things to do in silk

[incandescens]

Had an unexpected pleasant surprise today: while wandering round town, ran across a vintage clothing sale where the clothing was being sold off by weight at fifteen pounds a kilogram. I did what I'd done last time I came across something like that, and loaded up on pure silk shirts, most of which were coming apart at the seams and showing other signs of wear and tear. If and when I get round to it, I plan to try using them for patchwork. I'll need to back them with something else, but... well, we'll see.

(Admittedly I have a number of silk pieces from the last time I ran across one of these sales and did this, and have yet to get round to trying it, but it is better to have the stuff and be able to use it later than to miss the opportunity and not have it at all. So I convince myself.)

Weather will apparently be nice tomorrow, and then unsettled all the coming week. So it goes.

Comments

The fiddlies again

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

The idea of sewing silk into patchwork makes me go all oogey. 'Slippy slidey won't stay in place' sort of thing. Unless you do the backing first?

[incandescens]

The technique I had in mind would be what's called crazy patchwork or crazy quilting, where you start off with a piece of plain calico or cotton in the size of the basic block you want - say, eight to ten inches square, or a bit over - and then use smaller pieces of silk to create a probably irregular patchwork across it.

That way you're only working with the silk over small areas, while putting each block together, and then you're working with solidly backed stable blocks while assembling the quilt top.

And then you trim it to the block size (say, eight inches square) and sew together the blocks to make the top. And I'd back it with plain cotton, like my other quilts.

... at least, this is the theory. I have to admit that I have yet to try it. :)

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Still seems immensely fiddly, sewing all that silk to calico, but probably gorgeous when done.

[incandescens]

This is probably - the fiddliness - why I keep on putting it off and doing other projects instead. :) But, well, some day...

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

I do the same thing with yarn. I now that feel.

[incandescens]

My yarn stash is that way too, yes.

working with silk

[jnotjane1.livejournal.com]

I've done some patchwork with silk and strongly recommend using a very light fusible interfacing such as Steam-a-Seam Lite. Or for crazy quilt blocks you could try basting the silk piece to a piece of muslin to work as a backing, then work with it as you normally would.

Re: working with silk

[incandescens]

I was thinking of using a piece of muslin (calico over here) as backing for each separate block, yes, and foundation/crazy-piecing the silk across it. I think that should work.