. Halfway through the colouring, it reminded me of the sun and ferns, hence I decided to rotate and let it have a flared-out pattern in the end. (picture on the upper half)

Next, I attempted to draw something I personally have a liking towards- feathers. I tried overlapping colours and feathers of different lengths and sizes. I also tried using different amount of force when drawing these feathers (harder and lighter) to create a sense of depth. I am also curious to see how that will turn out during the heat transfer. (picture on the lower half)

After the first 2 attempts, I headed out of the class to find interesting surfaces. The paper is split into 3 portions (top-down).

First portion: Resting black benches (aka smoking area) at ADM B1 sunken plaza.

Second Portion: Lecture theatre chairs at B1 level, the knob joint of the turning tabletop. For this, I coloured a smooth layer of background colour on the cushion chair first before colouring on top of the turning knob.

Third Portion: I coloured on top of the knob directly without any background colour.

IRONING:

Before ironing, I have cut and trimmed the portions of these difference textures accordingly. These are the results I have gotten from the crayons. The first 2 pictures are significantly more vibrant compared to the last 2. For those that have lighter pressures from the crayons on the drawings, there is a lighter effect and some can hardly be seen at all- especially the textures from the ADM benches (last picture).

 

WET TRANSFER

Materials used: Satin 100% polyester, Disperse Dyes, Brushes, Paper, Heat Press

Method:

  1. Use brushes with some water to paint designs on paper.
  2. Place your design facing down in contact with the surface of the cloth.
  3. Place the cloth and the paper in between 2 pieces of baking paper.
  4. Ready for heat press (about 35 seconds).

Trying out with the disperse fabric dyes:

Upper Half: I tried painting a light background first and shaped the brush tip to a u-shape to make abstract patterns.

Lower Half: Using the same U-shape tip brush, I drew petals and flowers using a stamping method (stamping the u-shape). There is also a deliberate attempt with a gradient colour scheme from red to reddish-brown to orange to yellow)

Upper Half: Using the watercolour-splatter technique, I created a splash like effect for this piece.

Lower Half: I wanted sharp distinct strokes for this and hence proceeded to use a bold colour (concentrate red) with sharp cutting strokes, resembling a sword-like effect.

HEAT PRESS DIRECT TRANSFER: 

Before moving on to the heat press, I have trimmed and cut out the different portions of the paintings accordingly. For the first attempt, I heat pressed twice using the same piece as I wanted to achieve a patterned kind of textile. As observed, the lower half which was the first attempt, was significantly brighter than the upper half, which was the second attempt. It slightly lighter in colour with the same amount of time used.

With the second attempt at the heat press, I printed my other designs and they turned out somewhat desirable. Initially, I thought that the splatter effect will possibly appear very light on the fabric but thankfully it turned out fine.

HEAT PRESS INDIRECT TRANSFER:

Method:

  1. Place baking paper on heat press machine board.
  2. Place object of choice (around 1-2mm) facing down in contact with the surface of the cloth.
  3. Place the paper on the cloth with another piece of baking paper on top.
  4. Ready for heat press (about 45 seconds)

The upper half of the fabric was still direct transfer. However, I used indirect transfer for the lower half of the fabric. My object of choice was the leaves of the fir tree. As observed, the grooves and shape of the leaves got imprinted onto my fabric. During the heat-press, after 35 seconds, there was a slight burning smell and I quickly lifted the heat press only to find my leaf a little burnt. I suppose the choice of the leaf was too thick to have any nice effect on the fabric and I made a mental note to choose something thinner the next time I am doing indirect transfer for heat press.

Applications: 

Transfer printing on ceramics.

Transfer printing on wood.

Transfer printing for clothes