This week in class, we were introduced to 2 techniques: smocking & stitching with elastics. But I was only able to try the smocking technique because I was slOW…..

This is my attempt at smocking:

First, you have to draw the grid uniformly (which I realized later on that it is quite important to), and trace out the path that you’re supposed to take!

For me, I decided to try this template:

To give this:

My first attempt with this material wasn’t great and I wasn’t able to see the pattern clearly:

I then tried it again with felt and because it was a thicker and tougher material, the pattern was more prominent!

I actually think smocking is fun but pretty challenging because you really do need a lot of patience and you have to be very meticulous! But the result is really pretty so it is a technique that I would consider for my final piece!!

Wet Felting

For wet felting, we had to loosen up the felt to create our desired pattern, add hot water and soap, and “massage” the fabric into the pattern and shape that we want.

(I tried making a watermelon but it shrank a lot)

I think I’d like to try this again because my previous attempt was way too small… and I may have misinterpreted the technique. It’d be great to be able to make something like a quilt or a small purse using this technique!

Dry Felting

This was pretty fun and I worked on smaller pieces just to try how it’s like!

For this week, the first technique required the use of plastic materials to create our own unconventional fabric.

Plastics

I used the usual kinds of plastic bags that we get on a daily basis, as well as straws, and tried layering them. But I realized that the colours didn’t go well together since they were just ordinary plastic bags:

The layering didn’t go too well as well, because of the thickness of the patterns I tried making.

I also tried using clear plastic (ziploc bags) as a “holder” for the other plastic materials in my next try and I think this worked better because now you can clearly see the contents within and this way I can come up with a patterned fabric.

(they’re supposed to resemble flowers….)

I actually really like this method because it gives me more control over the material and I think its a really versatile technique to work with as well! I’d like to try this more to see what other materials I can combine this with.

Water-soluble materials

The second method was to make use of a water-soluble material to hold the different fabrics and threads, thereafter using a sewing machine to sew everything together. Once done, dissolve the material to get your put-together fabric!

For me, I tried but its currently still a WIP because I feel like I have to get a better hang of the sewing machine first!!! And I will update this once I have done so!

Here’s what I currently have: (not enough sewing to secure the threads inside)