Kits are finally here!

Kits are finally here!

I finally have kits to sell! It’s taken a while to translate some of techniques in Creating Couture Embellishment (aka CCE, The Book) into kits. After refining a technique into a great project, I had to source quality fabrics, cords and tools, create the “enhanced” directions and photos, figure out packaging & shipping and calculate the cost per kit, but I’ve done it. I’ve also tested the kits on fellow ASDP members (Association of Sewing & Design Professionals), ASG (American Sewing Guild) and MVC-EGA members (Merrimack Valley Chapter of Embroiderers’ Guild of America).

In February, I taught three workshops, via Zoom, to some of the members of the Needlework and Textile Guild of Michigan using the kits: Fanciful Feathers, Chinese Knots, Corded Quilting. We had a great time together. Each workshop was three hours long. The Feathers and Chinese Knots workshops produced completed samples. The Corded Quilting workshop established the process of corded quilting, but everyone had more sewing to do to complete their samples.

There are currently 7 kits in my “store.”  The photos below are taken from The Book to illustrate which technique the kit will feature.  Kit specific photos are coming soon.

Bodacious Braids

Two rows of 10 strand braid around the neckline of a turquoise bodice.

Ten strand Braids

 

Choice Chinese Knots

A set of button & loop red chinese knots in the Figure of Eight pattern.e

Figure of Eight button & loop set

Clarifying Corded Quilting/Boutis Provencal- by hand sewing

Clarifying Corded Quilting/Boutis Provencal- by machine sewing

Densely sewn piece of a japanese kimono silk.

An example of Corded Quilted

Fanciful Feathers*

Incomparable Carnations

Versatile Reverse Applique

I am working on the descriptions for these kits. The descriptions need to be written with a tempting tone, which is new for me. When I teach I speak in a casual, chatty style, “ Smooch this over…”   When writing Creating Couture Embellishment I learned to write in precise, academic style, “Ease this in 1/8” (.125cm)…” Now I am learning a new voice: fun, engaging, “Of course you want this…”. Happily, I do believe you want this kit. I do believe that the kits are fun and engaging.

In each kit you will find:

  • Enhanced directions in a folder; all the photos are larger and the type is bigger than in The Book.
  • The special tools you will need for the project: a needle puller and 3 different needles for Corded Quilting, a gridded pinning board and pins for Chinese Knots, the special bias-cut ribbon for Carnations, etc.
  • The basic materials for each sample: a piece of silk & muslin fabric and filler for Corded Quilting, the satin cord in several sizes for Chinese Knots, etc.

The kits are skill builders; by working through the kit you will learn a couture embellishment technique. Each kit takes about 3 hours to complete, except Corded Quilting, which takes longer.

Each kit costs $35.00 including taxes and shipping.

*Fanciful Feathers kits are only available as a bulk purchase, minimum order 8 kits.

My next couple of posts will have specifics about each kit; what’s in it, what you need from your workroom, etc.

If you want a kit email me directly @ coutureellen5@gmail.com.

Part II….

Hi!

Because I am computer challenged I am posting a two part blog-post.  Part I was the previous post, Workshops with Needlework & Textile Guild of Michigan (NTGM).  Part II is this post, which explains the previous post!

I am teaching three workshops for the NTGM on February 8 & 9, 2022, via Zoom.  NTGM has a few open spaces for in the workshops, so you are invited to join us! There are information and sign-up sheets in the Part I post.

Feathers will be taught on the afternoon of February 8th.

Chinese Knots will be taught on the morning of February 9th.

Corded Quilting/ Boutis Provencal will be taught on the afternoon of February 9th.

You can email me questions: coutureellen5@gmail.com

To learn more about NTGM, go to their FaceBook page here.

I hope you can join us!  Ellen

Sew… Let’s Talk!

A brief recap of my interview with Joanne Banko

On Monday, June 28, 2021 I was invited to guest-Zoom with Joanne Banko on her new channel, Sew… Let’s Talk! We had a wonderful conversation about sewing, my favorite sewing machine feet, a quick tour of some my sewing space storage and some of the samples I made for The Book (Creating Couture Embellishment). I could talk to Joanne for hours. She’s engaging, curious, well informed about sewing and sewing related topics and just plain Nice! You can find the recorded/YouTube version of our conversation here.

Joanne and I met in Cleveland OH during a taping of It’s Sew Easy, series 1500. Joanne was filmed after me, but was there for my filming to help set up the Brother sewing machine for the Sashiko technique. (You can see my post about that experience here.) Joanne and I both belong to Craft Industry Alliance, which you can find here, so we get to wave and briefly chat at the monthly Roundtable Zoom meetings.

 

So… the samples I showed to Joanne and her subscribers started with a simple sleeve with gathered ribbons adorning the hem and then black velvet sleeve with pink-gold trim couched down the length. (I’m not adding photos of the sleeves to this post as I hope you will watch the YouTube interview. The sleeves start at 26:44.) Next we talked about changing the hemline of a sleeve and adding trims to accent that change: the silver sleeve with dark green trim and the grey short sleeve with sequin trim. From there we looked at using both sides of a fabric: shiny & matte finishes on a piped sleeve and a jacquard weave with an added single feather. We also looked at using both sides of a trim. Using both sides of a fabric or a trim is easy because the colors always match. We always have long discussions about which colors “work together” in our house as we each see colors very differently.

From the website of Optical Masters of Denver CO comes this scientific description:

The vision process is the same for every person. However, color perception is different in some people. Color perception (or the colors you see) depends on if parts of your eyes are working correctly. We mentioned the retina of the eye and how it is a light-sensitive tissue that communicates with the brain. This thin layer of tissue houses millions of microscopic light-sensing nerve cells that we call rods and cones. These are the cells that send impulses to your brain, interpreting colors from light waves.

Rods and cones don’t work the same in every person. They may malfunction slightly, meaning your color perception is only a little off. However, severe forms of abnormal color perception are referred to as “color blindness”. This means that people with color blindness aren’t aware of specific color differences like the rest of the population is. You may see a stop sign as being bright red, while someone with red-green color blindness sees that stop sign as a hue of green. 8% of men and 0.5% of women have color blindness. In many cases, this trait is inherited by males from a mother who had genes for abnormal photo pigments. This will make the cone cells work differently in the eye than they should.

But I digress…then I showed two sleeves with beads: picot trim and beaded net fringe.

Next we talked about adding lace or trim to a garment and then cutting away the under or base fabric. -The add and subtract method is similar to Applique but with two more steps; after the lace or trim is appliqued,

  1. Cut away most of the base fabric.
  2. Sew down the raw edges of the base fabric so you have a peek-a-boo effect through the lace or trim.

Both of these samples were Bodices: the Lace Trim chapter opener and Crochet chapter opener (the Crochet chapter was cut when we ran out of space!)

Finally, I showed Something Seriously Elegant: the Hollyhock sleeve sewn in an ornate silk jacquard and organza and Something Seriously Fun: the Loose/Single Sequin sleeve sewn in cotton chicken fabric with “wings.”

I answered some of questions from the Chat and our hour was up. I think the final sleeves summed up our talk: serious, elegant and fun! Thank you so much Joanne!

Joanne Banko and me!

Hi! Once again I’m a day late and maybe a dollar short but….

At 7 pm EDT on June 28, 2021 I will be talking with Joanne Banko on her series: Sew Tell Me…I am very excited about the show; we are going to talk about sewing, some of the samples from Creating Couture Embellishment, maintaining  your sewing mojo and lots more.  I hope you’ll join us on Zoom live here:

The recorded interview can be found here.

New Classes!

Hi everyone!

I will be teaching some new classes, some on Zoom and some In Person!   If you’re interested in any of these classes send me an email: Contact Me

October 2, 2021 10-12n with Atlanta ASG (American Sewing Guild) in Atlanta, GA:The Bodices from Creating Couture Embellishment

October 2, 2021 2-4 pm with Atlanta ASG (American Sewing Guild) in Atlanta, GA:Carnations & Leaves from Ribbon Flowers

October 30, 2021 9-12n with ASDP (Association of Sewing and Design Professionals) Conference in Boise ID: Writing About Sewing

February 8-9, 2022 with the NTGM (Needlework and Textile Guild of Michigan)  on Zoom, 3 classes: Feathers, Chinese Knots and Channel Quilting (Boutis Provencal)

I am making KITS for some of the techniques in Creating Couture Embellishment.  So far, I have great  Reverse Applique Kit. The Reverse Applique Kit has 2 new design to try: one in paper and one if fabric.  The kit has all the materials you will need to complete the designs and more detailed instructions and photos than shown in The Book.  Still churning about in brain is a Carnation Kit and more…

Coming soon: a blog post about the Reverse Applique Kit and directions on how to get one!

 

 

Needle Felting

Needle Felting

I have another article in Threads magazine! Woo Hoo!  This article is about Needle Felting: applying wool roving and/or wool batts to a wool fabric with a special barbed needle.

The contents page of Threads Magazine, issue 212, with a model photo of the Needle Felted jacket on the right.

Threads Content page

Here is a photo of the jacket I made to showcase Needle Felting, on the index page of Threads, issue #212.  (I forgot to take photos of the jacket when it was completed!)  The white wool is from Gorgeous Fabrics /gorgeousfabrics.com. The jacket pattern is from Fit for Art Patterns https://fitforartpatterns.com/. The wool roving and batts are from Big Sky Fibers Arts https://store.bigskyfiberarts.com/.

Needle Felting is a wonderful technique that was supposed to have a chapter in Creating Couture Embellishment. The chapter was cut because I exceeded the 400 page maximum and Needle Felting was deemed “too crafty.” In retrospect, I think my samples were not elegant enough to adequately represent needle felting. Thank you Threads! for letting me make new a Needle Felting sample to accompany this article.  I think “crafty” does not apply to this jacket!

The editors at Threads are wonderful editors; they took my over-long article and cut it down to fit into six pages with out losing the basic information needed to explain the technique. Being a good editor requires being able to see the big picture and being able to trim away all the extra bits & bob to get to the heart of the story. This is not something I can do. I get so excited about all the bits & bobs that I try every variation to see what how they all work. In the end, I know what works well and what doesn’t work but I’ve got twice the material that’s needed. I guess that’s why I’m a writer, not an Editor, with a capitol E. Good thing I’m associated with great Editors.

So now- to get back on topic- Needle Felting… I’ve assumed that you have access to Threads magazine and/or know something about Needle Felting, so I am not going though the basics of Needle Felting. Instead I will explain some of my designing process.

A white wool jacket is on a dress form. Blue painter's tape has been applied at the waistline and at the same level on the sleeves.

The plain jacket on my dress with blue tape making a horizontal line.

Pictured above is the basic shell of the Tabula Rasa jacket from Fit for Art patterns, partially sewn together and draped on my dress form. I placed Blue Painter’s Tape on the jacket to mark the waistline and the same horizontal line on the sleeves. Having a horizontal guideline across all parts of the jacket facilitated the designing of the needle felting.

If this design were for me I would have kept the jacket on the dress form for most of the designing phase. However, Threads uses models that wear size 8-10 and I wear a size 12-14. I was afraid that keeping the jacket on my dress form for too long would stretch out the wool along the neckline and sleeve heads; those areas were susceptible to stretching as the cut edges have varying grain lines. Additionally, in my studio, photographing in-progress garments is easier on a flat surface than on the dress form.

 

The white wool jacket laid flat.

The plain jacket as a canvas.

This photo shows the jacket laid flat. Threads cropped out the background for the article; you get to see the unedited version of this photo.  The side panels were sewn to the front panels and are at “the bottom” of the photo. Eventually the side panels will be sewn to the back panels. The sleeves extend out to the sides, with the underarm seams un-sewn.

Knowing the article was going to be in the Fall issue of Threads I ordered wool roving and batts in autumnal colors: maroon, dark red, medium red, pumpkin orange, yellow gold.

Initially, I was thinking of an ombre pattern, going from dark around the neck to lightest at the hem. That iteration was so far from what I imagined that I didn’t even take any pictures.

 

The white wool jacket partially covered in autumn colored blocks of wool batts.

The block version.

Then I played with blocks of wool batt.  This was not what I had imagined either.

Blocks of wool with twisted roving between them.

Blocks of wool with twisted roving between them.

I tried adding some twisted roving between the batt squares. The twisted roving didn’t help.

Back to the drawing board… I remembered this photo of Water Lilies from Pinterest.

Pink Waterlilies and green leaves in a garden setting.

Waterlilies

That led me to a William Morris coloring book (ISBN 978-1-62686-882-3), which led to me to a Victorian wallpaper book (ISBN 978-0-486-46135-9) and this design.

An intricate green Victorian wallpaper pattern.

An intricate green Victorian wallpaper pattern.

I simplified the design to create this stencil. The stencil separates into 2 parts: a negative stencil, where the design elements are empty spaces and a positive stencil, where the design elements are solid forms.

A grey and white stencil version of the Victorian wallpaper.

My stencil

 

The stencil cut into 2 parts: negative and positive pieces.

The stencil cut out with red paper behind to make the stencil visible.

The negative version of the stencil

 

The positive pieces of the stencil on a red piece of a paper.

The positive stencil.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The wool jacket with the postive stencil pieces laid all over.

The positive stencil pieces laid out.

I placed the positive stencil pieces on the jacket. Once I was pleased with the design I took a photo of the jacket so I knew where everything went.

 

 

A sampling of colors for the flower.

A sampling of colors for the flowers and vines.

I had to try some techniques and color combinations on a wool scrap before I started.

The first flower is started using the stencil. The stencil crosses the horizontal reference line.

The first flower started.

Starting: the stencil crosses the horizontal guideline.

 

The first flower and vine are completed.

Making progress

A completed flower, with a glimpse of the blue tape on the right.

The Needle Felting is completed. The jacket is laid out flat.

The Needle Felted jacket

 

This photograph shows the jacket nearly all felted. Of course, as I worked on the needle felting, the design changed. The vines on the lower left front of the jacket were shortened (on the bottom right in the photo.) A vine was added to the right side panel and more flower buds were added to the back.

I added fusible interfacing to the whole jacket. Initially, I intended to add fusible interfacing only to the main parts of the jacket, but the interfacing changed the color of the wool just slightly so I added the fusible interfacing to the whole jacket. The fusible interfacing added support for the jacket and locked the felted wool to the jacket a little bit more. Then I sewed the jacket together. The entire jacket was lined for comfort; I find wool very itchy.

I didn’t put the jacket on my dress form when it was completed because I was afraid of stretching it, so I only looked at the jacket from the front and then from the back. In retrospect, I wished I had felted more on the back. The back has a lovely light, curvilinear vine pattern, much like a Western shirt. The front has the same curvilinear vine but accented with the heavy Victorian flowers. A few more vines trailing down the back, with a Victorian flower or two would balance the jacket’s design better. Oh, the things we see after some time away from a project!

In closing, I want to show you the some work from two artists who also work in Needle Felting, Dawn Waters http://www.dawnwaters.art  and Lyn Slade  http://www.lynslade.com  

Aren’t they amazing?

Dawn Waters faces

Dawn Waters’s faces

 

 

Willie Nelson in felt

Dawn Waters’s Willie Nelson portrait

 

 

 

Falling leaves on black

Lyn Slade’s Falling Leaves

Wave in Needle Felt

Lyn Slade’s Wave