Certificate Course WorkshopJuly: Asian Appliqué

The Certificate course workshop for July was on Asian Appliqué, most specifically, Thai appliqué, taught by Barbara Mullan. Barbara bought in a number of examples for us to look at, some of her own, and some from the Guild Museum.


We worked two designs in the Workshop. The first was an elegant, seemingly simple motif worked in reverse applique on two layers of fabric.

 The trick was working the curves. Turning under the fabric edge on the curved  parts required patience and there was a bit of figuring out to do where the two lines touched at the bottom.

It was interesting to see how the addition of a simple row of back stitch in the exposed under-layer made a big difference in the impact of the design.
In my eagerness to use even sample pieces that I work, I decided to add it as a pocket to a linen shirt I have had for at least a decade.

It's not spectacular, but useful - and a bit of a talking point!



The other piece we began to work was a bit more complicated. This one, also based on some of the examples we examined on the day, has a series of layered strips as well as the addition of a reverse Appliquéd strip - and the traditional appliqueing of the pieces cut from that strip.

It was good to play with this. I'm not inspired to finish it - this really was a working piece - but the concept is great and could be put to good use on something substantial in the future.

These workshops are great learning opportunities - full of friendships, ideas and techniques.