Stitch Dissolve Distort: with machine embroidery, by Valerie Campbell-Harding and Maggie Grey, published by Interweave Press.

If you are into machine embroidery, mixed media with fabric and thread and textile design then this book is for you. This book goes into incredible detail on how to use stitch, distort and dissolve methods to experiment with design and fabric. The book is broken into three main sections which look at each area in turn, of course stitch is the main thing that underpins the last two areas. In the first sections the basics of machine embroidery are covered and then other techniques are introduced, such as adding texture with paint stitching, looking at different weighted threads, using different types of sewing machines including sergers/overlockers.

Getting inspiration for free-style stitching is discussed and shown, such as using ink drawings and texture stamps to copy, and looking at ways to put more texture into your embroidered piece, with different stitches and experimenting with sewing machine tension. One aspect of this that really interested me was using different fabric to stitch onto, such as gauze and netting and muslin and then burning away sections, also adding silk paper and woven paper for a very textured layered finish.

The middle section - dissolve (washing away), looks at using water soluble materials to stitch upon and then when you wash them away it leaves the stitching behind. A totally new thing for me and very intriguing process. The materials and processes are explained very well, with some really wonderful results given as examples. This method can be used to create fringing and jewellery, to create motifs for attaching to another piece. Water soluble paper is also discussed and can be experimented with by partial dissolving, creating resists and then using these to ad to other projects.

In fact this combination of different mediums is really an interesting part of the book, with handmade paper being used in conjunction with soluble films, and chiffon fabric, paper napkins used with silk cord and paper beads to create delicate and wonderful pieces.

The last section deals with the distortion of the fabric or embroidered piece. Ways of attacking the fabric - melting, embossing, cutting or distressing the fabric either before or after stitching takes place. All of these methods are used to add texture and different elements to the finished piece. Pulling threads from woven fabrics and finished embroidered pieces to create gaps or holes. Attacking with a heat gun to melt fibres, using dry felting tools on chiffon creates interesting textures. There are so many fantastic ways of experimenting - it is dizzying to think of it.

There is much much more in this book than I can possibly say here. This is an incredible resource for those who are interested in fabric texture and freestyle embroidery design. I just recommend this book for its visual ideas and some would say extreme crafting methods but I think of it as pushing boundaries and crafting outside of the normal realm.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 12th, 2007 at 11:38 am and is filed under felting+fibre+needlework, reviews+literature+media. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will be moderated but will appear as soon as humanly possible.