Free motion machine embroidery for beginners through to advanced.
Free motion machine embroidery - in the Advanced 'long-stitch'technique.
Transfer Printing techniques - from beginner to advanced.
Stitching on increasingly transparent fabrics and surfaces
Photo and image editing for textile applications (demonstration)
This project delves into the use of free-motion machine embroidery to create a diverse botanical collection of leaves and petals. Students will progress in step by step exercises, from beginner through to advanced, in the various techniques of free-motion embroidery. ‘A Botanical Collection’ allows us to explore colour, pattern, transparency and texture through stitch. We work on a mix of fabrics, including transparent and water-soluble, to craft perforated and transparent, variegated foliage for our collection.
Transfer printing offers a way of dyeing fabric that does not involve immersing the fabric in water. It leaves no 'print' residue that would affect the drape and feel of the fabric. It allows, therefore, an amazing range of visual options from photographic realism where designs can be manipulated in digital editing programs through to the most abstract free gestural linework that wet dying simply does not offer. Experimentation with transfer dye techniques will reveal the versatility of this medium. You can work realistically, use digital photography, or create free abstracts. Paper painted designs are sublimated with heat to a range of fabrics, from satin, stretch knits, sheer organzas as well as recycled polyesters.
The prints are then embellished, pushing traditional machine stitching techniques in new directions. The long-stitch free-machine technique, with lustrous threads, will be used to enliven the printed surface.
The finished project can be a stand-alone image or be incorporated into wearable costumes, jewellery, or ussed to decorate various functional objects such as notebooks.
A textile practitioner for over thirty years, my recent practice has taken me in the direction of investigating the transfer printing/dye sublimation technique in depth. Stitching, and especially free-machine embroidery, has also been a focus and has resulted in the exploration of stitch in less conventional ways, extending stitch length manually to ‘paint’ patterns and lines on the printed surfaces. The use of threads with sheen in repetitive line patterns brings surfaces to life and never fails to surprise me when light is directed at the materials from different angles. I have created series of backyard birds in textiles using these techniques. The magpie has been a favourite subject.