Month: July 2014

July Toss n Tell by Kim Gordon

Vera has made some stunning jackets and vests, inspiration coming from Phyllis Hoffman’s book Felted Vests. Vera first drafts the simple pattern from the book, she also has used a simple commercial pattern for some of her jackets. Next a large piece of fabric is made from a length of silk fabric covered in wool. If you are trying this remember to make a sample of fabric for the shrinkage rate. Vera thinks about whether she would like a collar or sleeves on her garment and makes the fabric large enough to accommodate these, and incorporates any design she may want to have on the bottom edge of the jacket or sleeve. Next Vera cuts the pattern out of the fabric and sews the shoulder seams together. The garment may need to be adjusted slightly on the shoulders before you sew together. For strength Vera uses ribbon or similar under the stitching. Trim one side of the seam and fold the other over the stitching and stitch down to hide the seam. On some pieces Vera has left excess fabric around the neck and folded it over to make a collar, on others she has cut a straight piece from the fabric and added it to the garment. Another idea Vera has used is to finish around the edges with a row or two of crochet using interesting wool.

verademo    lyndemo

Toss and Tell Lynn Blasgund  kindly showed us how to neaten a raw silk edge with just a simple zig zag stitch.  It is best to do this before you felt but can be used as a fixer afterwards.  Use a sharp and fine needle for edging silk and practise on a scrap of same fabric first.  Set the stitch wide, and short in length, for example width at 5 and length at 1. Using your zig zag foot, drive the fabric along the centre of the foot so the stitching will be half on and half off the fabric. This causes the stitch to pull in and roll the fabric. Sew straight along the edge and off at the end, don’t turn corners, just trim the excess afterwards. This will leave you with a beautiful edge.

 

 

vera SueH sueeslick Soosie4 soosie2 soosie1 soosie JudyB1 JudyB jilljodrell Gudrun chris1 Chris donna12

Alison’s Nuno Felt Workshop

Although I have been felting for quite a long time, I still learn different things from workshops which help refine your own technique.
I’ve always admired Alison’s work and thought I could gain some inspiration and ideas from her workshop.
So it was with this in mind I attended the nuno workshop in early April.
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We began by discussing what was nuno felting. Then Alison gave a quick demonstration of laying fine layers of wool. Finer layers give more drape, but also have greater shrinkage.
She recommended to sketch the design and then work out the best way to proceed. Examples of 4 different ways to construct nuno were shown and we talked about what each one would produce.
alison3 alison1
The final stage was how to produce a well felted piece.
Next we were given the option to either use 2 different nuno processes in making a scarf, or making some samples to experiment the different nuno techniques.
Of course also needs to be given to colour, symmetry or asymmetry and proportions.
Everyone was busy making decisions, laying, rolling, fulling and chatting for the rest of the day.
What did I learn? I learnt that Alison’s beautiful feltwork does not happen by chance it is well planned and executed in a methodical way.
Thankyou Alison.

June TnT by Kim Gordon

First a reminder to renew your membership this month so you can vote at the AGM and have access to the Feltwest members site.

Keep an eye out for information on the October Craft Fair at UWA.

It was a delight to see all the clever and colourful pieces made at the retreat by those who brought them along. Here is what some group members had made over the weekend.

Sue Eslick experimented with bags, felting around a basketball and ending up with a unique bag felted in one piece, very neat. Sue also showed off her red hat with long and curly spirals coming from the centre. Liz Odd made a collar from silk hankies and had with her some shibori scarves which had been felted resulting in some interesting textures. Vianne showed off her stunning silk hankie apron dress made on the retreat and also brought in some very loose knit sleeves, each having an end which pops over your head to create a jumper – fabulous. Kim made a purple silk lap short scarf and a small red and gold bag. Mary Ann finished her gorgeous silk paper black and silver wrap. Mary Ann also had made a felted ball for her grandchildren. To do this she cut foam to a rough ball shape and lay wool directly over the foam, wet it and put it into a plastic shopping bag to keep it all together and felted it like that. It turned out perfectly well. Alison Gomes made an amazing set of Pouffe’s at the retreat, such rich colours, they will look stunning when finished. Gudrun made a baby blanket in white, in three layers the first of silk fibres and silk hankies, the second, two light layers of  wool and third of tissue silk, all in white, it looked beuutiful. Marie Marshall who always makes colourful pieces decided to do something new this year and created some muted toned scarves. Well done Marie for being so brave. Judi Barkla made a funky wrist band and quite a few scarves, showing us a beautiful one of reds, orange, purple and pinks. Jill Jodrell showed us a colourful sleeveless coat. Katrina spent the retreat working on her felted piece for the Neural Knitworks Exhibition. Great thanks were bestowed upon Jill for showing Katrina how to decrease in crocheting. Judith Shaw made a very warm looking shoulder wrap and a rug made from all her scraps of wool. Judith had sewn over the rug making floral shapes on it, the edge being machine stitched for strength and finished off by hand.

vianne sueespie sueeslick2 sueeslick maryann marie kim judy1 judy judithshaw jilljudyjudith gudrun dawn antoinette alison
Those not at the retreat had some fantastic pieces to show also. Sherron has been knitting an edge band for a felted jacket, she will attach the felting to the knitted band to get a combined look, can’t wait to see it finished. AiLin brought in an Indigo dyed piece and also a gorgeous shibori dyed silk piece that she had rolled up over rope, pushed up from both ends and tied tightly before dying, this gave it a shimmering snake skin appearance. Ant created an interesting design for a cushion cover, placing painters tape in a grid pattern between two layers of prefelt and then cutting it away once felted, a stunning outcome. Sue Espie has needle felted a sheep very cute and loads of character. Judy showed us what she made while we were at the retreat, a Polly Stirling style sleeveless coat and some very smart flowers for her hair and bag. Teresa also has made some beautiful soft flowers. Dawn has been having fun making samples and trying out which bits and pieces would felt in and which wouldn’t incorporating some needle felting too.

That’s all for this month.