3D Felted Vessel

My latest experiment is constructing a 3D vessel using the felting machine to create the materials and embellishments.  First I felted 2 pieces of pre-made felt cut to the size of the sides and bottom and top of the vessel.  The felt pieces were green and the second layer was white. I felted a pattern and used the side with the white felt coming through to the green side.  I made the 4 sides and then I embellished each side by felting a different design on each side using a soft fuzzy yarn.  Then I made a top and a bottom panel in the same manner but using gold and white felt. On the top piece I cut an oval and zigzag or satin stitched around that opening to finish the edge. Now for the construction.  What to do?? I decided to just felt the side seams together with the felting machine. OK, that worked but how to do the bottom was a different story.  Felting the bottom seams was not going to work because the vessel was now in a 3D form now and it was to awkward to get under the felting machine needles.  So I decided to use my regular sewing machine and I matched the edge of the bottom piece with bottom edge of one of the sides and satin stitched the edge.  I worked my way around all four sides of the bottom in the same manner. OK, the bottoms done.  I wanted an enclosed top with an oval opening in the center. That created another problem because you could not get the pieces under the regular sewing machine to stitch the edges, so I stitched the top on by hand.

I also forgot to mention that I did not think the 3D form was firm enough, so I cut 4 side of heavy interfacing and glued that to the inside to reinforce the sides.  Next time I do this I may just use the interfacing in the first place as the base fabric for the felting process.  But that could end up being too thick at the side seams for felting. I need to work some of these techniques out on my next try.  Here are some photos of the finished project. This is a first for me so I'm trying not to be to critical of it. It was a fun process and maybe I'll get better with more experience.
Posted by lpcolor at 1/18/2010 12:46 PM
Categories: machine punching, 3D machine punching, machine felting
Tags: embellishing felting by machine felting
 

What did you think of this article?




Trackbacks
Trackback specific URL for this post
  • No trackbacks exist for this post.
Comments
Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

Leave a comment

Submitted comments are subject to moderation before being displayed.

 Name

 Email (will not be published)

 Website

Your comment is 0 characters limited to 3000 characters.