Sunday Serendipity–Shredded

Today I started on another book by Jennie Rayment.

You might remember that last fall I worked my way through Jennie’s “Creative Tucks and Textures.”  This one promised even more fun things to try out.  I think I’m going to enjoy this book, since the tone is fairly informal.  For instance, the first technique is called Vandalism!

Preparation is quick and easy – just layer fabric and stitch.  Then the fun part . . .

. . . slash and shred!  Similar to the chenille technique, only the top layers are cut and then the surface is brushed to cause it to ravel.  Yes, it makes a mess!  But I wanted to try a few more.

This piece is cut and ready for one of the brushing tools I tried.

And this is the end result.  Each of the layers is a different shade of blue and the number of layers cut varies from one at the corners to all except the last in the center.  I was hoping to see more of a color change, so I tried one more time.

You can see the blue layers peeking out at the edges under the orange.  And straight lines this time.  More on that later.

And the result with corners added to make square-in-a-square.

So here is what I learned:

• Major curves are not as effective at ravelling as a gentle wave.
• A closely woven fabric may fray, but not show much through the remaining threads.
• Clipping perpendicular to the stitching will help in both of the above.
• The best fraying tool is actually my fingers.
• A lint roller is absolutely necessary!

Now, you’ll have to excuse me while I continue to pick threads off of myself!