Korean Food Covers
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These Korean food covers are styled on the leaf shape of the Lotus plant. They’re made from a natural fibre fabric from the ramie plant which has a natural resistance to mildew and bacteria.
The fabric is great at holding it’s shape - it’s firm and quite a coarse weave. You score it with a hera tool to mark out the lines then the seams are sewn using pinch or whip stitch.
For the first one I made, in grey, I used running stitch by holding the seam and feeding the needle in and out several times before pulling the thread through. Because the fabric holds it’s shape I felt that this left a more pronounced ‘wiggle’ in the seam. I also didn’t like the way the raised seams met in the centre of the piece.
So, second time around I pulled the needle through each stitch, one at a time and used whip stitch at the junctions. Overall I think this was more successful and the seams are much smoother.
To finish off I made a bat decoration 박쥐장식 for the one and a chrysanthemum knot 국화매듭 for the other.
Although mostly decorative, it was the structural nature of these that appealed and I can see me using pinch stitch on other projects.
Information : :
Fabric from Korea via Rim Kim Studio’s Etsy Shop - sent rolled, not folded, so no creases :)
https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/153163352/korean-traditional-100-natural-pure?ref=yr_purchases
Nelumbo nucifera, often called a water lily - Wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramie
> Photograph from this NASA article from 2009 ‘Lotus Plant-Inspired Dust-Busting Shield to Protect Space Gear’ https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2009/lotus_coating.html
