CHAPTER 5: CORD MAKING

A. MACHINE STITCHED CORDS
On the whole I found this technique easy to do and was able to produce some pleasing results very quickly. The main drawback was the limited thickness of the cords that can be produced due to the need to be able to feed them under the foot of the sewing machine.




Sample Group 1: This group shows samples made from combinations of commercial threads and knitting yarns. Some pleasing effects were created using bobbly yarns.The cord on the right had yellow embroidery thread wrapped loosely around it to give an extra highlight after the sewing.
Sample Group 2: These cords were produced from combinations of fabric strips, ribbons, yarns and braids. I found that if one of the strips was much wider than the others, it tended to dominate the finished effect. This could be good or bad, depending on the effect that one was trying to achieve.
Sample Group 3: In this group, strips of more experimental materials such as raffia, Lutradur strips, plastic strips and netting were included in combination with the yarns or braids. I thought some of these were quite interesting, but again, one needs to think about the relative widths of the different materials and the final effect desired.























B: TWISTED CORDS

Sample Group 4: These twisted cords were easy to produce and gave some good effects. The tip of hooking the threads over the spool spindle on the sewing machine worked well. With this method it was possible to make thin cords by using fine cottons or wool and thick textured cords by including strips of fabric and chunky knitting yarn in the combinations. Materials used in these samples included sewing threads, textured and smooth knitting yarns, fabric strips, braids and raffia.





C: KNOTTED, PLAITED AND WRAPPED METHODS


Sample Group 5: Knotted Cords. The first two samples in this group show a simple knotted cord and a second produced by alternating which component is used to make the half hitch. The third is a looped braid edge or Pawnee braid, the fourth a continuous twist chain and finally a cord produced by double ridge hitching or alternate chaining.






Sample Group 6: Examples of Various Knots - Josephine knot and looped Josephine Knot (Reference: Effie Mitrofanis, Tassels and Trimmings, Simon and Schuster, 1992), monkey's fist knot (Reference: Cyrus L Day, Knots and Splices, Adlard Coles Nautical, 1953) and flat Turk's head knot. The Turk's head was diabolical although I liked the final effect. I finally mastered it after finding a demonstration on UTube (http://www.videojug.com/webvideo/how-to-tie-a-turks-head-knot-2).


Sample Group 7: Plaited Cords - I experimented with a range of material types and thicknesses to produce these plaited cords. These included smooth cords of the same thickness pulled up tightly after plaiting, 2 smooth cords (same or different colours) and a bobbly knitting yarn, string of fine beads and 2 fine yarns, 2 fine yards and a string of chunky beads in 2 sizes, a textured yarn with a smooth yarn and a strip of netting. I thought that most of these results were pleasing and had possibilities for the future. Again, I found I could manipulate the three strands fairly well if I hooked them over the spool spindle on the sewing machine and pulled moderately firmly to maintain the tension.

WRAPPED CORDS
Sample Group 8: Simple Wrapped cords. I really enjoy wrapping cords and like the effects that I can produce. These simple cords were produced by experimenting with components of different types, thicknesses and textures, varying which cords formed the core and which were being wrapped, varying the tightness and spacing of the wrapping and adding knots at irregular intervals.
Sample Group 9: More Complex Wrapped Cords. One of the tutors at the NSW Embroiderers' Guild, Effie Mitrofanis, recently published a book which features the use of wrapped cords in embroidery (Reference: Effie Mitrofanis, Threadwork - silks, stitches, beads and cords, Milner Craft Series, 2009). In fact it would make a great reference for this course. I did a workshop on wrapped cords with Effie last year. Her technique mostly uses a wrapped core as the foundation and then adds extra wrapped threads and beads as highlights on the outside. The cords in this picture demonstrate the techniques. Starting from the left, the first 3 samples were done last year and second 3 made for this module. They can be used in jewellery or wearable items or added to embroidered works as embellishments.

CHAPTER 4: DECORATE WITH STITCHERY

A. HAND STITCHERY
Sample 1 - this shows various spiral shapes based on my wrought iron theme worked by hand using a range of stitches and threads. Far left- a combination of stem stitch and spiral stitch (Enthoven, page 103), top centre - very dense back stitch, bottom centre - stem stitch, running stitch and detached chain, far right - chain stitch with a close row of stem stitch either side.



Sample 2 - experiments with a helix shape using back stitch, buttonhole, and straight stitches
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Sample 3 - uses chain stitch, stem stitch and running stitch to form a random network of spirals which touch and overlap, again with a variety of threads and colours.







Sample 4 - several different spirals worked with a range of metallic gold threads couched with various types of cottons. I was particularly pleased with this sample as I had not done some of these techniques before (e.g. the Or Nué and the S-ing). The combination of metallic gold and purple is very pleasing and some great textures can be achieved by varying the type of gold, the couching threads and the chosen technique.




Sample 5- in this sample, a design reminiscent of wrought iron had been imprinted with paint onto the purple fabric. The main shape was then outlined with couched metallic gold thread, and then enhanced with further stem and running stitch to highlight the shape. Again, I liked this sample and could see possible avenues to explore further in the future.





B: MACHINE STITCHERY
These three samples (samples 6 to 8) were my first attempts at free machine embroidery. My main conclusion was that I needed a lot more practice to make my movements smooth and the stitching more even! Nevertheless, some interesting effects were achieved by trialling different colours and threads. I generally ended up using combinations of different thread types in all of them, as I found that the effects were a bit boring with just normal machine threads, even if I used variegated threads or different colours in the top spool and bobbin. I preferred the more textured effects I could create using thicker threads in the bobbin.

















C. COMBINING HAND AND MACHINE STITCHING
Sample 9 - I did this sample largely to practise my free machine stitching. I outlined the shape and then filled each segment with different types of filling stitches (reference: Pam Watts, Beginner's Guide to Machine Embroidery, Search Press,2003, page 36). At the end I whipped the outlines by hand to give them greater weight. Doing this sample gave me a lot more confidence in handling the free machine stitching, but I still have a way to go to consider myself proficient!















Sample 10 - In this sample I tried to emphasise the shapes created by the Shibori dyeing (discharge technique) that I had done on the base fabric. The centres of each shape and the unfilled areas were machine stitched, and then I added hand stitched spirals in slightly gathered running stitch to the dyed areas. I tried to make the stitching complement the marks made by the dyeing process. Overall I was pleased with the result.



Sample 11 - this sample had one of my monoprinted fabrics as its base. I then added the purple and jade green bars by machine, as well as the jade and yellow spirals around the edge. All of these roughly echoed and amplified the impression made by the monoprint. Finally I couched the large spiral over the top using a rough cross stitch. This was made from a lacy knitting yarn that I had bought a few years ago and had in my stash. This sample is quite a different style from many of the others, but I think it works well with the bold monoprint.

Sample 12- This was also worked on a monoprinted fabric, but this time the base was not so bold, so the cable-stitched spiral shapes were very dominant. Some of the spirals were also filled in with stitching using 2 threads at once. The background was delicately filled with gold machine stitching which worked well and then some hand stitching (French knots or detached chain) was added to some of the spirals for emphasis. I thought the overall spiral design was less cohesive than some of my other samples, but the colour and texture effects were very pleasing. I think some of these ideas could be developed further.