Trapunto

Trapunto is a fun technique that I used to make an interesting design even more interesting!
I have a piece of vintage oriental silk woven with  a wonderful "vase" pattern. There is a rose colored "shadow" that gives the print a bit of depth, but I wanted to emphasize the print even more.

 

I used a technique called trapunto. I pinned a piece of china silk behind the motif and machine sewed most of the way around each of the designs woven in the center of the vase. With a small opening left I used a chop stick to force some polyester fleece into the sewn sections, and then finished sewing the little areas.
 Next I used a lightweight cotton batting a bit larger than the vase and stitched around the outline of the vase. I then trimmed the batting close to the stitching.
 The motifs on the vase now have lots of depth, and the whole motif has a bit of depth with the addition of the batting.
 I used some seed beads for embellishment, and then I added another layer of china silk as a facing  to hide the "innards" of the trapunto technique.

I used my trapunto piece on the front of a doupioni top that fastens with a vintage braided silk button, and a tie at the waist.
Think of using depth and texture to make a garment really unique! Trapunto is one way to achieve this look!