Playing with Washaway Stabilizer

 I have been exploring creating "fabric" from threads and other items using washaway stabilizer. Free motion sewing is a new skill I am developing as I create my fabrics from wool roving, silk tops, thread scraps and fabric scraps.

My interest in this was piqued by seeing the beautiful free motion quilting done by some talented quilters at my local sewing group and by the Monday Videos published by The Thread Studio.

I had some washaway stabilizer in the stash and had been playing with silk tops on some of the tags I have been creating for the 52 Tags challenge run by Anne Brooke. I hunted out some wool roving bought at a craft fair when I did a wet felting workshop and began my experimenting. Found the darning foot for my sewing machine, dropped the feed dogs and hit the foot pedal. Whoops - ran off the edge of the stabilizer and caught the thread around the darning foot! Needle snapped into three pieces.

Better This Than The Machine by MrsSOnline is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 

To finish the first experiment I reverted back to raised feed dogs, put on my open toed foot and played with fancy stitches all over the wash away stabilizer with rayon embroidery thread. This one had fabric scraps, thread scraps and wool scraps as a base. Once I had finished stitching I cut out my shapes and  soaked them in water along with the scraps. I watched the stabilizer melt away. Too impatient to wait for it to dry so I toweled most of the water away and then pressed the shapes with water with my iron to see the end result. I liked it but it was very stiff.

Free Motions trials 1 by MrsSOnline is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 

Free Motions trials 1a by MrsSOnline is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 

Soaking in Water by MrsSOnline is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 

Cut Ready for Soaking by MrsSOnline is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 

I then asked for some tips from the free motion experts at my local group and tried some more experiments. they suggested slowing down my machine to half speed to have a little more control over my free motion movements and this worked well. I also just played with wool roving and silk tops for my second piece. I also kept the whole piece together until after the soaking of the stabilizer.

Free Motion - Try 2 by MrsSOnline is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 

Free Motion - Try 2a by MrsSOnline is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 

This one was also interesting as it felted a little as I washed it. This meant that some of the stitches became a little loose but nothing that was too bad. Some of the bobbin threads showed up a little on the top side but again nothing too dramatic but it did lead to some more research about free motion sewing. We are so lucky to have information at our searching fingertips! This one was much softer in its texture as well. My research (I am collating links in a Wakelet) suggested that I needed to change the stitch length down to 0 or as close to 0 as possible and so my third experiment began.

More roving and silk tops sandwiched between stabilizer. Isacord thread on top and some Serafil from my overlocker wound onto the bobbin thread for maximum coverage before running out of bobbin thread and hopefully a colour that would tone in better than the white I had been using. This one turned out well but I forgot to take photos. It felted with the washing and was much softer so I am wondering if the fabric scraps I used in the first one may have added some stiffness to the end product.

My biggest problems were with control over my free motion stitching and I had dived in feet first with this. I was not using the standard top, batting and bottom that many quilters are using when doing free motion sewing. I did find that changing the stitch length helped and by doing this I was also able to go faster but the stabilizer was hard to control. I managed to get my hands on some of the Romeo stabilizer that the Thread Studio recommended and found this easier to handle. It was described by the shop salesperson as "stabilizer on steroids"! It is very thick and handled so well. My finished piece was thinner but so soft.

Free Motion - Try 4 by MrsSOnline is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 

Well there is where the experimenting sits. So much fun and then the joy of using my own fabric to create. So far I have a card that has a nice big Sizzix flower cut from the blue fabric and a tag that is on its way to Anne for the tag challenge that has a flower pot cut from the green and cream fabric.

Now to obtain some more of the Romeo stabilizer for more creating. What would you make? Have you experimented with creating things using wash away stabilizer? Please leave a comment sharing your thoughts.