Purple Iris - New Start

Way back when Margaret Lee released her book on Japanese bead embroidery, I purchased the kit for one of the designs from the book. It was purple, so I really couldn't resist. I always planned to stitch it one day on my own, but with Margaret's shift to online teaching, a great opportunity was presented to me. A few of my stitching friends also had this kit in their stash, so why not organize a class. 

We were a class of five students from Canada and one student from the US. Two of us had purchased kits directly from Inspirations and the other students purchased their kits directly from Margaret. Some are even doing this piece is a beautiful dark blue. 

While prepping for class, we discovered that the kits were not all made up the same when it came to the fabric. 

• My kit from Inspirations came with two pieces of fabric, one for stitching and one for lining. The design was not transferred, but chaco paper was included to make my own transfer
• My friend's kit from Inspiration came with two pieces of fabric, one for stitching and one for lining. The design was transferred (not printed) on the fabric. We asked Margaret about this later, apparently there is an early batch where they assumed stitchers would follow her instructions from the book to do their own design transfer. This was changed right after
• Those who purchased kits from Margaret had 3 pieces of fabric, one for stitching the main body of the purse with design pre-printed, one for the sides and one for the lining

My preference for design transfer is tissue paper and running stitch. Yes, it's more time consuming, but it's more accurate and it's really easy to make design changes during stitching as the lines are temporary.

It took about a day to stitch and rip out the tissue paper. It goes fast while you're watching a movie.

All the beads in this piece are the same color, dimension is added to the piece by the different types and sizes of beads as well as techniques used. We have round seed, tri-cut, bugle beads and aiko beads.

The class was taught in three lessons, with tutorials in between and a final consolidation lesson. In the first lesson, we looked at the feathers which make up the main elements of the piece. I'm treating this piece as an opportunity to expand my bead embroidery skills and learn those "extra" things to do to get my stitching to the next level. One of the things I learned in this lesson is how to properly angle my "stitches" to create movement. A lot of the theory goes back to the separated single layer and long and short techniques in Japanese embroidery, so what I am learning here will be a definite benefit when I go back to my silk embroidery. I'm really comfortable with the separated single layer, but the long and short is still giving me some trouble.

Here's another thing I learned in lesson 1: a better way to stretch my fabric. I usually prefer to use a Japanese frame when beading but I have too many on the go right now and wanted something lighter, so I opted for my slate frame. I could not get it to stretch tightly enough and when I did I had a sort of "bowing" along the edge of the fabric. Margaret showed us the method she uses for her Chinese embroidery and it's fantastic. If you have a copy of her Art of Chinese Embroidery book, the method is described under the framing up process.

Before

After

For the next lesson, we planned to go over the line of held thread technique with beads. In order to be ready we had to string beads to wrap around a koma. A lot of beads! This is 12 meters of thread doubled to give 6 meters of working length and there is 2 meters worth of beads on there.

The line of held thread technique is not a new concept for me, but I did pick up a few tips. How to better control the koma, watching out for tension and the best of all, how to travel to reduce the amount of stopping and starting. This technique alone was worth the cost of the class.

In the last lesson, we looked at three different filling stitch techniques and diagonal layer. As always, I'm terrible with random but Margaret gave us some tips especially for the scattered effect with the buggles. In goldwork, I learned from Alison Cole to create K's with the chipping to ensure a random look. Margaret suggests we create triangles with the beads. I think both in the end achieve the same results.

We have one final consolidation class in August. It's basically a last chance for students attending this class to ask Margaret questions on this piece if they needed help. Since we've covered all the techniques, I went back to stitching the feathers as those should be completed first before moving onto the next part. The correct order is:

1. Feathers (filling stitches for feathers could be done at this step or later)
2. Redo outline of overall piece
3. Couched lines
4. Right diagonals
5. Filling stitch

November TUSAL

 

It feels like I just posted one of these. Not much has happened since my last post. I did start a new bead embroidery piece or was supposed to. I prepared the fabric on a frame in time for the prep class but sadly realized I couldn't attend the first day of class because it landed on the same night as the office Christmas party. So I've had to push back my official start to February. Here's a sneak peek at the project

The piece is called Arabian Nights and is from Margaret Lee's book the Art of bead embroidery. I've loved this piece for years but sadly the fabric is no longer available. Luckily Margaret had a few pieces leftover. I did get a little bit of stitching from the prep session but I'll hold off sharing as I haven't heard back from the teacher if she was happy with it or not. The zippered case on the left is where my bead piece will end up when it's done being stitched. I'm excited to try a new finishing method.

Poppy Pouch - Finishing part 3

 It's now time to fill the inside and attach the strap. 

Making the lining:

For the lining, my teacher sent me a template.

1. For this step, I needed some cardboard. I used an empty ziploc box, but if I could do it again I would use something a little thicker like a cereal box. Using the template, I traced the curve at the top but stopping 1 cm away from either side. I then drew a second curve 1.5 cm away from the first one. These two pieces of cardboard will help stabilize the edge where the magnetic clasp will be placed.

2. I used the template to trace the shape of the lining with darts. I trace a second outline around it to add a 1 cm seam allowance. This is done twice.

3. Once the fabric is cut out, glue is applied to the edge of the fabric and folded over the pieces of cardboard. Set aside to dry.

Note: If I had to do this again I would iron on a piece of interfacing on the fabric before gluing the cardboard piece. It will be clear why when you see the picture in the next step.

4. Once the glue is dry, I used a sewing machine to stitch the edge going thru both fabric and cardboard. As can be seen in the picture below, the fabric was so thin the glue is showing through to the front. Not ideal but I can get over it.

5. Now that the edge is stable, it's time to put in the magnetic clasp. The clasp is made up of 4 pieces: two make up the actual clasp and two washers that are used to keep them in place from the back. I used this tutorial to attach the clasp. First step is to find the center on the top of the opening.

I aligned the little circle of the washer to that marker and used a pen to draw in the rectangular lines. These will be the cutting lines.

Using an x-acto knife, I cut through those lines enough that I could push the prongs of the magnetic clasp through them.

Here's what the two pieces will look like when the clasps is in.

The final step was to place the washers and fold the prongs. I used a hammer to really flatten them.

6. Using the inner outline as a guide, I used my sewing machine to sew the two pieces of lining together with the outside facing in and leaving the top open.

7. The last step was to stitch the darts the same way they were done on the beaded piece.

At this point, you're going to want to check that your lining will fit in your pouch. This is also the point where you may or may not panic (like I did) when you realize that your lining might be too big for your pouch. But wait, don't panic! There's a reason that bulk is there and you don't realize it until this next part is done.

Attaching the strap:

My kit came with a white and gold cord that is used for the strap. I've seen some stitchers replace this cord with a beaded cord they made up themselves but I decided to go with what's in the kit as it's a learning piece.

1. The ends of the cord come taped to keep it from getting untwisted. Before removing it, I used a threaded needle to pierce through the cord and wrap around it. I did this a few times to keep it together. Don't end the thread yet! Once that's done, I removed the tape and untwisted the cord to flatten the ends.

2. Using the needle that is still attached to the cord, I sewed the cord to the inside of the beaded pouch. It's important to leave small stitches on the outside part of the pouch (in between the beads) so they would not be visible. Once the cord end is attached, end the thread.

3. I then glued down the end of the cords. I had some pieces of cotton laying around and I covered the glued edge with it for a clean finish. Repeat step 1-3 on the other side.

Last step, installing the lining:

I stuffed the lining into the pouch and ladder stitched it into place.

Here's what the inside looks like. Remember the extra bulk? It's just the right amount to curve over the cord.

With this ends my adventure of stitching and finishing the Poppy Pouch. I was never a fan of this design and was even adamant that I would never carry it. However, it came out beautiful and I'm especially proud of my finishing skills. So I decided that for one night I will carry this purse to a special guild event to show it off before it goes into storage. I may take it out again for a future EAC seminar, we'll see.

I have now officially completed phase 3 of Japanese bead embroidery and am already thinking of the next phase (two more to go). We're thinking fall dates, I'll have more information later. I already purchased a phase 4 kit, but I'm trying to get my hands on a different phase 4 design. I'll share a picture later if I am able to get the kit.

Poppy Pouch - Finishing part 2

In the last post, I shared how the back of the embroidery is finished off. In this post, I will show how the pouch is formed.

1. For sewing the darts, I used a lacing motion. Here's a video that will explain it much better than I ever could.

Once the darts were sewn shut, the pouch started to take shape. 

Here's what it looks like when one side is completed.

2. The same was repeated with the other piece.

3. The two sides are placed front side out, making sure to match the darts. I used a ladder stitch to sew them together. I tried to make smallish stitches and made sure to come up under the line of beads. It was really hard at the beginning, I have a sort of gap on mine at the top ends but it doesn't bother me too much as it's a learning piece.

I started off using a regular needled before giving up and switching for a circular needle. I should have just started with that, but I find using a circular needle awkward. However, it was really hard to stitch through the fabric with a straight needle, so it just took me a little bit more time to sew.

Here you can see the matching of the darts.

4. At the time when I discussed the tassel with my teacher, the plan was to put in the tassel when I reached the halfway point. I'm not sure what happened, if I got distracted or forgot, but I ended up doing it after I sewed the pouch. Here, I used a needle with a doubled thread. I started with a knot and a few small stitches to secure my thread and started threading beads to form the loops to make up the tassel. 

I had to do this twice as the first time, I wasn't careful and ended up with a knot inside the pouch that I couldn't find. Great it won't be visible since it's inside! What happens though, is when I pulled on the loop, suddenly the knot came undone and I had a too much thread showing. I ended up removing everything and restarting from scratch. This time going slowly and making sure to pass the needle from one hand to the other and making sure the thread is taught and has no chance of tangling.

Extra note: Each loop has about 10cm worth of beads on it before it's folded and there is a tacking stitch between each loop to ensure they are secured.

With this the outside of the pouch is completed. In the next post, I will show how I put together the lining and attached it to the pouch.