Melted Fabrics - Unfinished Projects

These are my most current unfinished projects.

Hopefully that won't mean that they're the ones that will take me the longest to get finished!

I've got a quilt that needs lining and finishing and some fabric letters amongst the pieces that need finishing.

Unfortunately I imagine that I'll have to keep adding to this section quite a bit so I'm going to try hard to clear as much of these as quickly as possible.

This blanket is now finished as of 14/07/11.

All I did in the end was dig out an old half-embroidered table cloth and use it as both the backing and the binding (it was the perfect size - wonder why I hadn't spotted it in my stash before?).

Now I'm just waiting for the sofa to arrive in my new home so I have somewhere to drape it.

This piece I started because I wanted to recreate Frida Kahlo's paintings. I got so far and then realised that this project would be a huge undertaking and didn't look at it again for almost a year.

I stopped because I wasn't sure what I would do with this piece when I'd finished it. Now I'm thinking that perhaps it could be part of a blanket or even cut up for fabric for bags perhaps?

I decided when I came across it again that I'd at least finish this piece. If you look at the textiles piece in the gallery below you'll see that I'm trying to recreate the leafy background in the painting Self-Portrait with Monkey and Parrot by Frida Kahlo.

I love the texture that's come up from sewing the little pieces of white fabric in place.

I'm definitely interested in looking into this painting further and exploring ideas that might give meaning to the piece.

I'm not completely finished with this project yet because I don't really know what I'm going to use it for - originally I was going to use it to write a letter to my partner but if I do that I think I'd prefer to make the pages and envelope with him in mind - rather that using this very flowery, girly set.

As I write fiction these pages make me think of a certain type of character - they don't seem right for me to use to write on.

However - I've stiffened the envelope by sewing a thick layer of fabric on the back and I've also sewn paper onto the pages so that they can be written on.

I have a lot of unfinished wall hangings stashed away in wardrobes and under beds.

I'm slowly going to work my way through these suckers until they're finished.

I've got Summer and Winter quilts which I started in 2008, I think. I really want to get those done because I love the Spirng and Autumn quilts I made years ago. The only problem with larger projects is where am I going to put them when I finish?

Opposite: A detail from my Engagement quilt.

This is a piece I believe I started in about 2008.

It's supposed to be a map of sorts - of a fictional place. I made a collage from lots of different images of a place with islands and beaches, lighthouses, mountains, forests, mermaids, seals and translated it into a simple line drawing.

The images below show the main piece all sewn up. The background is all in place.

Originally I was going to use free motion embroidery to draw in all the imagery but that's not possible now so I'm going to have to rethink what to do with this piece.

I guess there will be a lot of hand sewing and appliqué instead.

I've also got two felt pieces, some shells and some driftwood that I want to work into this wall hanging.

This piece needs a similar treatment to the Summer Quilt - maybe I will wait until the colder months to work on this piece - otherwise it will feel a little weird!

I think I might use a lot of hand embroidery on these two quilts to bring out the details.

I've already mentioned this one the homepage of this lens.

This piece was made to commemorate my engagement to my fiancé (obviously!). All those little animals were our pets at the time - unfortunately they're all dead now.

Originally I was going to cut our portraits out and put them on another background but now I want to bring the rest of the piece up to scratch.

I'm planning to work into the animals and bring them up to the same level of detail as the portraits in the middle of the piece.

I also need to do something with the background which is far too busy! I might use organza to mute the background or somehow darken the background around the portraits to bring them out of the background.

I've always been a little bothered about my partner's portrait being a touch further down than mine - I'm not sure what I can do about that.

Finished this wrapping cloth on 12/08/10.

I decided in the end that all it needed was a good ironing and having its edges bound with some strips of fabric.

I decided that I liked this piece as it was so I'm moving it over to the finished pieces pile!

This is a collection of all my unfinished garment-related projects.

I'm guessing that this is going to be the biggest area of unfinished projects where I just give up on the project. Garment sewing has never been my forte although I have a real desire to make gorgeous shabby-chic dresses and skirts - the thing is that I'm not brave enough to wear my creations afterwards!

Above: A waistcoat I made from a recycled shirt.

Another skirt. This one I think of as the "Laura Ashley" skirt because of that delicate floral pattern.

I find this one a bit boring - I thought it might be fun to sew some patches on but that might make it a bit busy and crazy-looking - I have to remember that sometimes it's nice to have plain stuff too.

This one has a zip sewn in place. All it needs is a waistband and hemming - so there isn't much to do on it at all.

I've had this t-shirt hanging around for 2 summers now.

I need to just get on with it.

I have all this jersey fabric stashed - I don't generally use it in my other textiles pieces because it's not really my thing - but it's awesome because it doesn't fray.

I was thinking of making some sort of cutesy appliqué image to stitch onto this.

The only thing is that I wasn't some t-shirts with sleeves and at the moment this piece is just a vest top and I know what a complete nightmare sleeves can be!

A friend recently told me about the Alabama Chanin books below and I really want to try some of those ideas for reverse appliqué with jersey fabrics.

This piece was made for a Winter Masque challenge - I haven't got very far with it and I'm also not sure what to do with it - although I loved sewing those pleats in place.

I finished this skirt quite a while ago (07/16/10) and forgot to update!

This is something I haven't worn out since finishing - it was a fun experiment but it's a really heavy skirt and not too flattering on my figure as you can see below!

I'm not sure what to do with this skirt because although I'm not going to wear it I do like the surface work - maybe it would work as a wall hanging!

I can't even remember when I started making this skirt.

I'm not sure how it's going to work as I was just going to patch squares together and skirts have to have some shaping at the top of them. Perhaps I'll somehow gather the top of the patchwork into a waistband.

I love these colours but they're quite Autumnal so perhaps I will leave working on this piece until October.

I've also made a lot of skirts recently so perhaps I should think of making something else instead?

A bag?

Or maybe I should make it for someone else?

I was thinking that if I did make this into a skirt that it might be fun to add some more interesting elements - like a few ruffles at the bottom perhaps? Maybe not - might be a bit too busy!

I think I gave up on this quickly because it was hard to get the patches to line up properly but maybe this would be a good lesson in trying to be neater!

This project is never going to be finished - I've just gone beyond the point where I'll ever pick it up again. I'm a lot less tolerent about clutter now that we're going to have a new addition to our family.

There are dozens of other projects I'd rather be working on.

I'm going to give all this fabric away in the hopes that it will interest someone out there.

I started making this waistcoat for my partner for Christmas one year but I gave up once I realised it was going to be incredibly hideous and he'd never wear it!

I don't know what to do with it now - whether to keep going or whether to just give up. I'm not sure what I could do to make it tasteful.

It's made from an old shirt that I cut into the shape of a waistcoat. I thought it would be fun to decorate the front with my layered textiles but the colours I used are just gross.

This one might never see the light of day again unless I get a sudden blast of inspiration.

I could finish this one off for the Recycling for Textiles e-book I'm working on - we'll see!

As of writing this I've decided to give up on both of the projects in this section. That's not to say that they were a waste of time though.

I think I learnt some valuable lessons on these projects - for example, working with a huge umbrella as your canvas is not fun! The Sleeping Beauty project also expanded my knowledge of surface decoration.

Neither project was a waste of time but it would be a waste of my time to try and ressurect them.

I've totally given up on this project - I love the idea and I would maybe try to make an altered umbrella again but only if it was a small child-size umbrella.

I just have too many projects and I couldn't face this one too.

I'm really not sure what to do with this piece.

At the moment I have this book cover (in the first image) and I believe I split the rest of the textiles pages up into other projects.

So I have a book cover - not really sure what I will put inside. I guess I could use this for anything.

Maybe when I am bored and have run out of ideas I will brainstorm it.

This is another project that I've just had to give up on.

Hopefully I can learn a lesson from these pieces - not to jump in with both feet without some planning!