Summer school workshop

Up at Alston Hall, we were layering and slashing - tutor, Karina Thompson. Here's the lovely big room we had to work in -

Karina's work is fabulous; we were privileged to also be able to look through her sketchbooks, and she brought many samples.

But we all had to start somewhere, and this is my first effort, turning down some of the layers -Then we learned about brushing the fabric to change the texture - and things suddenly got much more exciting, for me anyway. Using the leftovers from the "many out of one" little gems, I added some organza to see what would happen - especially if it was folded to protect the edge from the wire brush -

Here's what happens after some vigorous brushing! -

My biggest surprise was the way this loosely-woven scarf disintegrated - good thing it did - it started out as rather hideous (purple plus orange plus yellow plus gold threads plus gold print). The next layer is a splodge-dyed silk, pale and quite tightly woven.

The copper-coloured shiny stuff does start to peek through, but I left an unbrushed area as the organdie square on the top was curling nicely. I tended to dot various smaller pieces under the top layer, rather than use complete layers.

In the next one, the small pieces are near the surface, with something tweedy under the sheers, and that lovely coppery stuff again. I had a large piece of pink net and let that extend round the edges, with some organza sewn over it - for a feathery effect. Unfortunately the corners do tend to fall off - but look how the organza goes all wispy!

Now some prosaic cottons, and a bit of this 'n' that - It brushed up rather well. The angle of the stitching is steeper here.

Back to the revealing of layers - the sequins are added with a micro-tag gun. Gotta get one of those... And what happens when you use plastic? This is from a bread bag (nice sturdy plastic) -

The micro-tag gun was used to hold the layers together and reveal a bit of the background. Vigorous brushing didn't raise much nap: the fabric was calico and the plastic did need a bit of care -

More tweed, and more of the wonderful coppery stuff. I forgot to take a "before" picture, so here it is halfway.

Here's that hideous scarf again, over several layers, at the bottom of which is The Ugly Fabric that we were all given - we were expected to do "something" with it, and there would be a prize (not that we needed spurring on). I cut circles of the coppery stuff, and added more gold motifs... and stitched, and slashed (with ordinary - sharp - scissors, rather than a special cutter, by the way) -

And here it is, all fluffed up. The spotty fabric (a polyester with a sateen weave) has shredded nicely.

I liked that so much, I did another - this time with some loosely-woven cotton in the mix, and with the stitching at a steeper angle. In places, it needed a bit of a haircut. It was very addictive to keep making these samples. (Those last ones are about 16" square.) And now what? This is a great way to use up fabric - try everything, you'll get some wonderful surprises!