TRANSFORMING UGLY FABRIC INTO BEAUTIFUL TEXTILES
This is my second mini side project. Sometimes when I am concentrating on a project I get side tracked and go off on a tangent for a bit before I come back to finish off what I was supposed to be doing.
This is another great example of a piece of fabric that needs a bit of attention. You could imagine my excitement finding this gem!
I found this fabric on one of the side shops on Ki Lung Street, Hong Kong. The fabric was propped up outside the shop and was going for cheap, selling at just $10 HKD per yard. I couldn’t resist a bargain when I see one. At close inspection, the edges of the fabric were a bit damaged. The colours of the print didn’t look too pleasant either. The edges of the fabric also had a green murky colour fading into the print. It was a bit ugly to tell you the truth. Not sure if anyone want to wear this to be honest. Since it looked like no one wanted to touch it, I bought 2 yards to sample with. This fabric is 100% cotton so I knew it’ll be good for crisp edges and corners if I were to use my favourite smocking technique on it. When I select fabric like this to sample with, I actually have no idea how it will turn out at the end. It is all experimental work. Let’s see how I get on.
What to look for when buying fabric to transform?
The print is very important because it needs to be repetitive. It must have lines, grids or dots that are evenly spaced out. By using these markings as reference, it saves time drawing out grids and reference points.
By using the North American Smocking technique, I played around with stitching only selected points on the fabric until I created a pattern. Here are a few examples where I think the fabric really worked using my favourite smocking technique: Flower/Diamond Smocking.
Achieving only the black coloured squares!
Here, I concentrated on keeping only the black colour. This was an easy choice for me because the black colour was clustered together. I knew by sewing the colours in-between together, I will be able to bring the black squares together. I picked up the 4 corners of the coloured squares with needle and thread, returning to the first stitch to finish off. I then pulled the thread to gather up all the corners. The stitch needs to be tied and secured before moving onto the next cluster. The stitching method can be found on my blog: North American Smocking 2 Flowers/Diamonds. For this design, ironing is required to give it a crisp, clean look.
The green murky colour can still be seen on the left side of the fabric but I am very pleased with the final outcome. A great way to get another fabric colour without buying more fabric.
Other discoveries………………………………………………….
This time I decided to do the opposite to the first technique, I sewed up the the black squares to find out what will happen.
The final outcome shows only the light blue and orange squares. Interesting but not really a nice combination of colours. Back to sampling…………………………
This time I decided to work on the same pattern as the above but poked the flower petals through and arranged them to be flat. By doing this, I create a diamond shape on the fabric.
I quite like this combination of colours. This method illuminated the colour black as well as giving it a diamond pattern to the over all fabric to help break up the square print.
Moving onto the next sample
By using the above method but sewing the flower smocking on the wrong side of the fabric, poke the petals upwards and sew the points together. The right side of the fabric will turn out like this!
Need to poke all the corners out and arrange the pattern neatly, and iron the fabric flat.
Not all selected squares turn out the way you want it to. Sometimes you just have to accept defeat. Here is an example of one design that didn’t workout too well.
Here is a reminder of what the fabric looks like before smocking. Working on the wrong side, I stitched the corners of the coloured squares, in-between the orange squares, together. This will illuminate all the colour squares and leaving behind the orange colour on the wrong side. Work the opposite if you just want to keep the orange on the right side.
I tried to play with the fabric but just gave up after a while. There is just too much excess fabric. Great for giving fabric volume and dimension. I kind of knew this would happen.
Final experimentation on this fabric before I move onto another project!
For the final sample I did the opposite of the last sample. Instead of sewing a huge cluster of coloured squares, I decided to sew the orange squares instead. I really wasn’t hoping for great expectations to be honest. I knew it will work that’s all. Here’s how I got on………….
I managed to get rid of the horrible brown and beige colour on the fabric. The left over colour actually looks ok with the small hint of orange. This was a really nice surprise, to end up with a sample that I am happy with.
If you are interested in trying this smocking technique out, you might want to first practice with the Flower/Diamond Smocking technique.
I hope I have given you some ideas on how to manipulate fabric. Remember you don’t have to have grids or lines on your fabric. Dots could do the same as long as they are in an evenly spaced format or laid out in a square grid. If you don’t have that type of fabric, you could always draw your own. Use a dot grid if you want to use the marked side of the fabric or a line grid on the wrong side of the fabric.
I will post more of my fabric transformation samples if I come across anymore interesting fabrics in the future. Have fun!
Shan x
Hi Amanda, I was wondering if anybody was going to notice that blog! Lol. It was a fun and interesting blog. It made me want to go out and find some disgusting fabrics to transform. Could you imagine me going into a shop and the assistant asks if they can help you? Yep, erm you got any nasty fabrics? Haha. I have a lot more up my sleeve. Just need a bit of time to get it together. I am glad you found my site interesting. Stay safe. x
What a great technique and a fascinating article. Like origami wth fabric. And the new folded texture really changes the look of it.
Your site is bursting with so much color, life and creativity. It gives us the energy to breathe beauty and function into everyday ordinary things. Such a welcome spirit especially in recent difficult times for everyone.
Thanks for being so generous with your insights and gifts. I only found the site after DuckDuckGo listed up your excellently presented face masks tutorials. And then I was entranced by so much of your other content.
Please keep up the great work!
🙂