Chapter 6 Tucks, pleats and gathers

Recently acquired a copy of ‘The art of manipulating fabric’ by Colette Wolff.  Love it!  Inspiring!
In this chapter I’m going to try to present just a few samples, using different neutral coloured fabrics, hand or machine stitched using neutral threads.
I noticed how different fabrics used produce different effects following similar techniques.
The chapter is divided into three:

• Tucks
• Pleats
• Gathers

A tuck is stitched along its length.
A pleat is pressed into shape, held in place by line(s) of stitch often at right angles to the pressed folds.
A gather is fabric pulled along a thread, wire, ribbon or other.

Tucks
The varieties of tucks include:

• Basic straight tuck, folded fabric with straight machine or hand stitched lines, parallel to the fold
• Slighly curved tucks
• Filled tuck
• Tucks on the bias or at angles or short lengths part crossing the piece of fabric
• Straight tucks cut, or snipped to alter the texture
• Straight tucks folded or stitched to alter the texture
• Pin tuck, folded and stitched close to the folded edge
• Twin needle machine stitched tucks
• Fabric that was tucked cut and re-stitched together

Tucks can also overlap into pleats and gathers.
These samples were mostly made by using fabrics 30cm x 10 cm

Insert 12 photos showing different effects and techniques

Calico with series of horizontal machine stitching, different spacing, some hand stitching to alter the texture and pipe cleaners slid along tuck to puff the tuck 

Organdie: Similar techniques as calico. The fabric is stiffer and more pronounced tucks 

Silk with more soft and flowing tucks, effective shadowing.  The next sample highlights the height of the texture

 

 

Fine linen scrim.  Using similar stitching as previous, but particularly shows the effect of pulling and stretching the fabric afterwards

Silk: Tucks in both directions.  The machine stitching trapped the tucks haphazardly.  To view the texture machined the finished piece on to calico along two sides, to hold the tucks in place

Type of organza with ripple design in the fabric'.  Snipped and cut along the raised tuck edges using sharp scissors and pinking shears

Cotton: Full and part tucks machine stitched across and down the fabric with some single stitched rows to provide the ripple effect

Cotton: Rows of tucks then the fabric was cut into squares and re assembled

Cotton: Different tucks at differentt angles.  Pin tucks are shown at the top the zigzag effect and textural effect shown below

Particularly like the sample showing the snipped edges of the patterned organza and their different textures.  Would think that different fabrics would give different effects as well as different depths to the tucks.  As textured as that sample was it was soft to the touch, for a coarser texture would probably require a stiffer fabric such as calico or organdie.

Pleats
Pleats are generally measured and pressed into place before stitching.  The stitching holds the pleat type in place crossing over the pressed fabric.  Samples are machine stitched
It is useful to use a fabric that lends itself to staying in place such as cotton, linen, organdie or silk.  However if a looser form is required the fabric could be left un pressed allowing for a partly gathered effect and use of alternative fabrics:

• Basic pleat
• Basic box pleat, showing just one of the different types
• Pleats held in place by more than one row of stitching

Insert 5 samples

Cotton: Basic pleat and box pleat, pressed then held in place with single row of machine sttiching

Cotton:  Pressed basic pleats .  The left held in place with three rows of patterned machine stitching.  The right has both sides of the pleat trapped with zigzag stitching, twisted back once to give the wave effect

Linen above polyester below.  Loose pleating where neither fabrics were pressed

Gathers
Gathers is fabric pulled over thread, wood, wire, pipe cleaners or other.  This can be achieved by different methods, using:

• Hand running stitch along a length of fabric either one line along a narrow strip or following a pattern on wider fabric
• Long machine stitching
• Zigzag machine stitch over a length of wire, string, or wood
• Using tucks to thread string, wood, pipe cleaners or other material
• Pulled thread using fabrics with a woven surface
• Shirring elastic in the bobbin
• Gathering machine

Insert samples representing each technique
Cotton was used on the following nine collections of samples

Hand running stitch along a length of fabric one line along a narrow strip 15-20cm x 2 cm

Single row of hand stitch along one edge produce these rosettes, edges could be altered using pinking shears or other snips and cuts along the loose edge

This and the next two photos show different angles on these manipulated pieces.  Shorter stitches produce shallower folds.  The bottom sample has folded triangles in a concertina form held together by a thread down the centre of each triangle

 

Hand running stitch along a length of fabric following a pattern on wider fabric 15-20cm x 10cm

Each sample has a stretch of non-gathered fabric to show the layout of the stitches

 

 

Long machine stitching

 

 

Zigzag machine stitch over a length of wire, string, or wood

The zigzag width was altered dependent on the wire and string.  The wood was too thick for the machine so the third wood sample was hand stitched with some gathering

This fine fabric is open to more manipulation

 

 

Using tucks to thread string, wood, pipe cleaners or other material

 

A series of material fed through the tucks but not gathered: cord, string, straw, wooden kebab stick, double wool, soft pipe cleaner, parcel tape, coarser pipe cleaner

Using a pipe cleaner gives good gathers and the reshaping for added textural features

 

Pulled thread using fabrics with a woven surface

Cotton scrim with pulled threads evenly spaced in one direction .  The finer scrim on the left is more haphazard with gentler texture 

Both of these have coarse texture.  The left sample has threads pulled horizontally and vertically.  The right sample was stuffed with rolled pipe cleaners and as well as pulled thread a running stitch was used between each bump and the whole stitched to finer scrim background to ensure the inserts were not lost

 

 

 Shirring elastic in the bobbin

 

Cotton:  natural gathering.  The bottom was worked in a spiral to produce this lumpy feature

Organza:  more gathered effect.  Liked the gathering of the bottom sample ever decreasing lines of stitch

Looking forward to more work using these techniques and so many more.  No samples using a gathering machine as I have not got one. 

Chapter 5 Quilting, padding and stuffing

This chapter concentrates on quilting, padding and stuffing and how it adds texture to a piece of work. 
I used a basic shape, a triangle, devising a way to divide it up in lines.  The triangle is used in a variety of ways in quilt designs and is a useful shape when considering landscape
I tried out different hand and machine stitching using a variety of stitches and different threads to see their effect
I used different fabrics and materials, for different layers and to fill in between layers.  The fabrics were mostly natural colours
The different types of quilting include:

• Wadded quilting
• Shaped quilting
• Padded quilting
• Corded quilting

Wadded Quilting
This involves three layers: a firm backing fabric, a padding or wadding and a top layer of flexible fabric
The firm backing fabric was held taught using an 8” hoop
I was able to make 4 triangles per hoop, three sets of four samples
The first sample: Had a firm layer of calico, with a soft cotton wadding laid on the calico (loose from the hoop) and an outer layer of a loose fabric like polyester chiffon( also loose from the hoop).  Each triangle contained different hand stitches in threads that matched the colour of the outer layer: fly stitch, chain stitch, ladder stitch and linked ladder stitch.
Insert scan showing these four triangles

I cut out two triangles from the hoop, each showing two triangles so that the layer of wadding could be seen
I liked the way each thread sank into the top layer, giving interesting impressions.
I particularly liked the ridged shadow effect between the rows of the linked ladder stitch and the indents of the ladder stitch
The wadding can vary in thickness, using either natural fabrics or polyester.  The polyester tends to be firmer.                                                                     However I really liked the cotton wadding which was really soft.
Wadded quilting with different padding and top layers
The second sample: had three layers made up in the same way as the first sample.
The backing was of cotton muslin, with different padded layers from top left in a clockwise direction polyester wadding, fleece, shredded chip paper and felting fibres and different top layers fine cotton muslin, polyester organza, white plastic bag and nylon, covering each of the before mentioned padded layers.  Different hand stitches were used on each triangle ; cross stitch, running stitch, blanket stitch and couching, using different threads fine perle, metallic, withdrawn cotton muslin thread and a bobbly cotton thread.
Insert scan showing these four triangles

I liked the way the cross stitch lines seemed to cut into the triangle covered with fine cotton muslin. Each of the well padded triangles, fleece and felt fibres provided brilliant relief, soft fibres feeling coarse because of the nature of the top textile layers.  The blanket stitch on the plastic triangle gave a crinkly effect, texture provided by the stitch alongside shiny plastic.  All triangles were easy to sew, apart from the chip paper which resisted the needle and difficult to sew.

Third sample: To try out some different machine stitches I used a fabric which is cotton wadding where the wadding is attached to the fabric.  It’s available from Empress Mills.  To ensure the fabric worked well on the machine I added a backing of pale brown voile.  I chose a top thread to match the colour of the cotton and a bottom spool thread in brown to match the voile.  To develop the triangle effect I chose different stitches with a triangular design in them, producing this sample.  Both stitched layers indented giving a relief surface between, but the cotton side the more effective.
Insert two scans showing the front and back of this third sample

Shaped quilting
Fourth Sample: This involves three layers: a firm backing fabric, different fabric top layers, with shapes sandwiched between the two.
The firm backing fabric was held taught using an 8” hoop
I was able to make 4 triangles per hoop.
The backing was of cotton muslin, with different padded layers each cut up in different shapes to fit the triangles. From top left in a clockwise direction Vilene, padded chocolate box sheet, pipe cleaners shaped into triangles and fine plastic protective wrapping with different top layers: fine nylon net, polyester organza, polyester voile and polyester chiffon, covering each of the before mentioned padded layers.  Fly stitch was used on each triangle apart from the one with metallic thread, using different threads: cotton scrim withdrawn from the backing fabric, metallic, cotton embroidery thread and a white polyester machine thread.
Insert scan showing these four triangles

I liked varying the fly stitch, each holding the shapes in place. The scattered fly stitches were inserted based on the seashore theme – bird prints in the sand.  All triangles were easy to sew.  The chocolate paper didn’t give as much relief as expected, but liked the pipe cleaner shapes, with quite a variety of texture.
Fifth sample:  This is a different triangle shape, divided in horizontal lines using the Fibonacci sequence, the ratios in order from bottom to top, 2,3,5,8 leaving out 1,1. Cut or sea shore objects were placed in each section stitched together to hold objects in place; sliced cork wine bottle stopper(floats on the sea); dried seaweed; mixed pebbles and shells; sand paper instead of sand.   Zigzag machine stitching was used to seal three sides of the triangle and horizontal lines, using running stitch to hold the objects in place.  The objects slid into place along the rows except for the seaweed, so added another layer of nylon to cover it.
Insert photo

Like the different effects of each row, with an added interest when held up at the light.
Another sample considered if time allowed would have fitted into the wadded quilting with different padding.  This would be similar to the fifth sample but with from bottom to top, course pebbly sand, lighter grained sand, feathers and bubble wrap.  The intention was to hand stitch triangles within each strip allowing raised triangular areas.  I could not have machine stitched through the materials but feel hand stitching would have worked, giving different textured strips.
Padded quilting (Trapunto or Italian quilting)
This varies from the padded quilting already mentioned in that two layers of fabric are stitched together, not necessarily using a hoop.  The padding is then added by making a small slit in the back of the back layer, carefully easing the padding through this slit to pad out the shape.  The slit is then closed up using close hand stitches with matching coloured thread to the backing fabric. (Trapunto)
Insert photos of the front and back

The left hand samples showing the front of the padded shapes in Trapunto, while the right hand samples are Italian quilting.
Italian quilting has parallel lines of stitch either to make a shape as shown above or lines into which different threads are eased.  A tapestry needle is used to slide the threads between the parallel stitched lines.  The needle enters at the end of a line at the back of the layers, coming out at the back at the other end of the line.  If the line is long or there are changes in direction of the shape, the needle is brought out at the back of the fabric where there is a change of direction or intermittently along the line, each time leaving a small length of thread to allow for give.
Further samples show Italian quilting in rows

• using the same thread with different effects dependent on the top layer fabric

(The chiffon and nylon net show the silvery thread, whereas the Lutrador, silk and hand cleansing tissue are the most opaque) 

• using different threads with the same fabric

(each thread gives a different effect and practically could use any, but possibly 4th, 6th and 7th would work in a sea shore landscape)
Insert these two samples

 

 

 

Although not shown here other methods to show off the threads are to scissor cut (using sharp pointed scissors) the top layer at intervals to reveal the threads below.
It is also possible to burn fabric away using a soldering iron on synthetic fabrics.  To protect the threads inside the quilting it is a good idea to use a tapestry needle between the top fabric and thread on to which the soldering iron burns.  Health and Safety precautions related to using soldering irons need to be adhered to and when holding a needle that may become hot.
There are special skeins of thread available specifically for Italian quilting.  One is used in the outer parallel lines of the first Italian quilted triangle 
Corded quilting
This is using just one layer of fabric
The samples worked were all using a twin needle in the machine:

• seven samples using different fabrics, each showing straight alongside wavy parallel lines (white polyester thread top and bottom).  The fabrics were cotton, polyester type, natural silk, polyester silk, polyester, velvet, and scrim.

Insert scan showing four samples particularly effective: velvet, natural and synthetic silk and scrim

The velvet showed indented lines through the fabric, the silk how the threads gather the two lines together adding distortion to the fabric, the scrim distorted the lines and brought threads together.

• used a thicker thread in the lower spool gives a corded effect capturing the lower thread between the parallel rows.

If the cord is to show, turn the fabric over so the upper surface is face down.  If the textured effect is required leave the fabric right way up.  Tension in the top thread may need highering.  It was not necessary with my Janome machine.
Insert scan showing this technique

I like the subtle nature of the raised lines formed using this method.
Other fabric manipulations could include layering of different techniques.                                                                                                                                      There are no examples here but I could imagine them providing an interesting variety of texture and plan to provide some of these in later chapters. A hit of such methods can be seen above where the scrim overlaps the velvet twin needle sample.

I noticed when editing the blog that photos or scans of some fabrics used as backing have particularly strong effects.  This may be a textural effect in its own right, but perhaps the copies are more defined than they actually are.