This month's Island Batik Ambassador Challenge was Try a Technique that was new to me! The fabrics featured in this post were given to me by Island Batik and are a part of the Season's Shades collection. I decided to pick Fabric Weaving as my new technique! I purchased these Wefty Needles over a year ago but never had the courage to try weaving. Funny enough, I am actually going to Modern Stitching Affair in late April where fabric weaving is a class that I will be taking from Tara Curtis (founder of Wefty Needle)! For my first try, I made a woven fabric panel and used that panel for a zipper pouch!
Supplies needed for fabric panel:
Fabric for weaving, 9 fat eighths
1" Wefty Needle
Foam board
Straight Pins
Bias Tape Maker
Pellon ShapeFlex SF101
Freezer paper (optional)
Zipper Pouch:
Zipper (I used a 9" zipper)
Interior pouch fabric
*Click on the links above to purchase from my affiliate links on Amazon.
Disclaimer: This is not a tutorial! This is my learning process of what I did.
The first thing to do with fabric weaving is to make your fabric strips. I used a 1" bias tape maker to make my strips. I picked 3 different colors and 3 different intensities (light, medium, and dark) of those colors.
Using the foam board, I laid out my vertical rows first and used my straight pins to pin them down. The vertical strips should be all the dark color strips. The next layer I went from bottom right to top left at a 30 degree angle. I used the medium color strips for this layer.
Make sure to pin the strips down as you go to make sure the fabric doesn't shift.
The next step is to do the weave from bottom left to top right, with this third layer at a 30 degree angle. This last layer I used the light colored strips. This was a little tricky to not have the needle get stuck in the bias tape flaps.
Notice each of the directions of the weave alternate between the 3 colors. Also, use the same pattern of color for each direction to arrange your weave so each cube ends up being the same color (see below). I made the mistake of not having my ShapeFlex under the woven piece. I ended up lightly ironing freezer paper on top of the panel to remove woven panel off the foam board without it falling apart. I cut a rectangle of ShapeFlex and ironed it to the back of the woven panel once I got it off the board. Stitching around the woven panel edges to help it stay together.
With this fabric panel, I decided to make a zipper pouch. On the ShapeFlex, I drew the outline of the size I wanted for the panel.
Stitching just inside of the drawn lines allowed me to cut on the drawn lines to have the pieces for my zipper pouch without the weave falling apart.
Please note I did a one piece external to start with, but then realized that I needed to split the outer panels in order to do the top stitching on the zipper pouch.
Make a zipper pouch with the interior panels and exterior panels sewn on the zipper. Leave a space to turn the zipper pouch in the lining. Make sure to cut the corners of the pouch to reduce bulk. The fabric weave is really thick, so be careful!
I flipped the zipper pouch right side out and stitched the opening in the lining shut. Ta Da!
I can't wait to go to the Modern Stitching Affair and learn from Tara. Maybe after that I'll post a tutorial! This was so cool but a little tricky to put together!
Have you tried fabric weaving before? What tips would you want me to post about after my class with Tara?
If you're interested in what the other Island Batik Ambassadors are making, you can check out their blogs. There are 45 ambassadors this year! Be sure to follow Island Batik on Facebook and Instagram to see the projects we all make too!
Amy at Sew Incredibly Crazy
Anita at Quilt in a not-Shell
Anna at Ark Angel Creations
Anne at Sweetgrass Designs
Barbara at Bejeweled Quilts
Bea at BeaQuilter
Carole at Carole Lyles Shaw
Connie at Freemotion by the River
Connie at Kauffman Designs
Dione at Clever Chameleon
Geraldine at Living Water Quilter
Jackie at If These Threads Could Talk
Janet at Whispers of Yore
Jeanette at Inchworm Fabrics
Jen at Patterns by Jen
Jennifer at Curlicue Creations
Jennifer at Dizzy Quilter
Jennifer at Inquiring Quilter
Jessica at Desert Bloom Quilting
Joan at Moosestash Quilting
Joyce at heARTs Creations
Karen at Sew Karen-ly Created
Kathleen at Kathleen McMusing
Laura at Slice of Pi Quilts
Leanne at Devoted Quilter
Mania at Mania for Quilts
Maryellen at Mary Mack Made Mine
Michelle at Creative Blonde
Myra at Busy Hands Quilts
Nancy at Masterpiece Quilting
Pamela at PamelaQuilts
Sally at Sally Manke
Sandra at MMM Quilts
Sarah at Sarah Goer Quilts
Sharon at Yellow Cat Quilt Designs
Sherry at Powered by Quilting <--- me!
Stephanie at Steph Jacobson
Suzy at Adventurous Applique and Quilting
Teri at Lizard Creek Quilts
Tina at Quilting Affection Designs
Toby at Gateway Quilts & Stuff
Turid at Den Syende Himmel
Vicki at Vicki's Crafts & Quilting
Join me again on Friday for Friday Foto Fun and on Sunday for the #365DayOfArtPBQChallenge! Link up and share your progress on your own projects!
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