Creating Treebark Effects

Any ideas?

Elaine Mami
Check out the book "The Art of Fabric Manipulation." It's wonderful, and Jaqui Ward swears by it.

Linda Peterson
Tree bark is a pretty wide texture variation. What kind of tree? Stitching in fine (1/4") pleats might create some texture.

Susan Stringer
If you really want physical texture, you can use liquid latex and cotton balls. Stretch the cotton balls into thick strings and dip them into the latex. Apply them to the fabric. You can shape them just about any way you want, resulting in deep/shallow/whichever bark like textures you want. Then paint, of course. You can also dye the latex with acrylic paint for a base color.

I have a costume idea which also needs bark texture. I have secured a slab of oak tree bark from which I will be pulling a plaster mold. I will then pour large sections of "bark" for my costume.

Lisa Ashton
Dear Bruno--

You have several choices to texture your fabric to look like tree bark. One is to buy a textured fabric (close to terry cloth) and snip at it with scissors to get the texture, then add paint (airbrush would be my choice). Another would be to use very thin strips of foam latex (from an old chair cushion, or you can buy it new) OR strips of batting that quilters use--I mean really thin--glue it onto the material, then airbrush it. The advantage to this method is that you can do it after your garment is complete.

Actually, as long as you aren't using a smooth or shiny fabric, airbrush work alone would be enough to give the appearance of bark (I"ve actually done this and it looked great.).

Another method, which I"ve only done once, is to save your dryer lint for a week or two, and mix it with either fabric paint or fabric glue (such as Aleene's) and apply the resulting mess to your fabric. It can give you quite a lot of texture and remains pretty lightweight. This method is actually great for doing monster masks.

One last alternative would be to do TRAPUNTO on your fabric--sort of what you suggested in sewing strips of cording under the fabric (using a bottom fabric as well, to encase the cording). Personally, that sounds like way too much work--not only that, but remember, you're going to sacrifice the "fabric-like" qualities of the cloth--i.e., it won't drape anymore.

Find someone who can airbrush, and you're halfway there.

There is also fabric available at some sports stores and through many hunting catalogs that mimics tree bark beautifully, even has little punched out areas.

Dana MacDermott
I have done bark textures by sewing with an elastic thread on the bobbin. You can sew in whatever pattern and direction you need to reflect the type of bark you want. I would then suggest that you piece the results onto a (patterned) backing. Start with an appropriate color, and then marking pens, fabric paint, or air brushing the resulting fabric will give you additional color and depth.

I have used this technique for numerous textures for many different costumes, including on a turtle (Clothahump), and the Anemones from Beneath Alien Waves. It's relatively quick, and it works well.

Fabric Hoarder
Larry Mische, my hubby, suggested--without being a smart-aleck--that you can buy chipped bark at lawn and garden shops, then attach it with glue or wire.

Dana MacDermott
On dryer lint. Think of dryer lint as a material of cloth origin for a papier mache substitute. Add white glue (of whatever variety you need), smush, and proceed. Except for the Brownie points for kitschey origin and creative recycling, there is no reason to choose it over a commercially available washable stuffing material in that context. Since lint is also of random color and its substance is of variable density and absorbency, it could cause problems. In my experience for either use, it sounds better than it really is.

I was hurrying yesterday when I wrote about the elastic bobbin thread technique. So, here are some more details.

The elastic thread needs to be hand wrapped on the bobbin, because you do not want it to be pulled as tight as a bobbin winder would wind it. It gets pulled enough as you sew. You will need to pull the fabric fairly flat as you sew. It is a technique that gets more controllable with practice.

The process is fairly free form. If you sew in straight lines, you get an elastic gathered fabric. If you go in a pattern, regular or irregular with crisscrossing, it gathers into textures that reflect your sewing pattern. Clearly, you use a fairly light weight fabric. The major problem is that the final size and shape of your fabric depends on the how tightly you have pulled the elastic in the set up and sewing, and the weight of your fabric. That is why I suggested you might want to piece it on a backing.

If you are doing a simple garment (animate trees for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe), or, say, fitted sleeves, and the elastic quality of the costume is not a problem, you simply cut things large, and take advantage of the elasticity as well as the texture.

If you want the texture, but not the elasticity, sew or glue to a backing. I have used cotton, rayon, silk and synthetics with varying stitching for varying effects. The elastic thread comes in both white and black. I really love this technique.

Lisa Ashton
Dear Bruno--

I am not suggesting using the dryer lint as stuffing inside any layers. Although, if you want to get historic, what do you think they stuffed all those beautiful shoulder rolls with? Or even bum rolls or farthingale pads? Lint, that's what. Although it didn't come out of an electric dryer, it was still basically the same stuff.

My suggestion was to mix the lint with some sort of glue and then it apply it externally to the fabric (sounds like a prescription--take 2 and call me when the glue is dry).

I would personally go with thin strips of foam latex, and then airbrush it.

If you have any further information to share about this topic, please e-mail Carole Parker for inclusion.