The third and front panel for "She Can't See the Forest Through the Trees" is a panel of mixed fiberart leaves. There will be both beaded leaves and a kind-of stitched fabric leaf.That stitched fabric leaf is what this post is about.
I started experimenting with the excess fabric I had from the Forest weaving. I wanted to make leaves out of it, but I wanted them to be sturdy. The fabric, as you can see from the photo above, is fairly loosely woven. So I got out a fun fiber art fabric that dissolves in water. I am using the Skacel Collection fabric that I got from Woven Art a few years ago. I had bought some more (because I had misplaced this packet of it) and they were carrying a new one that is adhesive on one side. I will switch to using that one when I run out of the Skacel fabric.
So I have been placing the dissolvable fabric on both side of my woven and sewing like crazy on my sewing machine! It's nice because there's very little measuring and I feel like I'm drawing with my sewing machine.
When I first got to using this stuff I thought just hot water would work:
But you really have to boil the white fabric off of it (unless you like to pick at it):
I am finding that you can boil them at various lengths of time depending if you want it a little stiff (almost as if it's starched), or completely loose. Some of the leaves I have been boiling twice because they come out a little too stiff, which you can only really tell after they're dry.
This is the most I think I've ever used my sewing machine and I'm really loving it. Other ideas are cropping up in my head along the way, but I'm sticking with making my leaves for the time being.
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