Fan Folly 2024 Part 3

 Fan Folly 2024 Part 3

I am continuing with the Rough Fan.

Rough Folded Fan

I have Folded the Fan and it does work - Barely. Now to try it with a different Material.

Draw Around Fan

To get the Shape right I have reopened the Fan and Placed it Face down on some different Material. This is an Off Cut from a Christmas Pair of Pyjamas.

Doubled

Once Drawn I Folded the Material over and Cut it out. Next I Glued it together.

Quartered

Once Dried I proceeded to Fold the Material into Quarters. It now looks like a Slice of Cake or a Cheese Triangle.

Snipped

I Snipped the Corner off with a Pair of Scissors then Opened it back up. I now had the beginning of the Semi Circle.

Curved

I Cut away until the Snipped section was Curved. Now it looks like a very thick Rainbow.

Try Five

At first I tried Nine Struts but it wouldn’t work. I scaled back down to Five and though it was better it still wasn’t right. I can Place and Glue them in place alright to start with. 

Unfortunately once I try to fold it or use it the Material comes away from the Stuts. The principle is fine it is the Struts that are the problem. Naturally being placed one on Top of the other the Further from the beginning the Higher the Last Strut is going to be.

This means that the Glue just will not hold in place. With a different kind of Strut it would probably work. However these Garden Labels that I am using for the Struts are not completely Flat. They have raised Edges which is doubling the Gap in between. Time for a rethink.

Fan Folly 2024 Part 2

 Fan Folly 2024 Part 2

I am continuing to work on the Rough Fan

Five to Nine

I am still experimenting with the amount of Struts I can make. This one is Five and Nine. I really wanted to have a Seven but the Length wasn’t right.

Eleven

I have managed to get Eleven on this Bolt. Naturally when Glued the Struts would be Closer together.

Thirteen

It appears that the Maximum I can get on the Bolt is Thirteen. This would be great for a normal Fan. However I am not sure that it will work once I have tried to Glue the Struts in Place.

Five Finger Spread

Since this is a Rough Template I am going to start with the Simplest number of Struts which is Five. I have Spread them out like Fingers to where they would actually be once Glued.

Cut Around

I have Drawn around the Struts and Cut out the Material forming and Arch Shape.

Five Glued

Using PVA Glue I have stuck all Five Struts in place.

Back View

I have Highlighted the Stuts by going around with a Red Pen. This is so I can see if the Struts Move once Glued. I can also see from the Back which might come in Handy when I Fold the Fan.

Autumn Cape Bag 2022 Part 55

Autumn Cape Bag 2022 Part 55

On to the next design.

Original Concept

After searching for lots of pictures, I ended up Drawing something that I do believe looks like a Rat. This is my Original Concept. It will take several stages for it to become usable.

Rough Rat

Next, I transfer my Rat onto Graph Paper. This never seems to look as good as the Original.

Cubed Rat

Once I have Drawn my Rough Rat I then have to alter the Rounded Lines into Squared ones. I have Cubed my Rat Drawing. This stage always reminds me of Picasso.

By the Numbers

Now my Rat is Cubed I can do the next part, which is adding the Numbers to my Chart. This is so I know how many Stitches and Rows I will be doing.

If you notice in the above photograph I haven’t Cubed the Ears, Legs or Tail. This is because they will Embroidered on after Knitting.

Humpback Rat

After counting, I have found that the Rat is far too big for what I need. Therefore, I have reduced its size. Unfortunately, this has Squashed it so much the Rat now looks like it has a Camels Hump.

The thing to remember is that this is a Rough Chart. Unlike Cross-Stitch where you can copy the Pattern, exactly Knitting has different sized Stitches and therefore a certain amount of adjusting has to be done whilst Knitting.

Mademoiselle Marionette 2018 Part 4

Mademoiselle Marionette 2018 Part 4

I am leaving the Legs for now and moving on to the Arms.

Arm 1^st Rough Cut Out

As I did with the Legs I drew a rough outline for the Arm and cut out. You might have observed that with the Arm I have given extra un-hemmed material to one side.

Marionette Arm Template

I then used the 1^st arm as a Template. This was a little more difficult to match up due to the extra material. I have double pinned it to make sure it didn’t move.

2^nd Rough Arm Drawn

I got the 2^nd Arm drawn and ready for cutting out. However I did notice when I removed some of the pins that they had been bent by trying to go through so much material.

I wonder if I should keep them for pinning around corners?

Hand Sewn

Next I took the 1^st Arm and sewed it from the beginning of the shoulder to the Hand which I had snipped around. I again used Blanket stitch and secured as with the Legs

Pushed with Scissors

Due to the small gap in which to turn the material I used my scissors to push through.

Warning if using scissors you need to be very gentle or you may go through the material. I should have found my bamboo stick but it is very hot and I was being lazy.

Hand Slip Up

Disaster! Whilst cutting out the 2^nd Hand I slipped with the scissors. I took a large section out. I had to decide whether to try and start the whole process again or try and repair it as I went along.

Hand Repair

Due to the time restraint I felt I had no option but to carry on. In order to stop the rest of the Hand fraying I bent over the hem at an angle and Blanket stitched it. I only hope that I have

Caught the problem in time and it will hold.

Hands Side by Side

 

In the above photograph you can see the difference in the shape of the Hands.

Arms Hemmed

With the precarious nature of the Hands I decided I better start hemming the other side of the material. That way I could secure it better at the Wrist.

Arms Excess Material

I hemmed up to the start of the Upper Arm on both pieces. This is because I wanted to check the length. If I didn’t do a rough measure the Marionette would have Arms as long as an Orangutan.

Arm 2^nd Hem Pinned

I levelled off the material and then checked the width. Obviously Arms are not as wide as compared to Legs. Therefore it was my intention to make a second hem to reduce the material.

Arm 2^nd Hem Tacked

I had pinned the 2^nd hem in place and then put a few tacking stitches in a few places. This will allow me some wriggle room but without having to hold the hem down.

Mademoiselle Marionette 2018 Part 3

Mademoiselle Marionette 2018 Part 3

I am now moving on to making the Legs

Leg Material

I took a long thin piece of material which luckily was already hemmed on one side. I tucked the other edge under to make a hem and folded it in half length-ways. I then pinned along the edge.

Two Leg Pieces

I then simply cut across the width making two equal pinned pieces.

Draw Rough Leg Outline

I am going to use the already hemmed part of the material as the back of the Leg. I drew a rough Leg shape on the material. This took me several goes before I was satisfied.

Pin Bottom of Foot

Before cutting out I opened up the Foot area, pinned it and hemmed across.

Leg Roughly Cut Out

I then pinned it back together again and carefully cut out the Leg shape.

Leg Template

I placed the Leg I had cut out on top of the other piece of material and used it as a template for drawing the other Leg.

A Rough Pair of Legs

I now had two Legs cut out.

Opening Out Material

I took one of the Legs unpinned and opened it out.

Reverse Pinned Leg

I folded the Leg again only this time the other way around. I pinned it into place.

Blanket Stitch Lower Leg

Beginning at the Foot I started to Blanket stitch along the Leg until I got to where the material was whole again.

Blanket Stitch Upper Leg

Before I started the upper Leg I double checked the lower stitching. It was as I had feared. The material is so prone to fraying at the edge it was in danger of coming apart.

Therefore I secured it by putting a Running stitch along the material behind the Blanket stitch.

Unpick Heel

Grr. The last thing I need is simple mistakes. In my anxiousness to get on with the project I have stitched the Heel. This hasn’t left enough room to turn it the right way. So I have had to unpick and secure lower down

Leg Correct Side

I have now turned the Leg back to the correct side. You might have noticed that I have not completely sewn all the way up to the top of the material. This is deliberate and will be dealt with later.

You may also notice in the photo above that I haven’t as yet hemmed the other side of the material. This again was done on purpose. I left it just in case I had to give a little more room for manoeuvring when I get on to filling. I repeated this part with the other Leg.

Material Fraying

Oh botheration! That isn’t what I actually said but I am sure you can substitute your own words. As with the first Leg this material has decided to fray.

However in this case it is far worse than last time. The Blanket stitch has almost come away and a simple Running stitch isn’t going to fix it this time

Material Doubled Over

I have had to fold over some more material and resew. It is a good job I left the other side of the Leg unhemmed. I will with luck be able to make a thinner hem on this Leg that will not be that noticeable.

Unfortunately in folding in the extra material I have lost some of the contours of shape. In other words I think poor Mademoiselle Marionette is going to have one Leg without a Knee.

NB.

If anybody is interested the way I have Blanket stitched so tightly is also known as Button Hole stitch.