| Our Pukka Place Pukka Components |
| Silk Chenille Kits To make fabric chenille. Any fine woven fabric is good- layers of silk add a real luxury element. Generally 3-5 layers of fabric of similar weight are needed and a firm base cloth. In my kits there are 5 pieces of silk: - 3 in similar colours of second hand sari silk - one that is a bit of a contrast in sari silk - the finishing or topping piece is a toning hand dyed silk organza. For the base I have supplied black cotton drill, when you get a glimpse of it after cutting the black sets off the lovely colours of the silk NOTE • Chenille works best when stitched on the diagonal of the fabric, no unravelling of the fabric just a nice frayed edge. • If you have to stitch with the warp or weft of the fabric- oh well, it is OK just keep it to a minimum and know you might have to trim the occasional stray thread from time to time. • The pieces can be stitched using straight stitch and your ordinary machine foot or using free machine embroidery methods [personally I like the way I can make pictures on the surface and then stitch ‘waves’ around them to chenille, also you don’t notice how ‘not neat’ I am with my straight stitching!] METHOD 1. iron all your pieces smooth 2. place base down and stack sari silks on top- experiment with the how you layer them, flick through the edges to see how they look. I take particular care to see which one looks best under the organza topper fabric and find the contrast colour usually nicest towards the bottom of the stack. 3. pin all together- silk can be rather slippery so keep an eye on the layers staying together evenly. 4. baste the layers together about 1 cm [3/8 inch] from the edges 5. you might like to use chalk to mark your stitching lines 6. stitch your desired pattern making sure the gap between rows is about 1 cm [3/8 inch] 7. using small pointy scissors and a lot of care cut through the layers of silk. Be careful of cutting through the base layer- I find it easiest to have my finger under the pint I am inserting the scissors then I can feel if I am going too deep. 8. after cutting pop into a bowl of water and give it a good wash/ massage to ruffle the edges 9. lay flat to dry 10. when dry at first the organza will be rather crisp but by the time you have assembled your panel into its final destination it will have softened up nicely. Enjoy! |
| Chalk mark your borders and your design |
| Designs can be based on a diagonal grid or free form with an emphasis on diagonal lines.... machining can be straight stitch or free machine embroidery |
| Trim threads, and cut through the layers with care. Wash by hand and lay flat to dry. |
| All washed and ready to go!! What have you got in mind? Love to see pics! |
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