Lesson #2


Woven artistry I saw this on someones jacket a few weeks back, and decided to try it......looked it over real good while I was waiting in line.....

Materials needed

With the lame strips take and make them into tubes. Turning them with turning tool of your choice.....I use either a fast turn tube or a safety pin. not an easy task, especially with lame, so please take your time with this step

once you have these two tasks done, take your colored strip and pin it to your cutting mat, or tape it to a table, or pin real well to flannel board....

then mark every 1 1/2" on the strip with chalk in a diagonal fashion creating diamonds.....this is where you will lay your lame strips.

With the lame strips, lay them all in one direction. sew them on the edges to hold them down or pin them in place. You could also take and put the fusible thread and put it in your bobbin and sew completely around the edges so that the fusible thread is on the right side of fabric then iron the lame strips in place......

drawing:
   /  /  /  /  /  /  /  /   best to have strips hanging off the ends, you can 
 -----------------------    cut them later.
|/  /  /  /  /  /  /  / |/  lets pretend here that this is all 7 strips across.
 -----------------------/
| /  /  /  /  /  /  /  /|   the angles here are how your lame strips should
 -----------------------    look at this point.
/  /  /  /  /  /  /  /

now we are ready to place them in the opposite direction....weaving thru
every other strip......
                                                another example would be this.
 -------------------------------   
|/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/|    \/\/\/\/\/\/\  this is how the lame strips
 -------------------------------     /\/\/\/\/\/\/  should look after the 
|\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\|    \/\/\/\/\/\/\  weaving.  Sew the edges in  
 -------------------------------     /\/\/\/\/\/\/  place.    

Now you need to take and tack down some of the strips so they won't move... so take and in the hidden areas where the strips cross, pull over the top strip and sew in place on the underneath strip.....try and do this on as many strips as possible.....

once this is done, the possiblilities are endless.....like I said, I saw this on a jacket, and the women had taken and just added it down the the back on the diagonal of her jacket....it came around the front in an angle on both fronts of the jacket.....it was stunning.....


Lesson 2a.

bows......idea taken from the sulky book Updated serger techniques....p.30 by Patsy Shields.....

my changes in her technique are obvious.....and I am doing them by sewing machine.

cut 2 pieces of fabric 3" x 5". sew right sides together leaving and opening and turn, and close opening, or sew wrong sides together. It is even fun to sew these with the wrong sides together, only when you are sewing pick one of your favorite decorative stitches and use that as your topstitching stitch.....

If you did the turn method, you could then take and do a blanket stitch all the way around the rectangle.

once you have done this and your ready to put the bow in place. take and sew a gathering line down the middle of the rectangle across the 3"....not the long side.....then tie the one end in a know.....pull to gather middle of bow.

Then stitch in place where you want the bow to be....once stitched to the surface you can take the ends and tie a know....voila!!!!!! a wonderful bow...

I have done this completely down the sleeves of jackets I have made....have done it on baby quilts where I had put a bow on a bear or in a dolls hair.....it is fun to do this technique and only takes 5 minutes......

another idea, you can take and sew a pin back on it, and you have a pin or even a hair pin......

ok, a correction from lesson 2a.

In the sentence where I wrote

"once you have done this, and your ready to put the bow in place take and sew a gathering line down the middle of the rectangle across the 3" .....not the long side.

this is what I mean't

>x______________________________x
>|              G               |
>|              A               |
>|              T               |
>|              H               |
>|              E               |
>|______________R_______________|
 x                               x
 
Where I have written gather is the 3" mark. tie a little know on the gathering threads to hole the gathers in place. this should now be shriveled up. looking like a bow. (no loops)

then stitch in place on the background fabric and tie a know with the two ends. where the four x's are represent the two ends.....take these and tie a knot.

Hope these are better instructions, and I am truly sorry for any inconvenience I caused.


now.....to prepare for lesson 3......

you will need a fat quarter of fabric.....take and wet it completely wrap it up in a ball and secure it with rubber bands.....leave it to dry for at least 3 days.....but if you do it now....just leave it be.....it'll be fine for the 2 weeks you are waiting. There are various ways to do this technique, and we will talk about them then, but this is the best.....

See ya in two weeks......


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