Fabric manipulation
A Textile Designers guide to the art of Fabric Manipulation to use in simple craft projects
Join artist Amanda Whited for a digitally-led Fabric Manipulation Workshop, exploring fabric manipulation techniques to craft a personalized lumbar pillow cover. From ancient smocking to contemporary gathering and tucking, this workshop unlocks the world of three-dimensional textile art. Embrace creative play with ample room for exploration, crafting a pillow cover using your design composition that perfectly complements your home and personal style. Bonus materials encourage extending newfound skills to embellish tote bags, clothing, and more. Whether you're a seasoned enthusiast or a beginner, construct your personalized pillow cover with simplicity and comfort, choosing from two sizes and utilizing a sewing machine or hand-sewing for flexibility. This digital class includes: A detailed digital workshop led by Amanda Whited Digital download with written instructions to complement the video tutorial Please note: This listing is for video-only workshop access. Materials are not included. If you would like to purchase the FULL workshop (video + curated tools and materials), click here: GET THE FULL WORKSHOP
No-fuss tips for adding this textured cinching detail to your clothes.
Are you looking for ideas on how to manipulate fabric? In this tutorial I introduce a whole bunch of different types of tucks for you to choose from.
создаёт cross stitch patterns, embroidery patterns, craft tutori
4-patch textured quilt Textured quilt You can buy the quilt tutorials in one single PDF document. The document contains a step by step instructions with colour photos in a 60+ page booklet each. F…
Here's a basic tutorial on the north American smocking -technique. As an example I'll explain how to make a beautiful rose-sleeve.
These stays are certainly the most complex cording project I've done, so I wanted to share how I've been going about it! First off, I'm using a totally different cording method than the ones shown in my Making a Corded Petticoat post. In both methods shown in that tutorial, the cord was put in place first and its channel was sewn around it. Those methods work just fine for a corded petticoat, but won't work very well for these stays. Instead, I'm sewing channels into the fabric first, then inserting the cording afterwards. As a reminder, this is the pattern I'm working with: Fabric Prep Since the criss-cross cording is the most difficult part of these stays, that's what we'll focus on. Each of the squares that make up the criss-cross pattern are only 0.25" wide, so they're very small and difficult to sew accurately. The space between each square forms the channel that the cord threads through. I'm using a green shot cotton as the pretty outer fashion layer of the stays, with two layers of thin but tightly woven white cotton as the strength layers. My stitches will go through all three layers of fabric, but the cording will be run between the two white layers of cotton. The first challenge was figuring out how to mark the stitching guidelines on the fabric. I could have made all the markings on the back of each piece, but I find that the top side of my stitching often looks a bit more precise than the back, so I needed a way to mark the green fabric so that I could stitch accurately, but not have the markings visible later. Squares marked with water soluble pen, with a penny for scale. At first I tried using a water soluble fabric marker that had a relatively fine tip. It showed up very well on the fabric, but since it is a marker and the fabric wicked the ink out a bit, the line it left was fairly thick. The thicker line made it very hard to see where exactly to stitch. Some of my test squares were more parallelogram than square, and the width of the squares varied between 5/16" and 3/16" wide. It may seem like I'm being overly picky, but that is a difference of 1/8", which means I was off in some areas by the width of half of a square! When working at such a small scale, even a little bit of deviation becomes extremely obvious. Wibbly wobbly stitching due to wide fabric marker guidelines. I considered using a fine mechanical pencil to draw more precise, accurate lines, but there were two potential issues. One, I was worried it wouldn't wash off well, leaving me with pencil lines all over my stays. Two, it's actually pretty hard to draw an accurate line on this fabric with a mechanical pencil, as the pressure of the lead warps and distorts the fabric as you're trying to draw. Can't draw a straight line b/c the pressure of the lead warps the fabric. Luckily, I was able to solve both issues at once with my favorite secret weapon: Mah super-sekrit weapon. Shh, don't tell! Starch has saved my butt on many a sewing project. Here, it serves two purposes. First, it stiffens the fabric so that it is almost paper-like, so now I can easily draw on it using the mechanical pencil without the fabric distorting. Now I can get perfectly straight, thin, highly accurate stitching lines! With starched fabric, no distortion! Comparison of marker lines vs mechanical pencil lines. Second, thanks to Lifeofglamour's various experiments with tinting starch for use on ruffs, I know that very often, pigments and dirt that are mixed in with or sitting on top of starch wash out without staining the fabric. When I tested this theory on my fabric, washing the starch out washed the pencil marks down the drain too! You can buy spray on starch or the liquid kind you dip your fabric into from the store, but thanks to Frolicking Frocks (dude, check out those petticoats!) I'm a convert to making my own out of cornstarch. My test stitching proves much more straight and accurate with the pencil guidelines, and after washing all evidence of the pencil lead is gone! Now that I've got that settled, the last step before stitching is to use a lightbox to trace my design onto the fabric. Stitching My original plan was to hand-stitch the stays, but I came to my senses after attempting a sample. I tried using my modern sewing machine, but it's very hard to stitch a line precisely 0.25" and stop in exactly the right place using the pedal control, so I pulled out the little Singer 99 hand crank machine I refurbished a few years ago instead. Remember this one? Isn't she pretty? With a hand crank, it's really easy to stop right at the exact number of stitches you want. A lot of fiddling and several tests later, I settled on a stitch length calibrated to precisely 1/16 of an inch, giving me squares that were 4 stitches wide on each side. Getting the correct stitch size is no mean feat on these old machines, since you set the length by screwing an unlabeled knob in or out as needed. That knob is the stitch length regulator. Notice the distinct lack of numbers or any useful markings of any sort? Now that I've got the length set, sewing each square is now as easy as starting the needle in the right place, sewing 4 stitches, sinking the needle on the 4th stitch, raising the presser foot, turning the fabric, putting the foot down again, sewing 4 more stitches, etc, all the way around the square. This leaves a bunch of thread tails all over the place. Of course I can't just trim them because the stitching would come out, so the loose threads are pulled to the back and tied off. Since I'm a bit paranoid about the knots coming undone, I put a dot of Fray-Check on each to prevent unraveling. Remember to test the Fray-Check on an inconspicuous spot first! My layers are thin, and on the first few knots I used too much and it soaked through to the front. Threads pulled to the back for tying. At first I was tying the threads after each square, but it's more efficient to sew several squares, then flip to the back and start pulling through/tying off. The problem with doing it that way is that those loose tails get in the way of stitching, and if you sew through the tail of a square a few rows down it's a mess to untangle. Luckily, I'm owned by two exceedingly furry felines, and thus have a clothing de-furring brush that doubles as a way to clear all my loose threads off to one side with a single swipe. Guess the fuzzbeasts are good for something. There's something like 200 tiny squares on just ONE front panel, plus more on each side panel, so you can see why this has been taking me a while! Cording After washing the starch out, drying, and pressing each piece, it's FINALLY time to stuff some cord in there. I'm using the same Sugar n' Cream cotton cord that I used in my corded petticoat. You'll want a cord of a width that fits fairly snugly in your channels, so choose accordingly, or stitch your channels to accommodate the cord you wish to use. I'm using a thick, blunt needle with a wide eye. Tapestry needles are perfect. The eye should be large enough that the cord just fits through it, but not so big that the needle won't fit through your channels with the now doubled cord in tow. I also have a pair needle nose pliers, because despite my best efforts, the eye of my needle still gets stuck in the fabric sometimes. When I made my last pair of corded stays, I broke the only good needle I had and swapped to one that was nearly the same, only sharp instead of blunt. It sorta worked, but the sharp tip kept shredding the fabric on both sides, and those scrapes later unraveled into larger holes, allowing the cord to poke out. I wouldn't have minded if they were all on the inside, but most of them were on the pretty outside! If all you can get is a sharp needle, grind the tip down. Holes in channels caused by sharp needle shredding fabric. Sadly, these are on the front, so they show when I wear it. On the backside of the stays, I poke the needle through just one layer of fabric right at the start of a channel. Since the needle is blunt, with some fabrics an awl is needed to start the hole. It takes a bit of practice to get the tip to go through just one layer of fabric, but practice makes perfect, right? Using an awl to start the hole. Threading the needle into the channel. Once inside, the needle is pushed down the length of the channel, dragging the cord behind it. It's tight, and I have to moosh (super technical term) and manipulate the fabric around the needle to move it along. Sometimes the pliers are necessary to pull the needle through the channel too. The eye is stuck at the entry to the channel, so I use pliers to help it along. At the opposite end, I poke the tip of the needle back out through the back fabric and pull it out, taking care to not pull all the cording out with it! The pliers are also super useful here, as the eye of the needle generally gets stuck on the way out. All the pushing and pulling on the needle is pretty rough on my fingers; using the pliers instead solves that problem. The downside is that I'm more likely to break a needle when pulling on it with the pliers. It's easier on my fingers to just use the pliers to pull the needle out. I don't trim the cord close to the fabric just yet; instead I cut it so there's about 1" still hanging out, then move on to the other channels. The places where the cords cross are a bit tricky to get through, but it's doable. Eventually I end up with a small forest of cord ends growing out of the back of the stays. Well that's a right mess. Once I've got a whole section done, I start trimming the stray tails. I cut the cord pretty close to the fabric, but not right flush with it. There are till some tiny tails hanging out. Trimmed close, with just a little bit hanging out. Then, without holding onto the cord, I tug on both ends of the channel, stretching the fabric slightly. Most of the tails pop back into their holes and disappear. A few are still sticking out a bit, but this is the inside of the garment, so I don't care overmuch. Gently stretching each channel. There are still holes at the start and end of each channel, but again, it's the inside, and they close up a little with time anyways. No more tails! Wow, that got lengthy! If any part of this tutorial isn't clear, let me know and I'll try to unmuddy it a bit. If you've got a cool cording project you're working on, show us in the comments! I've still got a few panels to go, so I'm off to the sewing table again for another late night.
Check out this tutorial if you want to learn how to draft patterns to create more advanced pleats and folds for your designs.
I found this pillow cover at the flea market recently. The trim along the edge is what caught my fancy, and I determined to figure out how to re-create it.
Tightly pulled vertical smocking. Image via Trans.lu.cent» Smocking is a fabric manipulation technique that is generally created by using hand stitching to create areas of tension and release in the fabric. This results in very sculptural
Combine cording with free-motion stitching for a really fun way to add texture and lines to any project with Free-motion couching foot #43.
Due to an overwhelming amount of demand on my social media as I’ve been posting process photos of my new green Spencer, I went ahead and put together a little tutorial on the style of trim I&…
Ready for another packed day of stitching and fabric manipulation?? OK! Here we go! I'm grateful to Wil for all her contribution to this week. She had just done this piece with all these different techniques and it fit so well with this topic. Let's see what she has for today! Blooming This is a technique I learned during one of my City & Guild courses. For this sample I used 4 different colored pieces of fabric. In my case they are all blue, but you are as free in your color choices as you want. More than 4 layers will make it too thick to handle. The 4 layers of fabric are placed on top of each other and with a chalk pen I marked a grid on the top layer. This grid is my guide for the stitching lines. After the stitching I trimmed the square and then the fun part can start J. I placed a seam ripper carefully through the top layer and cut the fabric diagonally staying within the stitched lines of the square. The safest way of doing this, is by doing it layer by layer. You do not want the bottom layer to be cut open. As you see in the next picture, the underlaying fabric becomes visible. It is up to you if you want to cut open every square or if you want to leave some of the squares closed. I decided to open them all. To make the fabric stand up a bit more you can roughen it with your hand or with a brush. Gathering Gathering is a kind of smocking. You can do this either at random or in a marked grid. I made a sample of each variation. For the first one I handstitched the gathering lines at random using a strong thread. If I remember correctly – I forgot to write it down, I used Dual Duty thread. After the whole piece has been done – a perfect job while watching TV – I gathered the threads leading to this result: As with all my samples I placed it onto paper backed fusible webbing and traced a circle on it. Stitched around the circle and cut it out. This is how it looked after I zigzagged the circle onto the quilt. That the gathering threads are visible is okay with me. Actually it adds a bit to the texture of the circle. (Kelly's note: I love the more organic feel of the hand stitching which still shows on the final product! One last one for today which involves what is for me a new product! Another great way to produce a textured grid.) Texture magic Shrinking of fabric is another way to create texture. C. June Barnes has written an excellent book on this subject: Stitching to Dye in Quilt Art (ISBN 978-0-7134-9070-1). To say it very simple, you combine different fabrics on top of each other. Some of them shrink more than the others do when exposed to heat and the result is texture. For this sample I worked with Texture Magic On top of the Texture Magic I placed a piece of batting and a piece of fabric. Stitched a grid on it with a distance between the lines of 1”. After this was done I used my steamer iron to start the shrinking process and this is how the final result turned out: Texture Magic shrinks approximately 30% in all directions. As all my samples are turned into circles, this one too. I pinned a paper circle on it, stitched around it and cut the circle out of the fabric. So that's it for today! Wil has one more very cool technique for tomorrow and then the completed quilt. Plus tomorrow is FREE FOR ALL FRIDAY!! Be sure to e-mail me your photos!! [email protected]
DIY Origami Fabric Butterfly Free Sewing Pattern & Tutorial: hair clip, rings, home and fashion decoration
Are you looking for ideas on how to manipulate fabric? In this tutorial I introduce a whole bunch of different types of tucks for you to choose from.
The Canadian Smocking Matrix Design is a unique and popular way of creating smocking patterns. It is created by first creating a grid of horizontal and vertical lines on a piece of fabric. Then, the fabric is gathered along the lines to create the desired pattern. This method is often used to create intricate and … Continue reading "How To Do Canadian Smocking Matrix Design"
