Fabric Manipulation Swatches

All of the swatches i have made below, i used thumbnail drawing as my starting point which posted on the previous post. These drawing are from a wide variety of fabrics which were manipulated in lots of different ways and pinned onto a maniquin.

Swatch.1: Line Drawing with the sewing machine

Swatch.2:.Machine sown Line Drawing. Quilted with two pieces of material with wadding  in between. The blue fabric i dyed using paint. It didn't turn out as deep a blue as i wanted.

Swatch.3: Machine sown Line Drawing. Quilted with two pieces of material with wadding  in between. The blue fabric is the same as the one as i used in the above swatch

Fig.4 Basic pleat. Fabric acrylic paint dyed

Swatch.5: Outward and inward machine sown strips.. Both fabrics i dyed with paint. neither are to the dept of colour i would have liked.

Swatch.6: Mexican pleats. Measured, ironed and machine sown pleats. Pleats sown down every 2cm in one direction and alternatively in the opposite direction 5cm down the pleat. Fabric Paint dyed.
Tutorial found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTt-ZtDISJ4

Swatch.7:. Mexican Wave created using dressmakers boning..Each wave is 31 cm long.The boning i sewed down to start at 1/2 cm, and the again at every 10 cm along the boning onto 5 cm across the fabric, twisting the boning once each time in one direction and alternatively in the opposite direction for the next line

Swatch.8: Mexican Wave done the same as above except for the use of plastic building site packaging rather than boning.

Swatch.9: Gathering. Gathered with four vertical and four horizontal lines of machine sown stitches. Fabric semi-bleached by placing half of it in bleach for four days.

Swatch.10: Gathering I double folded one side of the fabric, machine sowed , pulled the threads and hand sowed the opposite ends together.

Swatch.11: Gathering with Flowering decoration. The green fabric i gathered up here and there and attached to a piece of fabric behind. Each flower decoration i made from 10cm width of felt fabric, either by folding cutting and or rolling. each stitched in place.

Swatch 12: Flowering: As with the flowers i made above, i made nine of them and sewed them together to create this soft eye catching piece which took along time but i really like.

Swatch.13: Gathering: I folded the fabric and machine sewed in a semi-circle. I did this three times. With the centre circle i hand sewed the two ends together

Swatch 14: Smocking. Measured, ironed and machine sown pleats. Opposite pleats sown together to create the X pattern 

Swatch 15 a): Canadian Smocking four Flowering point design. Measured and pencil marked 54 5cm boxes (9x6).In the square box two to the left and two up i sewed each of the corners together using a single stitch in each corner so i could gather the fabric. i pulled the thread to gather the fabric to create a flower-pattern. I sewed approximately four stitches in the centre of the flower to secure it in place and i added a bead. Skipping every two boxes in each direction I repeated this action .Tutorial found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPKY7Tqo3x4&list=PLkK6kaOWfNXCsbCyW5iMpcGK1ucnmwoS9

Swatch.15 b): Opposite side of flower-pattern also makes a nice detail. 

Swatch 16: Balls: Quilting rolled into a ball-like shape and covered and sewn into a light fabric. Then attached to a different fabric.

Swatch 17. Small Balls:: Small balls of quilting held in place with a light fabric and wound around thread.and tied in place.

Swatch 18: Layering. Materials: Piece of a Towel, cut off fringe and crouched  multi-stranded Yarn  I made using  a range of colours to create my blue colour.

Swatch 19: Layering: Flat ended oval shapes sewn onto piece of fabric. Each oval shape overlaps the one in front. I repeated this action over five lines. i did this to create a swatch of fabric that when held upright the pieces fall unevenly, giving the material a sense of glistening movement.

Swatch 20: Weaving: Cut one piece of fabric into lines approx. 1 cm away from edge. With a second piece of fabric cut also into lines but cutting straight through bottom edge. Weave the second piece of fabric through the first piece by threading one line of cut fabric in and out through the other. To create the X pattern cross over the lines of fabric at odd number lines.

Swatch 21: Weaving  done using fabric from a t-shirt and backed onto a paint dyed piece of fabric. Tutorial techniques i found on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nh2uwl1QRf4

Swatch 22: Weaving done as above using acrylic paint and printer ink dyed Latex

Swatch 23 Canadian weave Smocking tutorial found at  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6s91GNZ0rE

Swatch 24: Knitting swatch made from acrylic paint and printer ind dyed Latex.

Swatch 25 a): Knitting with a shredded fabric which i cut into lengths with flat oval-like shapes approx every 15cm, to give the swatch circle shape features. Fabric i Partially bleached

Swatch 25 b) Back of swatch above

Swatch 25 c) close up of swatch above to show the lightness and transparency of oval shape features

Swatch 26: Knitting: To create the flowy lengths of fabric within the swatch i knitted a row of 10 add on stitches per stitch and casting off 10 stitches per stitch on the following line.

Swatch 26 b): Close up of swatch above showing  the flow of  the 10 pick-up stitch in contrast to the closeness of the ordinary knitted plain stitch, and also showing the beautiful contrast of colour.

Swatch 27: Latex made with a liquid latex solution and dyed grey and mottled with paint.  Finished off with a shredded fabric sewn through to create a corset like finish.

Swatch 28: Flower Design: Light transparent fabric. a) Cut 150cm in length x 25cm in width. b) fold the  fabric width in half and cut in strips a half a cm away from the folded edge. c) Roll the folded cut fabric from one end to the other, stitching here and there through the snail-shell-like pattern formed from rolling the fabric, to hold the piece together. The lightness and translucency of fabric brings the flower piece to life with easy movement and flow of material, also capturing the shine of light .

Swatch 29: Gathering through quilted balls: I used two layers of fabric, one on top of the other. the silver upper layer i painted to achieve a grey colour similar to the grey fabric underneath. The balls i created by placing by padding with little balls of wadding place underneath both layers of fabric and held in place by rapping thread around each one at the front and threads tied to hold in place. Each ball is place in a distinct location to make a well balanced pattern. 

Swatch 30: Knitted and Weaved paint dyed Latex and partially bleached Shredded fabric: The shredded fabric i knitted with a five pick-up stitch and cast-off five stitch on the next line, creating a large flowing of semi-transparent wave[like finishing. I weaved in and out around the edges to give balance to the harshness of the latex, so to soften its look. I also weaved in through the centre giving an opening like flower in the centre of the piece

Swatch 31: A mix of Canadian weave Smocking found at  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6s91GNZ0rE and Canadian Smocking four Flowering point design found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPKY7Tqo3x4&list=PLkK6kaOWfNXCsbCyW5iMpcGK1ucnmwoS9

Swatch 32 Bubbling: I laid a piece of wet fabric onto a grid and pushed the fabric through the holes with the end of a paint brush. I painted the back of the fabric with PVA glue to hold it in place, and the front with Latex.. I took it out of the grid when the fabric was dry.

Swatch 33 Layering: 1) Using a square piece of latex i made previously, i cut out circles into it. I then rolled it in a ball and restretch it out again, as the latex stickes to itself, and by doing this it gives it an uneven finish. 2) Next i attached by hand sewing, the latex ontop of a shinny transparent piece of fabric. 3)  Lastly ontop of what i had done already i attached also by hand sewing, strips of rolled latex    the finished piece works well with the contrast of the two different fabrics, the lower layer being  a tanlusent fabric with flecks of a shinny silver material  which reflects light, while the upper  latex layers being a flat blue opaque.material obsorbing light.

Swatch 34 Layering a variety of fabrics machine and hand  sewn.

Swatch 35: Platting, weaving and under layered with a painted  shinny transparent fabric. a) Made  8 plates.b) Machine sew onto top fabric 1cm away from edge, first one on its own, and a few cm gap away sew second two together, leave another gap of equal length to the last one, and so on, sewing on the last one on its own. c) weave the plates together and each time they cross machine sew them to the backing fabric until all length of plates are sewn. Looks great either way around.