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Woven Fabric


I've been a member of Stitchmap for a while and I finally got to take my first class in Fabric Weaving.  I've written classes and mentored, but this was my first chance to relax and take a class.  And I also won my first challenge (which is detailed in their blog).


I went overboard and made 3 different woven fabrics and three journal covers.  I didn't plan on it.  It just happened.  The directions say to use batiks so I started with batiks.  But, there were some prints I liked too, so I decided to do one with a print too.

So I started thinking about why we were using batiks.  Probably because they are more tightly woven and shouldn't fray as much and probably the designs on many prints would be lost after the weaving.  Thinking about fraying fabrics reminded me of homespun plaids.  After that, I just had to try one with plaids to see what would happen.  In reality, they frayed as much as the batiks and it wasn't an issue (I did use extra starch).



I must say that I really like the woven cover with the plaids much better than the prints or batiks.  I guess I'm a homespun kind of gal.

Stitching the woven fabric was interesting.  Normally I just straight stitch but I needed to do to a zigzag satin stitch and could play with the fancy stitches.  Let me tell you, I went through more bobbin thread in 2 days than I normally do in months.  It seems like I had to wind a bobbin every 15 minutes.  Even when I free-motion quilt the thread doesn't fly as fast it does finishing the woven fabric.  I prefer going much slower.


After I finished the journals I have all sorts of interesting scraps left over.  I see an eyeglasses case and a needle case being made of the bigger pieces.  I may just cut up the smaller pieces into bookmarks or save them to embellish something.

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Comments

  1. ThelmaApril 2, 2011 at 3:59 PM

    You have done an awesome job! I love them all but my favorite is the homespun fabrics. Congratulations on making 3 journal covers.

    ReplyDelete

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