C&G Certificate Module 5, Chapter 4 - Fabric Investigation

I was surprised to find such a wide variety of white fabrics in my stash! I have divided them into synthetic and natural fabrics. I decided not to use a candle in the melt tests as I have a soldering iron and felt this was less risky than a naked flame.

SKETCH BOOK

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 A selection of synthetic fabrics with brief descriptions.

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 I chose cottons, silks and linens.

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 Test result from crumpling, pulling, cutting on the bias, melting with a soldering iron and fraying.

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I was beginning to think that the voile might be cotton as it responded to the tests in a similar manner  as the natural fabrics, until it cut beautifully with the soldering iron!

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Edges on synthetic fabrics, from top:

Satin snipped with scissors to form a fringe, fabric pleated then marked with a soldering iron, pleated again and marked again with a soldering iron.

Voile frayed and cut with pinking shears, marked with a soldering iron.

Wadding cut repeatedly with zigzag template using a soldering iron.

Pelmet vilene cut with wavy template (twice) and joined together with dots formed with a soldering iron.

Pelmet vilene cut with (half) wheel template using a soldering iron.

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Edges on natural fabrics, from top:

Medium weight silk cut with herb scissors. The scissors tend to 'chew' their way through fabric, but cut parsley perfectly!

Linen scrim, frayed, pulled and cut.

Cotton velvet, frayed, edge cut with pinking shears, slashed down centre and threaded with pelmet vilene.

Calico cut on the bias, cut into zigzag edge, frayed (two layers).  Long frayed threads in dip of zigzag draped over top zigzagged layer. Long frayed threads removed from top layer.