Embroidery Unit

E VA L U A T I O N

In evaluation, I have enjoyed the sampling unit this term. I had never done embroidery properly before and so this gave me a chance to try lots of new things. I was apprehensive as to whether or not I would enjoy it but I'm really glad that I have done it, as it has not only given me more creative sewing skills but also practical skills for every day life. Im also glad I have done embroidery because I can now imagine what it would be like combined with print to create textures over printed fabrics and this is something which I would like to try in the future. 

If I could go back and do this unit again, I would further develop my hand samples more creatively, as I feel I rushed quite a lot. I also feel that I allowed myself to be more creative and let my ideas flow more when on the machines. Somehow I found it much easier to plan and create a square, and I think the structure of the machine work helped me to design differently. I feel that I was able to develop more ideas on the machines as I knew I could produce something at a pace once I had thought through an idea. Hand embroidery however, I feel sometimes has more depth, and with enough time can look much more original as it is hand produced and that is probably the bit I liked best about it.  If I had had a week longer, I would have also liked to produce combined hand and machine samples as I was concentrating on the amount rather than combining them and so this is something I would like to develop in the future. 

Machine embroidery

F I N A L  W E E K

In my final week of machine embroidery we were set another brief of twenty samples. This meant that I have been able to explore further using combinations of whatever feet or techniques I wanted. I feel that some of my samples began to look quite similar, and so I tried to plan my ideas which helped as I managed to produce samples more quickly rather than having so much thinking time in between each one. 

Overall this week I am actually much happier with the samples that I have produced, and I think that there is a very defined difference between the first and last week of machine embroidery. 

Below are some of the last samples that I produced and are happiest with. 

The first sample was produced using the tufter, the pin tuck and embroidery foot. The middle section (where you can see the the peach and black together) was produced by using the pin tuck foot back to front and that effect is normally found on the back of the sample. 

I like this sample because I feel it relates to some of my data using tea bags, as it almost looks a little broken up and pulled apart, like the tea bags looked when I had cut them open. Another reason why I like these particular samples is because I have used a wide range of techniques and grey scale. I think it almost looks like a drawing. 

The second sample was produced in sections. Firstly I pin tucked onto a shear fabric and then embellished it onto the base. Then I used the tufter and blended yarns together. I also purposefully used a yarn (black) which I knew would snap easily in order to produce the mark which looks like a pen which is running out. 

This sample was produced using three colours and the Tailor tack foot. I pulled all of the spool threads out and was left with this lovely seeding effect. 

Pin Tuck Foot

F I N A L  T U T O R I A L

I have now reached the final week of machine embroidery and this week we have learnt the final new foot called the Pin Tucker. This was completely different from the previous feet as you have to use a double needle to create the pin tuck. This foot again shocked me a little because it produces an entirely new outcome. At first I really enjoyed using it because I loved the way the tension allows the fabric to change completely. I am normally a little messy and because of this I also really liked the fact that due to the ridges in the foot it was so easy to produce straight and neat lines.

There were a couple of downfalls I found when using this foot however. One of these was that if the spool ran out of thread it meant a little longer in threading the machine back up due to the double needle etc, and secondly having two threads of different weight i.e. one cotton and one burmalana, meant that it was difficult to find a tension which suited both threads enough for them not to snap. 

Below are some of the samples I produced in our second brief of twenty. 

Machine Embroidery

S A M P L E S

This week we have been set a brief to produce twenty samples. Although I was a bit worried about this at the start, I was also quite excited because I had lots of ideas and its a good feeling to have a pile of work by the end of the week.

The aim of this sampling was to explore the new feet and machine as much as possible and really get good at the technical part of embroidery, rather than thinking about our data and how to relate them. Because we were focusing on the technical side, I was able to try things that I wouldn't have been able to if we had had to focus on our data directly. Some have gone brilliantly and others not so well, but I feel quite happy with the samples I have produced, as you have to get through the bad to reach the good.

The first sample was produced using the Tailor tack foot in different tensions and on the fold. 

This sample was produced by using the tailor tack foot and the tufter. 

This third sample is one of my favourite samples because even though its simple I think its really aesthetically pleasing. I only used the embellisher and the tailor tack foot. 

This sample was completely different to any of the others and I got a bit carried away folding and joining fabrics to create a more dimensional sample. I also tried using the blind hem foot which you can see is the black thread.

Embroidery and data

E X P E R I M E N T I N G

Here I just decided to have a little experiment with a more three dimensional sample and wanted to have a go at relating it to my data. I cut squares out of vibrant fabrics and stitched along each edge. I then sewed a line down the centre of each square attaching it to the base fabric. Following that I attached more squares into each gap. 

Embellishing machine and the Tufter

E M B E L L I S H E R 

Today we got an induction using the embellishing machine. I have used it before but I had forgotten how much I loved it! I have mostly done hand embellishing and so I can compare them well, machine embellishing is so much easier and so much quicker. Below is just the small sample I produced on the first induction. I love how the fibres in the fabrics entwine together and I think it makes the fabric change into a more messy but beautiful state. I really enjoyed using this machine and I intend to make the most of using it throughout my time in machine embroidery.

T U F T E R

Today we also learnt how to use the tufting machine. I have also already used one of these to produce my rug which is posted much earlier on in this blog. I really enjoyed using the tufter, everything about it is simple and relatively quick. It only takes a minute to thread up and this means that its so easy to try different combinations of yarns or colours all the time. I also really love this machine because I think it produces effects which make you want to touch and feel the fabrics, which to me is one of my favourite things about textiles. I always find things more interesting if I don't know directly how they have been made. 

Tailor Tack and Blind Hem Feet

T W O  F E E T  I N  O N E  T U T O R I A L

This week we have learnt two more new feet which was quite exciting as I have never used any more specialist feet. I had no idea of what was going to be produced and so I was relatively shocked at how many different things the sewing machine could produce depending on what you do with it. Starting on the left hand side, these stitches were produced using the Tailor Tack foot. This foot creates loops in the thread and can produce anything from scraggly loose loops which almost look like messy handwriting, to perfect packed lines of loops and even seeding by taking either the spool or top thread out. 

On the right hand side second and third lines in are produced using the blind hem foot. This foot is completely different and very neat, however some of the same outcomes can be produced using both feet. For this foot to work correctly you stitch on the fold and then by opening the fold afterwards you can produce lovely outcomes. 

Machine embroidery

T H E  F I R S T  W E E K

This week I have switched over from hand embroidery to machine. To begin this half of the sampling unit we were inducted onto the sewing machines in the art school and we got shown how to use the embroidery foot. (no.6) 

In the first few days I took the opportunity to experiment with the machines a lot and get to know how to use them properly, I have found that they are very different from a normal domestic machine and it took me a little while to feel completely confident with what I was doing. 

The image below is of one of the first machine samples I produced for my technical file. I tried and tested different stitch lengths, widths and styles and also couched some yarns underneath to see what would happen

Ironing Candles

C A N D L E S  &  P A P E R

After my first candle experiments, I wanted to look into more artists. For my data I am looking at collections, and when using these birthday candles it reminded me of how Becky Adams looks at memories and things from the past. To me one of my greatest memories was always birthdays and the smell of candles being blown out. This then links into my collections data as Becky Adams collects and uses snippets of information relating to memories. 

Using this inspiration I then decided to iron candles onto a combination of fabric and newspaper print. I used this because I have found that after looking at her work she uses text and I thought id like to try this too in my own way. 

I think these samples are quite successful because I find them interesting to look, mainly because of how the wax sets on different surfaces. On the fabric it looks opaque but on the newspaper its almost transparent.

This image is of the back of the fabric, I really like the way the wax blobs. 

Birthday Candles

M U L T I P L E S  E X P E R I M E N T S

For the next stage in hand embroidery we had a bit of a 'wild card' brief. The brief was to produce new things using multiples of something. For this task I chose to use birthday candles, mainly because it meant I got to work in colour. We were given a list of verbs to apply to our objects. The verbs I based my ideas on were as follows :

To fire

To disarrange

To join 

To flow

After thinking about this more I chose to use heat (to fire) and iron my candles over a shear fabric originally, however the outcome on the fabric samples shown below is actually from the backing fabric which was underneath the shear fabric when they were melted. It was a complete happy accident. The colours on the fabric are lovely and pale.

After melting several designs I then decided to stitch french knots and granny knots into my samples which proved a little tricky considering I was using a firm backing fabric and wax. 

I highlighted some of the flowing areas of the wax by using running stitch along some of the edges of colour

I also used some seeding to give texture.