Thursday, October 09, 2008

Water Soluble Vilene

Soluble vilene would have to be one of my most use textile products. The one I use is called Mac-Rinse from Embroidery Source. (I have no affiliation - I just like the product and wanted to share my secret)

Embroidery Source has a factory outlet in Fairfield (205 Fulham RdFairfield, Victoria, 3078 Australia) where they sell "Commercial Quality Embroidery Products At Warehouse Prices ". I discovered this place when I was studying textiles and what a find!! They have machine embroidery threads in every colour (more than you'll find in Spotlight or Lincraft or most other sewing shops) and on bigger rolls. As they say, they are commercial quality and therefore most of what they sell are the bigger spools, but these are still workable on your regular sewing machine.

But I digress. I started out using Solvy which is a plasticy film that dissolves in warm water. I used this to do the sunflowers and wheat stalks in these two pieces.

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image0

Solvy is fairly flimsy however and when used as I did (stretched in an embroidery hoop) it had a tendancy to stretch and tear.



Water soluble vilene on the other hand it like working with fabric. It's much stronger and doesn't stretch or tear (unless you're trying to tear it). It handles heavy machine stitching and because it is fabric-like and white, you can draw your design directly onto it and the lines disappear when you dissolve it (as long as your lines are too dark).

I stitched this leaf using water soluble vilene. I use 2 layers because I don't have a backing fabric and I think that it's more stable for heavy stitching.

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You can see how the vilene looks soft, just like fabric.

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And now with the vilene washed out.

Autumn leaf

I didn't wash the vilene out completely because the residual acts as a fabric stiffener. I just wash it enough so that there aren't any white 'gluey' patches left.

Autum leaf

The back...

Autumn Leaf

6 comments:

edward and lilly said...

Hello, just wanted to say thanks so much for sharing the water soluble process, I found it so great I've mentioned it on my blog :)

Nikki said...

Fabulous leaf!! I'm a big fan of Mac-rinse and also Embroidery Source. Water-soluble stabilisers are so much fun, aren't they?

Leisurely Lesley said...

This is just the thing I blog for...well, one of the things. Thankyou so much for that information and images. Much appreciated.

Red Hen (dette) said...

Stunning! Interesting post too.

Anonymous said...

good stuff sis

Helen said...

This has worked a treat - really nice effect with the stitching