Push/Pull Part 1 – Victoria Ding

The three basic forms I used were a cube, cylinder, and pyramid.

 

For this shape, I first sewed a large cube from the template in class.

I chose this blue fabric because it had a nice soft texture that I associate with sewing and stuffing. This class is my first time sewing so I left large seam allowances to prevent accidentally sewing outside the fabric. After I sewed every edge except for one, I realized the large seam allowances gave me enough room to sew over them. I sewed two edges together halfway on each side as shown in this picture.

After each side was done I tried putting my hands inside to puff out the shape but I still was unsure how it would look stuffed. If I didn’t know any better I would think this looks like a rounded shape with handles. I thought it would still look similar to a cube but I was pleasantly surprised by the baffling effect. This is my favorite shape out of the three I made.

 

For this shape my goal was to start with a cylindrical form.

Shortly before this project I had old pants that were starting to fall apart. I felt bad throwing them away so I kept them in my closet for a short time. When this project came up I thought it would be a good opportunity to use fabric from my old pants so they didn’t get wasted. I cut off a pant leg and sewed wavy patterns into the sides. When I cut off the wavy patterns I had extra strips of fabric. I incorporated a strip by sewing it into the seam and letting it hang out like a tail.

 

For this shape I was imagining a pyramid before starting work.

I wanted to include something round in this project so I started by cutting out a plain circle. I was imagining a pyramid in my head and I liked the darting examples from class so I decided to somehow transform this circle into a pyramid. I started with darting and was unsure how this shape would turn out. I also intended to turn this shape inside out at the end but decided it looked better with visible stitches. After darting four times, I cut out a flat base and sewed the transformed circle on top of it. After sewing every side, I cut off extra fabric so that the stitching was on the very edge of the fabric. The stuffing made this pyramid look puffier than I expected so I actually prefer it without any stuffing.

 

This was my first time sewing and I really enjoyed it! I spent many hours figuring out the best way to use a sewing machine and tricks to make the sewing process faster. I am definitely much better now at sewing than I was at the beginning of the project.