15/02/2013

There is velvet

and then there is velvet...

Some time ago I wrote "when sewing velvet, there is no such thing as too many pins, or too much basting".
Little did I know.
In fact, I was Very Lucky with that velvet...

Now, this velvet... gets marked by pins, by basting, by tracing the pattern pieces...
Hand sewing is underrated anyway, right?
(Front piece just pinned to the dummy, which has a... Prominent Colour)



And a free tip: for ages and ages I have used these nuts to weigh down the paper pattern pieces (or whatever needs to be weighed down). Some time ago, I found one can buy special weights to use for this - and they are quite a bit pricier than are nuts from the hardware store...



11/02/2013

Velvet at the bottom of the pleats...


- the shell really is black, but the velvet would not show without flash...

07/02/2013

Finally!

Remember the tiger skin ?
After I had decided the second tiger was ok, I tried to find some interesting pattern to weave the rest of the warp.
Try as I might – I could not construct an interesting alternative pattern (and I already had two tigers). The warp just sat there.

Until: today’s guild meeting will be about traditional fringe braiding. Aha – I could provide raw material for that!

This is what came off the loom today:

The second tiger:


Fringe material:


In case you are not familiar with "traditional fringe braiding", here is a picture:


05/02/2013

New adventures in academic dress


Same principle as the others, only longer and wider, this is part of a sleeve.

Trying to use a very old version of Elements, not really knowing what I’m doing – is there a way to optimize the pattern layout to minimize cabbage?


01/02/2013

Airplane upholstery

(yes – now you know just how cheap I am – if you don’t, well, I’m not telling... But they tend to be on time, which is A Good Thing when in a hurry.)


Warp is dark grey and orange, weft is dark and light grey.

When I "photoshopped" a dark picture, suddenly some stitching points appeared (click to enlarge):


Definitely not something to try on a 16-shafter, I don’t think.
And why isn’t there any stitching of the orange warp? Or is it just the angle? Had I got a pic perpendicular to this, perhaps there would have appeared more stitching points?

I’m not sure about the light grey frames – does it really add anything to have some in twill, some in plain weave?
(BTW, all visible twill is 3/1, or 1/3)