Denim Rug Project Part 4

Eight foot lengths of denim in coils.

I have made some progress on this project.  I'll recap briefly for new readers.  I started this project for a denim rug planning to make it using the minimal instructions from a magazine article.  Once I started the project, I realized that I really did not like the way it looked.  Mainly, the denim unraveled and had a lot of strings and lint.   It really was not the rug I wanted.  The problem was now I had a lot of strips of denim and had to figure out how to use them.  This begins a cautionary tale about changing your mind about a project when you are well into it.

Ready for sewing into strips.

My next attempt was to sew folded strips of fabric right sides together to make a long tube and turn the tube.   Forty-five minutes later, I was still trying to turn the first tube right side out.  The denim was bulky and did not want to turn easily despite the strips being two inches wide.

Denim unraveling into long threads.

I still wanted a denim rug, so I began by zig zag sewing around each strip to try to corral the threads.  Then I started sewing the strips together and tried crocheting a rug using a size G hook.  I actually liked the look and feel of the strip, but the threads were still my nemesis.  I actually did about twenty-five feet of denim in this manner, and trimmed threads as I came to them.  The next day I came back to my work and there were more threads.  It was as if the denim had decided to unravel itself more over night.  I decided that I could just not live with those threads.  I was tracking them everywhere through the house.  So, it was on to Plan C or is it Plan D?  I have lost track.

A strip of crocheted denim, which was my Plan B.

It is no use blaming the material for how it behaves.  It is what it is. (Note:  heavier denim did not ravel as much as lighter weight denim.)  So now the plan is to encase the threads.  I sewed the strips of denim into eight foot long lengths, folded them in half wrong sides together and ironed them so that I would have a center line.  Each edge was folded to the center line, and ironed.  Then the strips were folded in half and ironed again so that the raw edges were on the inside as if making binding for a quilt.  The fabric was pinned along its length and then sewn down the length of the fabric.  The raw edges are no longer in sight, so no more escaping threads.  However, this process is very time consuming.  It takes much longer than you might think to make and iron the strips.

Of course, now I have a number lengths of eight foot long strips, although not yet nearly enough for the project.  I sew them during the day when I have some time to be on the sewing machine.  In order not to have a tangled mass of strips when I am ready to use them, I rolled the lengths of fabric into coils and tied them up with some thread.  The coils needed be stabilized so that they did not come loose when they were being moved or stored.  The thread wrapped and tied holds the coils nicely.  So far, I have seventeen coils, which is about 128 feet of  fabric.  I have five more strips pinned and ready to be sewn and about four more strips that have been joined into eight foot lengths but not ironed or pinned yet.  This is not all of the fabric needed.  It is only where I am on the project right now.  More on the fabric needed next time I post on this project.

That brings me to my next subject.  This project is going to be quite time consuming. Rather than subjecting readers to multiple posts on how much material I was able to manage to sew in a week, I will be blogging on other projects as well. 

Regular readers may remember that last years long term project left me with a bad case of creative burnout.  I plan to pace myself on this project so the same thing does not happen again this year.  I will be blogging intermittently about one project or another.  I generally try to limit myself to three projects going at one time.  I am just getting ready to start a second project.  A third won't be started until after I finish sewing the strips for the denim rug project.  So for now, expect to see a post on the denim rug project about every other week.

Denim Rug Project Part 3

Nine feet of fabric yielded 16 inches of stitching.

The transition from light to medium fabrics.

There is an old adage that states, "Don't change horses in mid-stream."  It is not always a great idea to make some major change to a project once you get underway.  However, this time I found it necessary, or at least worthwhile to make a big change in the project once I had it started.   Last blog post I wrote about I decided that I really did not like the look of the denim rug that I wanted to make.  It looked nice in the picture, but up close it looked shabby.  It was really not the look I wanted in my room.  So, with lots of lengths of two inch wide (5.08 cm.) denim strips cut, I changed my mind about what I wanted to do with them.  Sometimes it is worthwhile to have a Plan B, and even a Plan C.  I finally hit upon the plan that would give me a look that I liked.  It was actually hard to choose.  There are a number of ways to make a denim rug. 

The transition from medium to darker fabrics.

I have already learned a lot about working with denim.  A couple of things I would like to pass on immediately because not one article I read on denim projects mentioned it.  Lint is a big problem.  It clogged up my sewing machine.  I have quilted for years and I have never had my machine so clogged with lint.  If you are using a sewing machine in your project (more on the machine sewing in the next paragraph) be prepared to clean it out much more frequently than normal.  I was also breathing in abnormal amounts of lint.  It was in my nose and I was feeling stuffy.  With 20-20 hindsight, it might have been advisable to wear a dust mask.

When you cut up denim, it starts to unravel.  Little bits of thread were falling off all over the place.  My floor was covered with thread.  I had to sweep up regularly to keep from tracking it all through the house.  The unraveling threads were enough of a problem that they had to be addressed one way or another.  For the sake of time, I decided to zig-zag stitch around each piece.  My other option was to fold the pieces in half length wise and turn under the open edges and stitch them in place.  I did not choose that option because it would have created a lot of bulk on one side of each tube and more bulk in joining the tubes together. 

Now that the advice part is out of the way, let me tell you about my project.  I have made a lot of progress, but you can hardly tell it.  The entire week I have been zig-zag stitching around pieces of denim.  I think I have fourteen pairs of jeans cut up into two inch (5.08 cm.) strips.  I would sew around one and drop it into a box.  Then the next.  I ended up with a pyramid of fabric about twelve inches by fifteen inches at the base (30.48 x 38.1 cm) and  twenty inches high (50.8 cm).  It seemed an intimidatingly large amount of fabric strips. 

To make it seem like the week had not been a total waste of time, I started joining the strips of fabric together.  Another decision had to be made at this point on joining the pieces of fabric.  I could join the fabric as if I were piecing blocks on a quilt, with edges lined up evenly.  Or, I could piece the fabric as if I were making a bias binding, so that the edges of the join run diagonally across the fabric.  There are advantages and disadvantages to both.  A straight join is going to add more bulk in one area, which will make some stitches difficult, but it is quicker than making the diagonal join.  The diagonal join means that there is less bulk in one area of the stitch, but it wastes a considerable amount of fabric.  A diagonal join is made by laying one strip across another strip at right angles.  Then the seam is sew from the lower edge of the top fabric up to the opposite corner at the top.  The excess triangle of fabric is then cut away.  I went with the straight join.  I would rather deal with an occasional difficult stitch than lose the fabric.

The combination of the fabrics was another decision.  There are many variations in the colors of denim.  I had asked friends to donate old, blue denim jeans for the project in order to keep the cost of the project down.  I received jeans in many shades of blue.  Some were very light, some very dark, and most of them middle values of blue.   I only had a few dark indigo ones.  I decided to attach the fabric in strips going from light to dark and then starting the sequence over again.  However, because the I have so few of the dark indigo, the indigo will be used in much shorter pieces.  They will be accent points.

I started attaching the fabric in roughly three foot lengths of each color (0.91 meter) .  I say roughly because the fabrics are cut in all different lengths to gain the most fabric from a pair of jeans.  If I started to cut up the fabrics so that each piece was exactly a yard long I would end up with a bunch of little joins eventually.  Close enough is good enough in this case.  Besides, I like to add a bit of randomness to my projects.  You never know how the bits of fabric are going to line up. 

For the record, there is a better way to make strips of fabric than the one I used.  If I had started out with this method it would have been easier.  However, since I changed my mind on how to make the rug, it was not an option for me.  You start at one end on a panel of the leg and start cutting, making turns as you reach each corner, and continuing to cut around the entire panel so that each leg panel is one continuous length of fabric.  (The back panels would be slightly shorter lengths since you have to work around the pockets.)  You would end up with four long lengths of fabric from each pair of pants.  That will save a considerable amount of time and reduce the number of joins needed to make the rug.  However, you will still have to deal with the issue of unraveling threads.  And, those long lengths of fabric are going to tangle into big knots unless you roll them up into balls or onto some type of tube.

After putting about nine feet of fabric together I started testing how well it was going to crochet.  I folded the fabric in half as I crocheted so that the joins of the fabric would be on the inside.  I did not feel the need to sew the outer edges together.  I tried it with a size G hook to get a feel for what the rug might look like.  It is too early in the process to start the crocheting, but I needed the energy boost of seeing what the project might look like.  The size G hook crocheted a length of stitching about sixteen inches (40.64 cm) long from nine feet of fabric (90.91 meter).  This is just an experiment.  The stitches are a little tight.  I need to remember to loosen up.  However, this strand has a very hefty feel to it.  It feels like a rug.  The photos shown here are all made with a G hook.

At this point I have not yet decided on how to proceed with the rug.  I also want to try a size T hook.  The stitches would be larger and the amount of fabric needed to make the rug could go up.  Since I have not tried it yet I would have to guess, but a nine foot length of fabric might only crochet up to a ten inch strand with the T hook.  The rug might not feel as thick since the stitches might flatten out somewhat.  I will have to experiment.  I will let you know.

This is about as far as I have gone on this project so far.  My plan for this week will be to join as many strips together as I can.  I may get a little bit of the crocheting done if I do it in the evenings while watching television.

I will be blogging on another subject next Sunday.  I will be blogging again about the denim rug in two weeks.  Check back for the latest updates.

Some New News on Old Projects and News on a New Project

I wanted to let everyone know about some news on previous projects from this year.  Some of the projects I completed this year have been placed in competitions at the Virginia State Fair.  I am trying to get my work out there for people to see it in places other than online, so I thought I would put some of it into the competitions.  It is one of the few times I have entered my work anywhere. In this case, it is not so much about winning as it is about getting my work out in public.  The prizes at the state fair are small, five dollars for first place, second and third place are ribbons only, and a twenty dollar prize for best in category.  So the main thing is that thousands of people will walk by and see some of my art.  I am excited about that.

I entered three contests.  In the Wearable Art contest I entered the embroidered denim jacket that I completed this year.  It was a tough choice to pick between the Wearable Art category and the Embroidery category for the jacket.  Yes, it is embroidered, but I consider it to be more of wearable art item than an embroidery piece.  The category descriptions are somewhat nebulous, and the website states that the contest entrant is responsible for picking the category.  So maybe I picked the right category and maybe I did not.  No way to tell but to try and see if it flies.  If it is in the wrong category, it might not be eligible for judging.  So it could end up being disqualified.  But, from the standpoint of a jacket is something you can wear, and it does have art on it, I think the jacket fits the qualification.

 For the Handmade Stuffed Toy category I entered my Folk Art Lamb.  One of the few competition rules for all categories is that the item must have been made this year.  I did not start out making the lamb with a competition in mind.  I just happened to have decided at the beginning of the year that I would make a lamb.  Someone had seen my embroidered denim jacket and suggested that it aught to be displayed at the State Fair.  When I went online to check for information on entering the jacket I also learned about the other competitions.  And, I had recently completed the toy lamb.  So I decided to enter that as well. 

The third item entered was in the Handmade Doll, Dressed category. The doll entered was the Victorian Style Belsnickel doll that I had also completed this year.  That was the first art project that I started this January.  I generally don't like to work so far out of season, but this year I started the doll while it was still cold and wintery.  It seemed like a good time to be working on that type of doll even though Christmas was over.  Being that it fit the time limitation for eligibility into the competition, that went in as well. 

It was exciting to enter the competitions.  It was not expensive to enter the competitions either, just a dollar per entry.  So it was a great way to get the work out there.  Winning would be nice, but just having my work seen by people is thrilling enough in itself. 

Now onto the new project.  When I made my plans for the year I had said that I wanted to do some carving.  I would like to do both some carving to make stamps and some wood carving.  They are the two things that I have not gotten around to doing yet.  I think I will be starting on carving some linoleum first because there is a technique that I wanted to try using stamps and embossing powders.  I think this should be a fairly quick project.  I only have a couple of linoleum blocks.  However, the weather is turning cooler and it is getting to be a nice time to get outside and work on my outdoor table so I shall soon be doing some wood carving out there.  I want to do a little piece of carving on a block to develop some skill on using the tools.  Then I will start trying to carve a walking stick, although the walking stick may roll over to be a project for next year.  But those are my plans for the rest of the year. 

Check back on Thursday for the latest on my new project.

Embroidered Denim Jacket Completed

 This is one of those times where every project I have going has come to completion all at the same time.  I recently completed my folk art lamb soft sculpture.  And now, the denim jacket, my long term embroider project, is finished at almost the same time.  I thought I would put this up on the blog before I started anything new.

I generally have more than one project going at a time.  My main project is the one I work on during the day.  I generally also have a secondary project going that I work on in the evening.  Usually this is a sewing project that I work on while watching television and relaxing during the evening.  Once in a while, I will take on a third project when I need something to do while the main project has amounts of significant drying time between segments.  I try to limit myself to no more than three projects at once.  Otherwise, I end up with a lot of unfinished objects lying around.

The embroidered jacket was actually done in two phases.  In Phase One, I embroidered the cuffs and bottom band.  In some of those areas, I was sewing through five layers of denim.  Trying to push the embroidery needle through that many layers was uncomfortable for my hands and caused some inflammation.  Sometimes I had a break and let my hands calm down before taking up the embroidery again.  When I finished that segment,  I put the jacket away for a while, thinking that the band and cuffs were enough embellishment.

After letting the jacket sit for a while, I decided that it still was a little too plain for my taste.  The reason I started on this project at all was because I rarely wore the jacket because it was just plain denim.  It was a serviceable garment, nice to have with me on a cool day, but it just had no eye appeal.  So once I determined that it needed something more, I started on phase two.

Since I had started with flowers on the cuffs, I wanted to continue the flower theme on the front panels of the jacket.   I started envisioning a flower garden with flowers of different heights and colors.  The panels closest to the side seams are morning glories.  The middle section is a rather generic flower shape.  The section closest to the buttons is supposed to be roses.  Some of the flowers came out better than the others, but overall, I think the jacket reflects the theme of a flower garden.

I used drawings of flowers as the inspiration for the flowers.  I drew a silhouette shape of the flower.  Then I used a crewel stitch (long stitch, short stitch) to fill in the silhouette.  The flowers are not completely realistic, but I was trying to give an impression of real flowers.  It was hard to see the shape of the silhouette on the dark denim.  I had to draw it on with a permanent ink.  After that, it was do something with it or toss out the jacket.  I just stayed with the process until I had something that worked.  Sometimes I had to rip out a section and do it over.  Well, maybe I did not have to, but I wanted to because it did not look like I had imagined it would look. 

Phase Two took a fair amount of time.  I worked on it regularly from mid-March until this week, so about four months.  Most of the time, I worked on it for at least two to three hours a day for at least five days out of the week.  There were a couple of weeks where I was traveling and did not work on it, but overall, I think Phase Two took over two hundred hours.  All in all, I think the total project probably approached three hundred and fifty hours or better.  There are thousands of stitches in this project. 

There is still plenty of room for more embroidery on the jacket, but I am choosing to stop here.  Sometimes less is more.  Embroidering every area would make the jacket too busy.  Right now, the jacket tells a story of a garden.  I am pleased to leave it like that.

I will be blogging about the new project(s) on my Thursday blog posts.

Embroidered Denim Jacket

Today I am blogging about one of my off the books projects.  Now and then I work have more than one project going at one time.  Some projects take so long, that blogging about them regularly would be about as interesting as watching paint dry.  So I only blog on those projects when I reach a significant milestone.  The embroidered denim project is one such project. 

I posted on this jacket after I completed the embroidery of the bottom and cuffs of the jacket with pansies.  The next time I blogged on it I had completed the first panel on each side of the front of the jacket.  Those two panels were embroidered with Morning Glories.  I have now completed the second panel on each side of the front of the jacket.  I am not sure exactly what flowers that these panels represent.  They are a more stylized flowers.  I guess the colors look something like Marigolds, although Marigolds are not climbing plants.  Consider it artistic license. 

This project has been ongoing for a long time.  I started this project because I had a denim jacket that I rarely wore because it was so plain.  I though that a little embroidery would spice it up. I did the bottom and cuffs and called it quits for quite a while.  Hand sewing through so many layers of denim was very hard on the hands.  The jacket still looked plain to me after that segment was completed, so I decided to bite the bullet and go ahead and do some more embroidery.  The panels are not as heavy as the other areas because I only had to sew through one layer of denim.

I cannot tell you how many hours have been put into this jacket.  I sew about two hours on the jacket on Monday through Thursday, with an additional two hours on Thursday afternoon, when I meet up with some quilters and crafters.  So for the four panels on the front of the jacket I figure roughly ten hours a week since the beginning of March.  That would be one hundred and forty hours.  I have forgotten how long it took to complete the bottom and cuffs, but roughly the same amount of time. 

Consider what this jacket would have cost if I was being paid minimum wage for it.  ($7.25 an hour where I live, so about $2,016.00 so far and it is not finished yet.)  That is why people say that they do not get their money back for handwork items.  People might be willing to may $150.00 to $300.00 for it at most.  You just have to make something like this because you enjoy doing it. 

Anyway, the next section is completed, so enjoy the photos.  I will be blogging about the lamb on the next blog post.

Embroidered Denim Jacket - Part 2

I am two or three hours late getting the blog post up today.  We had a big storm last night and out landline and internet were knocked out.  The service was just restored.  Now that spring is here I want to remind readers that we have some fierce storms in this area and that if you don't hear from me for a week or two it generally means we have lost power or internet service.  The longest we have been without power was ten days. 

Last blog post I said that I would post on a project I have been working on behind the scenes.  I had posted phase one of this project back in September, 2015.  At that time, I had embroidered the cuffs and waist line of the jacket with pansies.  It was a lot of work.  In some places the denim was five layers thick.  It took a long time to finish that phase of the project.  At that point, I decided I needed a break from it before continuing on with the project.

I guess I picked up the embroidery again in February of this year.  For this section I will only be embroidering through one layer of denim.  On each side of the jacket I embroidered morning glories.  It has taken about two months to complete the morning glories.  I don't keep track of time on the projects.  My philosophy is that a project is finished when it is finished.  If I start stressing about a deadline, it takes all the fun out of doing it.  Just as an estimate, I would say that the morning glories took about sixty hours.  I probably have a hundred hours of embroidery in the jacket so far.  This is a project I do when my husband and I sit down to watch television in the evening.  Take a stitch, look up at the TV, take another couple of stitches.  It would be a bit faster if I was not watching television, but much faster.  I could embroider on a sewing machine, but then, I would not be trying to sew on a machine while I was watching television. 

There are two more panels on the front on each side to complete.  Each section will have a different type of flower.  Each panel is narrower than the one before.  The flowers will be different colors.  I want it to look like a flower garden.  I think I will stop at embroidering the front.  Sometimes you can do too much work on something.  Knowing when to call a project finished is as important as getting it started.

If I am not doing embroidery, I quilt in the evenings.  I chose to embroider this time because it is less expensive than quilting.  Embroidery thread is only forty-two cents a skein.  Fabric is now so expensive that it costs a lot to make a quilt.  However, anything you do repetitively gets old after a while.  Once I complete the denim jacket I will be ready to make a quilt again.

I will have some pictures of the lamb project on Thursday.  I am making progress.  I will be blogging the first photos of that project on Thursday.

Embroidered Denim Jacket and Autumn Scenes

Embroidered Pansys.

I have had a really busy week.  I did not have time to do any work on my walking stick.  However, the week ahead is more or less clear, so I hope to spend some time on wood burning this week.  Even though I could not work on the walking stick, I was able to work on a couple of projects in the evening.  I thought I'd share one of them today.

Right now, denim jackets are very fashionable.  I have had this denim jacket since the last time they were fashionable.  It is nice for an early autumn day, but I hardly ever wear it because it is so plain.  This year I have been seeing some embroidered jackets in the magazines.  I decided to update my jacket.  Either I have committed to a long term embroidery project or else I have committed to purchasing a new jacket.

I decided to start embroidering on the cuffs and bottom band of the jacket.  I guess the flower I have chosen to embroider is a Pansy.  Really it could be anything.  It is just a generic flower.  I work on this in the evening when my husband and I watch television.  I am wondering if I have not taken on too much of a project.  In some places I have to sew through five layers of denim.  At times I have resorted to using a pair of needle
nose pliers to grab hold of the needle and pull it through the fabric.  At this point I am thinking I should have used the sewing machine.

I have just a few more flowers to embroider on the bottom band.  When they are finished I will have completed this segment of the project.  I could stop there, but I may do a little more embroidery on the front of the jacket.  The vertical seams would lend themselves to some climbing flowers such as Morning Glorys.  After that, I think I will quit.  I tend to get bored on projects and I am already thinking about a new project.

Mosaic Sphere.

It is almost time to start wearing a jacket.  The afternoons are warm, but the mornings are cool.  This week the low temperatures will be in the upper fifties (Fahrenheit).  Autumn Equinox is just three days away.  The trees seem to know it.  This morning there the Dogwoods had started to turn red.  A few yellow Poplar leaves have fallen in the back yard. It won't be long before the breeze turns chilly.

Acrylic paint on ball, glass mosaic and enamel painted disks

In four to six weeks I will be watching the news for the freeze warning.  I bring my glass gazing balls before the temperatures dip down to freezing.   When I was learning to make mosaic
gazing balls I read that water can get in
between the glass and the grout and freeze, causing the grout to crack.  It sounds true, but I am not sure if it is really true.  The mosaic disks in the picture with the painted ball (the disks to the upper left and right of the painted ball)  have been out there for years and have not cracked or lost any pieces of glass or rock.  However, the balls take a long time to make so I would rather bring them inside rather than have them damaged.

Arcylic painted ball has survived both freezing and hot weather.

 The painted balls can stay out all winter. The painted disks have been out there for a number of years as well.  In the last couple of years the red paint has started to fade.  The disks were painted with bake in the oven enamel paints.  Overall, I would say they have held up well.  The painted gazing balls were painted with acrylic paints.  I am waiting to see how they do over the long run.