Making Art to Wear: 4 Free Mixed-Media Designs for Wearable Art Clothing and More Presented by Cloth Paper Scissors®
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making art to wear: 4 free mixed-media designs for wearable art clothing and more presented by cloth paper scissors® 1 2 3 4 wear your art out: la flora fedora 1 a free-motion thrift-store shirt 3 KATHY CANO-MURILLO BIANCA MANDITY from necktie to necklace paint ‘n’ stitch cuffs: 4 JACQUE KUDNER 2 wrist wearables MANDY RUSSELL Next, Mandy Russell shows you how to make a cuff bracelet with fabric paint, trims, buttons, and a little stitching. Making Art to Wear: You’ll want to make cuff art for both 4 Free Mixed-Media Designs arms and those of your friends. for Wearable Art The Crafty Chica, Kathy Cano-Murillo, Clothng and More likes her accessories loud and sassy, presented by with paint and glitter taking center Cloth Paper Scissors® stage. Her Flora Fedora art to wear ONLINE EDITOR Cate Prato has plenty of both, but you can use her basic instructions to personalize it any CREATIVE SERVICES way you like. DIVISION ART DIRECTOR Larissa Davis PHOTOGRAPHER Larry Stein Finally, Jacque Kudner puts a very Projects and information are for inspiration and feminine spin on necktie crafts. personal use only. F+W Media Inc. is not responsible Using thrift store neckties as a base, for any liability arising from errors, omissions, or she’ll show you how to add vintage mistakes contained in this eBook, and readers should proceed cautiously, especially with respect to technical embellishments to turn them into information. show-stopping necklaces. ou can usually spot an artist F+W Media Inc. grants permission to photocopy any from across the room. She (or With these four tutorials, you’ll have patterns published in this issue for personal use only. he) is the one with the hand- four new ways of letting the world ystitched shirt, the unique cuff, or the hat know you’re an artist. that adds panache. Artists have style, Warmly, and they’re constantly looking for art Where mixed -media to wear! In this free eBook, Making Art to artists come to play Wear: 4 Free Mixed-Media Designs for Wearable Art Clothing and More, you’ll Cate Prato find four wearable art ideas you can Online Editor, adapt to suit your style—or that of your Cloth Paper Scissors Today favorite artist. Making your own wearable art clothing needn’t take a lot of time or complicated sewing skills. You just need to add your unique touch with paint, stitching, and ingenuity. Our first tutorial couldn’t be easier. Bianca Mandity shows you how to transform a plain thrifted button-down shirt with some free-motion stitching. A little practice with the free-motion stitching pattern, and you’ll have a unique piece of wearable art. clothpaperscissors.com Making Art to Wear: Wearable Art Clothing and More presented by clothpaperscissors.com ©F+W Media, Inc. 2 Adapted from Cloth Paper Scissors wear your November/December 2013 art out A FREE MOTION THRIFT-STORE SHIRT BY bianca mandity Making Art to Wear: Wearable Art Clothing and More presented by clothpaperscissors.com ©F+W Media, Inc. 3 or as long as I can remember, I have loved to doodle. I also love to bargain MATERIALS fhunt at thrift stores. When I first started playing around with free-motion • Sewing machine with free-motion sewing (or fabric doodling as I like to think of it), it was for a cloth bookbinding capabilities project. But one day, while looking at an oversized men’s shirt in a thrift store, • Thread (I used Gutermann, because I’ve found I have less issues with a lightbulb went on. I realized that for very little money I could create a one-of- tension and breaking.) a-kind shirt with free-motion stitching. Finally my love of doodles and thrift stores • Scrap piece of fabric could be united! • Button-up shirt, cleaned and ironed optional While free-motion stitching can seem a little scary in the beginning, it really is • Pattern like doodling with your sewing machine. I believe if you can doodle, you can • Masking tape free motion! And since you’ll be stitching on a button-up shirt, the loops and • Fabric pencil • Scrap paper and pencil problems that can sometimes occur in the beginning (or if your machine is being moody) are hidden away when you wear it, so the only person who’ll know is you. Fear no mistakes—and wear your art out! 1. Set up your sewing machine for free- 2. It’s important to check the tension tension where the stitches lie flat and motion stitching: Attach your free- on your machine before you start don’t pull or sag. motion foot and either drop the feed stitching. Take a scrap piece of NOTE: Every machine is different and dogs or attach the feed-dog cover. fabric and stitch, making simple everyone’s stitching rhythm is different, as Load the bobbin with thread, thread movements like zigzags and loops. well, so tension needs can vary. Practice to the machine, and set your stitch (Figure 1) Keep testing and adjusting get the tension just right. length to 0. the tension until you hit that optimal Figure 1 Making Art to Wear: Wearable Art Clothing and More presented by clothpaperscissors.com ©F+W Media, Inc. 4 Figure 2 Figure 3 3. Take a few minutes to look at the TIP: Try doodling your design on a scrap shirt and think about how you’re piece of paper before you begin to stitch important going to situate your design. If you to get an idea of how it will work out. Remember: you’ll be stitching in one long want to use a pattern, print it out, lay line, so if your design is complicated or Check the tension every time you it under the shirt, and tape it to the go to do free-motion stitching. has a lot of parts you will have to stop, cut shirt with masking tape. Lightly trace Not only will it ensure there are the thread, and start again. no problems when you stitch the pattern onto the shirt with the your project, it will also give you fabric pencil, and then remove the 4. Place the shirt on the machine, and the opportunity to practice your pattern and the tape. If you choose to hold the shirt at the top and the stitching process. work without a pattern, you can just bottom to create an even, constant start stitching. tension on the area being sewn. Try to stay relaxed; pulling too hard on Making Art to Wear: Wearable Art Clothing and More presented by clothpaperscissors.com ©F+W Media, Inc. 5 Figure 4 the fabric can cause problems. The best stitching happens when your arms are loose and you have a firm grip on the fabric. stitching tips 5. Stitch your design, working at a slow, • Instead of backstitching to knot the thread, simply stitch in place for a few steady rate and moving the fabric to stitches, this will serve the same purpose as backstitching would with a draw the needle along your design. regular foot. (Figure 2) • If you have loops on the back of your shirt when you stitch, don’t stress. It’s normally caused by a miscommunication between your hands and 6. Once you’ve made a full pass on the feet. If your foot pressure is moving the machine quickly and your hands design, make more passes to broaden are moving the fabric slowly (or vise-versa) loops can form on the back of the design, or change the color of the fabric. Try to keep your hands and foot in sync. the thread and trace again for a more • If you change thread, check the tension again before you begin stitching. colorful effect. (Figure 3) Don’t forget • If you don’t want to have to stop and change your thread to add another to change the bobbin thread, too! color, work with color-change or variegated thread for a multi-colored look. • Check the bobbin periodically. There’s nothing worse than running out of bobbin thread in the middle of a project! Making Art to Wear: Wearable Art Clothing and More presented by clothpaperscissors.com ©F+W Media, Inc. 6 Figure 5 The more passes you make, the more the design will take shape and begin to look solidified. TIP: Don’t worry if your retracing goes slightly off the original line, this makes the stitching look more like doodling, and gives it its own unique flair. 7. Get creative and add lines and/or swirls, etc., outside the main image. (Figure 4) 8. Add more stitching and color as desired to complete your design. (Figure 5) 9. When you’re finished with your design, simply stitch in place like you did in the beginning to make sure the stitches don’t pull out. biancandm.com Making Art to Wear: Wearable Art Clothing and More presented by clothpaperscissors.com ©F+W Media, Inc. 7 paint ‘N’ stitch CUFFS WRIST WEARABLES BY mandy russell Adapted from Cloth Paper Scissors May/June 2012 Making Art to Wear: Wearable Art Clothing and More presented by clothpaperscissors.com ©F+W Media, Inc. 8 MATERIALS • Bias tape —Single-fold bias tape, 1/2" wide, 56" am simply compelled to design large pieces of jewelry that attract immediate —Double-fold, 1/4" wide, 8" i attention when worn. If I’m going to make a piece of jewelry and wear it, • Thread (I use Coats Dual Duty Plus®.) I want it to be a real showstopper.