Laurie Steffler
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"Designing Your Own"
​Seamless Garment Resist Instructions

this is a 3+ day project depending on your design and experience
gather supplies for your project, these include:
large table
notebook and pen
measuring tape
impermanent marker
resist material  3'X4' dimension, ( 6 mil vapour barrier plastic, 4-6 mil acetate shower curtain, stiff bubble wrap)
bubble wrap to cover your resist, tape bubble wrap together with duct tape to size  
3 clear plastic lawn bags
1 long pool noodle 
olive oil soap bar
stainless steel or plastic bowl
sharp silk cutting scissors, scissors needed to cut plastic resist as well
2  large old towels
old pantyhose or strips of stretchy material to tie roll up with
3-4 yards of silk chiffon fabric/gauze/margalin/or wool prefelt
150 -250 g of dyed merino wool sliver tops , merino can be laced with silk or bamboo 
embellishments (silk hankies/sliver, wool locks, yarn, wool prefelt,)
bonsai sprayer or glass jar with holes in lid for sprinkling hot soapy water

Decide on which garment style and colours you are using for it, have your inspirational photos ready to refer to.  Before you start your project read through all the material and choose a design style and all surface design techniques that you want to use. 
 1)  Calculate body measurements for the resist.
Create 3 columns in your notebook.  The 1st column is the body part, the 2nd column is your body measurement and the 3rd column is your body measurement plus 1/3 shrinkage plus whatever ease needs to be included in your garment style.


2)   Start with measurement from Right shoulder bone to Left shoulder bone.  Add 1/3 shrinkage.  Measure from shoulder bone to arm pit.  Add shrinkage.  Measure from arm pit across bust line to other arm pit and add shrinkage.  Measure shoulder bone to hip and add shrinkage.  Measure hip to hip around largest dimension of butt and add shrinkage.  Measure length of garment wanted and add shrinkage.  Keep in mind additions for ease and design features.  Measure neck.  
The resist can be made from carpet underlay, plastic shower curtains, 6 mil vapour barrier plastic, or acetate.  
Use the 3rd column of measurements to create the resist.  With measurements use a non permanent felt pen and on a large piece of 6mil plastic draw a midline down sheet.  At the top start with the neck and leave plastic for collar.  Add all the measurement points .  Draw a diagonal down to shoulder points and continue to draw outline of the resist.  When one side is complete cut it out and fold along the centre line to trace on the other side.  Finish cutting resist shape.  As markers will stain silk wipe the marker off of the resist before using.

3)  Measure the silk fabric needed for the resist.  It will need to cover both the front and back of the resist and include overlapping fronts if that is in your style plus the 1 1/2 “- 2” seam allowance on all sides.

4)  Cut a clear plastic lawn bag to lay flat and place resist ontop

5)  Lay the silk fabric for the back side ontop of the resist.  Depending on how you are designing your garment you may decide to cut the silk including the 1 1/2 “-2” seam allowance beyond the resist out now or later.  

6)  Lay your merino wool and embellishments on top of the silk.  Go to surface design techniques for inspiration and information techniques.    Remember to lay thin layers of wool over embellishments that don’t felt in easily.  If you have a collar you will have already layed the wool underneath to accommodate the way collars turn over.


7)  Wet down with hot water and olive oil soap.  Place plastic sheet on top and press down to remove air bubbles. 

8)  Turn over to work on the front side of your garment.  Lift plastic sheet off of your resist.


9)  Place 2nd silk fabric panel down and trim silk to edge of the resist.  Run a 1/2 inch line of merino wool along seams.  Fold 1 1/2” seam allowance of 1st side over and tight to the resist.  Reinforce armpit area with wool where the silk allowance was cut on a diagonal.

10)  If you have an overlapping front design start with the left side and complete the design before laying soft plastic over and completing design on the right side.  Remember to place wool designs underneath silk on all areas that will fold over like collars.

11)  Lay merino wool and embellishments on the front side of your garment.
 

12)  Wet down with hot water and olive oil soap and lay plastic covering on top to sandwich it.  Press out air bubbles.

13)  Lift off plastic covering carefully along seam edges and rub felt in to make the edge tight against the plastic resist.

 
14)  Place bubble wrap underneath garment. Use a felting stone ( ceramic, glass, wood  or fingertips ) to start the felting process by pressing down in a jiggly action over garment. Sanders can replace the hand felting at this point.


15)  The garment needs to be rolled from each of 4 directions 100times X 4 directions starting with the shoulder seam.
Start at shoulder seam and roll the garment up in the tube and bubble wrap.
Roll 100X moving pressure along tube with your hands, arms or feet to create an equal amount of agitation and pressure.  It is important to start with rolling from the shoulder seams down to encourage no visible seams from developing.
 

16)  Unwrap roll and unfold garment.  Refold garment in half so that the garment can be rolled in from the side and still fit the tube length.  Roll the garment up from the side seam in the bubble wrap with the tube and continue to roll 100X with even pressure along the tube.

17)  Unwrap roll and unfold garment.  Refold garment in half so that the garment can be rolled in another direction and still fit the tube length. Check the seams and take out any ridges formed by smoothing them down.   Roll the garment up from the other direction and towards the other side seam as before 100X .
 
18)  Unwrap roll and unfold garment,  straighten garment out.  Roll the garment up from the bottom and the last direction  as before 100X .

If there are any holes or seams that have opened apply a wool bandage by laying light layers of wool over the problem putting soapy hot water ontop and using the stone tool and presser with agitation to felt the new wool fibres down.  

19)  rub soapy olive oil water on each garment side.
roll 100X again 

20)  unfold garment and check to see if its ready for fulling.  Do the pinch test.  Take out the resist if ready.

​21)  full and harden. fulling is wapping garment down and kneading it like bread, full until the garment is close to fitting you.  remember that rinsing the garment will also make it smaller.

22)  stretch the garment to shape and fit .  

24)  rinse the garment, use a drop of vinegar in the rinse water to pull the soap out and wring out, stretch and shape on your body again for a perfect fit. 

These instructions are copyright , please do not share.  Others need to take a garment class from Laurie to benefit from her skills and experience.
​
 sleeveless designs created by workshop participants

​vests
dresses
tops / tunics
long sleeve jackets, tops
short sleeve vests, blouses, dresses
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