Manipulate and Make Your Own Fabric! (9427 Views)

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  Step 1 of 13

  Learn how to make your own fabric or create textured free-form embroidered appliques! This may be one of the most simple and also most satisfying textile projects I know how to do. All you need is this marvelous product known as Water Soluble Backing (traditionally used in embroidery hoops), and as much scrap fabric, trim, embroidery floss, and thread as you want or have!

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  Step 2 of 13

  This is what one brand of water soluble backing look like. Sometimes it is sold on a roll like this and other times it is a folded into a package. You can find it with quilting and embroidery notions, or here.

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  Step 3 of 13

  To make your own free-form applique, gather scraps, yarn, thread, ribbon, etc.

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  Step 4 of 13

  Cut out any shapes you want and lay out all pieces onto a flat piece of fabric. This flat piece can be a piece of a garment that you are making or simply a scrap of fabric that you can later sew onto something else, like I did with the bag shown in the first picture.

  You can lay the pieces of fabric, yarns, and embroidery floss to create a shape (like the flower above) or simply strew them all over the place to create a cool texture on the flat fabric. Cover with the water soluble backing.

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  Step 5 of 13

  Pin around the edges of the backing and a bit in the middle to hold down some of the loose pieces. Then here comes the fun part: start sewing like wild! Sew zig zags and curves, straight lines, grids, backwards and forwards. Sew all over the piece (With the water soluble backing facing up) to catch all the various pieces of your design. Sew as much as you want, as long as you sew enough to hold down any loose threads.

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  Step 6 of 13

  Trim off excess backing.

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  Step 7 of 13

  Then, rinse all of the backing away! Rub the piece against itself gently to make sure all of it disolves.

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  Dry the piece- either by hanging, by throwing it in the dryer, or using a hair dryer. Then iron it flat. You are now ready to sew it onto a bag, a pocket, a cushion, a shirt, or just leave it the way it use and hang it on the wall!

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  Step 9 of 13

  You can also use this technique to make your own interesting fabric. Using strips of cloth, yarn, embroidery floss, ribbons, etc., you can create pieces of cloth to cut out pattern pieces of a garment you are making or as trim or detail on a garment.

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  Step 10 of 13

  For making fabric, lay all the pieces in between two pieces of the soluble backing.

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  Step 11 of 13

  Pin as much as necessary and then begin sewing! Because you have the water soluble backing on both on top and bottom, you may find it helpful to put the feed dog down on your machine. (These are the gripping teeth under the presser foot that help hold your fabric in place. To make this free-form stitching easier, it helps to do this.) It helps to sew around the whole piece first and then across the middle of it before you start the crazy stitching, so that you can remove the pins. Be sure to sew all over the place and catch all threads in between any fabric pieces you may have, because in some areas all that may be connecting yarns or pieces of fabric will be these stitches.

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  Step 12 of 13

  Again, trim excess and rinse off the backing.

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  Step 13 of 13

  Dry it. Press it under muslin or an ironing cloth. When it is finished, you can use it for just about anything! Curtains look really awesome when made with this technique because the sun can peak through the spaces in between the yarns and pieces of fabric.