Lacy Leaves

I’m a bit obsessed with leaves and trying out different techniques, and today it’s making lacy leaves.

I found this book recently which encouraged me to try this techniques with leaves. Her work is lovely and pretty amazing.

To make these leaves we are stitching on water soluble stabilizer. This is Vilene, a heavier stabilizer that is used to make lace, and holds up better to the stitching than the one I used when making this scarf.

You can draw on the stabilizer, but I thought I’d print the leaf on it using the same technique from my leaf printing post. Because the stabilizer is water soluble, even the little paint I used made it draw up. But that was okay.

Then I took it to the machine and sewed. I chose a variegated thread just because it was already on the machine. Stitches need to touch or otherwise your design will fall apart.

 

After the sewing is complete, it’s time to take the piece and soak it in water until most of the stabilizer is gone. Keeping a little left on the stitches will give it a bit of shape when dry.

After removing it from the water, I put it on a towel to dry. That’s it. You can draw or even sew without a design on the fabric, but I wanted a print of the actual leaf to go with a project.

As you can see, my first attempts aren’t perfect. The one leaf that is different I just sewed without drawing or printing just to test this out.

I believe this is one of those techniques that needs a bit of practice – no, maybe a lot of practice!

For a good video interview and tutorial, check out this You Tube video. If you are looking at this post via email, you will need to come to my website to view the video.

 

Coming up next, something easier (for me) to create!