Millefiori - ImageInTechStyles

"Millefiori"Image - In - Tech - Styles

photo by David Leane

Collaborative Exhibition between Photographer David Leane & Textile Artist Samantha Pope

August 1st - 15th 2014 South Australian Living Artist Festival (SALA)

Wearable artwork 3:

Meaning thousand flowers in Italian this term is used for glass work and polymer clay work to describe multiple repeating flower patterns.

For my interpretation I created silk Kimono leaves.

Each petal is traced onto the wrong side of the silk fabric with a metallic pen. The petals are then stitched using freehand stitching which is easier to sew curved shapes than stitching with the feed dogs engaged and the normal presser foot.

The petals are cut out and turned through with tweezers. Soft toy filler is stuffed into each petal, padding out the shape. The veins are added with freehand machine bobbin work embroidery using a gold pearle crown thread.

When sewing the veins onto the petals, I started by sewing one petal and moved onto the next with out cutting the threads from the end of the first when it was complete. The second petal was then attached to the first. This meant I ended up with a continuous line of sewn petals joined by the thick thread that was used in the bobbin.

Above are test runs of how the string of petals could be pieced together. The string of large petals was wrapped around the models throat and then a string of smaller petals laid on top. This design just didn't work but I liked the layers of colour.

The ends of the petal are left as a raw edge as the vein stitching stops them from leaking filling.

6 large petals are grouped into a base and stitched into a flower. 6 medium petals in coordinating colours are made into a flower top and the two layers are sewn together.

The flower centres are made from a padded suffice puff. Purple silk fabric was freehand bobbin worked with small connecting circles to give it texture. Circles were drawn onto the wrong side and cut out with a seam allowance.

A running stitch is sewn around the folded edge of the circle and drawn up. Toy filler is used to fill the puff and the opening sewn closed. The padded ball is then hand sewn into the centre of the flower. Once in the flower I added seed beads to the centre of all the stitched circles.

I made all the petals into flowers and pinned them into a figure hugging shape on my plastic body shape. Below is the original configuration of the "top" pinned and strung together.

To maintain the shape of a top and to make it multi sized I created a pulley system using padded silk cord and jewellery findings. The cord is threaded through the metal circles which are hand sewn to the flower petals in strategic places. The cord can be laced in multiple ways and tightened, pulling the flowers tighter to the body. Then the end is tied off under the flowers.

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