Textile Manipulation Experimentation

 

Having the opportunity to experiment with a range of fabric manipulation techniques is my main reason of choosing this concept design. There are a lot of interesting techniques I wanted to try, however to work more effectively I try to narrowed it down to techniques that is relevant to my projects and that will be used in the garment outcome. Initially I was just going to recreate the tree bark and gravel texture, but as I did further exploration of other nature's texture I could recreate using textile manipulation, I decided to also try to mimic mushroom gills texture. 

Traditional Smocking

To recreate the tree bark texture, there are two technique I tried. First, is the traditional smocking technique. For this I was hand-sewing running stitch because I thought it would be much faster than using the sewing machine, but I didn't realize that I will need to make a horizontal running stitch 2 cm apart on that 15 x 15 fabric, so at the end I ended up making about 15 running stitch. Learning from my mistake, I should have used the sewing machine to save time. But beside that, I think that it successfully recreate the rough bark texture. The only weakness of using this technique is that the gathering makes the fabric a lot puffier and not flat which going to change the garment silhouette.

Vertical Pintucks

The second technique I tried to make the tree bark texture is vertical pintucks. To make it as similar as possible to tree bark texture, I decided to sew the pin tucks 1 cm apart which took me quite a long time to finish. In the actual garment, I will probably make the pin tucks around 2/3 cm apart as there will be a lot of pattern pieces I need to add this pintucks. Comparing to the smocking technique, pintucks makes the fabric much more neat and flat which what I wanted for my top. There is one thing I need to fix with this technique, instead of sewing straight vertical lines, I could try to sew a rough or wavy line so it will mimic the tree bark texture better. 

Shibori Bubble

Next, to recreate the gravel texture, the first technique I experiment with is shibori bubble. First, I wrapped a small beads using thread, then boil it for around 20 minutes and when it fully dried, I cutted the remaining thread. I was happy that the fabric works really well with this technique, although I'm not sure if the fabric that I'm going to use for my actual garment will work as great as this. I think it mimic the gravel texture pretty similarly, however I'm still thinking if I will be using this technique for my actual outcome because of the bulge it made if I sewed it on the fabric. 

Free Motion Sewing on padded fabric

Because I'm not really happy with the previous technique, I decided to give it a second try with free motion sewing on padded fabric. I first put batting in between 2 pieces of calico fabric and then stitch the circle using the sewing machine. It's really challenging to sew the circle without using the quilting sewing foot, but I managed to make several different-size circle. There are several things I need to consider if I'm going to use this for my final outcome, first it would better to use a different color thread to make it more pop out, grey color thread would be perfect for this calico fabric. Second, I'm not really happy that the padding doesn't help to make the circle more 3d, but I found a solution to this, which is by trimming the excess padding around the circle so it will make it pop out better which is shown in the picture below. 

Textured Patch Quilt

Stuffing

Almost similar with the quilting technique, this technique use stuffing instead of batting. First, I sewed the circle on 2 pieces of fabric but leave a small opening to insert the stuffing inside the circle. Next, on some of the circle, I cut the inside to make a hole. It would be much better if I hand-stitch a border around the hole using thick yarn, however I don't think it will be the most time-effective technique to use. I tried to recreate the hand-embroidery like the picture below by a textile artist name Julia Wright. 

Wrapping and Binding 

Suffolk Puff

The last technique I experiment with is suffolk puff. It's the most simple and easy technique from five other techniques I have tried. I begin with cutting circles then using a needle, I gathered around the edges and pulled the thread to make this flower-like texture. I don't think mushroom gills will be the first thought that people will think if they saw this textile manipulation because it looks more like a round flower. However I personally like how it turned out and I think I might use it on my actual outcome. 

References:

TeresaDownUnder (2013). Block 8: trapunto – Textured 4-patch quilt. [online] Sewn Up. Available at: https://teresadownunder.com/2013/09/28/block-8-trapunto-textured-4-patch-quilt/ [Accessed 12 Feb. 2025].

Ward, W. (2017). Customising: How to Make Suffolk Puffs (or Yo-Yo’s). [online] Wendy Ward. Available at: https://wendyward.wordpress.com/2017/01/13/customising-how-to-make-suffolk-puffs-or-yo-yos/ [Accessed 12 Feb. 2025].