LEAF DARTS
 

These leaves were made by sewing a dart on a triangular piece of fabric.

I got the idea from dressmaking (like pleated patchwork here).

 

When sewing clothes, darts are used to transform a flat piece of cloth

 into a three-dimensional shape that accommodates the human body.

 

Think, for example, of bust darts that create space for “the girls”.

 

Layers of leaves on audition. Not sewn to base fabric.
"Trunk" is a chopstick.

 

 I made these after reading Lara's AHIQ post here
asking for suggestions on leaves.
 

 Here's one Aspen leaf:

 

Backstitching secures the thread so it doesn't unravel

and lose the three-D volume. 

For me, I backstitch it all the way to the start.

It's a short dart, I don't mind back tracking for security.

 

Round leaves, elongated leaves...all can be created.
Just cut fabric to the shape required.

The degree of puffiness depends on dart shape and length:

 

I like the one on the lower left, stripes look like the veins of a leaf.
 

How to attach such leaves?

 

The green leaf:
*fray-checked edges, sewn down with running stitch

 *scrap batting tucked into the leaf

 

The purple leaf:
*needle turn hand-applique - in progress

 

 

These leaves sew up quickly and use up all those small scraps.

 

They're fun to make.

 

And they're pretty!

 

 

 

~Ema N~

 

 Linking up with AHIQ.

 

 



PLEATED LETTERS

 

I wondered if pleats could form letters.
 

A few details of this experiment using random pieces of scrap:

“I” : double pleats + strip of batting = volume, visual weight.

Did this to balance “I” against “D”, “E” and “A”,

 which are wider and have more complex lines.

 If left as a single vertical pleat, "I", even as a wide pleat,
would be overshadowed by its companions.

By the way, all this was eye-balled. No measurements etc.

“A”: I wanted to give prominence to the two diagonals,

which are the defining lines of this letter.

 

 To do this, the horizontal pleat was sewn first,

followed by the two slanted pleats.

 

Note that this is different from how I would write “A”,

where the horizontal line is drawn last.
 

I learnt from this that the pleat sewn first would be “recessed”,

pressed down by the pleats sewn over it.
 

I had to think about recessed and prominent lines of each letter

to determine the order of sewing.

 

Sometimes, this may mean going against the instinct

of sewing in the same order as writing.

* * *
The three-dimensional effect of these letters appeals to me.

Question in my head at the end of this experiment:

 Would it work to mix and match

pleated letters +
improv letters or foundation paper pieced letters

to form a word/sentence?

* * *
 

Not ironed. I like it puffy!

 

I chose the word, “idea”, to thank Ann and Kaja for starting AHIQ.

 

This is a great platform to test and share ideas and I am grateful for it.
  

I was told this by a senior director of an organisation I worked for:

If you have a dollar in your pocket and
the person next to you has a dollar in her pocket and
you both exchanged what you have,
you'd still end up with a dollar each.

But if you have an idea and the person next to you
has an idea and you both exchanged ideas,
you'd end up with more ideas than you started with
and be the richer for it.
 

(Modified from a quote by George Bernard Shaw)

~Ema N~

 

Read about my Pleated Patchwork experiment here.

 

 Linking up with AHIQ.

 

 

 

Photos and text belong to the author of this blog, unless otherwise stated.

Please do not use without permission.

 

PLEATED PATCHWORK

 

I'd been making some clothes recently and had to sew pleats.

 

I thought it would be interesting to use these on patchwork blocks too.

 

So, yesterday, I experimented.

 

Before ironing!

 

Machine-stitched pleats onto a strip of cloth.

 

* No measuring, no markings
 

* The width of each pleat and the spacing between them are different
 

* A few pleats are straight, others are slanting
 

* On the gingham and purple flower blocks, cross-pleats were added

(sorry, not the best photo – please look closely!)

 

 

I do like the texture created by the pleats.

 

The effect is best on solid colour fabric and not prints.

 

Making all blocks pleated is too much for the eye to handle.

 

But I think ONE pleated/textured block in the centre

surrounded by plain blocks can be very interesting indeed!



~Ema N~

 

 Linking up with AHIQ.

 

 

Photos and text belong to the author of this blog, unless otherwise stated.

Please do not use without permission.