February postcard- into stitch!

I finally got round to taking the CG February PC into the final stage. I printed off the two layers of the design on to Extravaganza, as mentioned in the previous post. I was delighted with the result, this organza is very light and transparent, but it holds the printed image really well, keeping the density and quality of the marks true.

I had dyed a piece of Viscose Satin the day before with turquoise Procion dye. I bonded a piece of turquoise foil bought from Fibre in Form to it and it worked like magic!! I used Bondaweb as the adhesive and gave it just enough heat to stick in places, so I got a distressed look. I was so pleased this worked as I've had trouble with other foils not wanting to part from the plastic carrier. With the two shiny surfaces, this was very difficult to photograph so I'm afraid you'll have to forgive my sad effort, but it gives an idea of the distressed effect.



Next I floated the two separate layers over each other, but whichever way I put them the one seemed to cancel out the other.



So I decided to cut the background away from the flower and lay the remainder over the words layer, therefore retaining the little bloom on the right hand side, which had all but disappeared under the top layer. I deliberately placed it on the thirds as my OH is very keen on this rule in his compositions and I rarely bother, but this time I think it worked.



As I didn't want a shiny residue from Bondaweb I used the granules, which stuck relatively well but probably won't hold the layers together permanently , I don't know what the answer is to fusing very light fabrics to a surface without any evidence of the bonding agent.

I then laid down some threads and beads to get an idea of how they would look. I knew I'd have to attach the flower layer permanently so chose a plain running stitch with a slightly variegated thread. I put beads on the dots on the vase and as this was a friendship PC I put on some heart beads as a finishing touch.





This image shows the true colour of the foil and just how shiny it really is.

I've really enjoyed putting this PC together as it's a constant aim of mine to bring together the computer composites I design with textiles, and most of the time I prefer the original design to the finished textile piece, but I think this one has worked better than most of the ones I've tried in the past.