Friday, July 14, 2017

VINTAGE HANKIE

Back in 2015, two pals and I tried our hands at eco printing.
After mostly disappointing results, I decided to abandon the idea of printing with leaves and instead to process some vintage textiles that I'd brought along in an iron water bath.  They were squeezed into fabric balls, contained with string and simmered for about an hour.
 I can't tell you how many times I've pulled them from my stash, only to put them back after being unable to move forward with a workable design on their small size, about 9" x 10".  Finally it came to me.....perhaps they could be transformed and then mounted on pieces of dyed silk noil or ????  Why did they have to be stand alone....which was my original thought?!?
Of course every bin and stack of fabric I own was gone through before finally settling on an approach.  This piece is still in the works......so it will be interesting to see what the final decision turns out to be.
 A lot of thought went into how to stablize the embroidered/lacey textile and yet retain the details.  Pellon non-fusible light-weight stabilizer, as is often my choice, was placed on the wrong side of the piece.  I plan to cut away all exposed sections beyond the center section where the motifs will be placed. 
 The biggest hurtle was developing a way to transfer the design lines to the fabric!  The use of pencil or other such tracing material was out......too risky in case I changed my mind about location etc.  Removing those marks may prove to be impossible.  

Here's what I came up with.....borrowing a transfer method I often employ when beading.  With tracing paper over the hankie, the outline of the center section was recorded.  Next, I spent a good amount of time auditioning small scale foliage designs within the marked boundaries using pencil and eraser. 

To transfer the final design to the hankie, the paper pattern was positioned on the right side of the fabric and secured with small silk pins.  With thread to match, I machine stitched a line down the center of each branch.  Carefully the paper was torn away, revealing a guide for the hand embroidery. 
As the first line of embroidery was added for every branch, the guideline was removed.  This approach eliminated all possibilities of having offending marks  on the work.  Stay tuned....I'm gearing up to add the remaining designs....

Check out these links to explore what other artists have been working on this week:  Nina-Marie's Off The Wall Friday, Sarah's Whoop, Whoop Friday, Crazy Mom Quilts.

9 comments:

Jo Vandermey said...

Great tips about marking! Looking forward to see the progress.

Windy Hill Happenings said...

Looks interesting...and of course I love the use of old linens.....hoping you bring it to FJ...

Deb Thuman said...

Your piece is beautiful! How wonderful to be able to use up a fabric you thought was a lost cause.

quiltedfabricart said...

Very cool! The whole thing has that organic vibe to it. A long time ago I used press n seal , the plastic wrap that lightly sticks to the surface the same way you did the paper. I don't remember how easily it pulled off though but might be something to try sometime. (On a sample first of course)

margaret said...

so good to see you using these pieces you created a few years ago, the rusty look is very appealing, reminds me of the old sepia photos

Vera Holmgren said...

Thanks for sharing, looking forward to hear more about the process!

Kathy said...

Vintage linens are so tricky to use. Looks like this one will be very lovely!

Robbie said...

I just commented on your more current blog post...I'm a few days behind! Love what you ended up doing with this piece!!! LOVE IT!

sonja said...

I enjoyed your process and coming to a solution. That is often joy/agony but part of what makes us fabric explorers! I am fond of vintage fabric and use it when i can. Imagine if it could tell a story; then we must be the next chapter. i like where you arrived.