Experimentation with machine stitch and pleating

Today I began experimenting with machine stitch as this is an area I have not explored before, as I am using hand stitch as well I thought they would compliment each other. It is also a much quicker method of joining together materials which will be useful as i am on a tight time deadline. This idea of experimenting with machine stitch came from researching Jan Beanley and Jean Little John, as they both work by expressing landscapes through the mediums of stitch and embroidery. Their compositions are very creative so instead of narrowing myself to only a few skills I thougth I would develop my range of techniques to make my material seascapes much more interesting.



First of all I started experimentation on the sewing machine by adapting its functions, I was able to create a loose loop stitch which I find very aesthetically pleasing. This could potentially be used as representing broken waves.

My tutor then showed me how to create pleats. I really liked this method and thought it was really effective. It was rather time consuming however I think the other all outcomes worth it. I would like to develop this method further.

 I was inspired by the book ‘The Art Of Manipulating Fabric’ by ‘Colette Wolff’ to try some smocking. This at first seemed really complicated but after I tried out a few testers I became rather refined at the method. I like how I can create very different outcomes with this technique purely depending on the fabrics I use. For example I can create really neat samples using shirting fabric but when I use thinner creased fabric I get a messier more unpredictable outcome. I think I prefer the untidier sample as its more interesting.

I then began to create larger smocking samples using thinner material as I wanted an uncontrolled sample which could hang unpredictably. I much prefer using thinner materials as I think it represents the nature of the sea much more realistically than stiff materials.

Again from the book ‘The Art of Manipulating Fabric’ I was given the idea of couching as I wanted some more techniques to try out. I like the texture and visual quality this method produces. If I had a complex composition this would be useful to help break up sections and add balance within the work. However, I found this to be a very time consuming process taking well over a day to produce just this sample. As I am under a time limit I think this method would be risky to continue as I might not finish my work on time. If I was to continue with this idea in the future then I would definitely include this technique, yet I would use subtler thread as I think the colours used here are rather childlike

After creating a range of samples I was able to start building up compositions. I was advised by one of my tutors to use more subtle, sophisticated colours so I took this into consideration when producing the seascapes. I was simply pinning together various materials and samples to see how they worked together in the composition.

One I was happy with the arrangement and tones I joined them together using the technique embellishing which I experimented with before and hand stitch.

The only problem I encountered when making my pieces was that the needles on the embellishing machine were too flimsy. I found myself breaking the majority of the needles after about only 10 minutes of using the machine. So I tried to resolve this by using only thin materials and going very cautiously yet they still seemed to break off. The barrels needed to replace the broken ones were expensive at 14 pounds each. And then it was the delivery time period I had to wait so this set me back on my producing of my seascapes quite a lot. I decided to limit my use on the embellishing machine as much as I could which I was disappointed with as I really like the effects the machine creates. I relied more on hand stitch to join my materials together and only used the technique of embellishing for aesthetics of the piece.