Debi - Northern California, USA

Into the West

Building: In the now far distant past, I made some of my own clothing. I have not sewn for many years but I did find my long ago experience helped. This was my first time using Wonder Under and planning my own project (no pre-made pattern or directions).

Patterns: Started with pattern by Jessalyn found on this site. Used my computer to break it into sections, which I then enlarged to print out to pattern size. Because sections were very pixilated from enlarging, I traced the printouts onto shelf paper, cleared up enlargement problems, and made a few small changes.

I also used the photos of the banner at Neiman Marcus to make patterns for sun/moon, boat, and stars.

Size: Finished size is 40x48 inches


Top half of Arwen's banner, with leaves	Sea and boat detail	Boat detail

Sun detail	The star	Moon detail

Fabrics/Materials: Wonder Under, indigo blue sueded silk; china silk in silver, green, white, light blue, and 2 medium shades of blue; lame in gold and silver, brocade in gold and silver; also need gold and silver metallic thread, green embroidery floss, 3 round crystal beads, 22 silver beads, 65 crystal beads with lame thread to hand them

I used the same type of fabric (ex. brocades, lame, china silks) in different colors, and repeated the use of a fabric in various places (ex. Gold brocade on ship, star, bottom layer of sun/moon) in order to pull it all together.

	Banner – indigo blue sueded silk (VERY difficult to work with)
	Trees – silver china silk
	Leaves – green china silk, matching green embroidery floss for leaf veins
	Water – 4 shades of blue; 3 are china silk, darkest is rayon. Having a different type fabric for one shade made the water much more interesting. I wish I could say I planned it but since I was unable to find a dark blue matching silk I went with the rayon that was a similar weight and went well with the silks.
	Boat – gold brocade, gold and antique gold metallic embroidery floss, silver brocade, silver lame
	Sail – white and silver china silk, grey paint
	Star (center) – gold brocade, gold lame, gold metallic embroidery floss, 8mm crystal bead
	Stars (side) – silver brocade, silver lame, silver metallic embroidery floss, 6mm crystal beads
	Sun – gold brocade, medium blue china silk from water, dark blue rayon from water, gold lame, whitish/gold polyester for center
	Moon – other shade of medium blue china silk from water, dark blue rayon from water, silver lame, grey mottled looking polyester for center.

Tricks that helped:

	Brocade – coat well with Fray Check before cutting out
	Lame – use Wonder Under to stick two layers together. It makes it MUCH easier to work with and it doesn’t fray.

Construction:

Water – made of 20 individual rows of “waves”. Smallest is ⅛ inch wide. Each row increases slightly in size. Largest is ½ inch. Rows are made by sewing two long narrow strips together along one long edge and then turning raw edges inside. Stitch line should be slightly wavy. Use all 4 shades of blue mixed throughout the water. Sew each completed row to the row above it. Completed water was attached using Wonder Under. Panel bindings put on after the water to enclose raw edges.

Trees/vines – iron Wonder Under to silver silk. Transfer pattern to paper on back. I tried several ways. The one that worked best was using carbon paper between the Wonder Under paper and my pattern and then applying pressure along the appropriate pattern lines. I used a rotary cutter and a precision point X-Acto knife to cut it out. Fabric spray adhesive was very helpful when placing pieces on the background in order to have proper position before/during ironing. I completed ALL bindings and made sure the panels hung down nicely BEFORE attaching trees/vines. If I hadn’t, my entire project would have been ruined due to the temperamental nature of the sueded silk!

Sun and Moon – These are made from circular layers of different fabrics fused together with Wonder Under.

Sun: gold brocade, darker medium blue china silk from water, then whitish/gold polyester for center.

Moon: silver brocade, lighter shade of medium blue china silk from water, then grey mottled looking polyester for center. Add details with 2 layers gold lame fused together.

Ship with sail – Iron Wonder Under to fabrics. Sail is white China silk with silver silk from trees under it (the white was to bright without it). Shading was added to the edge with grey fabric paint. Mast and main part of boat are gold brocade. To prevent brocade threads from “flaking off” the edges I coated them with Fray Check and it worked very well. Gold and antique gold metallic embroidery floss was used to add horizontal lines. Silver brocade and lame were used for the front and back details. I used fabric glue to add details until I could iron the boat to make the Wonder Under adhere.

Stars – Larger rays are brocade with Fray Check on all edges. Smaller rays are two layers of lame fused together with Wonder Under. Using two layers made it easier to work with and prevented fraying. Metallic thread was used to add stitches radiating from center. Crystal bead in center holds both layers together. I left long strings after sewing on the beads and used them to tie the stars on to the background silk.

Flowers – Lower section with four petals is brocade with Fray Check on edges. Top is same shape out of two layers of lame fused together with Wonder Under. The two sections are held together with a silver bead. I left long strings after sewing on the beads and used them to tie the flowers on to the background silk.

Leaves – Started with Wonder Under on green silk. Traced leaf shapes on the Wonder Under paper and then drew in veins.

There are approx 8 different styles that vary in size and shape. I used simple straight stitches in matching green floss to put in veins. Cut out leaves and removed ALL paper.

Because the sueded silk was so temperamental, I applied the leaves (also sun, moon, stars, and ship) while the banner was hanging. I pinned them on and then attached with glue stick. Once in place the Wonder Under could be ironed to finish securing them. I did it this way because the dark blue fabric had to be exactly where it wanted to be when anything was attached. Otherwise, it messed up the way the panels hung and did not look right.

Signature in Elvish – I signed the lower center binding by embroidering what I hope is “I Debi this made” in Elvish words with Tengwar letters. Obviously, I got a bit carried away!

For my current level of ability and lack of recent experience the project was huge and detailed. It took me approximately 9 months to complete.


Arwen's bedroom banner	Top edge detail	Edge detail with crystal

v ----- Advertisement -----v

^ -----Advertisement ----- ^

This page was last updated 11/21/09