in making a chenille rug or quilt for February's Home Dec sewing theme? I could lead a sew along for one.
I'll attach a picture of a small rug I made this past summer.

close up of rug (and cute baby ;) )

Oooo! That'd be great!!! :D So far all I have planned for February are a quilt & some curtains.

well, i'm in- that's the irst cute cheinlle technique project i've ever seen!! (and i've looked!!)

please post a materials list so i have an excuse to shop ;)

That's totally cute! (The rug and the baby!). I'd love to make one for Owen's room. All I have planned for Feb is some pillows :rolleyes:

That's awesome! I'm going to be doing mama sewing in Feb, since I've been moving this month, but I can't wait to see how you do those! (((((

Ohhhh~
How hard/ time consuming is it?

I've already got a list of stuff to do but we will be taking out the carpet and fixing up the hard wood floors underneath so we will be needing some nice rugs!

Originally posted by TurtleMa
Ohhhh~
How hard/ time consuming is it?


Not hard at all but a bit time consuming. It took me about as much time as a pieced quilt that size takes.

For material you need UNWASHED fabric: cotton, rayon or some of each. You'll need several layers- about 4 for a quilt/blanket- the finished size you want your piece. If you are doing a rug you'll also need a layer of low loft batting- warm n natural is what i used, and one extra layer of fabric for the back. Does that make sense?
So for my rug bottom up I layered: fabric, batting, 4-5 layers of fabric.
I'll type up more details later... probably Thursday before I can get to it.
Oh this is a great way to use up *ugly* prints because the print doesn't show when done- only the colors.

Can you use poly/cotton blends? I've got a bunch of ugly prints I'd loooove to use up! Can't quite seem to throw even the ugliest of fabrics away. :rolleyes:

I would highly recommend doing a sample block first for a few reasons:
you want to make sure your choosen fabrics will "bloom"
you want to make sure you like the look
you want to make sure you like the time involved before venturing forth onto a large piece.

Fabric choice: cottons, rayons, cotton/rayon blends
Linen, wool, and silk are also mentioned in the book as possibilities but I haven't experimented with these yet.
Looser wovens work well.
Do NOT prewash.
Yarn dyed and other fabrics with good dye saturation give better color results.
Your prints do not have to match- you just have to like the way the colors go together.
Polyester, acetate, etc usually won't work.

For the sample- cut out a square or rectangle on the straight of grain in your base fabric- mine was roughly 10x12. Your base is the fabric that won't get slashed. It can go right side up or down depending on what you are making. But more on that later.

Your stack: also cut on the straight of grain. I used 4 layers of cream colored 100% cotton sheeting in my sample. Boring I know but that was all I had that wasn't prewashed. I *would* have gone to JoAnn's and bought more fabric (just for you guys ;) ) but no car until Sunday...
Rule of thumb for # of layers 3-5 for cottons, up to 6 for rayons. Rayon will "bloom" better usually. Cut your layers about an inch all around smaller than the base. You will get a different look depending on the order you stack if you are using different prints. You can make up a few samples trying out the different order if you are feeling gung-ho.

You can add an "applique" to the top. Choose something with simple lines. The edges will get blurred and may change shape a bit after slashing and washing. Make sure to cut it on the straight of grain. Choose bold contrasting colors because the colors tend to fade. If you start with pastels they may appear very washed out in the end even if they have ok contrast now.

So get stacking and I'll add further instructions and photos in the replies.
LMK if I left anything out or it isn't clear.

If you are doing a large piece you should pin your stack with straight bins or "baste" with a wash out spray adhesive works well.
For my sample I didn't bother.
You need to mark a line 45 degrees through the middle.
So measure the bottom edge of your stack.
Now measure the same distance up one side and mark that point.
With a wash out pencil, marker, chalk lightly mark a line from the bottom corner diagonally to that point on the side.
Now sew on the line.
You will continue sewing diagonally through the whole piece until it is covered. For cotton fabrics- space your lines about 3/8 - 1/4 " apart. Rayons can be spaced as much as 5/8" apart. I just use the edge of my presser foot as a guide so mine are about 1/4" apart. 3/8" makes it harder to slash.

Now it is time to cut!
You will cut through all the layers in your stack- NOT YOUR BASE LAYER!
You can do this with small scissors or a "slash cutter" which is a fancy rotary cutter that has a plastic point that slips between your base layer and stack. There are also plastic strips you can buy to slide in the channels and use your regular rotary cutter with.
Cut down the center between each set of lines.

Picture to show the slash cutter.
I got mine at a quilt store several years ago.

Once everything is stacked, sewn, cut you wash and dry it to see how the chenille comes out.
If you are adding it to a garment or making it into a pillow or something you should sew it in and then wash/dry the whole thing.
If it is a quilt/throw- bind before washing!

The rug that I showed in a previous thread had extra layers in the stack. It went:
backing- right side down
cotton batting
"base"- right side up
4-5 layers of cotton stack
I sewed through all layers then cut through just the "stack" layers.
Bound it and washed.

The little sample bear I am making I sewed into a little back pack. Attached is a final pre-washing photo. Going to go wash/dry it now and will post a picture tonight if I can.

These directions are so complete. Thank you.

I've actually been "winging" a chenille blanket. I know, I know, what was I thinking starting with something so large? It's just I saw one in the store and thought, "I can do that."

Anyway....I've decided to fold that up for a bit and start with a dolly size blanket for practice. :)

That rotary attachment is slick!

Katie

Ahhh, NOW I get it! LOL I had to search back to your original rug post. I didn't see it the first time. I didn't understand what you were making. Now I do! How cool is that. Uh Oh, now I'm trying to think of something to make! How can you do this to me??????? :eyes:

Bumping, cause I really liked this project!

posting 'cause I drempt (sp?) that I went to joanns last night and bought a slash cutter for this project.

:( I didn't but when I saw this post for a second I thought I had.