Monday, September 7, 2009

Trim

This weekend I cut my jacket from the good fabric. I still need to thread-trace all pieces.

Having the little bits and pieces as remnants of the fabric gave me the opportunity to experiment with the yarn to make trims. From the start I wanted to try to make my own trim. First because buying trims is difficult here (no specialized stores that I know of, and choice of trims very, very limited) and second because I like to have a more casual trim, as this suits my lifestyle better. No need for very formal clothing.

I've made several small experiments, all with the weft threads of the fabric. Most of them were no success. I'll show you the one I'm contemplating using.

Below picture shows the warp threads clearly, which are black and grey. I've taken out the weft threads to make the trim.

The pictures don't do the colors justice.

The black thread is made from a knot of special yarn, of which I crotcheted a strand with two threads, I used black because I want to emphasize that color a bit in the fabric, over the brown that is also in it. The other two are crotcheted with the weft threads of the fabric.

The result of three strands of threads in a braid. As I have relatively short ends of threads, there are a lot of thread ends. I'm not quite sure about this trim, it is a lot of work, and I think I will have to buy a little extra fabric if I want to do this for the whole jacket. I'll let it lay around for a day or two to make up my mind.

 

6 comments:

  1. Gosh, I love that braid from the threads. I'm probably going to do someyhing similar since I think one of the signs of the Chanel jacket is not just trim, but trim that truly coordinates from the fabric. I remember watching the wonderful Chanel documentary section when the gentleman arrived from Paris at the farm of the woman who weaves the trims. She took great pride in deconstructing the fabrics he brought to then reweave them into the jacket trims. Of course, she first had to bring the hay in from the fields because rain was threatening. Ahhh, France....

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  2. Jane, I remember that very well too. She was weaving in a relatively dark room, counted the different colors of the threads to make sure it was balanced with the fabric. And I do remember bringing in the hay taking priority over weaving for Chanel! Great scene. Do you remember her hands? And no one interested in her skills and follow up (she was in her 70's at the time I think).
    It was all such an unprofessional setup, with such perfect professional results.

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  3. I like the results you have achieved.

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  4. The braid looks good. Have you tried braiding 4 or 6 strings together? I like the look of the 4-strings braid, it looks much more like a trim band than a 3-strings braid.
    Also, you could use a wool yarn and baste it through the braid, for a more voluminous appearance.

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  5. I hope you don't object to my pinching this idea. I want to plait super fine chiffon as I'm making my jacket for a spring climate.

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  6. @AnaJan: I will try more strings, if I have enough thread when I've finished crocheting the weft threads of the extra fabric I bought. Thanks for mentioning it.
    @Gail: no problem of course, the idea isn't originally mine either. Several sources mention trims made of the threads of the fabric.

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