The ATC Production Line…..

Posted by Lynda Anne on December 18, 2010 · 2 Comments 

As promised – how I made the ATC’s.

I knew that I wanted to make a few ATC’s – so I made them similar, as I was a little short on time (as I’m sure you often are too!).

First, I cut a piece of iron on stabiliser – enough to make four ATC’s each 2.5″ x 3.5″, and a bit left over on the end.  I then searched for a background fabric, knowing that I wanted to work in cream and gold (some might say “not again!”).  Silk satin didn’t do it for me, nor did some rather fussy fabric, and then I came across a beautiful spun paper/fabric that I purchased a couple of years ago at a paper shop.  They (the retailer) said that it was spun sugar??  but weren’t sure what it was.  It burns beautifully (not what I am doing with this ATC).  Others have told me it looks like Lutradur.  No matter.  I like it!  I also have it in dark brown (and have burnt it in a project – but that’s another story….).  The photo below shows the stabiliser and the gold spun “stuff”.

Starting Materials

 

I ironed the two together using baking paper to protect the iron, the fabric, and the ironing board.

Then I dug into the mulberry silk tops!  I didn’t use the thickness that they came in as I wanted something thinner.  As you can see from the picture below, I then arranged the tops in a flowing pattern across the fabric – remembering that I was going to be cutting this up into smaller pieces.  I didn’t want any one piece to be boring with a single straight line of silk across it.

Laying silk tops

OK.  So far, so good.

Now what?

Something to add interest……  After a bit of a search (I presume my stash is similar to yours?) I found some lovely fine sequins on a strand, in old gold.  Just the thing to add some bling!  The photo below shows the arrangement of the sequins on top of the silk.  In a couple of places, I made the sequins go under the silk for a little added interest.

Adding sequins

 

I decided that this was all I needed .  Anything more would hide the beautiful spun gold “stuff” too much.

The next step was to catch it all down.  Amidst my stash I have a beautiful gold tulle from which I cut a piece slightly larger than my work-in-progress and then pinned on top of the work (See photo below.  Some photos are via camera and appear lighter than those that I scanned in, such as this one below).

Adding tulle

 

To get rid of the pins ASAP, I then stitched very closely to the edge all the way around my work, removing the pins as I went.  Then, so that I knew where my ATC borders were going to be, I turned the piece upside down and drew in the exact size of the ATC’s .  After this I stiched slightly to either side of these lines (so that ultimately I would be cutting on the pencil line, but between two rows of stitching, which would hold down the edges of my newly formed ATC’s).

On the back

On the front

 

I then stitched around the outlines of the silk tops.  Just for a moment I thought about outlining the sequin strands as well, but decided that 1. it would flatten them too much, and 2. it would be over-kill.

Outlining silk tops

 

Now for a bit more texture and a bit more bling…..

I had some gold holographic leaf shaped sequins, begging to be used….. so I did!  (Unfortunately they do not photograph easily…..).  Because I had outlined the edges of the ATC’s, I could work out where would be pleasing places to attach the leaf sequins.  They are stitched down by hand.

Adding leaf sequins

Camera version of adding the sequins.....

 

So – now for some more interest and texture – without adding any more bling (as there is plenty there now!).  To add texture, I took some thick silk thread and embroidered many French Knots – kind of looking for dips in the flow of the silk tops to fill with the knots.

Adding French Knots

 

Now I was ready to cut the ATC’s apart….. carefully!  Around the edge of each I used a close satin stitch.  And there I had my four ATC’s and a couple of extra pieces that I can use as gift tags.

Finished!

 

Quite straight forward, and very much fun!!!!

Filed under Textile Art · Tagged with embroidery, free motion embroidery, silk, textile art