Well actually just by me. I’m referring to my activities this week for the C&G course, in other circles known as the chenille technique. I did a bit of reading up on the web beforehand as I had a vague feeling of some differences between the description in the class notes and what I had previously read on the subject. I used the combined wisdom for my experiments.
The first lot of samples were made from these 3 fabrics:
I made 3 samples by rotating the top fabric each time. These samples were slashed on the bias, which is the usual recommendation for the chenille technique. It is interesting to see just how different the 3 samples are.
As I liked the sample with the green on top best, I then used the same order to make the fourth sample (bottom right above), which was slashed on the straight grain. This causes the fabric to fray rather than to go fuzzy. I was quite skeptical, but in fact after a bit of encouragement with a wire brush to cause more fraying, I was pleasantly surprised by the finished effect.
I wet the chenille samples and rubbed them as if scrubbing the dirt out to encourage the fluffing. Not satisfied with the finished results, I gave them a bit of wire brush treatment too, once they were dry.
The final sample was made on a grid of squares. I decided to cut open only alternate squares. The cuts are on the bias so the effect is fluffing rather than fraying. This time I used a reasonably stiff nylon nail brush on the wet fabric to get the chenille effect. This was the most successful method.
I don’t really like the finished effect as much as the slashed lines of the first samples. I was also surprised how little pink from the background fabric showed through onto the top. Although I saw the bottom fabric as being predominantly pink, when you actually look at the colour revealed by the slashing there is more off-white than any other colour. Shows our perception of colour is just that – perception 
The top and bottom fabric squares on this last sample were cut from a piece of rainbow dyed fabric that was then bleach discharged. The middle layer is some finely woven purple and white striped cotton. It actually bloomed quite well, despite the advice from most sources to use more coarsely woven fabric.
