Machine fusion fiber - tutorial, part two

As promised - here's part two of the machine fiber fusion tutorial! You can catch part one here.

Before we get back to the sewing machine, just a gentle reminder - this is an original tutorial, designed and written by myself. It's copyright and may not be copied or transferred without my direct permission.

It’s time to fill in the little gaps on the fabric and add another layer of color:
I’ve used a cherry red & a darker green to fill in the background. Using different colored sewing machine thread will add depth & richness to the finished piece.

Here’s a close-up of the surface:

You can now dissolve the top layer of stabilizer. Follow the manufacturer’s directions! I find it’s easiest to soak smaller pieces in my bathroom sink.

Make sure you’re using color-fast fabric & threads before this stage:

Place the completely rinsed out fabric face down on a studio towel on your ironing board

and cover the back with a second towel or a pressing cloth. We’re trying to dry & flatten the piece of fabric at this stage.

I’d avoid directing touching the surface of the fabric with an iron - some water-soluble stabilizers can leave a film of gunk on on the bottom.
Here's how it looks after being rinsed and pressed:
Trim off all the loose threads from sewing, because we're breaking out the fabric paint!

This is a completely optional step… I don’t always use paint on the fusion fabric - but in this case, I like the effect.

I’m using one of my favorite fabric paints (Lumiere by Jacquard) in halo pink-gold, metallic gold & metallic olive green. I added small lines around some of the stitching & added lines where I felt it needed more definition.

Here's a close-up, so you can see how the paint was applied:

After the paint dries throughly (don’t put tacky or wet paint through your sewing machine - you’ll be very, very unhappy!) we’re going to add some more stitching and finish this piece.
I added lines of metallic stitching around the roses - just to add another dimension of color. Metallic thread can be tricky to work with, so remember to use a metallic embroidery needle, go slowly, loosen your tension slightly and try using a bobbin thread specifically meant for metallic threads.
And we're done! There are some many ways of using this technique - the sky truly is the limit :-)

tutorial & all images are copyright C Findlay-Harder