Creating Constructed Fabric...

...for a handbag for my friend and collaborator, Clare Hedges.  It was meant to be a quick and simple exercise, using bits and pieces I had to hand, including some scrap threads she'd given me (it's handy, knowing a weaver...) between two layers of lutradur.   Wanting a bit of glitz, I stitched it with metallic threads...and that was my downfall...  For some reason, the thread kept breaking... changed tension...changed needles...broke needles... nyargh!!!

And then, two thirds through the process, I thought...err... metallic thread.  Heat gun.  Melting.  Not Going To Work.  So...I restitched it with grey rayon threads, thinking that, well, if the metallic threads melted, in places, the cloth would still hold together well... and so it proved (phew).

This is what I ended up with before melting...I stitched in a grid; you can see the metallic sparkling all over the cloth.  After melting, though, this is what it looked like;

Interesting, huh?  I had an irregular grid of cloth strips in there, and you can see it quite clearly.  Looking at the close up, though, there's not much in the way of metallic threads left... in fact, don't think there are any in this image...though if you look at it closely, you might find places where stitching stops and starts again, that's probably the metallic.  I'm really pleased with the cloth...would have been pleased with the bag...except that I managed to mix up the dates of the event Clare was going to, and didn't get it ready in time... day late, dollar short, as usual.  These things definitely come in threes... stitching problems, melting threads and missing a deadline...  Still, it will go very well with her new dress, the next time she wears it... sigh...