No Pattern Used: Duvet Cover (Marbled Gecko) - Type:Home Dec  | | Viewed 148 times
| 3 more reviews | Review rated Helpful by 1 people Very Helpful by 7 people | | Reviewed by: | treefrog | 
 | About treefrog | | AUSTRALIA | | Member since: 2/13/08 | | Reviews written: 203 | | Sewing skills:Intermediate | | Favored by: 65 people | | patterns reviewed: 200 | | Bio: more... |
| | Posted on: | 3/8/13 3:05 AM | | Last Updated: | 3/8/13 3:08 AM | | Project Photo: |  | | Pattern Photo: | No Pattern Used Pattern Info | | | | Fabric: | Cotton [See other projects in this fabric] | | Related Links | Click on  to add a link |
| Pattern Description: Queen size doona / duvet cover. The gecko idea is my own - made up of smaller machine embroidered and appliquéd geckos. The eyes are embroidered with glow in the dark thread.
marbled gecko by day
galaxy of geckos by night
Fabric Used: The top and lining is black cotton sheeting. The underside is a 110" wide cotton batik and the geckos are from a pack of hand-dyed fat quarters that graded from olive green through to rust. The big gecko eyes came from the batik fabric
Concept
The original idea was to use a pieced frog block in a grid that graduated in colour. I didn't have enough of the marbled fabric for it so it sat in the stash for over 10 years. A friend suggested I do machine embroidery rather than piecing so searching around for a frog motif, I came across the gecko image. Each of the sections of the gecko were a different colour. So then I got the idea of using little geckos to make up the outline of the larger gecko and using the graduated colours in the fat quarters to echo the different sections of the design.
Embroidery design
I digitised a few variations of the gecko and did some samples to see how well they stitched out. The final design had the body done as an appliqué with satin stitch outline and the toes and eyes embroidered. The stitch density on the satin stitch was reduced to use a standard thread. My new machine must have a burr somewhere in the thread path as it shreds rayon thread that was fine on my old machine.
I finer satin stitch or appliqué stitch may have looked better but the cover will get machine washed probably once a month and I wasn't sure how well the appliqués would fair with the washing.
The geckos were digitised at 10, 14 and 18cm long.
final embroidery sample
Placement
I drew the main outline of the gecko in chalk, angling it so the front foot and part of the tail would go over the edge of the bed and the head would be resting on a pillow. Then worked a section at a time, starting at the tail. I printed out a few templates of the embroidery and shuffled them around within the section to fill up the spaces as much as possible. Some of the placement could have been better. I got better as I went along. Having a design which interlocked better would have made it much easier.
From there I used cardboard templates to trace out the outline and mark the axis. The appliqué was fused on as I had problems with the tail moving when it was stitched.
template and cutouts
tail
head ready to stitch
The sections didn't come out as distinct as I wanted, especially in the tight sections between the head and feet on the right hand side. Stitching around the section outline using the sample colour of each section made it stand out a lot more.
Alignment
Aligning the appliqué in hoop gave me a few headaches in the beginning. The small design is fairly forgiving, but the larger one only has to be a frag off centre or rotated to cause problems.
I ended up just hooping the stabiliser and using spray adhesive to hold the fabric. This way I could mark the axis on the stabiliser. I used 3 push pins, one at each end of the gecko on the long axis and one in the centre, to match the gecko axis with the stabiliser axis.
The first colour in the embroidery design traces the central vertical and horizontal axis. I used this to make sure the appliqué was hooped in the right position for the embroidery. It wasn't actually stitched out, but I could jog through the needle position to check the alignment.
Most of the time I just had to fine tune the position of the embroidery through the machine settings, but for larger adjustments it was easier to peel back the fabric from the stabiliser and adjust it that way.
I've taken photos of the steps, so I can make up a tutorial if anyone is interested.
Making the doona cover
I used one of my other covers as a guide for sewing the cover. It has a 1 3/4" flange around each edge. The opening is like a hidden placket. Hard to explain. closure
I lined the back of the embroidery to protect both the stitching and the doona ( and hide the ugly look of it.
Sew again? Recommend it?
I could buy 4 or 5 factory made covers for the cost of the materials that went into this. This is definitely a one off and was a lot of fun. A really love the eyes glowing the the dark, just a shame you don't get the full effect when you are under the doona.
detail
finished cover
flipside - 1
flipside - best 'foo' impersonation |
|
 Pattern with more than 5 reviews!
<< Previous Next >>
14 Comments
Login to Add a Comment |
|
|Login|Help]
This is one of the most amazing things I've seen. I can understand why the project took so long to crystallize. Great fun idea to make the eyes glow in the dark!
3/8/13 5:14 AM
wonderful!! very helpful review also..
3/8/13 5:24 AM
What a beautiful duvet cover! I just love all those little gecko appliques. That should brighten up your bed for years to come.
3/8/13 8:50 AM
This is pure artistry. Genius at work. Surely there's some kind of competition you can enter this in so many people can enjoy this tremendous effort (I predict a grand prize blue ribbon!!! Good going, treefrog!
3/8/13 8:51 AM
Wow! What a piece of art you have created.
3/8/13 9:00 AM
Amazing!
3/8/13 10:45 AM
I am in awe - this is gorgeous!
3/8/13 12:33 PM
This is *amazing*!!!! So in awe....
3/8/13 10:40 PM
I love it. I've always been a fan of geckoes and frogs too, so right up my alley. How clever to come up with that idea of making all the little geckoes into one big one - and glow in the dark eyes - what fun, and sheer genius. Why should the kiddies have all the fun? Thank your for such an inspirational review. Don't know if I'll ever take up quilting but I certainly appreciate looking at it.
3/9/13 2:13 AM
What a beautiful piece! And so creative! Just amazing.
3/9/13 3:03 AM
Wow! This is truly awesome. Love the color gradation, the batik on the flipside, the way that you used the pattern in the batik fabric to make the eyes, the way you outlined the sections to set them off, the different size geckos you used... it's all just an amazing collaboration of elements. I have an embroidery machine and can appreciate the time and skill it took to make all. those. geckos.! You did such an amazing job, really. Amazing.
3/9/13 8:36 AM
Absolutely gorgeous!
3/9/13 9:53 AM
This is lovely! All of the details are just wonderful... brilliant idea using the batik pattern for the main gecko's eyes, and I love how the colors stand out in all the mini-geckos!
3/9/13 3:21 PM
You did great. Love geckos. Escher did a famous tessellation on geckos in 1943 called “Reptiles”. Check it out.
3/9/13 3:23 PM