I promised that this week I’d share a new thread painting technique I recently learned. Well, I’m just under the wire on my promised timing, it still is “this week” even if it is Sunday.This little trick solves a common problem that can rear it’s ugly head if you are doing very heavy, thick coverage in one particular spot. Especially with lighter fabrics, as the silk I often use, it can be a BIG problem. Fabric tends to stretch out of shape in all manner of ways, none of which can be considered attractive. I switched to using a hoop, better, but still problems. Then I used fuzable web, better but.. inconsistent results. Finally I starting adding my layer of batting for stability. Now if you promise not to laugh, I’ll share an older dismal failure as an example of what can go wrong, that I saved as a reminder to myself to NEVER, NEVER make that mistake again.
Here you can see the fabric has stretched out, I stuffed the area with pillow stuffing, making a 3D doll head that popped out from the fabric Then I applied a patch to the hole I made on the back to stuff my”pillow” as shown below.
Now a good solution to the problem: Take your top fabric and put it face down after applying a layer of heavy fuzable web to the back. Then a layer of batting, then a layer of thick tear away stabilizer. Place pins to keep it all together.
Hoop the whole thing, do your thread painting and applique it on. It is stiff enough and stable enough to support fabric from stretching out. So that’s the little trick I learned, and I like it! Hope this helps you too.
Barbara Harms Fiber Art & More 