Restoring Felt Appliqué on a Dance Shawl by Charleen Touchette
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by Charleen Touchette, Summer 2010
Last week I worked on restoring the felt appliqué on this Vintage Woman's Dance Shawl our son got for his fiancée in Pine Ridge in 2007. It is a spiritual and meditative experience to appliqué the design of the unknown Lakota woman who originally stitched the felt shapes to form the bold design of tri-colored arrows, eagle feathers and whatever colors used to be where only black thread and remnants of glue remained with bits of old felt still attached that outlined double crosses flanking a center symbol with Native American feather shapes. The Cross of Lorraine design was used by silversmiths during the North American Fur Trade(1680 -1820)and incorporated into Native Art to signify the dragon fly, which our takes prayers to the Great Spirit.
After treating stains on the aqua shawl with hydrogen peroxide and castille soap and washing it in a sink of hot water and 1/4 cup of vinegar to set the colors, I cleaned the glue and pulled out the threads and felt pieces that were still stuck to the shawl. I used tracing paper to trace the original shapes that I cut out of old felt I had from the 1980s when our older sons were boys, then washed the felt shapes in a fresh hot water/vinegar solution to pre-shrink and make sure the colors won't bleed. I made sure to pre-wash some extra pieces of the same colors in case I had to add more as the work progressed.
Sewing the colorful felt shapes onto the shawl reminded me of Brownie projects where I cut and sewed felt and of the reasons why felted wool is such a great material that lends itself to creativity. Felt is made by washing and shrinking fiber, usually wool, until it is matted and dense. Unlike woven cloth that has a warp and a weft with edges that can unravel, felt can be cut anywhere and sewn together anywhere to make a shape.
The fun of working with felt inspires me to at last gather up all the lint from the dryer, take out my paper-making screen and make felt with all the muted, organic colors of our family's clothes blended together. I will use the felt for my next appliquée dance shawl.
________________________________
Watch for my how-to make an appliqué felt dance shawl with lint from the clothes dryer on my new blog-"Messages from the Earth:Indigenous thinking for everyone everywhere" at www.EcoHearth.com.
e
by Charleen Touchette, Summer 2010
Last week I worked on restoring the felt appliqué on this Vintage Woman's Dance Shawl our son got for his fiancée in Pine Ridge in 2007. It is a spiritual and meditative experience to appliqué the design of the unknown Lakota woman who originally stitched the felt shapes to form the bold design of tri-colored arrows, eagle feathers and whatever colors used to be where only black thread and remnants of glue remained with bits of old felt still attached that outlined double crosses flanking a center symbol with Native American feather shapes. The Cross of Lorraine design was used by silversmiths during the North American Fur Trade(1680 -1820)and incorporated into Native Art to signify the dragon fly, which our takes prayers to the Great Spirit.
After treating stains on the aqua shawl with hydrogen peroxide and castille soap and washing it in a sink of hot water and 1/4 cup of vinegar to set the colors, I cleaned the glue and pulled out the threads and felt pieces that were still stuck to the shawl. I used tracing paper to trace the original shapes that I cut out of old felt I had from the 1980s when our older sons were boys, then washed the felt shapes in a fresh hot water/vinegar solution to pre-shrink and make sure the colors won't bleed. I made sure to pre-wash some extra pieces of the same colors in case I had to add more as the work progressed.
Sewing the colorful felt shapes onto the shawl reminded me of Brownie projects where I cut and sewed felt and of the reasons why felted wool is such a great material that lends itself to creativity. Felt is made by washing and shrinking fiber, usually wool, until it is matted and dense. Unlike woven cloth that has a warp and a weft with edges that can unravel, felt can be cut anywhere and sewn together anywhere to make a shape.
The fun of working with felt inspires me to at last gather up all the lint from the dryer, take out my paper-making screen and make felt with all the muted, organic colors of our family's clothes blended together. I will use the felt for my next appliquée dance shawl.
________________________________
Watch for my how-to make an appliqué felt dance shawl with lint from the clothes dryer on my new blog-"Messages from the Earth:Indigenous thinking for everyone everywhere" at www.EcoHearth.com.
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