Lesson 5 - Sewing & Embroidery
Learning how to do hand embroidery and machine sewing.
Reflection
This is by far the most fun and interesting lesson I had so far in CRIC. It is super therapeutic and satisfying to sew. The fact that there are over thousands sewing techniques just blew me away. After learning each technique, I would want to carry on and learn more and more, and more. It is sort of addictive and yet so stress-relieving at the same time.
The beauty of CRIC is that it takes us away from the digital media and focuses on the traditional ones. Each lesson reminds us of the design and art age long ago whereby there is no digital aid at all. People from the 1900s and earlier do not have advanced technology like now but yet they are still able to create wonderful art and design pieces. After this lesson, I discover my great interest in sewing and embroidery and I will definitely dive in deeper into this topic.
We started off by cutting out a piece of fabric for practice, then ironing it and then placing it into a embroidery hook.
Really like the authentic and old school look of this embroidery hook, feels like I am in some Hong Kong drama while holding on to this.
Kickstarting my embriodery experience with method one - running stitch. I wasn't so sure on how to end a stitch so I ended up with a little ball at the end.
Followed by back stitch and split stitch. The progress are pretty easy for these two stitches.
First 10 basic stiches done! They are namely running, back, split, stem, french knot, chain, feather, satin, lazy daisy, seed stitches. Satisfaction is the word to describe!
Carrying on with other sewing techniques... Unexpectedly, this piece of black cloth is harder to sew on.
Took a few hours to figure them out and finished another 11 techniques here. They are russian chain, coral, cable, square chain, bosnian, zig-zag, herringbone, pekinese, blanket, closed buttonhole, chevron. Fun but I realise that I still could'nt sew a straight line.
Machine sewing practice outside studio!
First batch trial, failed terribly but some of them are really beautiful.
Second batch trial and this time round it is better and neater!
Went to Art Friend to purchase a brand new embroidery hoop. Feeling great with this, I can now do my own embroidery at home!
Brief
You’ve been commissioned to do an illustration for a lifestyle magazine.
Based on the written magazine article,
create a sewn illustration in A4 size.
create a sewn illustration in A4 size.
• Find a written article in a magazine, and base your illustration on the article.
• Your illustration image area should be A4 in size, with excess fabric of an inch all around.
• Integrate both machine and hand stitching in your artwork.
• Your illustration image area should be A4 in size, with excess fabric of an inch all around.
• Integrate both machine and hand stitching in your artwork.
Deliverable:
1.1 A4 sewn illustration
This is the selected article from the Frankie magazine, titled "My First Gig".
Research
My idea is to sew a lady with headset on and music notes flowing out from the headset to show the lady enjoying music to her fullest, she is in her little world with good music surrounding her.
Experimental Process
After some thoughts, I decided to draw a girl that is listening to her headset with music notes flowing out. The design is rather minimal and yet abstract. The neck and clothing resembles a 'm', so I went on to spell out the entire word, 'music'.
Thank goodness my house has a sewing machine so I can practise beforehand and do my own sewing at own time own target.
There are over 8 different sewing styles for this sewing machine. I attempted all of them on a piece of rag before executing right on the final one.
This is sewing style 7 with dark brown thread sewn onto the outline of the headphone.
Sewing style 2 with yellow thread onto the hair and letter 'c'. It was really tough turning while sewing using the sewing machine. I have to constantly stop stepping on the paddle, lift up the dog feed and turn the balance wheel and adjust the fabric so that the thread is sew onto the right place.
Then I proceeded on with hand sewing! Unfortunately, I does not have black or darker thread so the colour scheme of the entire artwork will be brighter and more vibrant.
Final
After hours of sewing, it is done! Sew my name onto it as well! This final piece consist of over 7 sewing techniques.
Our lecturer Huei even purchase photo-frames for us to display our artwork, this is the final look!
