the past couple of weeks I have been playing with embroidery samples, both hand and machine stitching.

I have decided to use data and information from music to inform  my textiles project, thinking about different ways in which I can gather data and how I can translate that data into textiles has been challenging, but i am very excited for this project.

I started off by doing Mola work, using three different layers of fabric, I chose fabrics that don’t fray, so i can keep nice edges on my cuts. When i was making this sample i had quite a few problems with my sewing machine, it doesn’t seem to like doing free hand stitching, so the stitches came out quite uneven on the circles. for the lines i just used the normal straight stitch. at the time of making it, I wasn’t really sure where I was going with my theme/data so I just put on some music and played about with shapes. looking back i feel that the music probably had an affect on the patterns I was creating!

I then got totally carried away with Detached Buttonhole stitch, I can’t explain why but it just feels so satisfying to do!

My flatmates are all musicians and have a lot of jams, which i love listening to, I decided to try doing my embroidery whilst listening to them play and see what the effects would be. what shapes and patterns it made me feel and want to create.

In this one I created a circular line and gradually worked my way inwards, it gradually got denser and denser because of the number of stitches, like the build of the music, becoming more and more powerful and energetic.

Here I just wanted to play with the stitch and see what shapes were actually possible. I was listening to classical music whilst making them.

 the top sample in this photo, is lots of straight lines of detached buttonhole st, extruding upwards parallel to each other, I did each line a different height, to represent different intensities of the music, again I was listening to my flatmates play music together, one guitar, drums, fiddle and mandolin.

Here I experimented with stuffing the stitch with fabric, I really like how defined to holes become, I’d like to try doing them different sizes and on a much larger scale.

After experimenting with these I also had a go at shirring on a sheer organza, this worked extremely well and has a very dramatic affect when placed on a black background! looking somewhere between an Xray and a jellyfish.

after our group discussion last week I really liked the idea of combining these techniques together. so by cutting a hole in the back of the fabric underneath the circular sample of DB stitch i inserted the organza through the hole in the middle. it creates an almost volcano style shape, I especially like how 3D it becomes, which makes me realise that I want to focus on form and texture in my textiles project, and use form to represent my data.

Detached Buttonhole Stitch among other things / Yarrow Frost Textiles by blogadmin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0