For these three objects, I aimed to create large scale versions of everyday objects such as an egg, peas in a pod, and a button. My focus in making these objects were to try out various techniques and to improve my hand sewing skills.
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egg
I started the egg by drawing and cutting the white and yolk of the egg separately. I stacked two layers of white acrylic fabric on top of each other and drew a fried egg shape and pinned them together. I sewed the two white fabrics shut with a five inch opening for the last step of filling the egg.
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Next, I cut a circle on the top layer for the yolk to go on top. I drew two concentric circles on the yellow yolk fabric: the outer as the sew line onto the top white layer and the inner circle as the circumference of the protruding yolk. To make the protrusion of the yolk, I folded the fabric and sewed on the inside 12 times to create a cylinder-like shape. To attach the yolk to the white, I flipped the white fabric inside out and attached the bottom of the yolk to the circle hole on the top white fabric.
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After flipping the egg inside out and imagining the next steps of filling, I realized that I did not want to fill the egg white portion as much as the yolk. To achieve a more filled yolk, I cut another circle from an orange fabric that would separate the yolk filling from the white filling. I sewed on the circle and filled the yolk very tightly. Then, I turned the egg inside out and filled the white until it was enough cushioning, but still quite loose and hand sewed the egg white shut.
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peas in a pod
For my peas, I first started with two colors of green fabric. The lighter green, I cut into the tennis ball stencils. In our first sewing samples, we had to make two balls with different methods. From this, I learned that I could force the sewn shape to be not a circle, but an oval through different tension and speed on the sewing machine. I sewed all three peas and used polyfill to make them 3D peas.
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The next step was making the pod for the peas to lay in. I planned this step of the pods by drawing out a 2D shape on the darker green fabric, and estimated where the pockets for the peas to lie in would be by drawing three circles on the pod as well as a zipper for the pod to close and open to reveal the peas. After sewing one long edge of the two pod fabrics together, I flipped it inside out so the seams would be on the inside. Then I lined up each side of the zipper on the markings on the inside edge and sewed it on.
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The challenge in this process was estimating how much fabric I would need to sew a pod that would fit the peas comfortably. After fitting the three peas into the pod and zippering it close, I found that the pod did not lay flat in areas I would have wanted it to. If I were to make another iteration of the pod for the peas, I would try to account for the bulge of the peas onto the pod and reinforce the edges of the pod to make the shape hold.
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button
In planning my third object, I found that there were not a lot of fabric color choices. I had originally wanted three foods that I could construct to be large-scale as well as incorporate different techniques that I had not used before.
The button was a decision that came after thinking about donuts and bagels, foods that had holes. I spotted a button in my room and came to the conclusion that I would challenge myself with sewing four holes, not just one. My first iteration of the button started with two circle pieces of red fabric. I drew what I imagined would be the sewing lines and cut out the four holes for the buttons. I started by deciding to sew the small inner circles first, and then the outer circles. However, after completing hand-sewing the first inner circle, I realized that the button could not be flipped inside out- exposing all the sketches I had done on the fabric. I quickly started on my second iteration by preparing the fabric in the same method as I had done in the previous iteration. This time, I sewed the outside seam first with a small opening and then started hand sewing the small inner holes. Despite sewing the outside seam first, I still made the mistake of sewing the inner circles on the inside, making the button not able to flip inside out.
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My third and final iteration of the button began with the same steps. But this time, I sewed the most outer portion of the button with an opening, then flipped it inside out so the seams would be on the inside. I decided to hand stitch to connect the two layers of fabric together and create the small holes in the button. Because I did not want my seams to have flaps on the outside, I learned how to do an invisible seam with a ladder stitch to close the fabric on the inner circles. While this was a tedious and time consuming process, I was very happy about the result and my newly learned skills.
After all four inner holes were sewn together, I stuffed the button with polyfill to reach the inner corners. Doing so, I found that the button puffed up more than I wanted due the edge of the button to the center having lots of space to fill. To make my button flatter, I removed some polyfill around the ends of the button and sewed a concentric circle 1.5 inches smaller than the edge. After most of the circle was complete I filled the insides loosely but tighter in the tubes around the inner four holes, then finished sewing the inner circle on the machine. This created a circular tube around the outer edge that I then bunched up to fill more easily. After filling it tightly, I used a ladder-stitch to close off the button.
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reflection on objects + process
Making the egg was less challenging than I had imagined, but a great first attempt at sewing without planning all the steps beforehand. I was able to find a solution for any problems I ran into, quickly and efficiently. Problem solving for the egg made thinking about a solution for my button much easier because I had to innovate from what I already had. The button was easily the most challenging object, but having so many iterations allowed me to think about sewing objects in a more detailed and orderly method. I will try this when I make another iteration of the pod for my peas.