a life of felt

Posts Tagged ‘notebook’

Stitched in felt workshop

Friday, March 23rd, 2012

It was one of my favourite workshops yesterday as we combined felt making with a few simple stitches. We began by stitching into the fabric before we then laid out the fibres.

It’s always interesting to see what colours people use. In addition to fabrics, silk and crab fibres, rovings, yarn and neps were added for more interest and texture. Then began the rubbing and rolling.

We stopped at the pre-felt stage and added more stitches and then again at the end.

You could hear a pin drop at this stage as everyone is concentrating so hard. Not that the stitching is difficult, you don’t need to know a lot of stitches, one of the most effective is a simple running stitch. First book cover up is Liz’s.

This isn’t a set of colours that I’d normally use but I just love the subtlety. We used muslin, silk chiffon, silk and crystal organza fabrics.

Fabulous striking purples, blues and pinks by Jeni with textured chain stitch in a metallic thread.

Jackie chose to keep it as a hanging and achieved some great textures adding lace and a chopped up metallic scarf to the mix.

Wonderful colours from Julia. Those of you who know my love of the sea and rust will understand why I’m loving this. What they all have in common is lots of colour, movement and texture. Stitches put into the fabric before we began felting completely disappear into the background and become part of the overall pattern. Stitching at the pre-felt stage has softened off and stitching done at the end stays proud so that they all contribute to the whole but at different levels.

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Reminds me of rust

Friday, July 8th, 2011

I love rust, the colours and the textures. Fishing boats with mixtures of peeling paint and rust are my absolute favourites and it was this I had in mind when I was laying out the fibres for this little notebook.

The reds, oranges and browns are also quite autumnal so I used a leaf design on the front in nuno felted organza.Th process began by stitching into the fabric before it was laid on the fibres. At the pre-felt stage I stopped and added some extra stitching and then added more once felting was complete.

Extra texture is supplied by hand dyed Teeswater curls in turquoise, yellow and brown. There’s also space dyed roving and some silk fibres on a merino base.  Using organza in nuno felting gives scrummy textures, much bigger than using natural fabrics.

Not sure I’m going to be able to convince myself to sell this one. If you’d like to make your own I’m running a workshop on Saturday 22nd October in which you’ll make an A5 sized cover.It’s one of my favourite workshops and the notebooks make great presents which can be used year after year.

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New shop stock

Monday, November 8th, 2010

I’ve been busy making new stock for my shop and thought I’d show you a few of the things I’ve completed.

The notebooks are made using rejuvenated wool fibres. They’re not actually recycled as it’s not been used before but sometimes you get old bits of wool that have started to felt or perhaps not enough of a colour to do anything with. I take all these little bits and hand blend them together using carders to produce new colours. I’m not quite sure what it is about the notebooks but I get immense satisfaction from making them.

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Notebooks

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

I thought I’d share with you what I’ve been up to recently. It all started with an old blue cushion made from recycled silk saris. The cats loved it (far too much) and my daughter played with it (far too roughly). The result was that the silk had torn in several places and a few pieces had even come off. I hung on to it though because I liked it so much, until one day I looked at it and thought it really had disintegrated too far.

Not one to throw things away willy nilly, I carefully deconstructed the cushion and am able to re-use everything except the zip which broke when I was wrenching taking it out.

If you look closely you can see the silk is worn through in places, has torn edges and has faded. Of course, brown is a classic combination with blue so it was the first colour I thought of to make a notebook cover and to set off the colour of the silk.

I’ve named it Faded Glory as that’s how I remember the cushion. The decoration is mainly the silk plus a little of the bright blue muslin which formed the back of the cushion. Other than adding a few beads I’ve left it quite plain which is most unusual for me. It’s rapidly becoming one of my favourites and should make it’s way to my shop very soon.

Not content with one I went on to make second notebook this time using only the bright blue muslin for decoration. I decided to team it with a little jade green and a grey background. I’ve added a few silk fibres for sheen.

I’m still considering whether or not add a few beads or stitches to the circles and I don’t have a name for it yet so if you have any suggestions post them here. The colours on this one are beautiful and it’s noticeable how much brighter the muslin is on the grey background than it is on the brown. That’s the nuno effect of the fibres coming up through the fabric.

If you want to make a notebook cover of your own, take a look at my tutorial.

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Stitched in felt workshop

Monday, March 29th, 2010

Bad weather may have been forecast for the weekend but fortunately Saturday was fine and dry. Indoors in the workshop we were also in a very creative mood. We began by stitching into fabrics which were then attached to the fibres during the wet and set stage. We stopped at pre-felt and stitched again before finishing the felting process.

The pictures show work before the wet and set stage. If you stitch into fabric before you begin the stitches will become part of the background pattern. If stitched at pre-felt stage, the stitches sink in but can still be seen and felt. For real texture, stitch after felting has been completed. It’s amazing how rich you can make your finished pieces.

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How to make a felt notebook cover

Thursday, March 25th, 2010

I thought it about time that I put a tutorial / how to guide together. This one aims to teach you how to make a seamless felted notebook cover.

1. Resist

I usually begin seamless felted items with a resist, so called because it resists the layers felting together. To get the right size I measure the item and add 40% to allow for shrinkage. With a notebook you need to measure the width of front, back and spine. My book measures 31cm wide by 21cm high so my resist is 43cm wide and 30cm high. Don’t forget to round off the corners so they don’t poke through your fibres.

2. Laying out the background

Don’t have your hands too close together so the fibres will separate easily. Begin by laying a fringe half on, half off the resist and then fill in the centre. Your next layer of fibre needs to be at right angles to the first layer.

Put your net on the fibres and wet out with soapy water. use your hand to press all the water down through the fibres until it goes flat and give a very light rub with a bag. Take off the net and turn the resist over to fold in your fringe. Repeat as above on this side but leave a gap in the centre.

3. Adding a pattern

Turn it over and add your pattern bearing in mind that you’re looking at both front and back. Front of the cover is on the right, back is on the left.

Then it’s back on with the net, wet it out and rub until the pattern is set and do the pinch test above. If the fibres stay together then you’re ready to roll. If the fibres start to separate you need to rub for longer.

4.Ready to roll

I use a piece of pipe insulation for rolling but you can use a broom handle. Wrap the whole thing up in the bubble wrap and roll 100 times. Unroll, the package, turn 90 degrees and roll for another 100. Unwrap, turn it over and repeat.

5. Finishing

When the resist begins to buckle it’s time to remove the felt. To full (harden) the felt you can continue to roll or throw it onto the table. The impact of the throwing shocks the felt into hardening and gives a more textured finish.

Remember to keep checking the size against your book so that you don’t shrink it too far. When you’re nearing the correct size, cut down to open the flaps out so the book can be inserted and then remove the excess felt. Whilst the felt is wet it can be shaped, so stretch it and pull it back into shape if you need to before leaving to dry.

This tutorial will be added to my resources page so you’ll always know where to find it.

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