Stitched and dissolved silk

I have had a skein of recycled sari silk yarn in blues and greens in my stash for some months. I recently knitted it up and attached some handles, with the intention of making a craft bag for my Mum. The finished item, however just did not work. The handles were curved, and the weight of the sari silk meant it all bunched up and hung in an ugly mass from the centre of the handles. Now, the problem with sari silk, is when you have stitched it up, the stitches just disappear into the yarn, so it is not possible to unpick it. What to do to salvage the beautiful colours and textures in the knitted piece? Well, the answer lay in the dissolvable fabric I bought at the show in Harrogate last year...



I chopped the knitted piece away from the handles, and stuck it to a piece of backing felt, then I put over the dissolvable fabric and stitched through it to secure the fibres. Then quick rinse in warm water got rid of the top layer, and after drying above the Aga overnight, I have been left with this...







The colours glow more than this picture shows, but once again the stitching has disappeared into the fibres of the sari silk. The slight ribbing from the way it was knitted, and the mix of colours remind me of a picture of tree bark posted on "In The Pink" (see post 07/02/07). The next step will be to embellish with some beads and maybe some angelina fibres. I think I shall also try to pleat it a bit to give it some more 3D shaping. I'm excited by this... I think it has good potential.