Patching up

To cover the smudged bee and butterfly that I mentioned earlier, I cut another bee and butterfly from one of my trial screen prints. I then used steam a seam 2 to fuse them to the dress over the smudges and free machine embroidered the outer edges.

It's not perfect but it looks better than it did!

Machine embroidery

Originally, as well as using free machine embroidery for my seedlings, I was going to go over some of the print with machine embroidery as I had done in my first samples.

But when I tried this on the screen printed samples, because I had reduced the size of the embroidery transfers to make the print, I found it difficult to use the machine embroidery on such a small motif. Therefore I have decided to keep the free machine embroidery limited to the seedlings and a small butterfly on the back of the left hand shoulder.

Patchwork appliqué and hand embroidery

Today I started work on the patchwork style appliqué that I envisaged here.

I used a selection of patchwork and recycled cotton fabrics in range of greens to emulate the ariel photos of the allotments. I tore these fabrics into squares roughly the same size, as I wanted to give the patchwork a rough layered effect rather than a traditional neat and prim patchwork. Once I had laid and pinned the squares in a way I was happy with, I used free machine embroidery in a dark brown thread to sew them down.

I then began playing about with the dress net and my knitted 'net' to break up the squares and distort the printed cottons beneath. before sewing them down in the same way.

I am really pleased with the result, I think that the layering of the nets over the patchwork squares help to break up the prints and add more texture and interest like the netting I found on the allotments.

As you can see from this close up, I have also started to hand embroider parts of the prints with the thicker lines. I am using satin stitch, back stitch, star stitch and lazy daisy, shown below on the lilac.

The hand embroidery is a very long process, which makes me appreciate the time, effort and love that must have gone into stitching all those vintage embroidered linens I own even more, but I think it helps to add definition the the thicker print, and I think the extra detail makes my garment look more impressive.

Sampling

I began sampling with fabric today. I started by experimenting with how I could use the embroidery transfers in way that would be different from their original intended use.

First I ironed on a transfer, and then painted the image with procion dyes.

Then I did the same, but machine embroidered the outline of the image in dark brown before painting with the dyes.

I also experimented with how it would look like if the dyes bled through the outline. I achieved this by dampening the areas to be painted first with water.

I like how both effects have turned out. They reminded me of a vintage souvenir scarf that I have. My mum told me that both my samples and the scarf look like a technique used to decorate ceramics called 'clobbering'. This is when a transfer is fired on to ceramics and then children hand painted the design, which is why the colours go outside the line.

The sample below was inspired by a variety of visual inspiration that I had collected for my Pinterest board.

The collage below was taken from a similar picture of seedlings in pots from my visual research and I decided to use the seedling motif in a similar way to the textile artist Viv of Hens Teeth who I have mentioned in a previous post.

The above print and ariel shot of allotments below immediately suggested a patchwork design to me. I want to evoke the mismatch rows of plots whilst still keeping a certain colour harmony with the varying shades of green. Unlike a traditional patchwork the plots are a bit higgledy piggly and rough around the edges, so to suggest this I will try to create a patchwork effect by using a appliqué technique.

Embroidery inspiration

I have really been inspired by the textile art of Viv of Hens Teeth. I love her modern approach of combining free machine embroidery, hand embroidery and appliqué with found objects. I think it

The simplicity of these french knots on stalks is so effective

and I love the rough sketchy quality of the hand embroidery on this postcard

this is such a lovely combination of appliqué, machine embroidery and hand embroidery.

Inspired by the past

I have been a collector of vintage hand embroidered linens for at least 4 years now. It all started when I found a large embroidered table cloth at the bottom of a box in a charity shop. I was in awe of the beautiful florals hand embroidered around the edges - it must have taken hours to stitch, but was horribly stained in the middle. For only £2 I couldn't leave it languishing at the bottom of that old cardboard box, so I decided I would make it into cushions. As cushions they could be admired everyday without the risk from a drippy teapot! You can see the results on my old blog here.

The hand embroideries I collect would have been stitched by ordinary women between around the 1940-60s. They where the sort of thing that women did in the evenings as a hobby to make pretty things for their homes. Today we are used to mass produce products that are cheaper to buy than make ourselves but back then, making your own clothes and things to decorate your home made financial sense. This would have been a craft that the war time land girls would be doing in their free time and so I really want to include hand embroidery in my final outcome.

A few years ago, after my mum had been having a sort out at home she handed me this box along with some other bits and pieces. Inside, to my delight, were hundreds of old embroidery transfers that had belonged to my great grandmother. Embroidery transfers are ironed onto the fabric you wish to embroider to provide a guide for stitching onto. Traditionally, the picture that is left by the transfer will be completely covered by the embroidery when it is finished, but I think it would be interesting to create a outline style print using the florals.

Whilst look through my collection of embroideries I discovered a few vintage pinnys I've picked up from various car boots. They remind me how, in the 40s and 50s, women liked to combine the pretty with the practical.