I started with my pile of felted wool scraps. I have quite a few scraps, so the first step was to sort through them to find the thinner pieces. Some wool sweaters felt into a really thick, plush fabric, nearly too thick to sew with. I've had a lot of trouble with these in the sewing machine (maybe getting a walking foot would help?). Anyway, I have a variety of thickness, and only wanted the thinner ones for this project.
Next, I laid the different fabrics out, comparing colors, and looking for a few that complemented each other. I ended up choosing 2 argyles, a plaid, and about 4 solid colors. The predominant colors were teal, burgundy, rose, gray, and black. I was really pleased with how well they went together. I think maybe the solid teal came from the same sweater as the teal/burgundy/tan argyle. If not, they sure match well!
The next step was to crazy quilt them together. I looked all over the 'net for information on this, but couldn't find anything. I've seen pictures of crazy quilted felted wool, but there were no tutorials to be found, no blog entries, nothing!
Instead, I experimented until I found what worked for me.
Regular crazy quilting--you know, with lightweight cotton fabric--is generally done with a stitch and flip technique. You lay 2 scraps right-sides together on a base fabric, and stitch. Then you flip them open so that the right sides are showing. You just keep adding scraps that same way, until you fill up the base fabric, and go back later to add decorative stitching.
It was clear from the first seam that this technique would NOT work for felted fabric. It's way too thick--those seam allowances would be so much thicker than the rest of the fabric, and I'd never be able to machine-stitch anything decorative on that much thickness.
So I tried overlapping the fabrics instead. I figured I'd sew the seam and decorate it all in the same step. This was no good, either. It was still thick enough to look uneven and bumpy, and the wool tended to shift around. Felted wool is very pliable--ever take a hat you've felted and squish it to the shape you intend? It's a blessing for most projects, but not this one. Every seam looked terrible, because the pressure of the foot made the fabric go somewhere I didn't want it. Once again, I wonder if a walking foot would have helped.
Anyway, I kept trying. My next attempt was to butt the fabrics up against each other, with no overlap, and use a zigzag stitch to catch both fabrics in the seam. I had to tweak it to make it work: just the right zigzag stitch, rotary-cut edges for perfect straightness and no gaps, glue stick to keep the pieces from shifting during stitching. But eventually I had it looking great! A winner at last!
At this point, I used the pattern (Simplicity 3715) to cut the pieces from the base fabric I had chosen. I then crazy quilted onto the base pieces, using my newly discovered processes. After that, I just followed the sewing instructions.
And look how great it turned out!
I took lots of pictures while I was piecing this. So I think I'll post a tutorial on crazy quilting with felted sweaters, as soon as I can get it written up. Next time someone wants to try this, they'll find at least a little info on my experiences!
1 comments:
It looks fantastic, you did a great job! :-) It's good to know what didn't work, too. :-D
Post a Comment