Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Felted Jacked with Seamless Piecing Day One

Our first day of class was terrific! Needlework and Textile Guild of Michigan had Barbara Skimmins today and tomorrow to teach her "seamless piecing" method using felted wool. The day began with a lecture and trunk show of her fabulous art garments. After lunch, we began our class.

Our wool fabrics were supposed to be pre-felted for class by washing in hot water/cold rinse and lots of agitation until felted properly. We were to have a muslin, fitted and sewn together. The instructor had us draw a design on our muslin. Here is my sleeve.
I made a teardrop shape. There are similar shapes drawn on the other pieces of the jacket. We took the muslin apart and used it for our pattern to cut out the jacket.

Next comes the fun part. We are going to cut design elements out of the jacket pieces, leaving a hole . As if you were cutting dough with cookie cutters. Only out of our fabric. Scary huh! Cutting a big old hole in a beautiful piece of wool! I will cut that teardrop out of my sleeve. The hole will be "plugged" with another piece of wool in a different color. It will be sewn into the hole using decorative stitching with heavy thread. Thus--"seamless piecing".

The teardrop shape will not be just one piece of fabric, but several pieces patched together like crazy-quilting, with decorative stitching.

So far, so good. My jacket is cut and ready for the embellishment process tomorrow morning. There were 20 people in class today. Twenty ladies who definitely know their stuff. These are all seasoned sewists. It was a great day. I am so looking forward to tomorrow.

14 Talk to me:

JoanneM said...

You are so lucky!!!! Have fun!!!!

Fran said...

Oh, I am so jealous. Wish I were there -- sounds like such an awesome opportunity!

BeeBee said...

How fun! I'm looking forward to seeing how this turns out. I'm still hanging around Detroit and haven't touched my sewing machine in almost 2 months.

KID, MD said...

This sounds like so much fun! This technique sounds really interesting. I can't wait to see how it comes out!

Unknown said...

Love the teardrop design!

Lori said...

What fun, enjoy the next class

Patricia said...

How exciting! I am glad you are enjoying the class and please keep us posted on your progress.

kbenco said...

This sounds really interesting. I am looking forward to seeing how your jacket progresses.

Trudy said...

How fortunate you are for the opportunity to take these classes. Love that technique.

Eugenia said...

This sounds like a really great class and what an interesting technique. I can see how cutting a big hole in the wool seems a bit scary but I bet it's going to turn out beautfully.

shams said...

Wow, I VERY much look forward to seeing your progress on this!!! Thanks for sharing. :)

julia said...

I can not wait to see your jacket. This sounds like a fascinating process. I have really been wanting to learn how to do felting, etc.... I saw an adorable jacket for a young girl that was felted and ever since I've been wanting to learn the technique. I'm so glad you are learning it so you can teach me! Your things are always beautifully detailed.

Gretchen the Household Deity said...

Wow, it would be scary to cut a hole in your jacket! Can't wait to see the finished product.

Linda T said...

I can't wait to see this jacket! And I look forward to seeing a bit more about its construction.

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