Sewing with Odd Textiles

 I am not a fan of artist Thomas Kinkaid's work, at all. 

I do not care for his subject matter which poorly mimics Currier and Ives which I do admire. There is always  enough illumination coming from the windows in his work to light up Times Square. While he certainly had a an artistic gift, his vision is far too commercial, never mind artificial looking,  for me. But here I am, the buyer of this, dare I say, nasty throw. 

Gahh, it is so against my taste. Why did she buy it you ask? Is she really going to use it, never mind make clothing with it? Heck yeah! I bet now you are really scared. You see, there I was in this gift shop in North Conway, NH, good ole ski country, with about 200 other tourists and saw this thing. Peeking out was it's back side. Now that is what caught my eye. 

The  throw was large and the colors were beautiful . The shapes from the front side were pretty amorphous on the back and could be worked around. I would bet the farm it was acrylic and it was pretty tightly woven. I bought this beauty and tucked it away knowing one day I would make it work. It's day has come.  But first I had to make it garment worthy. That started with a wash and dry and it came out beautifully as you see it. Click the pic to see it up closer. 

I had the pattern picked out, something extremely simple but with a lot of style and a garment that I love to wear. More to come on that.

  I figured the best way to make this work would be to  block fuse a tricot interfacing to the back of my pattern pieces.  This would do a bunch of things. 

* It would secure the weave and prevent catching and snagging. 

* It would stabilize the fabric for the garment I was  making. In it's current state the fabric was thick but almost too soft and  drapey. 

* It would underline the fabric, not needed by the pattern but nice to have. 

* It would give a smooth surface to land against what I wore underneath, nothing loopy that could catch and snag.

* It let me fudge around with the grain which is working out beautifully due to the design as  you will see. 

I laid out my throw on the cutting table, fashion side up and carefully place my first piece where I wanted it to go. I put a lot of thought into where each pattern piece would be best cut.  I then allowed for at least another inch all around and cut my block. As luck would have it, the blocks needed were the width of the the interfacing. I carefully picked it all up and moved to my ironing area. 

I  laid out the interfacing on the back of the throw, my idea of the back, and then folded it so it would fit in the  "fold"  of the press. I find this the most efficient way to press large articles. I used a silk setting with the massive steam these put out but first I lowered the top of the press to within about a half inch of the fabric and then let it steam. I wanted to make sure I got all the shrinkage out of everything, interfacing and fashion fabric. Then I lifted the top again, took my hands and smoothed out the interfacing again as the last steaming caused it to move around. Once all  smoothed again, I did the actual steam and press to secure the interfacing to the fabric. Seven seconds and permanently bonded! 

You can certainly press this with the iron but it was far more efficient to do this job with a steam press if you have one, fast, smooth and permanent.

These blocks were for my front and back bodices, similar in size but just different enough to be a problem if mixed up. I made sure I marked which piece was which with some tape. 

I still wondered about keeping the weaving secure and started to make samples of overstitching on the fabric. The jury is still out on this and I will sleep on it. It may be overkill or it may not make any difference at all. We shall see.  I do have some contrasting fabric to cut out for the design but did manage to get a section completed. I think it will be quite nice!

ETA: For those who are fans of Kincaid's art, I respect that.  We all have developed our taste thru a lifetime in very many varied ways. For those who love his work, more power to you and may you enjoy it with all your heart. For myself, I prefer more of a Shaker aesthetic. Sorry if I offended anyone's sensibilities. That was not my intent. 

And for my final surprise, here is the pattern I will be making with this fabric. It is a TABARD from Sandra Betzina, Vogue 1569. I absolutely love long sweater vests and have literally worn a couple of woolen ones to death. I saw this pattern and it was instant love. I knew immediately what fabric I would use. ;)  I will be using some lovely black wool for the contrast. More to come! 

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I finished my next Picasso pants and have a near complete blogpost on them. Hubs and I did a fashion shoot but could not get clear pictures. I tried everything which meant I ended up taking my DSLR to the camera shop. They knew the issue right away and I came home with a repaired camera and ready for another go at getting pics. The weather is now not cooperating but as soon as I can I will have that review up and running for you. I love my new PPants. In the meantime it's full steam ahead with my Kinkaid throw project! And I bet you thought is was a throw away!................Bunny